CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Postmodern TV (Lecture)

To start our first contextual studies lesson of this term we watched the pilot episode of Twin Peaks. This showed a man finding a young girl tied up in plastic on the beach and then they had to tell her family that she was found dead. We then watched them examine her body and find some evidence under her nails. This sort of show interests me as now I want to keep watching to see who killed her. They're bringing out a new season this year so I think I will watch the rest of the two seasons and then watch the new one.

Twin Peaks was created by film director David Lynch and TV crime genre writer Mark Frost for ABC Network. It was regarded by critics as one of the most innovative and influential mainstream network programmes of modern TV era.

Below are some critical responses to the show:

The difference between conventional and experimental:

Conventional
- Linear narrative
- Episodic series or continuous serial
- Genre-specific codes and conventions (crime, sci-fi, medical etc.)
- Formal 'Hollywood' style (mise en scene, continuity editing, etc)
- Classic stereotypical or archetypal characters

Experimental
- Non-linear or fractured narrative
- Hybrid format
- Hybrid or multi-genre
- Innovative or unusual visual and audio techniques (e.g. breaking the 4th wall)
- Unconventional characters, or do not relate to specific genre expectations of behaviour.

Conventional narrative formats
- Episodic series - usually long-running (13 or more episodes), primetime, self-contained storylines and closed resolution within each show (e.g. crime procedurals like CSI or sci-fi shows like Dr Who)
- Continuous serial (soap opera) - traditionally daytime, open-ended storylines with cliffhangers.
- Episodic serial (miniseries) - short-run drama combine the closed resolution of the episodic series with the ongoing multi-arc strands of the soap opera (e.g. Roots)
- Sequential series (Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice) - development of the episodic series format which run narrative arcs throughout the series and end season with cliffhanger.