I love the X Files [but I still don’t know how I feel about this]. It’s funny, weird and intelligent with strong characters and some truly absurd storylines; in all honesty that’s what I want from a TV show. What could be better than a sceptic and a believer, roaming the country investigating the unexplained and bizarre against a backdrop of shoulder pads, court shoes and government conspiracy? It’s a thing of beauty and has taught me many things, some useful, some not and some of which I’m going to share with you today.
Fuck authority. Think about it: Mulder ignores pretty much every order he’s ever given and there are times when he makes up his own assignments. He also peer pressures Scully into doing the same and- OH MY GOD Mulder’s a bully.
Science is cool. ‘Nuff said.
The truth is out there. Somewhere in the deepest darkest depths of the US government is the answer to everything you’ve ever wondered about ever.
What’s that saying – a good friend will bail you out of jail but your best friend will be in there with you. Let it never be said that Mulder and Scully never do things by halves: a good friend will help you move but your best friend/soul mate/the one everyone wants you to end up sleeping with will help you move a body.
Cabin fever sucks. Be rational while everyone else is hysterical, stick by your partner and don’t let strangers and their lies come between you.
Don’t continue to change the story about how your sister got abducted by aliens. Then even less people will believe you.
Always have something witty to say about the situation, you never know when people will need a dry one liner to break the tension.
If something seems too good to by true, it probably is. A brand new partner who believes you and respects your work? Seems legit!
Suspect everyone. EVERYONE. You never know who could be an alien bounty hunter.
Study all evidence before drawing any conclusions. Form a solid argument; admit when it doesn’t account for something and then go tear your opponent a new one. Failing that, think of the most ludicrous theory you can come up with, back it up with ‘studies’ and act surprised when people think you’re spooky.
Bonus lesson:
Keep a torch on you all at times. Preferably one powered by a car battery.
About the Writer: Daisy is an irregular photographer, wannabe writer and full time female. In between tea and toast breaks she spends far too much time on the internetblogging, tumbling and tweeting. She is unapologetic in her love of the Spice Girls.
Young women frequently turn up dead in fictional media whether as the victim of the week in a police procedural or whether she is a long time characters sacrificed for another’s development. It is an easy option for many writers to evoke a reaction from the audience and drive the story.
It comes down to the vulnerability that we perceive in a young (almost always white) woman with an air or innocence and virginity. In many shows it transpires that this may not be the whole truth. Twin Peaks‘ Laura Palmer is a typical example of this, the prom queen who snorts coke and hangs out with demons. Nonetheless she is a complex and ultimately sympathetic character, especially compared to other examples where the dead body is there to be both mourned and fetishised in equal measure.
On police procedurals where it is a quick way to engage the audience’s attention but there is rarely enough time in each episode to get them to fully empathise with the character. She is reduced to being a body, usually one that has been subjected to horrific abuse. Laura Palmer undergoes a shocking ordeal before she dies but because she is the entire focus of the storyline we see her beyond the role of the victim. As Sady Doyle writes in her recent article “The Violently Killed Femmes”:
The dead-girl shows that succeed care about who she was before she died. And they allow her to be more complicated than she appears. Twin Peaks’ Laura Palmer, Veronica Mars’ Lilly Kane: Each of them, at some point, started talking back. And the first thing they did was to call bullshit on the symbolic meaning that had been hitched to them and start creating their own.
Laura herself is ever present through the dialogue and actions of other characters. Even though she is dead she is still engaging and important to the plot for reasons beyond her status as a victim. Reading Doyle’s article was interesting, as Anita Sarkessian has recently released the second episode in her Women vs. Tropes series which deals with similar issues:
In this video Sarkessian talks about variations on the Damsel in Distress trope, including the Women In Refrigerators trope that typically sees a female character killed in a particularly horrible way to provide motivation or development for a male character. Often young murdered women are used in this to provide motivation for a male character to either get revenge or avenge her death. Examples include Rita on Dexter being murdered by the Trinity Killer and therefore providing Dexter with a character arc in the following series, Rachel Dawson in The Dark Knight is blown up by the Joker to give Batman something to angst about and then come back from in the next film, plus every revenge film ever made.
It’s a cheap and degrading gimmick and as Sarkessian makes clear in her video, it would be ridiculous to suggest that no women should ever die in media but how and why they die is important to the representation of these characters.
About the writer: Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging or tweeting, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
The BAFTA television awards have just passed and while there were a few givens (Olivia Coleman won both awards she was nominated for and currently holds the title of Number One Person you want to sit and have a cup of tea with) the rest of the bunch was varied to say the least.
But how much of what was shown accurately reflects what we as viewers are tuning into week in week out? The BAFTAs are decided by critics rather than voted for by the public like ITV’s National television awards and therefore has that air of gravitas. This is high culture right here, the stuff we should be watching. But is it?
There was one single audience award comprised of Homeland, Game of Thrones, Call the Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing, The Great British Bake Off and the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. Surprisingly for some Game of Thrones took the prize (and delivered a very stilted acceptance speech) but some of those nominated were not recognised in any other category or they were in limited catagories that don’t received as much attention or are not perceived of as important.
The one thing apart from that, that all those shows have in common is they are labelled as “populist” usually by those who use the word in a derogatory way. They draw in huge audience numbers (Sky Atalantic saw a 1700% increase in viewers for the Monday night slot when GoT series three debuted) and generate a load of interest from viewers but are not always critically acclaimed or if they are praised then there is an exception to them receiving wider acclaim and more nominations.
For example no one doubts the high quality and production values of GoT but it is often analysed within the parameters of genre since it is a fantasy show. Call the Midwife is Sunday Night Fluff, (Good Lord I hate the word “Fluff”) Bake Off is quaint Britishness, indicative of the twee WI wannabees sub-culture, Strictly is a guilty pleasure and Homeland is foreign so despite a British lead actor we can’t take credit for it and use it as a way to bemoan the lack of “slickness” on British TV.
In a way that can only be described as Hispster-esque, the word populist has negative connotation because of the idea that if something has mass appeal then it is automatically less deserving of our praise and conversely something is only praiseworthy is it has been seen by less than thirty people.
About the writer: Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging or tweeting, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
As soon as I’d finished last week’s article I immediately remembered a whole host of other opening sequences that I felt should have gone in so here are ones I missed last time…
Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011-Present)
An epic title sequence for an epic show, the music and the visuals are rich in detail and echo the effort that goes into the series as a whole.
Dexter (Showtime, 2006-Present)
A show about a serial killer who (mostly) only kills bad guys. The opening sequences shows a mundane morning routine from a morbid point of view, juxtaposing the title characters true nature with the front he puts on for friends and family.
Pokemon (1998-1999)
Don’t judge me
Community (NBC, 2009-Present)
A sitcom about a group of misfits at community college, the opening titles are so upbeat and cheery it is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Also, special episodes tweak it a bit, my personal favourite being the Christmas special where stop motion Abed sings it while dancing on a car.
About the Writer: Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging or tweeting, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
I’m going to be honest here; I usually fast forward through the credits (and the adverts and if I’m watching Glee, the musical numbers) however I do have my fair share of favourite TV show theme tunes that I’m going to share with you today:
LOST (ABC, 2004-2010)
An exercise in simplicity that also comes off as disconcerting. If only the finale had measured up. It’s also nice and short.
Veronica Mars (UPN/CW, 2004-2007)
I have been quietabout my Veronica Mars obsession but there is no denying the awesomeness that is “We Used To Be Friends” by The Dandy Warhols. A more subdued (re: rubbish) version was used in the third series but I’m featuring the original here.
Twin Peaks (ABC, 1990-1991)
A beautiful, melodious soundtrack played over images of the titular sleepy town, its factories and mills, lush forests and rivers. Completely at odds with David Lynch’s portrayal of a small town rife with sexual depravity, murder and intrigue, incest, ultra violence, amnesia and demons running loose.
Jonathan Creek (BBC 1998-present)
A reworking of “Danse Macabre” with a creepy, gothic air. It is also very, very catchy – the hallmark of a good theme tune.
Justified (FX, 2010-present)
Rap and country music are probably the two things in the world I know the least about but Justified appeals to that tiny part of me that still wants to be a sherriff in the wild west. A modern western with a suitably bleak outlook and a lot of black humor, the gritty opening (I could only find the song not the visuals L sorry) is evocative of the tone and setting.
Doctor Who (BBC 1963-present)
The theme tune has had many variations in the show’s fifty-year history but the same basic idea had been stuck with throughout. Everyso often the ‘effects’ would be updated with whatever new tech the Beeb could get it’s hands on leading to some pretty psychedelic sequences and rather more face melting than should be expected from a family show.
About the writer: Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging or tweeting, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
If you haven’t been watching Channel Four’s new show Gogglebox, it basically follows a cross section of people sitting and watching television. That’s right, it’s you sitting and watching people watching TV.
It is fairly funny but I have noticed something that has been bugging me, particularly in the most recent episode. It showed the people featured watching two shows, one with Dr Margaret Mountford (formerly of The Apprentice) exploring the ruins of Pompeii and the other with Dr Joann Fletcher showing us how everyday people lived in Ancient Egypt. Both were shows presented by highly intelligent, passionate presenters that aimed to make the information accessible and interesting for the audience.
So why was it that all the people featured in Gogglebox could focus on was their physical appearance? Not only that but most of their comments were negative, rude and of no direct intelligence to what they were watching.
While I suspect that one of the primary motivations behind Gogglebox is for us to be able to laugh at the viewers featured (the posh alcoholic couple, the woman with the obnoxious children etc.) it does highlight a problem for women who work on that side of the media.
A while back I wrote a post on Anita Sarkessian, a media commentator and presenter of her own web-based show, Feminist Frequency. Sarkessian is all kinds of awesome but was the target of vile, sexist abuse when she tried to crowd fund her latest project.
Similarly, last year when Mary Beard was subjected to similar abuse (and threats of violence) after appearing on Question Time, she remarked that it was enough to put any women off of appearing on TV.
I’m sure I don’t need to go into why that’s bad.
By virtue of making up more than half the population of the earth, we are entitled to have smart, passionate women on television communicating their ideas but when they are reduced to the sole function of being a thing to look at, devoid of any personality or worth beyond the aesthetic, why on earth would anyone want to subject themselves to that?
It’s not clear whether most of these detractors are men or women in fairness (before I’m being accused of being a man hater) and plenty of the viewers on Gogglebox were women, so as a general audience we need to readjust our viewing habits and expectations for the media and perhaps we can take these programmes for what they are: entertaining, informative and present by smart, charismatic women to make us want to learn more.
About the Writer: Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging or tweeting, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
That may be a slight exaggeration but hear me out.
I wanted to be Veronica Mars. I wanted to be the cool, sassy outcast who everyone secretly wants to be, who solves crimes that the incompetent police cannot, who wears improbably expensive clothes for someone from the poor side of town, who has a high number of guys chat her up and smoulder at her, who has witty remark for every occasion and a cool Phillip Marlowe-esque internal monologue describing her every action. I really loved that show.
Created by Rob Thomas, who originally envisioned it as a novel, Veronica Mars follows the titular heroine (Kristen Bell) in her hometown of Neptune, California. The story starts when her best friend Lily (a pre-fame Amanda Seyfried) is brutally murdered and her Sherriff father wrongly arrests Lily’s Dad as the culprit. He loses his job and Veronica is quickly dropped by her ultra rich friends and ex-boyfriend (who is also Lily’s brother) and becomes the subject of ridicule. While her father becomes a PI (and sometimes enlists Veronica to help) she begins an investigation of her own which spans the entire first series, with many of the plot points becoming important in the second series.
Reasons why I love Veronica Mars: the title character, the supporting characters, the ace opening theme, the way class is dealt with in the show, the neo-noir vibe and the way it deals with tough issues e.g. date rape, racism and multiculturalism, domestic abuse etc. I could go on and on in extreme detail but that would just bore you. Rent the DVD and find out for yourself. In the meantime get a taste with the (extremely spoilery) fan made video below:
The show was cancelled after its (disappointing, pretend I didn’t say that!) third series though a fourth was planned with Bell as the only remaining cast member and followed Veronica’s work i tried to protest to keep the show on air until Thomas informed them that there was no chance.
But wait…
Internet Fandom to the rescue! On 13th March 2013, Thomas created a Kickstarter for the long wished for Veronica Mars movie. Funnily Kickstarter has its origins in another cancelled show beloved by fans, Arrested Development. However it would be three years before the sight was up and running and AD is getting its own (non crowd funded) movie. The basic premise for Kickstarter is you use it to crowd fund an arts or tech project (video games make up most of the top ten projects), you pick an amount to raise and a time period and if enough people back you within the time limit you keep the money and deliver the project to your fan base. Prizes and incentive including DVDs, signed scripts, producer credits etc. are often offered as incentives to back a project. Song writer Amanda Palmer is a huge advocate of Kickstarter (and social media in general as a tool to connect artists with their audiences) using the project to fund her independently produced album and proclaims the benefits of this radical way of making art.
With the Veronica Mars project Thomas had one month to make the $2million (pennies in TV land) to fund the movie.
…
They reached their goal in under 12 hours. A Kickstarter record. Warner Brothers agreed to back the project the next day. At the time of writing the project has amassed over $3million and the counter is still going.
So why is this so important. TV is driven by money, which comes from advertisers who are interested in the viewing figures. The success of this project means that the ultimate power rests not with the network executives or even the advertising companies but with the viewer, and not just the casual viewers but particularly the fans. They have become an active part of the process of creative TV rather than just a passive recipient of what the networks make. The logical conclusion to this is that the audience has the power to choose what shows get made in the first place.
This has lead some fans to speculate that other shows, namely Joss Whedon’s space western Firefly and Bryan Fuller’s Pushing Daisies might receive “The Kickstarter Treatment”. However, while Veronica Mars was relatively cheap (in TV terms) to make both Pushing Daisies and Firefly relied on intricate sets and lots of special effects to convincingly portray their narrative worlds.
Alongside this is the issue of who owns the rights. Rob Thomas was lucky enough to get Warner Brothers on board but how do we know the same can be said for Fox or other networks? Add to that the fact that at the end of the day show business is just that – a business and the fact is the powers that be felt that Veronica Mars’ (and other cancelled shows) viewing figures weren’t high enough for it to be a viable product so why pour more money into it?
…Simply by going first, the “Veronica Mars” movie gets to benefit not only from the love of fans of the show, but from the interest of people who like the idea of crowd funding, and of people who want to see this one succeed so that their favorite might have a shot down the road…
Things are tentative at the moment. The success of the Veronica Mars movie doesn’t guarantee that similar projects will work but the genie has been let out of the bottle. Whereas before crowd funding was the domain of the Indie scene it has been demonstrated to have some mainstream appeal and anything that gives fans a measure of control over shows and series they love can’t be a bad thing right?
Whatever happens next, whether this kick starts (excuse the pun) the new era of content making or it is merely an interesting and unique footnote in TV history, crowd funding will at least always have a place among the smaller artists and writers who are struggling for recognition and funding and at least we’re getting a Veronica Mars movie.
Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging or tweeting, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
Genre is a useful tool for classifying films and a good way to attract certain audiences to certain films. Sub-genres and Hybrid-genres are a way for directors and writers to come up with new ideas and unique pieces of work. Sometimes then they accidently kick off a (usually short lived) trend:
Cowboy-Ninja Films
What’s cool? Cowboys are cool. What else is cool? Ninja. Therefore cool squared is personified by films likeBunraku (Guy Moshe, 2010) and The Warrior’s Way (Sngmoo Lee, 2010). Both genres share similar themes such as honour, revenge, redemption etc and in both these cases at least, makes for some striking visuals with The Warrior’s Way evoking a steampunk-esque aesthetic while Bunraku favouring a comic book/puppet theatre inspired look.
Terminal Illness Rom Coms
The perfect valentine’s date movie. Or not. 2010 and 2011 saw the release of Love and Other Drugs (Edward Zwick, 2010) and A Little Bit of Heaven (Nicole Kassel, 2011). One starred Anne Hathaway and the other Kate Hudson and each played a woman who was dying from an awful terminal illness but found love. So that was nice.
For painfully obvious reason neither film was terribly well received though A Little Bit of Heaven got it far worse. Possibly because of the absence of Anne Hathaway.
Victorian Department Store Melodramas
Oh how the big wigs at ITV must have been kicking themselves when BBC broadcast The Paradise last year. Their own series Mr Selfridge looked like a rip off in comparison. Despite the fact that The Paradise is derived from a novel from Emile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart (albeit with all of Zola’s ideas on Hereditary personality deficiencies within a screwed up French family, the very thing the series was written to demonstrate, removed) novels and Mr Selfridge is based on the establishment of (guess where?) Selfridges department store on Oxford Street the two share a staggering number of characters and plot devices. Eccentric, brilliant owner whose ideas are scoffed at but eventually proved right? CHECK. Young naïve sales girl with hidden talents for retail? CHECK. Men throwing themselves at her from all directions? CHECK. Rich bitch in fabulous hats skulking around and manipulating everyone? CHECK. Swooshing skirts. CHECK.
NOTE: I am aware that being set in 1906, Mr Selfridge should properly be termed an Edwardian Department Store Melodrama, but that aside, all the other glaring similarities between the two still stand.
Films based on board games
Battleship I’m looking at you. But it may surprise you to learn that another classic family favourite, Cluedo, was turned into a film in the 1980s. Clue (Johnathan Lynn, 1985) stars Tim Curry as butler who brings together a group of eccentric and chromatically themed characters in a case of blackmail and murder. It is wonderfully tacky and gloriously cheesy and comes complete with three different endings, only one of which makes sense but don’t think too hard about that. It was poorly received but has become a cult classic.
Horrifyingly it is being remade by Gore Verbinski.
About the Writer: Sarah is a filmmaker and writer with an obsession for luscious visuals and a distain for tomatoes (they are a sneaky and untrustworthy foodstuff). If she’s not blogging, she’ll be watching films or running around with her video camera.
Have any of you been watching the Gok’s Style Secrets recently? For those of you that haven’t here’s the basic premise; Gok takes a single, undatable woman under his wing and makes her datable. He dresses her up, he teaches her how to flirt, he tells her how to behave on dates.
Over the past few weeks we’ve been treated to a film lover being told she shouldn’t talk about her passion for film on dates and a champion kick-boxer told not to talk about boxing because it was intimidating. Women with visible tattoos or quirky fashion sense have been accused of using these things to scare men off. One woman was told she wasn’t showing enough skin – “get your cleavage out, men love big boobs” – the next week another woman was chastised for showing too much skin – “that skirt’s so short I could be your gynaecologist! You should leave something to the imagination”.
Here’s the problem though; most women come with interests and talents that they want to talk about, some have tattoos and dress in a certain way because it reflects who they are, and some really, really resent that the length of their skirt defines them as matron or slut. This programme assumes that everything a woman does, from kick-boxing to what she wears, is done solely to send a message to men. A woman wearing a dress that shows her tattoos can’t possibly be doing so because she loves her tattoos, it’s got to be because she’s trying to intimidate men. (Another assumption is that all women are incessantly searching for Mr Right because being single is a terrible affliction, but that’s another rant for another day).
It’s easy to watch these sorts of programmes and not really think too much about the underlying message they’re sending out, it’s just a bit of light entertainment on an evening, right? But at its core this programme seems to be telling us that it’s not alright to be yourself, if you ever want to find a man you have to tone down your personality and hide the things that make you unique.
Gok told us at the end of the latest episode that it’s all about confidence, and he’s actually right on that one. Be confident in who you are and embrace the things that make you unique, if a man doesn’t like you because of it then he’s just not the right man, it’s not because you aren’t the right woman. If you’re looking for a relationship put yourself out there and you’ll find someone who is interested in you, quirks and all, and in the meantime enjoy being single!
Agree or disagree? Leave a comment and let us know!
About the writer: Catherine is a biology geek by day and cake baker by night. When she’s not in the kitchen you’ll be able to find her writing, tending to her tomato plant or curled up reading one of her many cookbooks.
It has been dubbed ‘the intellectual Downton Abbey’ and the first episode drew in whopping 3.1 million viewers for the BBC. It’s the Friday night drama, produced by Tom Stoppard and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Rebecca Hall and Adelaide Clemens, which has prompted people across the UK to swap their Friday night plans for an hour sat in front of their televisions, stepping into the society of World War One Britain.
If you still haven’t got a clue what I’m referring to, I will put you out of you misery. It’s Tom Stoppard’s stunning new drama: Parade’s End. Based on the Ford Madox Ford novels (c. 1924-28), the drama is in full swing and if you haven’t been watching it so far – I would strongly recommend you do.
Parade’s End offers the viewer insight into the social and morale sphere of Christopher Tietjens, the last gentleman in a society whose values are being overhauled (and dare I say, corrupted) by the dawn of the twentieth century and, of course, the Great War. The intellectual Tietjens marries the stunningly beautiful and flirtatious Sylvia, who is unable resist tormenting men with her beauty. She repeatedly enters into extra-marital relations with other men right under Christopher’s nose, yet despite her behaviour, he persists with the marriage, guided by his strong sense of commitment to monogamy. Whilst those around him fall victim to their bodily and emotional desires, Christopher remains a bastion for chastity and morals; idealistic in his outlook and exemplary in his behaviour. Even when he meets and develops strong feelings for Valentine Wannop, a feisty and equally strong-minded suffragette, he continually illustrates a self-restraint that Sylvia and his many acquaintances cannot begin to understand.
However, with the dawn of the First World War, the world in which he lives in is shaken. Both on a macro and micro scale, previous certainties are questioned and conspiracy and rumour creep into public and private life. Christopher’s experiences in the trenches prompt a re-evaluation of his existence and from this point onwards, the narrative evolves dramatically, distantly mirroring the conflict and torment of the front line.
The drama, like the novel, is a complex exploration of a world where the status quo is constantly shifting and previous certainties are no longer secure. It is a vivid depiction of the fine line between the public and the private; success and failure; morality and immorality; and Stoppard successfully presents this in both a compelling and emotive way.
Although viewing figures have dropped since the first episode, losing out to Channel 4’s Paralympics, the drama has continued to receive rave reviews, which are certainly well deserved. I have been entranced by this beautifully adapted drama which explores an important and traumatic part of British history from a personal and unique perspective. From war to love, snobbery to downfall; Parade’s End depicts a whole spectrum of early twentieth century society, making this well cast and brilliantly directed drama a must to watch.
Rating: *****
About the Writer: Ellie is a history graduate and PR Consultant. She loves reading, dipping into 1984, Harry Potter and The Bell Jar. When she hasn’t got her nose in a book she enjoys creative writing, museums and galleries across the UK. When she has the time, she also likes nothing more than catching up with a few friends over dinner and a cocktail or two!
yellow bunting 