Assignment: Essay on non-print text (TV Drama)
Assessment Task 10

As is stated in the task question, it is true that TV dramas are not just stories. Stories are imagination driven texts that rely on the person reading them to interpret them in the way that the author has intended them to be interpreted to have the maximum emotional and moral effect. Though this difference of interpretation can lead to many interesting and, in many cases philosophical insights into the story's content, it sometimes obscures the intended message of the story from the reader.
This is where TV Drama's come in. Though they are arguably more linear due to the characters, sounds, settings and visual events being handed to viewers on a plate without any imagination on the viewers behalf; this means that they can therefore be used as very powerful tool for giving viewers a message, moral or theme and presenting them with different attitudes and values. No difference of interpretation is present and therefore there is no confusion of which of these attitudes/values the drama is trying to put across. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and the drama analysed in this essay seems to be one of the few TV dramas that I am aware of that allows the viewer to make some sort of individual interpretation of the happenings and characters in the show.

The TV drama that I am going to be analysing is called Ed, and is shown on Channel 10 at 8:30 pm on Wednesday nights. Ed is the story of a 'nice guy' who had a very successful life until he got fired from his job and found his wife sleeping with the mailman. He subsequently leaves her and the city and moves back to his hometown (Stuckeyville) where he buys a bowling alley (Stuckey Bowl) and sets up his new career as the 'bowling alley lawyer' of Stuckeyville. Of course there is also his high school sweetheart that still lives there, and his continuing relationship with her is the source of a good proportion of the attitudes and values presented in the show. There are many character in the show and as a result of the classes or stereotypes of characters present, they are able to explore different themes to the best of their ability, and 'connect' to different audiences more effectively.

The audience that has been targeted by this show is from teenagers to the 20-something age group, and each of the characters present in the show correspond with one of the 'types' of people in this age demographic. For example; not-so-popular people in high schools would familiarise with Warren and people that just like to enjoy life without worrying about what society thinks would familiarise with Ed. Through this, the construction of each episode of the show itself can be varied to include different ways of presenting the same moral/attitude/value to the different audiences that may be watching the show. Kind of like showing different pieces of a famous painting to different people; they only see a little bit of it, but they still recognize the overall picture. And this is the way that Ed has been constructed; different characters act as different pieces of the painting so that a larger amount of the audience can understand the final picture (read: moral/theme/attitude /value) and enjoy the show more.

Conflict makes up a large part of Ed's storyline content; if they all got along it wouldn't make much of a story would it? Most of the time this is not angry conflict, as I think the producers thought this would ruin the subtle intelligence that lies behind the construction of this TV drama. Instead the show involves a degree of interpretation that, as is stated in the introduction, allows us to 'personalise' the show and its characters in a way that suits the individual viewer (very sly - I like it!). Through this subtle bending of the characters to our personal ideals, we get more involved and the conflict between two characters does not have to be a huge row or a tear-filled break up to affect us emotionally. Instead, even the slightest insult to 'our' characters from a non-regular character is enough for us to be affronted. This helps to keep up the 'mature' feel to the TV drama, as adults in the show are seen to behave like adults and they do not have to go blowing their tops every five seconds to make sure we get the message. Simple, yet so utterly effective.

Also, the setting of the show is significantly simple. A suburban town that is big but not too big, busy but not too busy…see the pattern here? The image that Ed is trying to project is that of an everyday town with everyday people leading everyday lives. It doesn't need sensational settings that scream 'big budget' because this TV drama isn't about where the characters are; it's about who the characters are. Stuckeyville provides a background into which the characters can easily slip into, and it isn't really that often that the setting affects how people receive the attitudes and values of the characters.

Film language has contributed to my understanding of the way that this show operates by giving me a way to judge when the producers are trying to convey different types of emotional states for the characters.
Ed is an extremely character based show, and therefore needs to be able to show body language and facial expressions clearly to show what each of the individual characters are feeling and consequently what attitudes and values the character finds important. The show does this by using what is known as 'close-up' and 'middle' camera shots. These are camera shots that are specific distances away from a character in order to communicate the most amounts of body language, facial expression, and therefore emotion to the viewer. For example, if two characters in the show were having a disagreement (for this example let's use Carol and Ed) then the camera would use a combination of middle and close-up shots to display the most body language and facial animation in order to get the viewer involved and interested in what is happening on screen.

In conclusion I would like to say that I find Ed an enjoyable show, mainly for the reasons outlined in various ways in the above text. It uses simple setting, effects and film language to emphasise the brilliant use of character interaction, through which the viewer can truly appreciate the message being transmitted.