Your Honor - TV Drama Series
What is a Drama?
A drama is a fictionalised narrative shown on the television medium that follows the lives of characters in a fictional world that often, but can also be non-fictional, and reflects the real world.
What are the typical conventions of TV Dramas?
The basic conventions of a TV Drama would be to have a set of characters (if it is not soley based around one singular protagonist), these will drive the story and become key parts of the show depending on their importance within the plot. These can then range from the basic conventions of a character: the antagonist, the protagonist, the love interest(s), the confidant, the deuteragonists and a foil. We then have narrative, a crucial part of the drama, although each film or show has one, I feel in drama the plot is the one thing that makes the show worth watching; wether it be a scandal, murder mystery or any sub genre that will provokes drama or thrill to its audience, it's the most poignant part of a script that makes us want to watch it. Next, we have the dialogue, the speech between characters develops the story and allows us insight into what is happening, in well done drama's this will consistently be interesting and drives us to feel connected to our protagonists. Moreover, we also experience sound and music, sound differs from music by being the background or foreground audio, this could range from being for a example, a car crash, a tree branch falling, or even a cup being put down; music then creates an emotive reaction from its audience, if its sophisticatedly done that is, within a drama the music will be detrimental, a catalyst for the build up of the narrative. Lastly, there is the setting, this influences the mise-en-scene on camera; the setting will establish where and when the narrative is set and can be used in many ways to hide symbols, easter eggs and metaphorical uses of cinematography to establish underlying themes within the plot or characters.
How do these Dramas follow those?
The TV Drama, 'Your Honor', is a show I have not seen yet on but from researching the show I have found this show fits into the conventions of a drama. This being the characters within the narrative being interesting and well designed; the main protagonist is thrown into an uncomfortable situation due to his own actions (his own hamartia) and relies on his father, the secondary yet vital character, to help fix his life altering mistakes through his high status.
Furthermore, the narrative is said be constructed beautifully, it follows the young son and his guilt, as well as the father whom anxiety, stress and love for his son is projected onto the audience. The narrative is compelling and ironically does, 'leave you on the edge of your seat'; as well as follows the structure of a grim, unpleasant plot of what could feasibly happen in reality and how one would react to this events. However, many critics do say one of the main leads, 'Brian Cranston', was playing off his last, most notable role as 'Walter White' in the hit show, 'Breaking bad', this being of the only bad reviews of the show I have found.
Next, the dialogue fits into the conventions of being a drama; this is plausible as the characters are written to have dramatic, powerful and striking dialogue, each scene and line bouncing off each other. Moreover, the music we hear throughout the drama is thrilling and consistently dramatic, following the musical conventions to be labelled as diegetic sound; playing off the plot in a sophisticated way that exaggerates the narratives twists and turns. Lastly, the setting within the show is seen to be set in the New Orleans, obviously a non-fictional setting, as well as uses interesting and well known architecture and other settings such as the Orleans Parish District Court, Crescent City Connection (the iconic twin bridges over the Mississippi River), and Lafayette Cemetery No. 1. (found in New Orleans' Garden District neighbourhood). To add to this, the show follows a serialised, lengthened, continuous story; this being that the show is split up into 1 hour or less episodes with a narrative that follows on from each episode.
Trailer for the Drama, 'Your Honor'
Personal Relationships:
The father and son within the drama are the two main protagonists, the son being the young, scared and almost idiot teenager we expect in many television character conventions, while the father is a high status, wise, yet anxious struck figure whom leads the plot. Their relationship within the show can be seen as relatable as they follow a loving, trust worthy relationship in which the father fends for his son and helps him when in crisis; for many audiences this is relatable and germane to watch and so their relationship is enjoyable to watch for its target audience.
Diversion:
Moving onto 'diversion', the show does follow this audience pleasure as many of the scenes are gory and thrilling, a genre that many audiences may enjoy, however it is not a 'comfortable' show to watch and requires attention when doing so. Action and gritty scenes are included but aren't a key factor of the show that drives the narrative, however, these scenes such as the death of a side character, finding/hiding deceased bodies and the killing of a key character is essential to the plot as well as makes it more entertaining to its audience.
Personal Identity:
The use of personal identity I feel is extreme within this drama; I feel we can all relate to the terrible anxiety and fear the teenage boy felt within the plot when faced with actions he did not mean to commit as well as the love and protection the father gave to this character through his actions, the character consistently trying to hide his son from 'unearthly' deeds to protect his mentality and life. These relatable themes of fear and loving protection I feel all audiences can relate to and so fits within the 'personal identity' category of being able to make sense of ones own identity.
Surveillance:
The drama then follows of being a form of surveillance, as an audience member we watch the events of the narrative play out and almost be a 'fly on the wall', watching the characters delve into their dilemma's.
Within this clip below, we see one of the catalysts within the show in which the stereotypical crime leader villain is seen on television (also a use of voyerisom) state to press what has happened and builds up fear within the main protagonist that he may be caught within his sons crimes, this can be exemplified to be the inciting incident. This can be categorised as form of 'surveillance' as we watch the beginning downfall of one of the lead characters.
How do these Dramas follow those?
The drama show, 'Fleabag', distributed on BBC3, follows a female led protagonist whom uses commentary of her comedic yet sad life; this was adapted on the popular award winning play about a young women trying to cope in London life whilst coming to terms with a recent tragedy in her life.
Drama TV Show 'Fleabag' Trailer
Personal Relationships:
While watching the main female protagonist struggle to cope with the tragic grief of losing her best friend through melancholic comedy we create a personal relationship with the protagonist by being able to make a connection with the character. Through her struggles and relatable modern women views such as views on the male dominated world, maintaining her own business and the impossibility of relationships we feel connected to the character in her struggles; as well as this we see how the character reacts to others within the show and so compare our own relationships with hers.
Diversion:
The show doesn't specifically follow the convention of 'diversion' as it is not a visually thrilling narrative, this being in context to murder, fight scenes or action but does fit into diversion by having numerous sexual scenes in which the target audience may find exciting.
Personal Identity:
The show definitely follows the convention of 'personal identity' as the character was almost created to be a strongly relatable modern female lead, in which many audiences can fit to their own identities. The main target audience of the show being aged from 16-34 women, the character fits to meet the audiences criteria of every day personal struggles such as dealing with modern day relationships, pain and grief as well as sexual problems within relationships and working in a 'hussling' business world, especially on ones own.
Surveillance:
We gain an insight onto how the lead character lives, while not being a 'fly on the wall', as the protagonist breaks the fourth wall by using asides to let the audience gain insights onto what the character is thinking, feeling and what she may do later.
The clip linked below gives examples of the characters commentary and how she interacts with the audience to fit within the comedy drama genre. This includes breaking the fourth wall in asides to the audience, this then being an example of a form of surveillance and personal relationships.
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