Characters In TV Drama

Characters are clearly a crucial element of a TV drama. Many TV dramas are defined by the lead character.

Lead Characters:

• Inspector Frost - 'A Touch of Frost'
• Miss Marple - 'Miss Marple'
• Merlin - 'Merlin'
• The Doctor - 'Doctor Who'

The common ingredient of any TV drama is that audiences are being invited to identify with the lead characters and are interested in what happens to them.

Most Teen Dramas like Skins, The OC and Smallville are based on adolescent concerns;

• The desire for relationships
• The desire to be individual and special
• The power to solve other people's problems and cast individuals in the role of her or villain
• The importance of image
• The truth can hurt

Clip: Skins, Series 3 Episode 9 Sibling Rivalry
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBzm-dEHX-M&p=D4CA77D4B1733026&playnext=1&index=27

Adolescent concerns featured;

• The Importance of Image
• Desire for Relationships
• Friendship
• Jealousy
• Truth can hurt
• Sexuality
• Desire to be individual and special

Clip: Footballer's Wives - You Can't Have My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wphe73aNFUE

In Footballer's Wives, most audiences quickly recognise Tanya Turner or Eva Da Wolfe as the calculating schemers, that they are both (knowingly) portrayed as.

Both play an obvious gender role, shocking audiences by their ability to exploit people through their sexuality.

Although characters in stories may seem very real they must be understood as constructed characters who have roles to play for the sake of the story.
The most basic of these roles is the polarisation of characters into 'Good' and 'Bad'.
The majority of narratives involve characters who are in conflict with one another. Many TV dramas set up conflicts between good and bad characters and build the narrative around revealing how good will triumph over bad.

This conflict is the basis of Levi-Strauss's idea of binary opposition:

• Narratives are frequently organised in terms of characters, ideas and values that are set in opposition against eachother,
• The good characters normally win and order is resolved (however temporary.)
• Levi-Strauss pointed out that this was an almost 'mythical' resolution in that it suggested such outcomes were possible in narratives in the way they were not in real life.

Audiences are constantly positioned to sympathise with some characters (and the values and attitudes they represent.) And to be antagonistic to others (and the values and attitudes they represent)
Audiences attitudes, Values and beliefs are beung shaped by their involvement in narratives. 

Conventions of TV Drama

Basic Conventions:

• Characters
• Narrative
• Sets and Setting
• Camerawork
• Dialogue, Sound, Music

When looking closely at TV drama, some ideas and theoretical perspectives will emerge

These ideas and perspective should increase your understanding of the way these dramas are produced and constructed.

Theoretical perspectives of TV drama:

• Character Roles (some basic reference to Propp’s character theory)
• Seven Basic Character Types
• Villain
• Donor, Friend of hero who gives something that encourages hero.
• Helper, sometimes teamed up with donor.
• Princess, or reward for hero
• Her father, Authority
• Dispatcher, Someone who sends hero off on quest.
• Hero  

Levi-Strauss and Binary Opposites

• Character opposition.

Representational Issues:

• Gender
• Race
• Place
• Ethnicity
• Class
• Sexuality
• Disability
• Age

TV Dramas are constructed, they are made to be believable through a combination of;

• Casting
• Performance
• Screenplay
• Direction