TV unit: final homework

“Realism is a vital component of television drama”. To what extent does an analysis of your television close-study products support this view?

Films based on historical content, documentaries and foreign language film are more and more popular these days, and people start to really value the authenticity of a context that they give out it the shows. Both D 83 and Capital are based on a huge historical event that changes the world and it’s really important to recreate the realism of those events so that the TV show could both entertain and educate. So for audience to understand it more, both shows tried to show point of view of different people to explain the whole story. It’s also a great way of seeing the other side of the story, as some people live their whole lives believing in one thing, and never actually trying to understand people with different views.

In Capital the idea is to show the different classes in London, show their values and how did the 2008 crash affected their lives. The show featured different classes, citizenships and ethnicities, and tries to recreated their life struggles. The show was pretty accurate, having characters from a rich white male, to a Polish builder, struggling to pay his rent. The show is based in London, where the crash really effected the society. The realism is really needed because of the really broad audience of BBC, that could really relate to the characters as they were so different and represented huge chunks of society in London. That makes the audience as is their story matter and they can relate to the characters. It’s also the idea of learning about different struggles that come from living in London that people from the rest of UK might not be aware of. The show didn’t sussed as much in different countries around the world, but it can also educate and inspire them. The storyline might not be very realistic, so there’s also an idea of experiencing a life that people that might be living right next to them.

The show was pretty realistic, although there were some critics that argued that the show is very left-wing- based and they represent the characters to their benefit. The show did had some stereotyped characters that might put some groups in society in a good and bad light, although the characters didn't meet with the stereotypical features that can be very negative and not true, but overall it has a lot of stereotypes when it comes to ethnicity and gender. Although it has a lot of characters in the show, there’s the feeling that the rich, white male is a protagonist in this show. That makes London, a diverse, one of the biggest cities in the world, seem as a uncultured town.

The D 83 showed the events of Cold War from two different sides of the wall; east and west. At times of the Cold War the perspectives and views of people on both sides were extremely different and the show perfectly communicate them to the audience. People that watch D 83 in countries like UK or USA probably aren’t fully educated about the Cold War and don’t really know what other views on this historical even might be in different countries. The TV drama shows perspective of a East spy, going to West to find out their plan. That lets us see both worlds and understand them more. It also shows the country from non-stereotypical representation of East, as a happy, colourful place. The realism is so needed because TV shows like that create an overall image of that event for audience that want to also educate themselves.

Although the D 83 was well received in other countries, in Germany the TV shows didn’t received a good reaction, with audience saying that the show wasn’t a good representation of the content of the spy drama. The different representation of West and East was received as very stereotypical and targeted to the other countries, rather then Germany. The show might’ve been aware that it’ll be more successful in the different countries, so they had to put some stereotypes so that the audience could understand the show in their own way.

Overall the CSP’s are a great representation of the importance of the realism in TV dramas as they touch on the context that might be familiar to some audience, as well as educate others. The realism makes people appreciate their lives and the importance of history and evens happening around the world.