Week Eleven: Long Form Television

This week we are experiencing and discussing work made in recent long form television. In class last week, we discussed the ways in which we can talk about a media event in terms of media dependent topics, those effects of the event that seem dependent on the media in which the event is executed, and media independent topics, those effects of the event that are common to most media experiences. In the case of our discussion of the graphic novel we considered questions that arose about the work that were inquiries related to it's performance as a graphic novel as well as questions that were not dependent on the medium in which it was expressed.

Common effects might include themes, reading character, empathy, worldbuilding, the sorts of topics we might discuss in conversing or writing about books, movies, comics, plays, etc. Specific media dependent effects in long form television might include, for example,  discussion about how specific formal aspects of long form television shape the audience experience, what effects flow from the practice of binge watching, what changes occur when events are streamed instead of broadcast. There are many effects that can be discussed, when you write your blog post for this week, feel free to observe your own media effect. When writing your thoughts about this , it is usually best to stick to one observation and consider its full consequences instead of trying to briefly cover a number of possible effects.

Assignment for this Week: From the list below, watch as much as you can of a particular title in streaming television. Choose one that you have not watched before. I have listed works from Netflix, Amazon Video and some web series that you can watch on various platforms and often for free. Several of the web series are actually short form and not long- form TV but they do invite binge watching. A number of genres are represented including comedies, superheroes, and animation.  Just choose one series to view and to discuss on your blog and in class next time. Write on your blog about one of the media dependent effects that you observed in your experience of binge watching. Please pick something to watch that you have not watched before. 

My suggestion is to watch The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or Good Girls Revolt on Amazon Prime video which gives you a long for television series  that fits in with a number of other works we have considered this semester.  If you are looking for a very light quirky comedy try the Detectorists, one of my favorite series from England. If you must have a hit of Studio Ghibli, try Ronja the Robber's Daughter.

If you have to stay on Netflix, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is one of my favorite adaptions of a genre novel.  Godless is an interesting take on the western. There are several very interesting takes on teen life including Riverdale, 13 Reasons Why, and Everything Sucks. 

If you don't have access to a streaming service I have put some links to some online series you can access.

NetFlix

Babylon Berlin
The End of the F***ing World
Godless
Altered Carbon
Atypical
Stranger Things
American Vandal
Sense8
Jessica Jones
Master of None
Daredevil
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Riverdale
Travelers
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
Jane the Virgin
13 Reasons Why
Everything Sucks!
Black Mirror
Sherlock
Orange is the New Black
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

Here is a link to the common used secret codes to get Netflix genres you might like.

Amazon Video

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
The Man in the High Castle
Mozart in the Jungle
Mr. Robot
Transparent
The Americans
Good Girls Revolt
Lark Rise to Candleford
Catastrophe
Detectorists
Flight of the Conchords
Ronja the Robber's Daughter

Hulu

The Handmaid's Tale
Fargo
Difficult People
Dead Like Me
Broad City
The I.T. Crowd
Spaced
Twin Peaks

Web Series

Neurotica
Bagdad, Florida
City Girl
Eighty-Sixed
Junior
Let Me Die a Nun
195 Lewis
Whole Day Down
Break-ups
Ted and Gracie
Very Mary Kate
Wainy Days
My Gimpy Life
Waco Valley
Husbands
F to 7th
H+ The Digital Series
Neil's Puppet Dreams
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
The Guild



Joss Whedon talks about how binging tv isn't necessarily a good thing.

Week Nine: Voice and The Auteur Theory

Poster for Persona by Ingmar Bergman

Sometimes we think of cultural workers as having a distinctive "voice" in their work. Themes, locations, subjects, motifs, style, lighting, viewpoints, word choices, topics, accent, are just some of the elements that can make up the unique voice of an individual artist. Filmmakers with distinctive voices are often called "auteurs."  This week you are to watch three movies by a particular director and to write a response discussing how the three works you chose exhibit common themes or other elements that are attributes assigned to the personality of the director as an author of the works. In other words, describe the author's voice in these films.

(Or, alternatively, you could argue they are not an auteur or that the term "auteur" should not be applied in the critical discussion of film.)

I am asking you to choose three films by any one director on the following list.

Francois Truffaut	Federico Fellini
Ingmar Bergman	Michelangelo Antonioni
Robert Altman	Akira Kurosawa
Satyajit Ray	Maya Deren
Jane Campion	Stan Brakhage
Peter Greenaway	Andrei Tarkovsky
Sally Potter	Mira Nair
Paul Thomas Anderson	Sofia Coppola
Jean-Luc Godard	Tom Tykwer
Krzysztof Kieslowski	Wes Anderson
Jacques Tati	Mike Leigh

Link that helps to explain an author's tone.

Link that helps to explain an author's voice.

Check the Course Resources Page for a few resources for this assignment.