Timed Essay Question 4

 

Question 4:

Multiple narrative strands are the key convention of long form television dramas. Discuss how far you agree with this statement in relation to the set episode of the long form television drama you have studied.

Multiple narrative strands are one of the most important conventions to long form television dramas, therefore I agree with the statement presented.

The first episode of Stranger Things deals with 3 main narrative strands with a plethora of smaller narrative stories that are likely to be developed throughout the season along with the main story. The main 3 narrative strands include Will Byers disappearing, Eleven escaping from the facility in Hawkins and the unshown alien escaping from the same facility as Eleven. With Will disappearing and Eleven escaping, both of these plots reach stage 3 of the classic Hollywood narrative, which is the recognition phase of the story, meaning at least 1 or more character has recognised the problem and what has happened. However, with the alien we only see it when Will disappears and then that is it for the rest of the episode, meaning it technically hasn’t been recognised apart from Will who is now gone.  As well as these stories there are a lot of smaller plots that are created throughout this episode including the government spying on the towns people, Nancy’s relationship with Steve, the boys being bullied at school, Hopper realizing the problem with Will and searching for him along with a lot more. The way multistrand narratives work, usually all of these plots will follow the 5 stage Hollywood classic narrative and then have something to do with the overarching story throughout or near the end of the story.

Stranger Things has a very big target audience and people of all ages are able to watch it, but the main demographic seems to be teenagers watching it by themselves or with their family or friends. This is good for the multistrand narrative structure because chances are there will be at least 1 plot that a viewer will be interested in, meaning they continue watching the show to see how that plot plays out and how it will affect the story and the characters. The more people that watch the show, the more chance it has of getting a new season which means more people get to watch it, with the cycle continuing. However, to keep people interested, the show needs to follow conventions of the genre it falls into (with Stranger Things falling into the Sci-Fi and Horror genre) while also adapting the market and making the show different from the rest to allow it to adapt. This is beneficial for people who like the multistrand narrative because that means a lot more plots can be created with new and older characters. Another reason people may continue to watch the show could be because of a character and how they are involved in 1 or more of the narrative strands and how the viewer can relate to the character on the show, either being like them or the opposite of them, and wanting to see how they develop over the show or how they overcome a certain challenge or problem, while others can watch shows like Stranger Things for escapism.

One important thing Stranger Thing does in the first episode is that it never shuts down or finishes a narrative strand, any narrative or plot that is opened up in the episode is not finished by the end, to keep the audience questioning what is going to happen and to carry on watching the show, instead of getting all the answers in the first episode and them stopping watching after that. Despite how important multistrand narratives are, another important feature for Stranger Things is the intertextuality that it presents throughout the first episode, constantly making references to older TV shows, movies and other pieces of media to keep the older viewers of the show happy while also sprinkling in some nostalgia. For example, when the boys find Eleven at the end of the episode (which leaves the show on a cliff hanger) the camera only has her on it, with rain pouring down her face with a torch shining in her eyes while she stands by herself. This is a big reference to ET and how they find the alien in the film, in the rain with a torch on its face standing by itself which could show post modernism on how they just copied that idea but can also be considered to be a reference to the movie since it was very big in the 1980’s which is when the show is set. The final shot of the episode is the boys looking at Eleven with the camera slowly zooming in on Mike, foreshadowing a potential relationship or friendship with Eleven or to show his significance as the leader of the group.

Overall, I fully agree with the statement on how important multi strand narratives are to long form television dramas.