TV: Exam question

Question 1

“Realism is a vital component of television drama”. To what extent does an analysis of your television close-study products support this view? [25 marks]

I believe that realism is a vital component to television drama because the audience should be able to relate to what they're watching or must at least have an idea on the topic. I think Capital successfully does this as they cover topics such as immigration which many people are affected by in London. Furthermore, I think Deutschland 83 successfully covers social and cultural context.

In Capital, realism is presented in many ways as immigration is a key topic in the show. The Zimbabwean immigrant was presented as vulnerable and sexually exploited as when she went to collect her pay from another Zimbabwean person, he took a bigger cut from her than usual. He then asked her for a kiss otherwise she would not get the hard earned money she worked for. This left her with no other option but to do so. Furthermore, the immigrants are portrayed as dodgy because she cannot have her hard earned money going straight into her account instead, she has to get it sent to someone else and they get a cut for helping her out. Within Capital, typical gender stereotypes are also presented as Roger is the male that goes to work and earns money for the family whereas, his wife is at home decorating the house and taking care of their children. Within Capital, class is also presented when the white family has a high paid job and lives in a modern house with a holiday home whereas, the Pakistani family live on the top of their shop and they all work in the corner shop.

On the other hand, Deutschland 83 presents realism in a numerous amount of ways as they cover the conflict between West & East Germany along with gender and how females were treated.

East Germany was communist. This is where they believed everyone is equal and should be treated equally whereas, West Germany was capitalist. This is where they believed that everyone should have their own freedom and they should be able to do what they'd like. East Germany was presented as more dull and grey whereas, West Germany was presented as more peaceful. Realism was also presented in Deutschland 83 when the gender stereotypes were reinforces such as the males going to war and fighting and the females were at home however, this could be argued as one of the females had a special role for their country and worked with the government. This subverts the gender stereotypes and supports more modern views such as women should be working if they'd like to. Scenes such as when the East Germany spy was in the office in West Germany going through the briefcase creates realism because point of view shots were used to make the audience to feel as if they're watching him go to the files secretly and someone could be watching him. Furthermore, the sound that was used when that was taking place created suspense for the audience.

In Deutschland 83, some family members were presented as enemies as Martin’s aunt got him kidnapped so he could spy on West Germany. This clearly illustrates that family means nothing to her as she got him drugged and taken to West German without his permission/consent.

In conclusion, I believe that realism is successfully shown throughout both the case studies as the topics covered are things we all can relate to. In London, immigration is something big that has been happening within the last 10/15 years and London is known to be culturally diverse. However, with immigration going on there has been a lot of problems such as people overstaying and committing crimes. Furthermore, in Deutschland 83 the problems between East and West Germany has been successfully shown as East Germany sent out a spy to spy on West Germany and take pictures of the top secret files of the plans they have against West Germany.