Desperate Housewives S05 Ep12: Narrative

Usually, in every episode of Desperate Housewives, a lot happens and the narrative progresses much further, as with most modern TV dramas, in order to satisfy a modern day audience. Most of the scenes are fairly short and there are a lot of scenes in each episode as audience demands are greater and audiences want to be constantly entertained and lose interest very quickly.

In Desperate Housewives there are several mini storylines which revolve around each of the main characters. In each episode, as with most TV dramas, we see a progression with each of the characters in some way.

Beginning, Middle and End
Edie and Susan get locked in Edie's basement. Edie asks Susan about her love life and tells her she is dependent on men as she has never been without one for very long. Edie then tells Susan about her father and Susan realizes that is why Edie has been with and used so many men. Finally, Susan tells Jackson she's not moving in with him and Edie forgives Dave who moves back in with her.

Lynette finds out where Porter is - with her mother. Her mother lies to Lynette and tells her that Porter has left. In the middel the audience think Lynette's car has crashed but in actual fact it hasn't. She tricks her mother and Porter in order to get them to come to the hospital. She then convinces Porter to come home and face his trial. Porter gets off his case and Lynette visits her mother. They agree things have to change and make-up.

Equilibrium
- Bree and her son-in-law are getting along fine.
- Katherine and Mike's relationship is going well and they are happy.
Disruption
- Bree gets told by her son-in-law Alex that she treats her husband unfairly and is rude to him. In the middle we see the two of them fight after which Alex declines her offer for the house. Bree then argues with her son over it and he refuses to come in between them.
- Katherine tells Mike she might move away but he doesn't try to persuade her not to.
Equilibrium

- Finally they make up when Bree gives Alex permission to criticize her as she realises she often steps out of line and so he could help her.

- Dave asks Mike if he is still in love with Susan but Mike tells him he is falling in love with Katherine. At the end Mike leaves her flowers with a card saying don't go and they kiss.

Happy Ending
At the very end we see that all the characters have progressed in some way and the ending is a happy one. Mike leaves flowers for Katherine telling her not to leave and we see them kissing. Edie forgives Dave who then moves back in with her. Gaby is happily wathcing her kids being told that from now on they must obey her. Lynette is spending time with her mother and is happy. Bree has made up with Alex and is showing him colour samples from their new house. Susan is learning to live alone without a man and enjoy doing so for the first time.

So overall the ending is a happy one for everyone. However, as is typical with the end of Desperate Hosuewives, the audience is given a warning that all is not ok and something bad will soon happen. This is portrayed through the character of Dave and the audience is already aware that he wants to take revenge on Mike. While Katherine and Mike are sharing a kiss at the end, we see Dave behind a window watching the two of them.

Characters - Binary Opposition
This is most evident in this episode through the characters of Mike and Dave. Mike offers to let Dave stay at his house. The audience is already aware that he wants to take revenge on Mike. The camera shows us a CU of Dave's face letting the audience know what he is thinking. He smirks as he realises this could be an oppurtunity he could use. Mike is completely oblivious to all this. IN the final scene with Miek and Katherine where they share a happy moment together we see Dave watching them from behind a window. He is an outsider and separte from this moment, looking in from the outside. The camera focuses on him even though he is not involved in the moment and this tells the audience his intentions are sinister, particularly as we are aware that Katherine and Mike are not aware that he is watching. The camera acts as an indicator to the audience that Dave is going to disrupt their happines very soon.

Desperate Housewives S05 Ep11: Body Language

Susan Mayer

Susan can hear her neighbours having an argument outside. She instantly looks up and within seconds is standing by the window. She is already bending down and then bends down further to get a better view. Her facial expression shows she is focussed on trying hard to listen to their argument. All this demonstrates her more inquisitive nature as she is known to be quite a nosy neighbour.

She then comes outside to talk to her neighbour. Her body language is quite animated and less controlled compared to other characters in Desperate Housewives. This is why she is clumsy and known to be a klutz. As her neighbour walks away from her she runs after him with her body leaning forward. This reflects her more needy nature, which becomes apparant in her relationships with men she has been with. She also comes across as very dependent in the conversation as she begs Lee to let her come clubbing with him because no-one is home. After she has stopped running her hands continue to sway showing how she can easily be clumsy.

Throughout the conversation her movements are over-exagerrated as she nods her head and bends down slightly and this fits with her nature as she is a bit of a drama queen. She also uses her hands a lot as she speaks making her body language quite animated. She shrugs a lot and at the end of the conversation gives him the thumbs up as she tends to exagerrate her emotions. Her facial expression is generally easy to read and so the audience can always tell what she is thinking and feeling. She does not try to hide her emotions. Therefore her character is frequently used to add humour to the episodes. At the end after Lee tells her to wear more make-up as drag queens get free drinks she puts her hands to her face and her expression shows she is perhaps not sure quite what to make of that comment or that she is not likely to do so.

Spooks: Narrative in TV Drama

STANDARD NARRATIVE CONVENTIONS

Beginning, Middle and End

A couple wake up and go downstairs to eat breakfast. They do not realise that they are being watched by terrorists. The woman Fiona and her partner Danny, who both work for the MI5, get kidnapped by the terrorists. The terrorists demand that the Prime Minister must annouce he will remove troops from Iraq. Danny ends up getting shot and in the meantime the MI5 work out that taking their agents hostage was simply a ploy to distract them from their real aim; to kill the Prime Minister. In the end, Fiona's husband Adam saves her and the Prime Minister while the terrorist holding Fiona captive is shot.

Characters - Good/Bad

The audience is usually able to identify the good characters and the bad characters quickly when watching a TV drama. This is because the director chooses to present a character as either good or bad in different ways so that the audience will see that character a certain way. These different ways include the following:

• costume
• body language
• camerawork
• editing

In Spooks, at the very beginning this is done in many ways including camerawork. We are let into Adam and Fiona's world and feel as if we know them well in the first few minutes as we already know so much about them through MCUs and MSs. However, with the terrorists seated in the car outside we are unable to se their faces and some of the shots are made to look obscure to make their identities even more ambiguous. We only see parts of their faces at a time such as their eyes or their lips and even though these are CUs we feel distanced from them. The director gives us little pieces of information at a time about the terrorists whereas from the first shot of Fiona we are able to see her gender, race, class and are given information about her lifestyle as well as Adam's.

Happy ending

At the end of this episiode of Spooks, Fiona is rescued after the female terrorist caves in and tells Adam where she is being held captive. Tension is heightened as petrol is being poured over Fiona by the terrorist. She begins to get hysterical and the audience is put on the edge of their seat. At the very last minute, just as the terrorist is about to burn Fiona alive, something smashes against the window. Then men come in and shoot the terrorist. Fiona is rescued and runs outside to meet Adam. They hug each other and the episode finishes on this image, which is essentially a happy ending.

Most stories end happily because they follow the narrative pattern of equilibrium-disruption-equilibrium. Audiences naturally prefer there to be a happy ending as it has more of a positive feel and leaves the audience feeling satisfied and not distressed. TV contains an element of escapism as audiences often watch TV to escape from their lives for a while. Therefore, audiences would want a happy ending as they want to feel happier after watching a TV drama.

Beginning

A standard way of beginning a narrative story is what starts as an ordinary, everyday morning suddenly being threatened. This follows the narrative structure used often which begins with an equilibrium but then there is a disruption. The disruption is then usually resolved and then the narrative returns to an equilibrium.

In Spooks, the day begins at an equilibrium as an average normal day. Adam and Fiona wake-up and start this day just as they would any other. Fiona makes coffee and toast for breakfast and Adam is getting dressed for work when he enters the kitchen. We then see them both leave dressed smartly for work.

Audience involvement

This is done through the danger that is set up. The audience is encouraged to take sides through binary opposition. Some character is identified as evil with traits that suggest this and some characters are identified as good. In Spooks this is set-up at the beginning through thew use of colour in mise-en-scene. The walls and background in the couple's house are clean and white, a colour we associate with goodness. We are able to see them with clarity and each of the shots show us their actions and tells us about their relationship, making us feel as if we know them intimately and allows us into their everday life. The terrorists, on the otherhand, are sitting in a black car with darker surroundings instantly making the audience view them as a threat and as evil. Their identity remains hidden and ambigous so the audience is made to see them as a threat and will be less inclined to like them. They are still and tense, not giving much away, making the audience unable to relate to them and therefore distanced from them.

Desperate Housewives: Costume

Bree Hodge

Bree dresses imacuately and is generally well-groomed, with even her hair styled perfectly. It is pushed back out of her face completely and not even a single hair is out of place. This shows she cares about her appearance and that she is a perfectionist. It also suggests that she cares what others think about her. The clothes she wears represent her role as the typical housewife and are quite stereotypical. She wears plain cardigans and tops, often in feminine colours such as pink. She often wears dresses (sometimes with floral patterns on them) or skirts as she is stereotypically a very feminine character as a housewife who enjoys cooking and cleaning. In the picture above she can be seen wearing a pearl necklace and earrings. These are simple and again represent her femininity. They also signify her class as middle/upper class. She wears make-up but it is usually quite subtle therefore making her seem classy as she does not wear a lot. Generally it appears she is trying to conform to the role of the perfect housewife. Appearance clearly also means a lot to her and she seems to really care what her neighbours will think of her and her family. This is reflected in some of the narratives like for instance when her daughter becomes pregnant and she tries to hide this from her neighbours by pretending she is pregnant.

Desperate Housewives S05 Ep10: Sound

When Porter is telling his parents and lawyer he has an alibi there is initially no non-diegetic sound. The audience are not aware at this point that he actually does not have an alibi and is mistaken. As the audience have not been made aware of this humourous element yet, there is only diegetic sound and so the audience expect him to have an alibi. They do not expect there to be a joke at this point.

Porter then says 'I went to her [Edie's] house, but only so I could break in and steal her gun.' At this point non-diegetic music begins to play in the backgrounded. It is light-hearted and often used in Desperate Housewives to make the audience aware that the scene they are watching is intended to be funny and make them laugh. Now the audience may assume that Porter doesn't in fact have an alibi and is now confessing to another crime and therefore not helping his case. The music then continues throughout the scene, which is made funnier by Porter's confession of hiding the gun in Lynette's flour jar. Finally he asks 'do you think that will help?'. The silence that follows increases the comedy element, as the non-diegetic music gently continues in the background. When Lynette then tells Porter it is not an alibi, the music stops to reinforce the reality of this fact and make it funny for the audience. It then picks up again and and continues till the end of this scene.

The next scene begins just after the music for the previous scene has ended. The music was light-hearted but as it has stopped it indicates not only a new scene but also that at least the beginning of the next scene will not be funny. At the beginning of this scene only diegetic sound can be heard as Edie and Dave exchange some dialogue. The camera then moves in on Dave as he looks out onto the street. He begins to turn his head but then something catches his eye. At this point non-diegetic music then begins. This notes are prolonged and the music is slightly sinister. The music reinforces the significance of something catching his eye and stopping him form turning back to what he was doing. It indicates to the audience that what he has seen is important to the narrative and that it is also something slightly sinister.

Edie's voice then fades slightly and almost sounds like an echo as we are shown what Dave is looking at. The audience is at this point put into his character's position and made to feel as though we are him and are in his head. We are able to not only see but also feel from his point of view the effect what he can see is having on him. This reinforces the significance of this scene. We are then suddenly brought back to reality as the glass in his hand smashes. It is quick and effective because the audience is put in Dave's position and therefore like him we are not aware of what is going on around him. The sound of glass smashing brings him and therefore the audience back to reality. The eerie music continues till the end of this scene and until the woman and child leave, indicating there is something sinister attached to this story and to the woman and child he can see. The sinister music begins once Dave is made aware of the presence of the woman and child and then stops when they leave reinforcing the idea that something about them is not quite right.