How many shows on television do you know that offer a guilt-free antihero as its protagonist? Well, I certainly cannot think of many, and I believe that is the inaugural case as to why NBC’s The Blacklist has been this Fall’s number one show. The idea behind it is that an ingenious, criminal mastermind for some apparent reason starts to assist the FBI catch the world’s most wanted criminals, some of which they did not know existed. Although I am already a fan of the show, I do think that The Blacklist does borrow much of its premise from USA’s White Collar. I feel Andy Greenwald describes the show best when he says, “It’s a cop procedural with a criminal as the lead investigator.”
By using Greenwald’s description, who can we guess to have been NBC’s target audience? Yes it is a cop show, and that to me is a telltale sign that their audience is primarily between the ages of 18 to 49. Yet, I think that the starring role combination of Megan Boone as Elizabeth Keen and James Spader as Raymond “Red” Reddington together capture more female and male viewers together than they would in solo roles. That was a great decision to appeal to this audience, not only because it has the broadest age range, but because they are the ones that watch the most primetime television. And for the purposes of this essay, The Blacklist airs Monday nights.
Let us analyze that particular time in which the show premiers, immediately after The Voice. Because we know that The Voice is in the top ten for most watched shows, the timeslot following it can be considered prime real estate for other shows. That is how I and many others began to watch the show, because Carson Daily would close with, “…stay tuned for The Blacklist.” That was a perfect way to establi...
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... why I think that is, we need to discuss their portrayal or Raymond “Red” Reddington, and Elizabeth Keene juxtaposed to the writers’ vision for the characters. Let’s start with James Spader. As Raymond Reddington, in the very first episode we see him striking a deal with the FBI to take down a “blacklist” of criminals that is only if he gets to work alongside new agent Elizabeth Keen in return. Reddington is but a man of smooth sophistication, one that appreciates a bit of aged scotch, timeless poetry, and beautiful women. Similar to James’ more recent roles he is an alluring and strange mixture of charm, intellect, audacity, and self-possession. Red could have been played by another actor, that hypothetical actor could not bring the same degree of “smug satisfaction” that Spader does. It will be a shock if the Spader does not get yet another Emmy for his work here.
Reality shows sent a much-needed lifeline to the television networks industry. These shows have found a new way to bring much needed viewers, and even more important they brought in much needed money. The money came rolling into CBS after premiering Survivor, which brought in a profit of around $30,000,000 to the network. Even though Survivor is the must costly reality show, costing close to one million dollars to produce and hour of programming. In comparison to other shows, which cost far more like CBS’s series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” which cost over 1.6 million to produce per hour. With the amount of money coming in such large sums to networks have had to close monitor how much is being spent. Clearly’ the reality shows have brought in much needed assets to the flattering television networks.
In the 1930s and 1940s many Hollywood writers, actors, producers, and directors were suspected for communist affiliations. During this time, communism was a popular political movement in the United States, especially among young liberals. There was a growing fear of communism invading American society. By the end of World War Two an event known as the Red Scare resulted in communism become increasingly feared and hated by many in the United States. The Hollywood blacklist caused the Hollywood industry a lot of harm in its business and reputation.
Television has always been an industry whose profit has always been gained through ads. But in chapter 2 of Jason Mittell’s book, Television and American Culture, Mittell argues that the rise of the profit-driven advertising television model can be traced back through American television history, and that the rise of the profit-driven advertising model of television actually helped to mold American culture both from a historical standpoint and from a social standpoint.
The black experience is one that always needs to be told. There is always a new story because much of Black history has been omitted from American History. More recently, Singer/Producer John Legend inked a deal with WGN to develop a dramatic series on this very story. Underground, a black slavery experience, became WGN’s highest rated series in the station’s history, outpacing WGN America’s 2015-2016 primetime average by 508 percent in total viewers and 1,005 percent among adults 18-49 in live-plus-seven viewing (DVR). Netflix’s 13TH, a documentary which tackles race and mass incarceration, was the first non-fiction film to open the prestigious NY Film Festival in its 54-year history. There is already talk about it being an Oscar nominee. Currently, the American public is about 40 percent minority and that’s increasing by about half a percent every year. The viewing audience
Most avid comic book fans would agree that they were less than enthused when Marvel Studios decided to reboot the Spiderman movie franchise in 2012 – just 11 years after the quasi-successful run of the original trilogy (Proctor). As one of the aforementioned avid comic book fans, Marc Bernadin, writer for “io9” (a technology and lifestyle website), rightfully questioned this decision by stating, “in this day and age, does Spidey have to be a white guy?” (Bernardin). This question fueled an Internet phenomenon that forced creators and fans alike to re-evaluate the way that they see the characters they love so much in terms of their race. Media makers and content creators have an ethical responsibility to “represent the many facets of humanity” (Petrou, Jan. 27). ‘Race-bending’ is when a content creator dresses a character as someone of a different race, or changes the race of the character entirely from one race to another (Ibid). In this paper, I aim to explore the influence of social media on race-bending, as it applies to comic book culture and its meaningfulness to the fan community. My principle arguments will draw from an examination of the Marvel comic universe, the #donald4spiderman campaign and the “Amazing Spiderman” movie franchise in order to show that through the power of social media, we are changing the way we root for heroes regardless of their race or ethnicity– moving society forward as a progressive culture.
Hollywood’s Blacklist developed out of complex social, political, and economical conditions. The Hollywood’s blacklist was a method utilized by the federal government to deny employment to many professionals in the entertainment industry, including but not limit to screenwriter, actor, producer, director, musicians, and animators. These professionals were “blacklisted” as a result of suspected political association with the Communist party. The manufacturing of the blacklist sprung out of panic and fear of communist reconnaissance as a result of many events that were taking place around the world such as the Soviet Eastern Europe, Berlin blockade, Chinese Civil War, confessions of high-ranking government officials of espionage for the Soviet Union, Korean War and , Atomic bomb,. The Hollywood’s blacklist was also a manifest of extreme paranoia related to the Cold War. Americans indentified a threat to their freedoms of society and democracy which facilitated a climax of intense anti-communist sentiment during the 1940’2 and 1950’s. This study will examine the creation and influence of the Hollywood’s blacklist on a political platform, and economical consequence, and a social exile of civil liberties.
Technology is growing fast, as is the new generations branching off with new forms of media and devices that provide us with the news. News and politics have had difficulty when informing its public and community of the events that happen in their community. Now the media and news are growing to reform to the earlier generation’s way of receiving the news and events related to them, by using media and popular culture. According to Wodak, for politics to air and to engage and intrigue its public, it must need scandal, rumour, and speculation (45). The West Wing, is a clear example of where the news and politics enter into the world of entertainment, but still informing its audience of the political world and events they may face. I will be analyzing The West Wing television series in relation to the representations of gender, race, and politics with support from examples and scholarly sources.
Everybody has heard the old saying that crime does not pay. Eventually crime and breaking the law will catch up with you. This theme is one commonly found in literature, TV and cinema. And, it is one of the messages Law & Order: Special Victims Unit represents. In this NBC television series, the SVU specializes in sexual offense crimes. This is told to viewers in narrative form in the opening sequence of each episode. Through the representation of the vicious and heinous crimes being investigated in each episode, the ideology of this show is that while the criminal justice system may be hard and flawed at times, as a whole it works and is best for American society.
The cast and the roles they play are the central reason as to why the show has become so reputable. By...
The media is a dominating aspect of American culture. The way the media depicts crime and criminal behavior has an effect on the way society views crime and criminals. Television series such as CSI, NCIS, Law and Order, Criminal Minds and countless others, have become very popular in our society today showing that our culture has an immense interest in crime. It is clear that there is a fascination with criminals and why they do the things they do. To analyze the way crime dramas represent crime and criminal behavior, I completed a content analysis of one episode of Criminal Minds. The episode I chose was season one; episode eight, which first aired in 2005, titled ‘Natural Born Killer’.
There are antiheros in the books we see, movies or shows we watch, and in our everyday lives. The usual antihero is someone who lacks the traditional heroic qualities such as idealism, courage, nobilty, moral goodness, and kindness. Even though the antihero has negative heroic qualities, he still, in the end, does the right thing and is a hero. The typical antihero, especially in the TV world, is Dr. Gregory House from the series House, M.D. This show portrays a doctor filled with unorthodox diagnostic approaches and radical therapeutic motives that results in conflict between him and his colleagues. Each episode starts out with someone having a mysterious medical emergency. They come to Dr. House because he does whatever it takes to solve puzzling cases that come his way. Dr. House is the perfect antihero because of his personality and the way he handles social and medical situations, but in the end, he saves people’s lives. Dr. House is also the perfect antihero because he addresses several current social issues and pokes fun at society’s values.
Media portrayal of crime and criminal justice has become incredibly widespread in the last decade, with crime often considered both a source of news and entertainment. As a source of entertainment, crime and criminal justice have emerged as central themes across various sources of media. Most individuals do not have any direct experience with the criminal justice system, so their only source of information on this topic is the media. Particularly in television shows, portrayals of crime and criminal justice can be seen in everything from courtroom dramas to nightly news programs. Indeed, the popularity of crime shows has lead to some of television’s most enduring series, such as Law and Order and CSI. Because of this, fictional
Throughout the physical research of this study I have found out a lot more about this show than could have ever crossed minds before, one example being that this show has be premiered and marketed so well to the point that the viewer have almost no resistance to not believe what the show is trying to instill into our minds. These shows also categorize the characters, some are “good” guys and others are bad guys, but who is actually decided these labels? Are the categories fair? Many would say yes based off the plot line of the show, but some wonder if the bad guys have an equal amount of air time to defend themselves. These factors bring up a conflict of narration weather or not every character is portrayed in a way that they could be like-able which not the case in The Blacklist is. This “good” guy, bad guy routine is commonly used in crime shows and movies, but is not a true example of real life that these shows depict to do. In a sense these real-life shows are the complete opposite not giving the audience a real conclusion o...
The Blacklist is a crime drama television program that airs on NBC. It is an American television series that stars Megan Boone, James Spader and Harry Lennix. The idea behind it is that an ingenious, criminal mastermind, for some apparent reason, starts to assist the FBI in catching the world’s most wanted criminals, some of which they did not know existed. Yet, Raymond “Red” Reddington surrenders to the authorities under the condition that he will only cooperate with a rookie FBI profiler, Elizabeth Keen. NBC ordered for a nine episode first run on October 4, 2013, and in December 2013, they renewed the show by ordering a twenty two episode second season as an early indication for future success. But, what were the reasons for the show’s early success? After examining various trade journals and articles on the subject, I am asserting that The Blacklist is the number one new television from last Fall’s list of pilots based on its specific marketing, distribution, audience, timeslot, critical reception, and potential revenue.
Television has seen plenty of producers, writers and viewers attracted to crime and deviance. The crime drama series is not an unchanging structure but develops in an intricate relationship with audiences, media institutions, social contexts and other genres. Crime drama series’ structure often begins with some strains to the social order by criminal forces. Historically police officers or “cops” are good and the criminals are bad. However today we can notice “bent” cops and sometimes sympathetic villains.