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...
... middle of paper ...
... 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.
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.
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.
Since its start, the television industry has been criticized for perpetuating myths and stereotypes about African-Americans through characterizations, story lines, and plots. The situation comedy has been the area that has seemed to draw the most criticism, analysis, and disapproval for stereotyping. From Sanford and Son and The Jefferson’s in the 1970s to The Cosby Show (1984) and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the 1990s, sitcoms featuring black casts and characters have always been controversial. However, their significance upon our American culture cannot be disregarded. During the 1950s and 1960s, 97% of the families were Caucasian. In the first five years of the 1990s, nearly 14% of the television families were African-American (Bryant 2001). These statistics obviously show the substantial impact our American culture has had on African-American television families.
Marlon T. Riggs’ video, Color Adjustment, offers the viewer an exciting trip though the history of television, focusing on the representation, or lack thereof, of African-Americans. A perfectly chosen combination of television producers, actors, sociologists, and cultural critics join forces to offer insight and professional opinion about the status of African-Americans in television since the inception of television itself. As Color Adjustment traces the history of television shows from Amos n’ Andy and Julia to "ghetto sitcoms" and The Cosby Show, the cast of television professionals and cultural critics discuss the impacts those representations have on both the African-American community and our society as a whole. Color Adjustment continually asks the question: "Are these images positive?" This video raises the viewer’s awareness about issues of positive images for African-Americans on television.
The Blacklist. NBC. Manhattan, n.d. Web. 6. "NBC's 'The Voice' & 'The Blacklist' Account for Three of the Top Five Broadcast Primetime Programs for the Week of April 21-27."
1) The representation of African American’s in television has increased greatly since the early 1950’s. Through the years that television has progressed, the view of ethnic and racial groups have improved. From their beginnings as stereotypical roles to primary characters in television, the representation of African Americans have transformed in almost every genre in television. Tracing the development of African Americans through television history helps us to understand the different ways a group of people are represented and how that representation changes as the years go by.
The world of television can either completely hit or miss the mark when it comes to providing its audience a diverse cast/actors. "Girls" is a new HBO show about young, prosperous, and white New Yorkers in their twenties struggling to find their footing in the post-collegiate world. It is a poor example of representation of race, but the show in itself cannot be held responsible for the whole problem of racial diversity of media and popular culture. There has been a lot of controversy about the show's diversity since the first episode, seeing how it is set in the melting pot of NYC and Brooklyn, yet it is prominently white. The shocking part is that despite its meting pot nature, it is very easy to live a segregated social life in New York City, especially if you are a rich white person. The fact that the show is so white should not come off as unusual, yet it does because this generation is more willing to see that change happen in pop culture. Not everyone sees it that way and pop culture still does not represent races equally or at times even accurately. For example, when show do add in minorities they often make them extremely stereotypical to their race. The recurrence in the lack of realistic representation in the show highlights the “whiteness” of stereotypical roles that overshadows real life representation.
Dines, Gail, and Jean McMahon Humez. Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-reader. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1995. Print.
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.
Hollywood’s diversity problem is well-known; however, the extent might be surprising to most Americans. According to a 2014 report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television, Film & New Media, found that females comprised only 30% of all speaking characters among the top grossing films of 2013. (Lauzen, 2014) However, minority women faired far worse than their Caucasian counterparts. As a matter of fact, if one looks at the numbers even female characters from other world’s were as better represented in film than some minority women; the numbers are as follow for women: Caucasian (73%), African American (14%), Latina (5%), Asian and other world tied (3%). (Lauzen, 2014) If the lack of representation were not enough consider a 2009 study which found that when minority groups are portrayed on television the portrayal tends to be negative. (Alexandrin, 2009) A study by Busselle and Crandall (2009) found that the manner in which African-Americans are portrayed, often as unemployed criminals, tends to have an influence on the way the public perceives African-American’s lack of economic success. Furthermore, the news media does an equally poor job in the ways that African-American’s are presented; according to the same study while 27% of Americans were considered “poor” in 1996 the images of America’s “poor” being presented by news media was heavily Black (63%). (Busselle & Crandall, 2002) Today, this can be seen in the way that African-American victims of police brutality are depicted in the media. Even when African-Americans are murdered at the hands of police for minor and non-violent offenses (e.g. Mike Brown, Eric Gardner, and Tamir Rice) they are often portrayed as thugs, criminals, and vandals. What’s more, seve...
The use of media has always been very tactical and representative of a statement or purpose. The issue of race has always been a topic of immaculate exploration through different forms of media. Mediated topics such as race, gender, and class have always been topics represented in the media as a form of oppression. The widely use of media surrounds the globe extensively as the public is bombarded with media daily. There are many different types of media that circulates the public making it widely available to anyone. Media can hold an immense amount of power as it can distort the manner in which people understand the world. In our society the media creates the dominant ideology that is to be followed for centuries in the classifications of race, gender, and class. Media can be a powerful tool to use to display a message which, is how “…the media also resorts to sensationalism whereby it invents new forms of menace” (Welch, Price and Yankey 36). Media makers and contributors take advantage of the high power that it possesses and begin to display messages of ideologies that represent only one dominant race or gender. It became to be known as the “dominant ideology of white supremacy” for many and all (Hazell and Clarke 6).
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.
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.
Looking in this day and age, movie heroes are taking the law into their own hands, creating the anti-hero in the long run. Defined by wikipedia, the anti-hero is a villain or an outsider, but is nevertheless portrayed somewhat sympathetically. In particular, an anti-hero may have enough heroic qualities and intentions to align them with the heroes in the readers' mind ("Anti-hero"). A film that depicts the classic vigilante is Man on Fire by Tony Scott. The film takes on the idea of revenge with a blend of disturbingly sentimental seriousness and harsh reality.
Shark Tank is a reality television show with the purpose of entertain, educate and motivate people, showing an easy way to expand entrepreneurs companies and ideas that haven not start yet and making the American dream possible. Shark Tank have create thousand of jobs making millions of dollars with ideas from zero or growing products. They know how to start small businesses and helping the entrepreneurs to achieve huge successes.