An Exploration Of Popular Hospital Drama Series With Reference To Two
Or More Selected Episodes
(Casualty and ER)
One of the world's most popular television genres is the Hospital
Drama. Incorporating many aspects of real-life, relationships, family,
money etc. with the action of a busy hospital. They are easily
recognisable due to common conventions across the board although they
can vary vastly in some areas from series to series. ER is one of
America's most popular shows, and its British audiences are ever
increasing due to its up-to-date introduction in the 'E4' schedule.
'Casualty' is a British-made hospital drama of a very different style
to 'ER' that has been around for many years in prime-time viewing
slots, I will be comparing these two programmes and analysing their
differences and similarities.
Hospital dramas are very closely linked to sitcoms and soaps, and take
on many of the traits of these: love affairs, family troubles, illness
and crime. However, while Hospital dramas can have these ongoing
situations from episode to episode in the style of a soap, they are
also able to easily include single-episode storylines. This is because
the patients bring their own unique stories and problems with them,
and they are gone within the episode. Such an example of these two
types of storyline would be: a nurse having an affair with a married
doctor (Holby City) this storyline has the potential to embellish
character personalities and can span many many episodes.
Alternatively, a patient child that has been admitted with unexplained
bruises and is secretly suffering from child abuse (casualty) is a
theme that could be pu...
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...age group, and so this line up will
be especially appealing to these viewers. 'ER' is such a famously
popular name, that adding it to an evening's line-up is rather like
adding a brand name, and grouping it together with the other 'big two'
American sitcoms will ensure high viewing numbers. It is no big deal
to someone to miss one week's episode of 'ER' but people are far more
likely to make time in their schedule to make sure they don't miss ALL
of their favourite shows, and so high ratings are almost guaranteed
for all three programmes in one night.
'Casualty' and 'ER' are both vastly different programmes, considering
they are ultimately about the same thing. However they do share the
trademark conventions and serve their broadcasters in much the same
way, to retain audiences, and to add to the appeal of a line-up.
Have you ever been watching a TV show and find yourself relating it to your life in some way? You might relate it to some problem that is going on in your life or some issue going on around your society. All of the sudden, I found myself thinking sociologically one day when I was watching the TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Almost seven series in, I started to realize similarities between Grey’s Anatomy and topics we have been learning about in class. I noticed ideas and concepts that related to sociology. From norms and agents to theories and structures, the series Grey’s Anatomy is a great analysis of sociology.
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The hospital in this novel is a scaled down version of the outside world and is equally corrupt. A system with strict policies is created forcing patients to conform to its standards, stifling individuality. The narrator is a mute patient named Chief Bromden, who refers to the hospital as the ?Combine? because it?s mechanized to create uniformity among the patients. Chief believes the Combine?s purpose is to fix the ?impurities? by transforming them into identical and perfect packages. The ones who are unable to conform to the rigid norms must remain in the Combine, patients are only allowed to return to society when they are completely ?fixed up and new? (40). Nurse Ratched, the antagonist, is in charg...
...heavy viewing of the medical drama series, Grey’s Anatomy, makes viewers more likely to be satisfied with his or her real world physicians.
The residents try and host a party for doc but fail to get everything ready in time but eventually pull it together
Their relationship was easy and drama free almost provoking jealousy for Terri and her bad experience with love. Then there is Mel, who attempted to define love since there was so many levels to the spectrum of love. He described how after being in love with his ex wife it turned into hate and how he thought he loved her but ended up wanting to kill her. His love was at the end of the spectrum, once the love was gone. His ex wife was trying to bankrupt them and couldn’t even call his kids without having a argument with his ex wife. Mel and Terri’s relationship was filled with drama from both parties that they both had a bad experience with love that they had to start over. Mel tried using an example of an elderly couple that was a part of a tragic accident, but while telling the story he began to get cut off and the tension started to rise between Mel and Terri. Eventually Laura tells him to resume the story and he does. He was the doctor
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The subjects of this study, The X-Files (Carter, 1993-2002) and Supernatural (Kripke, 2005-), can be seen as innovative pioneers of ‘narrative complexity’ and of the ‘monster-of-the-week’ (MOTW) concept. Mittel identifies narrative complexity,
From the mid-twentieth century to the present time, telenovelas have been a huge source of entertainment in Latino households. From comedies to melodramas, the purpose of telenovelas is to offer an escape from the monotony of daily life. Most of the themes that are present are topics relevant to the Latino community. In the words of Cynthia Duncan, “... soap operas tend to promote and uphold traditional values and are generally conservative in nature.” (Duncan 84) Telenovelas focus on family life and how the character’s decisions affect the whole. Those so-called traditional and conservative values tend to imprison women in cliché telenovela characters. Women are always presented as selfless, at times evil, or as women whose sole purpose is
Soap Operas' Success in Their Construction of Realism One of the main appeals to the audience of soap opera is realism. Realism is the attempt to recreate the real, or to create a perception or representation of reality. This is created through a number of ways, such as settings which appear to be realistic, language including slang and even low-level swearing, and a wide range of characters in an attempt to reflect society. The events found in soap operas are usually realistic, and even the dramatic events are within the possibility of reality.
In the 1991 film titled “The Doctor”, William Hurt portrays Dr. Jack MaKee, a cardiothoracic surgeon coming to terms with issues related to his newly diagnosed laryngeal cancer.
British soap operas are, of course, overly dramatic. In nearly every soap opera, including the Eastenders, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, and The Archers—the characters constantly discuss money and drink excessively. Of course, these shows are not made to be taken literally—they are mindless entertainment, not serious social commentary. However, behind the drama, they raise subtle questions about the nature of Britain today: the clashes between cultures and religions, upper and lower classes, and the young rebelling against the old. All of these things could be happening at the very same time, and underlining all of these issues is the idea that no one should be trusted.
The Walking Dead, a television show about surviving in the zombie world, is based on the comic book with the same name created by Robert Kirkman. In this show Rick Grimes, a sheriff's deputy, awakes from his coma and finds himself in a hospital. He soon discovers that while he was in a coma the world had become infected, turning humans into flesh-eating zombies later called Walkers by the characters. As Rick sets out to find his family he encounters many other survivors such as Glenn, Daryl, Carl, Maggie, Carol, Sasha, Hershel, Beth, and Michonne, among many others who have died along the way. Rick and the survivors have been through a lot throughout the show, such as having to move from place to place to avoid being eating by walkers. After walking a longs way, they finally find shelter in an old prison where they now live. Although The Walking Dead shows a lot violence, it sends many positive messages to the viewers that teach them about survival, religion and betray and how each of these can be beneficial in the real world
o The doctor is the most dynamic character as, through his tactics changes his attitude. At first the doctor tries kindness and almost sides with the daughter over the parents (line 22). As the story goes on he tries scaring the girl into submission and (line 25), as his anger and frustration build, eventually resorts to force (line 28).