Theory and Frameworks

Media Language

• Levi Strauss
• Barthes
• Todorov
• Neale
• Baudrillard

Representation

• Gauntlett
• Van Zoonen
• Hall
• Butler
• Hooks
• Gilroy

Industries

• Hesmondhalgh
• Curran and Seaton
• Livingstone and Lut

Audience

• Bandura
• Gerbner
• Jenkins
• Shirky
• Hall
  

Homeland Ep. 8, 9, 10, 11, And 12 Notes

Episode 8

• Tom Walker on the streets being for food
• Tom Walker planning to turn on the country
• At the party everyone is nice to Brody and Jessica
• In pursuit of Tom Walker the FBI kills two innocent victims
• Walker finds a sniper gun in a safe

Episode 9

• In pursuit of walker three agents invade a mosque and gun two innocent prayers down
• The CIA have to lie about the events to protect their own backs and say they shot first
• 
  

Episode 10

• Brody gets approached by the Vice President for him to run in office
• Carrie interviews one of Abu Naziers associates and they persuade him to locate Tom Walker
• Brody askes Mike to try and persuade Jessica that Brody running for president is not such a bad idea
•  Tom Walker has a look-a-like who goes down to meet up with the other person and they have a bomb
• After the bomb explodes all of the people on the floor are involved, Carrie included

Episode 11

• Saul knows about Carries Bi-polar
• Brody, whilst on a weekend holiday with his family, has help stepping a bomb to himself as a vest
• Brady runs into a member of the public who says how he would vote for Brody as he feels that the country needs him
• Saul, when staying over with Carrie pins up a timeline for Abu's activity 
• David raids Carries timeline

Episode 12

• Tom Walker gets into the back of a strangers car, without them knowing
• Tom Walker ties up an old woman and lines up a shot from her flat
• Carrie thinks that there is a chance of a terror attack happening at the event Brody and most politicians will be at
• Dana tries to warn her dad about the threat posed
• Walker shoots someone whilst tying to shoot the vice president
• Brody flips the switch to activate his bomb but nothing happens 
• Saul tries to get Carrie away from the action and sends his men out to tie her down
• Carrie goes to Brody's house, Carrie tells Dana how her dad is most likely working with Tom Walker
• Dana calls the police and Carrie gets arrested
• Dana convinces Brody to promise her that he will come home and he doesn't flip the switch again
• Tom and Brody meet up and Tom is questing what happened with brody's vest.
• Brody talks on the phone to Nazir. 
• Brody shoots Tim walker in the head

Homeland Ep 4, 5, 6 And 7 Notes

Episode 4 Notes

• Episode is the further story of Sargent Brody an his spotlight in the media
• His erratic behaviour draws attention to himself
• Jessica feels suspect toward Brody and his behaviour. She thinks he knows about the affair
• Carrie feels like the necklace given to Lynn was a transfer of money

Episode 5 Notes

• One of Brody's Hamid was being interrogated and was asked to list a few names and emails down in
• Brody comes face to face with his Hamid
• The Hamid kills himself whist held in integration with a razor blade

Episode 6 Notes

• Funeral of Thomas Walker takes place
• An argument takes place between Carrie and Saul in his house
• Carrie forces a polygraph test on all the people showing Brody's torturer in, Making sure known is a mole
• Carrie thinks Brody will fail the polygraph
• Saul acts suspicious in his polygraph test
• Brody looses it at the funeral and beats up Mike, he knows about the affair
• Carrie drinks with Brody and tells him about the razor blade and the fact that Hamid is dead
• Carrie and Brody sleep together
• Brody passes the photograph test despite lying about being faithful to his wife
• Rhkeem nearly dies when they where meant to be in a "safe place", he doesn't thanks to his partner
• Rhkeem gets shot whilst he try to convince his wife to turn themselves into the police, the wife runs away

Episode 7 Notes

• Rhkeem's wife tries to go to Mexico
• Saul's legal wife feels its best if they split a part. When he asked for how long, she shrugged 
• Saul meets the wife of Rhkeem in Mexico
• We learn that Carrie has not taken her medication for at least two days
• Carrie takes Brody to a cabin place to stay fro the weekend
• Carrie sneaks into the cabin and loads a gun.
• Carrie and Brody sleep together at the cabin
• The next morning Carrie accidentally asked him about the tea he drinks, he gets suspicious
• Carrie asks Brody lots of questions about his time in captive
• Brody tells Carrie everything to Carrie
• We find out that Tom Walker was the turned spy and is still alive. Carrie was wrong about Brody.
• Brody is a muslim

Essay (Ep.1 Homeland)

How does Episode 1 Season 1 of Homelands follow or disrupt Todorov's narrative theory?

The first episode of season one of Homeland instantly disrupts Todorov's narrative theory, by placing a leading character on a desert land trying to bribe people to be able to talk to a prisoner. This is in before she gets taken away by the guards and the title sequence opens. This then cuts to black and a "Ten Years Later" sign appears to give the audience a timeline of the events taken place. This would suggest that the start of the episode one gets off on a disruption before cutting to, ten years later, the equilibrium. Todorov's theory states that all engaging films and series follow the order of Equilibrium, then disruption, formerly the attempt to repair the damage, and finally a new equilibrium. Something not followed by start of episode one of Homeland.



The disruptions start in this episode right at the beginning with the bribery and the confrontation in the prison. The equilibrium starts after the "ten years later" graphic. And then the disruption is when Carrie finds out about how a missing soldier has been found, the disruption toward Carrie is clear from a visual point of view with how everyone else acted happy and joyful upon hearing the news that a soldier, tortured and hurt, has finally been found. Otherwise, Carrie had almost a concerned look on her face when hearing the same news before rushing out of the initial briefing, we find out later why. The disruption could also be the wife of Sargent Brody, Jessica, finding out her husband is not dead after having an affair with Brody's best friend. In relation to the first episode as a whole, there was no resolution or new equilibrium when it ended. It seems like in relation to Carrie, her resolution is the fact that she was able to spot a tick whenever Sargent Brody was on camera and used this as evidence aimed toward Saul that he was a double agent trying to send a message out there to someone, and therefore getting Saul on board with the situation.

The episode involves a smaller plot twists that may not continue throughout the series and may not be all that important toward the end of the series. The episode comes up with disruptions right the way through and don't really come to a resolution all the time. This would suggest the first episode disrupts Todorov's narrative theory by having the episode end without a resolution or new equilibrium.

TV drama series compare drastically in relation to films. Whilst a TV drama will throw plot twists into a series and try to confuse their audience until the very last episode where they make sense of it all, a film will come to some level of closure and most ordinarily a new equilibrium. When you watch a film there are no real plot twists toward the end, because the writers know they would have to covey the new equilibrium in a shortened space of time and would have to have it all make sense. This TV drama and many more will probably have two or three major plot twists toward the end of the series before the new equilibrium. Rarely TV dramas will follow the theory due to the way that the functions of dramas differ from those of mainstream cinema. The series doesn't have to end on a new equilibrium, if the producers are confident in having another season commissioned they could end on a disruption right at the end and leave the audience wanting more, again this would disrupt Todorov's narrative theory.

In conclusion, I feel like Todorov's narrative theory doesn't apply toward the first episode of Homeland and I predict that episode two won't follow Todorov's narrative theory either due to the fact that this is a drama series and its meant to be disruptive toward throwing the audience off the sent of the truth.

Homeland Ep 2 And 3 Notes

 Episode 2

• Starts with Brody being effected by the PTSD from his time held captive
• Brody grabs his wife's arm, wont let go in his sleep
• Brody keeps on hallucinating, waking up with night terrors
• Carrie runs out of blue pills helping her bi-polar mental state
• When Brody is left alone all he does is find shelter in the corner of the room and weeps all day
• Brody hits a reporter in his back garden in front of his child, then disappeared into the woods
• Mike tries to convince Brody to "go public" with his story and do the interviews news channels want
• Brody doesn't want to "go public" with his story and decides to keep quite for now
• Carrie goes to her sisters house in order to get her blue pills she needs to stay stable.
• Carrie gets her medication from her sister because if her work knows of her illness she could get fired
• At night, Brody gets up and starts to pray in the garage. Something he picked up whilst he was in captivity.
• Episode ends with Brody coming out of his door to face the cameras and public. So he takes the family interview

Episode 3

• Linn downloads the princes phone, giving Carrie all the information
• In Brodys house, people are setting up for the interview, messing around with chairs and photographs
• The daughter seems fed up as Jessica struggles to talk to her, Brody follows her into her room and she starts laughing
• Linn thinks because prince Abbud  got her a necklace he seems genuinely nice
• The daughter knows about Jessica and Mikes affair
• The interviewer gets to know a little bit about the family before the interview
• Linn downloading the phone gives no additional information on the suspicions of Carrie
• Jessica feels guilt about her affair and might want to talk things over with Brody sooner rather than later
• Linn gets a call about how she needs to get a lift in order to provide a service for one of prince Abbud's clients
• Linn calls Carrie to make sure she has protection on her, Carrie lies saying yes and provides "protection" herself by following Linn.
• Linn gets shot outside the nightclub, the whole things looks to be a set-up and nobody knows who the killer was
• After she dies the murderer steals the necklace and it went down as a robbery, this way was best for the FBI, it keeps them out of it
• The family then gets interviewed in there home, after one question Brody freezes up and his daughter takes over, answering the question

Theory Poster

Applying Todorov To A Full Season

TARGET:

Be more critical in your application of the theory and show you understand the genre of TV Drama will rarely fit the theory because of the way in which in functions in a different manner to classic mainstream cinema.

A* Essay:

SPAG
Theory 
Terminology

Explain

Essay Formula:

Intro:

• One or two sentences explain the theory.
• State central argument.
• Demonstrating you own argument relating to how the theory can be applied to the case studies.
• Say what case studies you'll be referring to.

Paragraph 1:

• Discuss how equilibrium can be applied to TV drama.
• Use lots of references to show you've watched it.
• Counter arguments, could be a disruption or new equilibrium at the start of each episode.
• Link back to question, is it useful to compare it right now.

Paragraph 2:

• Discuss Todorov's theory of disruption and how it can be applied, Brody being found.
• Discuss the pattern of disruption across seasoning, using chart.
• Conclude that be linking it back to the question and how it differs from being applied to a film.
• Own opinion does this make box sets better than a film.

Paragraph 3:

• Resolution - What are they?
• How does this differ from films
• No resolution = No new equilibrium

Conclusion:

• Showing which main types of theory can be applied and which can't
• your opinion on 
• Links back to the question, how theory can be applied 

Applying Todorov To A Full Season

Todorov's narrative theory is something that is initially designed to apply to the film industry. Todorov's theory consists of four key elements to help the get maximum enjoyment out of what the viewer is watching. These four elements include, in order, Equilibrium, Disruption, Resolution, And New equilibrium. This shows how most Hollywood films are produced and how they have traditionally been produced throughout the past 60 years of film. Season one of homeland, a program I have studied, disrupts Todorov's theory drastically, and is portrayed throughout the 12 episodes of the show in a disruptive way. Whilst the overall consensus is that Todorov's theory cannot really fit well into the plot of Homelands, there are elements of truth in Todorov's theory which apply the first season of homelands as a whole. Trapped, another television drama I have studied, also doesn't really follow Todorov's theory very well. This would be because of the elements used in Trapped are made to purposely to throw the audience of the scent. 


Equilibrium can be applied to this series in the way that nearly every episode either starts with a equilibrium or ends with a new equilibrium. However, there are some cases in which the episodes start with a disruption to the main characters. In episode one, Carrie is in Baghdad trying to gather information on a turned spy, this then jumps to an "8 years later" graphic. This would then be the equilibrium, what the audience would believe to be present day. At the start of episode 2, we see Brody struggling in this sleep with PTSD, grabbing his wife, Jessica in the night and not letting go. This might suggest that episode 2 starts with a disruption rather than an equilibrium disrupting Todorov's theory already in the first scene. The theory suggests that after an equilibrium there is a disruption however after watching episode two there might be a reason to believe there is no equilibrium, as there is no state of balanced or relaxed situation for the characters involved. In comparison to the whole TV drama, a lot of episodes will follow this trend because of the classic structure of a TV Drama is to really get in deep with the characters. There will be much more disruptions in the series than equilibriums. In comparison, Trapped season 1 episode 1starts off with the scene of the fire in an old abandoned warehouse type place. This was the disruption and is what overall filed a lot of the characters individual narratives through the series. After this a graphic stating it was the preston day appeared. You could argue that this would then be the Equilibrium, much like what homelands did in regards to a flashback from the past which could be a turning point for the storyline. In regards to the following scene, with the dismembered torso in the freezing ocean, it would be another disruption, changing and shaping the way that the characters narratives work. This is app


Todorov's theory of disruption is something that pops up a lot throughout the full first season of homelands and is something that can be applied quite well along side the theory structure. Because of the nature of the season being a TV drama there are lots of disruptions. Although the main disruption you could argue happens at the beginning of episode 1 where Carrie is told about the missing soldier found after eight years of being held captive called sergeant Nicholas Brody. The reason this becomes a major disruption for the rest of the season for, not just Carrie but his wife Jessica, his friend Mike and children, Chris and Deanna is because how it effects the dynamics of the family and the relationship with Carrie and her co-workers change. The pattern of disruption across the season follows the general consensus that there is at least one disruption per episode and so it extremely contrasts to Todorov's theory. Trapped, in regards to the disruption of Todorov's theory, would be described as more in keeping with the general method. Whilst Trapped doesn't necessary follow the theory in order or follow the theory really. The way that


The resolutions play a big part in the way the season of Homeland is structured. Throughout the season the resolution for Carrie is to get to the bottom of Brodie's suspicious behaviour and awkward antics. All the while the audience knows as much as her. In episode 6, we find out Brody passes the polygraph test despite lying about being faithful to his wife. From this point we know that he could still be the double agent Carrie cannot get of her mind. At the end of season one this is proven to be true as Brodie's plan was to strap a bomb vest to himself and trigger it after being taken to a safe underground room with all the infuencil members of politics. This resulted in Carrie running to Brody house and getting herself arrested. The seasons resolution is how Carrie let this case destroy her livelihood and how Brody whilst he is a terrorist, has done nothing to make any feel the same way Carrie does about him. This would differ from a film as in a film we wouldn't get to see the progression in the character development of Brody and Carrie alike.

There are elements of the theory that can easily be applied throughout the season of Homeland like the way the disruption in episode one caused the series of events that followed. If season one of Homeland where a film it would have been the soldiers finding Brody in Iraq the disruption and the moments before that an equilibrium. As a whole, each episode of Homeland in some way could fit into the theory with the four steps appearing in most of the episodes throughout.