Narrative in TV Drama (looking at the beginning of 'Spooks')

Conventions of a Complete Narrative

• A couple wake up and go downstairs to breakfast. They do not realise they are being watched by terrorists.
• The couple hug and kiss, eating breakfast, whilst the terrorists listen in as they have bugged their house.
• The man goes to work and walks past the terrorists car - they talk about moving in on the house.
• The woman cleans up after breakfast. There is a knock on the door and she opens the door.
• We cut back to the man walking down the street and he notices the same car speed off. He eyes it suspiciously. We assume the woman has been kidnapped.

In this narrative I used good and bad characters as binary opposites, a general beginning, middle and end, a disruption to a normal equilibrium and a cliffhanger at the end. I also set up two situations to cut between to and left an elipsis as an enigma code - whether the woman had been kidnapped or not.

Most stories end happily to meet audience expectations and wants. This also protects the main characters in the plot who are vital to the series and appealing to the target audience. A happy ending can also be continued easily with another disruption in a new episode or part of the story.

The 'Spooks' episode we watched begins in a similar way. We know the first scene is a narrative beginning because we start with a normal equilibrium situation, which is being disrupted. The characters do not know this yet which unsettles the audience and makes them continue watching to find out what happens to the characters. Also the main episode characters are established.

The disruption is effective as it upsets the equilibrium, the simple narrative pattern. This makes us tense and watch on. It leaves us with enigma codes we want to solve.

We pick the good characters over the bad because the good characters are normal innocent people and we see their feelings for eachother. We do not want this to be lost.

Other binary opposites could be the Asian terrorists against the white British couple, or males against females in both the terrorist's car and the household (the couple).

Single drama/film: Margaret

A single drama is simple and follows Todorov's theory. It would start in an equlibirium state and contain some disruptions before resolving into a happy ending.

Two-nighter: Trial & Retribution

This would also follow Todorov's theory consistent through a series, but would often end on cliffhangers rather than happy endings, leading into the next episode. The disruptions would continue throughout the series until resolved in the last episode. Many binary opposites would be used to cause the disruptions.

Soap: Eastenders

Soaps contain complex narratives made up of many simple narratives interwined, following Todorov and Levi-Strauss' simple narrative structures. These are fairly interchangeable in how many episodes each continues for as a soap takes an on-running format.

Serial: Bleak House

A serial is like a soap with many narratives going on which also follow Todorov and Levi-Strauss' theories. They are also interchangable and interwine but would be resolved at the end of a series, whereas a soap can be resolved at any time.

Anthology Series (self-contained episodes, each based on different characters): Skins

In Skins, each character is assigned an episode and each episode narrative takes a Todorov narrative structure with the conflicts caused by binary opposites. Each epsiode develops that characters stories and disruptions but they can be resolved at any time in any other episode in the series. Often, they are not resolved at all or are left hanging until the very last episode.

Long-form Series: Lost

This narrative generally follows a Todorov structure but resolvements are fairly rare, especially in Lost where as it gets close to a resolution another disruption is created. The different stories also often do not get resolved at the end of a series and continue into further series. They are hard to follow and hold very complex narratives that go extremely deep into the previous series.

Long-form Series with some narrative experimentation: 24

These simply use more complex narrative structures to the above by changing the rules. Often stories created are not resolved or are replaced by new disruptions which continue to twist the overall story. There is usually some sort of resolution at the end of an episode such as in 24 but these can often lead to newer disruptions or even start off the next episode with a disruption created by the previous resolution.