Week 9 Blog Post

This one is going to be a bit challenging, and will probably run more than 300 words.  Consider yourselves forewarned!

I’d like you to pick an episode of a television show you believe to be a Prime Time Serial (PTS) (you can use the episode of Dawson’s Creek we watched this week or something else) and watch it carefully, applying Newman’s characteristics of the PTS.  Look at all three narrative levels – beat, episode and arc.

 

BEAT:
How many beats are there?
How many beats per act?
How long is the average beat?
How do the beats recap and forecast (give examples)?

How many ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ plots are there?
What are the various plots and how do they parallel each other to create narrative harmony?
Give a breakdown of the plot structure in each act.

EPISODE:
Which storylines are resolved and how prominent are they?
Which storylines are left hanging, and why do you think they do not receive resolution?
On the whole, is there more closure or more deferment in the ?
Explain how the narrative breaks down in terms of the four-act structure?

ARC:
Are any character arcs opened of closed in the episode?
What part does the opening or closing of each character arc play in the episode’s resolution?

 

REMEMBER: This post is not due until 11:59 pm NEXT Thursday, and your response is not due until Wednesday the week we return to class.

If your episode is available online, please consider posting a link here.  I would like to view as many of these as I can, and your classmates may want to as well.