Narrative - Neale

Mise-en-Scene

• Set - Langley (CIA Base), interrogation rooms
• Props - Guns, bombs, knives
• Costumes - Military uniform

Typical Narrative

• Binary oppositions - bad guy/good guy
• Police and terrorists
• Political, psychological and military drama, not just crime drama

Generic/Stock Characters

• Female lead who has bipolar disorder

Themes

• Police vs criminals

Evaluate the relevance of Neale's genre theory to long term television drama (Homeland)

Neale's genre theory is very relevant to Homeland in a number of different ways. Neale argues that genre is a process by which generic codes and conventions are shared by producers and audiences through repetition in media products. Homeland follows this theory throughout season 1.

The mise-en-scene of Homeland follows the conventions that have been used by other TV crime dramas. Homeland uses set, props and costumes to follow these generic codes. Firstly, the crime drama is set in Langley, a CIA base, and often uses interrogation rooms, which is typical for a TV crime drama to use. Secondly, the props used are common in all crime dramas, as they use guns, bombs and knives, which follows genre codes that TV crime dramas constantly repeat.

The typical narrative used in Homeland is also repeated in TV crime dramas, with binary oppositions of bad guy versus good guy, and police versus terrorists, which follow Neale's theory heavily. Homeland's narrative does not just use crime drama, it uses psychological, political and military drama, as these themes were relevant in the decade it was released. This fits in with Neale's genre theory, making it relevant to Homeland as a TV drama.

The generic characters in Homeland fit in with Neale's theory, as there are detectives and police figures, as well as the generic criminals shown in TV crime dramas.

However, Homeland subverts this convention because the female lead has bipolar disorder, which is very uncommon for the main character in a TV crime drama to have a mental disorder.

The themes within Homeland are conventional to TV crime drama, as it focuses on good versus evil and police versus criminals, which is always the overruling theme within TV crime dramas.