Exemplars on Stranger Things

Example 1
Long form drama is a term used to describe the recent shift of interest towards television series of high quality that many consider to have replaced the cinema as serious entertainment or at least, an alternative to network TV. Long form television drama is considered to be innovative in style. It develops and even challenges the conventions of the traditional TV drama form and the simplistic storylines and stereotypical characters that dominate network TV in the United States. 

Stranger Things starts with the disappearance of Will Byers and his encounter with the mysterious creature. This disequilibrium signifies to the audience a sense of the sci-fi/horror genre and provides familiarity to the audience. The playfulness of genre in Stranger Things is evident in the drama which deals with children’s sensibilities in a scary and adult way, suggesting that genres are not fixed. The opening episode of Stranger Things enables the writers to establish setting, character and genre, for example, the day after the disappearance of Will Byers there is the introduction to the community and questions are raised about where he is. Rather than plot an immediate response to the disappearance of Will, the scene then crosscuts to Hawkins Lab, where a team of scientists investigate ‘alien’ behaviour. This is an example of the flexi-narrative used in the episode and the use of different settings. These set up different strands of the story being plotted: in the laboratory, the high school and in the Benny’s Burgers scene, where a head shaven girl appears and steals burgers. The plot is interwoven as the story of the community unfolds and at the same time a range of characters are introduced. The interweaving of narrative is important for the long form TV drama as its serialisation provides multiple entry points into the text and enables the story to be told over a period of time. The cinematic look of the set design is important for the producers and audiences of the long form TV drama. 

In Stranger Things, the eclectic mix of horror meets teen movie creates genre hybridity which is appealing to the audience as is the ability to get to know the characters across a series of episodes. In the first episode this includes the teenagers, the sense of a monster and the wider community. This helped the programme makers set up character and narrative development. The Duffer brothers also play with narrative devices, for example with the use of a flashback, when the character Joyce is in the woods surprising Will with tickets to see a horror movie classic, Poltergeist. A characteristic of the Long form TV drama narrative devices is time-shifts which are used to provide key moments of disorientation and a more complex way of telling stories. The episode also introduces a range of storylines which are crime-led. For example, in a later scene the character Benny is interrupted by a woman claiming to be from social services. Benny invites the woman into the diner, and when his back is turned, the woman shoots Benny. This plot adds to the layered narrative strands of the episode which establishes yet another narrative enigma for the audience. Stranger Things is dark in its presentation of the American community through its setting – an apparently normal community is attacked by aliens and the plot thickens as a murder takes place. Yet its appeal as a long form drama is the flexible nature of the narrative (its multiple form) which helps define its characteristics. 

However, multiple narrative strands are not the only key convention of the set long form television drama; they are just one of many important conventions in long form television drama – including genre familiarity and characterisation. It is this which has enabled Netflix and the Duffer brothers to make quality content for online audiences.

Example 2

Stranger Things is a Netflix Originals series which was broadcast in 2016. The science-fiction/horror series follows a mother’s efforts to get back her missing son. This example clearly shows how Todorov’s theory of narrative can be applied to a complex text, even though it is a serialised narrative. The equilibrium of the episode is established by four boys, they are friends, and are playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement of one of their family homes on a school night.

There is a disruption to equilibrium as Will is accosted by an unseen creature, chased to his home, and then vanishes. The episodes develops its plot when Will’s mother realises he isn’t at home the following morning and his friends notice he is missing at school. Will’s mother visits local law enforcement and a search party is called. The boys decide to form their own search without the knowledge of their parents, who have forbidden it. The episode relies on a continued state of disequilibrium to retain audience engagement until the next episode. The lack of resolution is typical of a continuing serial to hook the audience into the next episode. Even so, often a situation will be left which has some kind of balance. Although the search party finds Will’s bike in the woods and fears the worst, Will’s mother is convinced her son is still alive when she receives a strange telephone call in which she believes she hears his voice – and vows not to give up on him. Elements of further disequilibrium are suggested by other storylines which are introduced. In episode one the audience are introduced to ‘Eleven’, a character with a shaven head. Eleven is caught stealing fast food at a remote restaurant by its kindly owner, Benny. Benny, in the recognition of disruption stage of the narrative, senses the girl is in trouble and distress but cannot get any information from her. Benny tries to help; he calls social services to collect her and fake social services workers arrive to collect Eleven, but shoot Benny dead. Realising she is in grave danger, Eleven defends herself using supernatural powers, and escapes. Eleven is later found by Will’s friends, who decide to hide her in the basement, dovetailing the sub plot with the main narrative arc and substituting the missing friend with a new, very intriguing one. This scene from the episode is recognition of how the use of characterisation challenges a normal start of affairs – an equilibrium which is disrupted and re-established by Will’s friends who look to take her in. These characters are introduced within the episode to be developed further on in the series. The ability of the long form TV drama to develop characters and combine more than one line in an episode is a characteristic convention as it develops multiple narrative strands, yet, ultimately the long form TV drama is reliant more on characterisation and the functions characters have in developing the story. This is evidenced by the large cast for Stranger Things which pitches a group of schoolchildren into a world of sci-fi/horror through the disappearance of Will Byers and this set up hooks for the audience to watch more online through Netflix.