TV GENRE: DRAMA

English 2 (ESP 0205) Research Paper

Lucas Wong (0309421)

Name: Lucas Wong Student ID: 0309421

An Introduction to Genre Theory by Daniel Chandler (2000) states that the word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for 'kind' or 'class'. This word is generally used in many theories to specify the distinctive type of text. Genre is a term that describes works of literature according to their shared thematic or structural characteristics (Sylianteng). There are many examples of genres such as sports, sitcom, documentary, drama, soap and cartoon. In this essay, I have chosen Drama as my genre. According to Aristotle, Drama is an Ancient Greek word meaning act or deed. I have chosen to write an essay on contrasting the writers, date broadcasted, timeline, characters and the plot of Merlin and Heroes as my TV drama series for this topic. The drama series Merlin is a TV programme by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Julian Murphy and Johnny Capps. This drama was first broadcasted on BBC ONE on 20 September, 2008 with five seasons on going. This drama dates back to the 6th century of England. The stars of this show are Colin Morgan as Merlin, Bradley James as Arthur, Richard Wilson as Gaius, John Hurt as the Dragon, Angel Coulby as Guinevere, Katie McGrath as Morgana and Anthony Head as King Uther. The plot of this drama series is about a teenager called Merlin who discovered himself having magical gift since he was young. Young Merlin is sent by his mother from their village to start a better life in Camelot, where he is apprenticed to Gaius. Gaius is the physician to the repressive King Uther, who believes that magic is all about evil and punishable by death. When Gaius realizes that Merlin has magical, telekinetic powers he agrees to keep his secret. After the incident of the assassination of Arthur by a witch, Arthur was saved by Merlin with his magic powers while the whole kingdom was in a deep sleeping spell casted by the witch. Merlin is then appointed as Prince Arthurs servant. From there, the adventure begins as Arthur faces many obstacles by his enemies. The art of magic and sorcery, alchemy, swords, archery, Dragons, Mythical creatures and barbarians were seen throughout the show. On the other hand, the drama series Heroes is a TV programme created by Tim Kring. It appeared on NBC on the 25 September 2006 and ended on the 8 February 2010 with a four complete season. This show takes place in several different time zones from the 17th century to 2008. The main characters of the show are Noah Bennet, Claire Bennet, Peter Petrelli, Sylar, Hiro Nakamura, Ando Masahashi, Matt Parkman, Mohinder Suresh and Micah Sanders. The plot of this series is about people around the world, who discovered that they have incredible abilities. With their abilities, they try to deal with their situation on how it will affect their lives. Mohinder Suresh, a genetics professor was the first character to appear in the first season. He was the one who tried to help those ability users to understand and control their powers. However, a serial killer name Sylar was out in the city

to hunt and steal the abilities of those who had powers. Sylar had the ability to understand and steal other users powers by opening up their brains. With the help of Peter Petrelli, a powerful ability user and his friends and family, they fought all their way to keep the world in balance and to help out those who are new to their abilities. Their adventures were taken place in various places such as Japan, Mexico, Africa and United States. Powers such as Telekinesis, Teleportation, Flying, Lightning bolts, Blaze, Mind Controlling, Regeneration and predicting the future were seen throughout the series. In conclusion, I would say that despite the many differences in these two shows, they both have a similar point which attracts the viewers attention which is the actions and the adventures of the show. Both the shows have their own personal strong plotting ideas. I personally recommend these two TV shows because they have interesting plots and originality.

Reference List
Aristotle. (1987). The Poetics of Aristotle. (S. Halliwell, Trans.) London: Duckworth. Chandler, D. (2000, May 7). Introduction to Genre Theory. Retrieved October 21, 2012, from http://www.aber.ac.uk: http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/intgenre/intgenre1.html Sylianteng, E. (n.d.). Genre. Retrieved October 21, 2012, from http://litera1no4.tripod.com: http://litera1no4.tripod.com/elements.html#Genre