The opening scene of Cuffs was a nudist beach in which you see the backsides of some people therefore some people would have complained about a show with a nudist beach being on at 8pm as kids would be up at this time. Another reason why this being significant is important is because there was a suicide in which you actually see a body hanging and before this there is an explicit scene where you can see where the same man cutting his wrist. In this episode there is also the representation of sexuality and many parents would have not liked there kids to see gay scenes because people are still not accepting of gays and other sexualities.
How were the following areas represented in the episode:
. Ethnicity
. Gender
. Sexuality (10 marks)
Cuffs was written and produced in 2010-2011 and this reflects the time in terms of political, social and cultural climate. Ethnicity was represented in a good light because there is a man of colour working on the police force and acting as the hero as he is the best officer on the force, which is a big jump from the 1980's when people of colour was always acting as the bad guy in TV show. However there is still the interpretation of racism because of one of the main storylines is a white male murdering a black male and being racist to any person of colour he comes into contact with so this is showing us how the race issue is still a problem in the UK even in todays society.
Gender was represented in a bad way towards women because within the show there is a scene of two female police officers chatting and gossiping about the new police officer (Jake) saying how fit he is and while they're chatting there is a robbery going on behind them, once they realise this they do hardly anything to prevent it from happening apart from getting people to move backwards which is representing how women supposedly can't do anything and are prissy, one of the woman gets on the radio to a male officer getting them to help showing how woman supposedly still need to rely on males. Another example of poor gender equality towards woman is when we see a higher up female officer having an affaire with her boss while he is married to a woman who is dying of cancer, this suggests woman are cheating, deceiving and horrible people.
Sexuality was written and produced in a good light because it shows us how sexuality is a normal thing. However there is a flaw within this because the new police officer Jake is gay and they present him as none alpha male and more of a girly girl rather than a male. Although there is a gay lawyer who is presented in a alpha male way however he has the stereotype of caring about what he looks like and caring about fashion. So within this episode there is a good side to the way sexuality was shown but also a bad side to how sexuality was shown.
How did the changes practise of institutions and audience impact the success of cuffs?
(6 marks)
1
Watershed Question: 4/5 - WELL DONE! To improve it show more knowledge of the show e.g. use names of characters where possible.
ReplyDeleteRepresentation question: 7/10 WELL DONE! Great points and use of examples. TARGETS:
ReplyDelete- Do a conclusion.
- Link to question e.g. keep referring back to how these representations represent society in the UK in the 2010s.
- Link to audience appeal.