This week we have studied about cult TV and it was interesting to know that they are ongoing popular genre through the years. One of the best series is Buffy the vampire slayer and this is one of the examples of cult TV. According to Hills (2004), cult TV is characterised by a number of shared textual attributes from a narrative world where the audience can never fully encounter. The world that they create has its own textual world with distinctive and characteristic rules for its operation. Buffy is a character that looks like a normal teenage girl but has the power to kill vampires. The amazing fan culture evolve from the fantastic story lines and background of science fiction, horry and fantasy (Jones, 2002).
It is not targeted to a specific audience and it made the audience love the programme with high quality stories and also humour inside the show. The life of an abnormal girl who has the secret power to defeat the vampire is not a life we know about. It makes people get addicted to the story and also the characters. Following on Hills (2004), soap narrative thread is typically multi-stranded and correspond to one narrative thread among many. However, with cult TV programmes it focuses on a narrative puzzle that explains the fantasy narrative worlds. Because it is a different kind from soap operas and comedy shows, the fans get sucked into the story, the series of cult TV. I remember in intermediate school, Buffy, Angel, Charmed, etc.. were so popular and would appear in every teenage magazine covers with all the stories that are related to the programme and the characters. In that period of time it was targeted to adult audiences but it was mostly famous among teenagers. According to Rose (2002), the gender roles an expectations have been blurred so the relationship between creature and creator in Buffy is more complicated and the boundaries are less clear. Riley Finn is a creature of Maggie Walsh and she had a vision for Riley's future. This was tied to her cyber-creation, Riley is helpless to resist Adam's summons but at critical moment , the connection with him and Buffy allows him to regain his will and reject the dehumanization of technology. It was interesting to see the episodes and whether they get to fight the evil and be together at the end.
'Because it is a different kind from soap operas and comedy shows, the fans get sucked into the story, the series of cult TV.' How is it different from Soap Opera? Does it have any similarities to Soap Opera, and if so, what are they?
ReplyDeleteIt is different from soap operas and comedy shows because Cult TV doesn't refer to our normal lives but with adventures from a different universe and the outsiders. I have mentioned it on another discussion that people nowadays are getting bored with the normal soap operas and comedy shows which are based in our normal life. The audience wants more serious actions, more romance between the humans and the outsiders, something they can be sucked into and not presume the ending.
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