Analysis of tv drama

Representation of age and gender- Waterloo road extract

   

Waterloo road is a BBC one TV drama that focuses on teenage lives who attend high school; the plots are always focused on events in pupilâs lives within the school and outside of school. The show also focuses on adults related to the school or the pupils. The characters are represented in many different ways, for example represented by their class/status, sexuality, physical ability/disability, ethnicity, age and gender, regional identity. Waterloo road uses easily identifiable stereotypes that teens can relate to. It also represents modern school life in an engaging way that is familiar to the target audience. Issues surrounding education and young people are explored which helps the audience to understand and reflect. Through different episodes, they portrays teenager in a number of ways this gives people an incite to different kind of teenages and show that they are not all bad.     

 The clip is set i a school. In the first scene, there are two school boys present.These boys attempt to return a broken camera without been seen, when they are caught by a male teacher. The teenages in this scene are seen to be irresponsible and dishonest. As the scene goes on we are introduced to another (female) teacher, the male teacher informs her about the broken camera and smartly undermines her about the fact that she didn’t take insurance on the camera.The female teacher is seen to be irresponsible and useless, this is amplified as the male teacher criticizes her, this shows he has more power over her. it follows the stereotype that men are more powerful than women. However in a later scene there is a school girl attacking another student; which happens to be male. This subverts the stereotype i just mentioned above. This also show that school children are violent and can’t control their emotions. The girl is attacking the boy because she found out about her mum having an affair, this shows that women are not faithful or trustworthy. Many of the school girls are dressed in short skirts and their faces cover in make-up, this represents females as sex objects, and show that they are obsessed about their looks.

   As the scene come to the end we are introduced to a new teacher, trying to dress like a teenage,he is meet by two pupils that start to laugh at this attempt to look younger and be down with the kids. this suggest that many older people are trying to stay in touch with their teen life.

 throughout the sequence the lighting is very natural, which makes it seem more realistic. most of the pupils are dressed in school uniform which show their age group, and the teachers are dressed in smart clothing, which so that they are professional and responsible.