A Postmodern Case Study into Arrested Development

Arrested Development a short lived American sitcom on Fox, lasting for only 3 seasons, until it was picked up by Netflix for a 4 season; collected a cult following due to its postmodern style of television.  It was, and still is, a ground breaking television show that uses: Intertextuality, Self-Reference, Hybridisation and Bricolage to create cross episode and season narratives, with a firm foundation in the Postmodern arena.

Here are some interesting articles about Arrested Development and Postmoderism.

There’s Always Money In The Banana Stand: A Genre Analysis of Arrested Development

Why Tobias Is the Best ‘Arrested Development’ Character

Top 10 'Arrested Development' Running Gags


Postmodernism in Arrested Development

"The Big Lebowski" as Postmodern Posterboy (or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love Baudrillard)

Please read the following article in preparation for tomorrow's ILP Day.

"The Big Lebowski" as Postmodern Posterboy (or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love Baudrillard) by David Larson

We will be in Room 82.

It is an important day, we will be completing the following activities:

1. A review and round up of our analysis of the works of the Coen Brothers
2. An analysis of advertising as a form of postmodern media
3. An analysis of music video as a form of postmodern media (including a particular focus on Gorillaz)
4. An analysis of the Mighty Boosh as postmodern media

There will be related reading material provided throughout.

Also, there will be a follow on homework activity, in which you will begin your preparation for assessment.

Part of this will be to collaborate on a revision source for the unit. This will be created as a wiki within the VLE.

The following adverts and music videos will be used during the day:

Advertising:

Volkswagen

Google

Music Video

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Gorillaz

SpongeBob

A recent study carried out by the University of Virginia would have you believe that watching SpongeBob SquarePants for little more than nine minutes can result in "short-term attention and learning problems". I doubt that very much. What this study does demonstrate however is how not to do research. Read Fox News' take here and the New York Times' response here. Oh, and keep watching SpongeBob, after all it's down right hilarious!

[Update] Nickelodeon's response to the report.

A2: Davina McCall: "Television is 'not good' for children"

Guardian Article - Wednesday 6th January 2010 - provides some interesting and related ideas about young peoples exposure to media.

Please read and make notes! - This is what we would have read / discussed in today's lesson, which is canceled due to the snow.

Mr. M.