Studio - Film and TV Example 3

This example is linked to the Serial Drama aspect of our Studio Piece - The Wire



One of my favourite crime dramas and especially the theme song, 'way down in the hole'

• HBO Show
• Crime Drama
• Serial Drama - Television
• 2002-2008
• 5 Seasons
• 60 Episodes
• Set in Baltimore, Maryland in the US
• 5 Subjects over the show
• The illegal drug trade
• The seaport system
• The city government
• Bureaucracy, education, and schools
• The print news medium
• Great Casting
• Dominic West - Main character
• Idris Elba - 'Stringer Bell' 
• Drug kingpin
• Most of the cast is African-American
• Consistent with the demographics of Baltimore
• Each episode begins with a cold open
• Style
• Realism 
• Social commentary
• Visual novel

• No flashbacks
• No voice over
• All in the now
• Except for 2 flashbacks
• Themes
• Institutional dysfunction
• Surveillance

Other Films or TV Shows linked to the Serial Drama aspect of our Studio Piece:

• Strike Back
• The Newsroom
• Line of Duty