ˏˋ°•*⁀➷ Longform TV Drama //

Starter Tasks

Differences between Stranger Things from Lupin:

• Stranger Things (Children in America) - Lupin (Adult Black man in France).
• Lupin Looking directly at the camera showing how powerful and confident he is.
• Wearing a classy cap and a trench coat, however, under it he has a sports jacket and joggers.
• Showing he can be classy and casual.
• Outside the Louvre.
• A real location unlike Hawkins.
  
• Modern-day France

What comes to mind thinking of France?:

• Art galleries.
• Cafe's.
• Love.
• Luxury.
• Theater
• Designer
• Expensive.
• Gap between the rich - poor.
• Architecture.
• Jazz.
• Movies.
• La Haine.
• Public transport.
• Crime.
• Racism.
• Rats.
• Fashion.
• Tourism.
• Eifel Tower

Media context:

• Amelie.
• La Haine.
• Emily in Paris.

Amelie: A 2001 quirky movie

La Haine (Hate): Corruption and poverty in France with a diverse neighbourhood

Emily in Paris: A loving fashion designer - landmarks show in the first 5 seconds.

French Empire - Context

France expanded into overseas territory creating colonies reaching all the way to New Zealand. This creates common wealth countries yet hides the darker history. They were interconnected greatly with slavery, building tension and added with the problems of immigration in France produces backlash. Senegal and France

Ethnicity and Post-Colonialism - Paul Gilroy

He talks about the scattering of African culture that has been separated due to the slavery and colonialism. He calls this the African diaspora. 

Context: During colonization, African people were stolen and relocated across the world. Society did not see African people as humans and sold/used them as if they were cattle up until the civil rights movement. This had constructed a trans-Atlantic (across the Atlantic), black Atlantic.

Paul Gilroy states that Britain and France, had not come to terms with the fact that they aren't big important empires anymore. This is called post-colonialism melancholia (sadness). This comes out in a racist way, criminalizing immigrants creating an 'us and them' approach - inherently showing the deepened, hidden, racist superiority among us.

Stranger Things and Lupin - Case Study

Some times where we notice that this theory may apply would be, how the French rich auction people in Lupin are all white and are immediately suspicious of Assane due to nothing but his skin colour. 

Practice Questions

'Evaluate the usefulness of the ____ theory for a longform TV Drama'.

Lucas is our black character in Stranger Things - he is simply one of boys in the friend group. His role doesn't necessarily fit Gilroy's theory. He gets involved for the search for Will, he's brave, loud and quite confident. This denies the fact that Gilroy's theory doesn't apply to Stranger Things. On the other hand, there is one moment where Lucas gets treated differently compared to the other boys. When the bullies come up, they directly attack Lucas, calling him "midnight". Rather than a hatred to a whole ethnic group as a whole, this discrimination is still uncalled for however, it isn't hardcore discrimination (such as the 'n-word') and all of the boys get bullied for something; this just happens to be something that Lucas gets picked on for. 

There are two other black characters of Stranger Things, the headteacher (a high status of society who's ethnicity and race doesn't affect anything he does) and a police office - similarly to the headteacher, is not treat any different. So no, this theory doesn't show in Stranger Things, even though there is a slight bit of racism.

My decision is that on a scale of 1 to 10, this theory applies to about 3/10 for Stranger Things.

On the other hand, Lupin....