GENRE ANALYSIS

BROADCAST CRITIQUE (BRO551)

FULL HOUSE (1994)

VS

THE EXPANDING UNIVERSE OF ASHLEY GARCIA (2020)

Generally, genre is a style or category of art, music, or literature. A film genre is a motion-picture category based on (this is only for example) similarities either in the narrative elements or in tye emotional response to the film like serious, comic, and many more. Most theories of film genre borrow from literary-genre criticism. Each film genre is associated with "conventions, iconography, settings, narratives, characters and actors". Standard genre characters vary according to the film genre; for film noir, for example, standard characters include the femme fatale and the "hardboiled" detective; a Western film may portray the schoolmarm and the gunfighter. Some actors acquire a reputation linked to a single genre, such as John Wayne (the Western) or Fred Astaire (the musical). A film's genre will influence the use of filmmaking styles and techniques, such as the use of flashbacks and low-key lighting in film noir, tight framing in horror films, fonts that look like rough-hewn logs for the titles of Western films, or the "scrawled" title-font and credits of Se7en (1995), a film about a serial killer. As well, genres have associated film-scoring conventions, such as lush string orchestras for romantic melodramas or electronic music for science-fiction films.

Next, the basic genres include fiction and documentary, from which subgenres have emerged, such as docufiction and docudrama. Other examples of subgenres include the courtroom- and trial-focused drama known as the legal drama, which is a subtype of drama. Types of fiction which may seem unrelated can also combine to form hybrid subgenres, such as the melding of horror and comedy in the Evil Dead films. Other popular combinations include the romantic comedy, some vampire films, and the action comedy film. Alan Williams distinguishes three main genre categories: narrative, avant-garde and documentary. Genre movies are "commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters and familiar situations". Genre affects how films are broadcast on television, advertised, and organized in video-rental stores.

One can also classify films by the setting, theme, topic, mood, format, target audience or budget. The setting is the environment where the story and action take place for instance like a war film, a Western film, or a space-opera film. The theme or topic refers to the issues or concepts that the film revolves around (e.g., science-fiction film, sports film, or crime film). The mood is the emotional tone of the film (e.g., comedy film, horror film, or tearjerker film). Format refers to the way the film was shot or the manner of presentation. Additional ways of categorizing film genres may involve the target audience (for example: children's film, teen film or women's film) or by type of production (e.g., B movie, big-budget blockbuster or low-budget film, such as amateur film). Genre does not just refer to the type of film or its category; spectator expectations about a film, and institutional discourses that create generic structures also play a key role. Genres are not fixed; they change and evolve over time, and some genres may largely disappear (for example, the melodrama).

For this task, I have chosen two series from Netflix which is Full House (1994) and also The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia (2020). The genre for both series are Comedy and has been represented in sitcom. Sitcom is  is short for “situation comedy.” It's a funny TV show with a realistic setting, like an apartment full of wacky roommates or a restaurant where a regular cast of characters cracks jokes from week to week. Sitcoms have been around since people began rolling their eyes at laugh tracks. Basically, both series has the same way of expression where the setup and also the way of presenting the sitcom. However, both series are from different era which is Full House in 1994 and The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia in 2020 and it is also clearly can see the background quality where in 1994, it is slightly blur and "vintage" and in 2020 it is more modern like and very clear.

Next, Full House is basically about this single-father who is struggling to raise his three daughters  (age around 1 to 10 years old) because his wife has passed away. Besides that, to ease his duty of taking care of his three daughter while working, the father has asked for help from his two brothers to stay with him and helps to taking care of his daughters. Many hilarious scene that we clearly can see because those three girls' uncle does not have any knowledge of being a father and also the knowledge of taking care of kids. In Full House (1994) also have it's own little conflict where the two uncle have their own dreams to pursue where first uncle wanted to be a comedian and also the second uncle wanted to be a musician. Eventually, they cannot went for the training just especially at night because they have to help their brother taking care of his daughters. 

While The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia basically about this girl named Ashley Garcia who has been trained by her strict mother since she was a kid in education and Ashley Garcia has successfully gained PHD at a very young age which is when she was 12 years old. She basically major in science and she is also very ambitious where she wants  to creates a robot for NASA. Before she expand her dream to work with NASA, she has the opportunity to work with one of her dream company and while that, she have to stay with her uncle instead of her strict mother and yet she is purely happy for staying away with her mother. She was said that her mother is very strict about her education until she did not grow up like other normal kids to play around instead of study. So, after she had the opportunity to stay with her uncle in California, she begin to live like a normal teenager and even try to get her very first kiss. In addition, after Ashley has been warned by his sister who is Ashley's mother to be a responsible uncle, then her uncle started to be quite strict than before to make sure Ashley is safe. To make it easy, her uncle being very protective towards Ashley but then he realized that Ashley have the right to do whatever she deserved to do in her life. 

Lastly, this two series is very simple series where there is no ritual, or any heavy characteristics because it was a sitcom and it should be simple understandable by the people from all age stages.