analysis
The Leftovers is a TV drama about a sudden
departure of 2% of the world’s population. At the beginning of the narrative
the diegetic world is in a state of normality as we follow a stressed out
mother and a baby, after following her for a couple of minutes her baby disappears
along with millions of others creating a state of disequilibrium in the
narrative structure. There is a three year time skip in the story and the
remaining 98% are doing their best to move on which is the new equilibrium,
conforming with Todorov’s narrative theory.
Many of the ensemble
cast align with Propp’s character theory, Kevin
Garvey is the story’s protagonist and hero figure, he is a police officer
whose job is to keep the peace after the departure, he’s defending the peace
from Patti Levins the villain of the
story and a leader of a cult that refuse to move on and forget the departed by
disrupting the lives of those that they decide to target. Nora Durst is the Princess of the story, grieved by the
disappearance of her family she works for a company that compensates those that
have lost family members in the departure, she is Kevin’s love interest.
Throughout the pilot
episode Barthes’ hermeneutic code is very prominent as the audience is
constantly posed questions by the narrative such as who are the guilty remnant
and what are their goals, and the great underlying mystery behind the
departure.
Barthes’ symbolic
code is also very prominent, the pilot episode and the entire series has very
strong Christian iconography, the title sequence has animation of the departure
in a Michaelangelo-esque style painted onto a chapel ceiling, the departure is
symbolic of the rapture and Kevin Garvey
is symbolic of Jesus Christ which is
represented by a stag that is encountered by Kevin at the end of the episode and throughout the series. Another
example of Jesus symbolism is the
character Holy Wayne, a much more on
the nose depiction, he believes he can grant miracles to people, he could also
be considered the false hero in Propp’s character theory and there is also a
lot of enigma surrounding his character and his abilities which relates to the
Hermeneutic code.
Patti Levins, leader of the Guilty Remnants in Mapleton and Holy Wayne are two characters in the
story that represent Claude Levi-Strauss’ binary oppositions, Wayne believes he
is a god and is able to take away the pain of those affected by the departure,
he is very lively and talks a lot which is the exact opposite of Patti, a woman who dresses in white and
never talks in order to serve as a living reminder for the departed. Wayne also
does his best to stay hidden as he is wanted by the government whereas Patti and the GR ensure they are noticed by everyone.
In the drama 96 Hours many narrative conventions were
used to progress the story and maintain the viewers attention, the drama had
suspense sequences which was created by the soundtrack and the constant ticking
of a clock in the drama’s diegesis. The episode’s story is non-linear and
begins at the falling action just two hours after the narrative’s climax. The
episode also sets up enigma codes near the beginning as after Walter screams in frustration he looks
at a picture of him and a young girl which calms him down. There are more
Enigma codes throughout the story setup through vague voiceover flashbacks of Byron’s encounters with Lucy.
In the narrative of
the drama Propp’s character theory can be applied with Walter as the hero, Byron as
the villain and Lucy as the princess.
We demonstrate this by aligning you with Walter
at the very beginning and then having Byron
attack him to show that he is the villain and Lucy is painted as a damsel in distress as she has no dialogue but
does scream for help.
Locations in the
drama are used to illustrate binary oppositions woven within the narrative, for
example the interrogation room is shot in a white room with a steady camera and
a bright light source to represent law, order, and clarity this is juxtaposed
with the scene of Lucy lying in a
very dark, tight coffin, shot
handheld to exemplify chaos, fear and uncertainty.
The most important
prop in the drama is the paperclip from Byron’s
file, the paperclip is used as a cliffhanger and sets up an enigmatic code
for what Byron plans on doing once
he’s escaped, the audience already know that Byron will at some point be strangling Walter and by showing the paperclip the audience solves the puzzle
of how Byron gets out of confinement.
Costume was used to
set up the binary opposition between Byron
and Walter immediately, before
any dialogue we can see what kind of characters they are based on how they are
dressed, we see Walter wearing a suit
compared to Byron whom is wearing a
hoodie and t-shirt, this helps reinforce the image of which character is
Propp’s villain and hero.
The climax of the 10
minutes is triggered by a dialogue exchange between the two main characters,
for Walter this is a simple case to
crack and he has all of the power in the room which can be seen by the high
angles used on Byron, however once Byron names Walter’s missing daughter he loses the power and becomes frantic,
this is part of the story where Todorov would say the disequilibrium starts.
In conclusion I
believe 96 Hours succeeds in hitting
the typical narrative conventions that would be put forward in a British TV
crime drama, if we take a look at Luther for
example they have very similar themes particularly with the beginning of the
pilot episode where there is a tense chase scene in order to beat the clock and
save a young innocent girl which creates tension. Luther also conforms with Propp’s character theory of Villain, Hero
and Princess.
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