Narrative Structures By Karley Myall

American Horror Story: Series. American Horror Story is a TV series that is based on different storylines in each season, the first season being about a Murder house, which took place in Las Angeles, the production started to take place in February 2011. This season was about a house that had a dark history, being that when it went up for sale, a family moved into it, them Vivien, Violet and Ben who soon find out about the past of the house. Ben had an affair with his student Hayden, which she soon finds out about which puts the whole family on the edge. A lot of mysterious things happen within this house, with the spirits haunting them and people always letting their selves in. Violet meets Tate Langdon who is a patient of her fathers who is psychotic and he is actually a ghost and ends up falling in love with him. She then tries to kill herself so she could be with him. The season introduces you to Constance and her daughter Addie who are their neighbours.

The next season was wrote about an Asylum, which aired in October 2012 The next season was wrote about an Asylum, which aired in October 2012. The Asylum it was based at was called Briarcliff Mental Institution in Massachusetts and it was set in 1964. In a New England sanitarium, presided by ministers of faith and science, the innocent and the mad run from greater dangers and their own pasts. Bookended by modern day explorations of the ruins, a darker mystery lies in wait for victims. The third season is American Horror Story: Coven tells the secret history of witches and witchcraft in America. Over 300 years have passed since the turbulent days of the Salem witch trials and those who managed to escape are now facing extinction. Mysterious attacks have been escalating against their kind and young girls are being sent away to a special school in New Orleans to learn how to protect themselves. The forth season American Horror Story: Coven tells the secret history of witches and witchcraft in America. Over 300 years have passed since the turbulent days of the Salem witch trials and those who managed to escape are now facing extinction. Mysterious attacks have been escalating against their kind and young girls are being sent away to a special school in New Orleans to learn how to protect themselves. Wrapped up in the turmoil is new arrival. The fifth season is called Hotel the story is set in the Hotel Cortez, an enigmatic, six-story, art-deco hotel based in Los Angeles. The plot follows Elizabeth, the owner of the hotel, as she tries to protect herself and her children from the fury of her past lover that seeks revenge on her, as well as John Lowe, a Los Angeles homicide detective on the task-force for a series of grisly murders that lead him in the direction of the hotel. The sixth season is called Roanoke, after a disturbing incident, a young couple move into a seemingly perfect home built in the 18th century. However, the building's close proximity to the site of the Lost Colony's disappearance and with horrific events happening at the house the couple start to sense something dark underneath the facade.

Which narrative structures and devices have been used? I would say that American Horror Story is both Linear and Non-Linear the reason for this is because in their most recent season Roanoke the go into Non-Linear by having flashbacks and always talking about the past. This particular show is I would say a single strand narrative, because even though it has different story lines in each season it still sticks to the same story throughout the season so that you can keep track. With this show I would say it does more closed endings as there’s always a set amount of film in the time allocated and it always ends with the story, not as a cliff-hanger. This show has more then one genre based around Horror Fiction and Erotic Thriller. The target audience for this show would be young adults as the content within this TV show are to explicit for younger people. In an age range from 18-49. More Females watch American Horror Story and are young.

References: Available at: https://yougov. co References: Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/American_Horror_Story (Accessed on 15th January) Available at: http://americanhorrorstory.wikia.com/wiki/American_Horror_Story_Wiki (Accessed on 15th January)

Gossip Girl: Serial. Gossip Girl is a teen drama series that is both a drama and a romance TV show. It aired in September 2007 on CW. The story begins to explain about Sareena who recently took of and described herself as ‘absent’ but no one really understand quite where she went just that she was ok. It then goes into explain that she was actually in boarding school in Cornwall. But not everyone is happy to see her. You get introduced to Blair Waldorf who is well known as the ‘Queen Bee’. Her and Serena are childhood friends. The story also follows the life’s of many other people, like Dan Humphrey, who is a little bit of an outsider of Brooklyn, his sister Jenny Humphrey, who is Dan's younger sister who always things she’s the queen of the school. you then have Blair’s love and the one everyone loves Nate Archibald and his so called bad boy friend Chuck Bass. You then get introduced to Lily and Rufus who are Sareena’s mum and Dan’s father. Rufus is a musician and Lily is fairly upper class and gets what she wants. The story line is like a diary, someone voice overs what’s happening in their day to day lives and the person who is Gossip Girl hides behind a phone and posts personal information about these characters, the way they play this role is really good considering the person it is, is right in front of your eyes. Its full of romance, jealously and anger but it’s a fantastic storyline and a great watch.

Which narrative structures and devices have been used? This show is a non-linear show, I would say the reason for this is because there is always something different going on, there’s never just one story its based of and there is use of flashbacks etc and talking about the past as well as fitting in all the different storylines. I would say this programme is more Multi strand narrative, because it is always based on something else and all the characters have their own story, so it does not just focus on one character and their story it focuses on them all and adds in all their stories. It again is more of an open narrative structure as more of the episodes come out the more you are left wondering what will happen next. This show is a teen drama which has both Drama and Romance taking place. The target audience for this particular show I would say is Females and the age range being from 18-24.

References Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/Gossip_Girl (Accessed on 15th January) Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0397442/plotsummary (Accessed on 15th January)

Big Bang Theory-Series. Big Bang Theory is an American Sit com, that is all about a bunch of people who live in the same flats as each other, they all live in the same area and spend everyday with one another. You have Sheldon Cooper who is the brain box of the group, with his quirky personality. You have Leonard Hofstadter who is an experimental physicist at Caltech. Leonard gets engaged to Penny, she lives across the hall from Sheldon Cooper. He is very social able. Leonard going out with Penny is why she became friends with his big group of friends. You have Penny who is a waitress, actress and a sales rep. Penny previously lived in Omaha and then moved to California. Leanoard is her husband. Then there is Howard Wolowitz, is an aerospace engineer and a former NASA astronaut. He is married to Bernadette and they are expecting a child. You then have Raj Koothrappali is an Indian-born astrophysicist who lives in Pasadena and works at Caltech. Until recently Raj was unable to talk to women due to his selective mutism. You then have Amy Farrah Fowler who is dating Sheldon. Amy is a neurobiologist from Glendale, California. Amy met Sheldon after Howard and Raj created a fake dating profile for him, and Amy’s match was him. You have Bernadette that is married to Howard. She is a microbiologist. She has a high paid job at Zangen, where she helped her friend Penny get a job. Although she is nice and good natured, she has a dark side.

Which narrative structures and devices have been used? This show is a non-linear show, I would say this because there is never a moment where they focus on the same storyline every episode, there is always a different story with a different meaning behind it. This show is more Multi stand narrative because there is always something different and its never just one thing and its based on different characters. This show is more an open narrative structure, as it’s a TV show, there is never a set start, middle and end and sometimes they do leave you on a cliff-hanger. The target audience for this show is young people, mainly males but only by a little bit. Age range from 25-39.

References Available at: http://the-big-bang-theory.com/characters/ (Accessed on 15th January) Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/The_Big_Bang_Theory (Accessed on 15th January)