1) REVIEW
2) SHOW TRAILER
I wanted to choose a show that generally didn't have much screen time (read: short show length). This comedy is only about 11 minutes a show so if you want to see an episode or two they are free on the website provided in the #3 link.However, this review was able to take that limited amount of information and give a good bodied review to back it's A- grade. Also, we touched based on Law and Order SVU and NCIS briefly in-class today. It reminded me of a show I found randomly by channel surfing late at night titled NTSF:SD:SUV (which stands for National Terrorist Strike Force, San Diego, Sport Utility Vehicle). The review was done by the A.V. club website, whose author is named Steve Heisler. OK, here we go:
The first paragraph is able to tell the reader about some of the main stars and uses an appeal to authority by listing the actors and their recent notable work (although to be honest I only recognized The League out of all the show references). At the same time, he is able to give a underlying theme of the first paragraph which is basically the fact that every person acting or writing for this show was selected using a "Pay It Forward" or a friend of a friend type of system. I think this is a good type of strategy since the show is virtually unknown to anyone and it serves as a type of literary defense since he is critiquing this as a good show, even though the entire first season encompasses an expansive 2 hours if played back-to-back. Now that the critic has saved face it's time for the next layer of the criticism/compliment sandwich: the aggressive second paragraph. The critic is able to give an explanation to why the writers chose the cast specifically. Although I don't know if it is an effective strategy to convince your audience about your rating by commenting on why a show functions a certain way, I think it would be best to leave such speculations to the reader for topics like why the show spent their budget a certain way.
The third and fourth paragraphs are used to compare NTSF to it's parent parody show Children's Hospital. This standardized tactic of [Insert witty idiom here] is an effective way of showing the benefits of the show while still keeping his overall positive tone in-place. Also, by explaining the show's feel and some key quirks the writer is able to indirectly convey a great focal point of the show - wackiness. Basically, being able to hint at enjoying this show for what it is by not trying to give it a high brow type of review. By pointing out the sheer ridiculousness within every facet on the show and giving it a brief reasoning the writer is able to exemplify the reason why this show is so great to him and other like minded viewers. For example, if you were watching the show and had never watched crime-scene based/action-sleuth genre show before and have no appreciation for parody type comedies then you wouldn't truly won't enjoy the program, it's as simple as that.
Finally, the last three paragraphs serve two major purposes. Just like I had mentioned the "sandwich" writing form in the first paragraph, the fifth and sixth paragraphs are meant to contrast the show while also pointing out the two major faults of the show. I like the use of multiple examples when drawing attention to issues and specifically why the the writer personally does not like them. This gives rise to the idea that the viewer may have a different opinion altogether. Since the writer did give the show an overall great score of nine out of ten the final paragraph is used to soften the blow of his criticisms. Also, it doesn't seem like the writer explicitly stated what he thought of the series in overall. He comes out to say what he thinks of the show, why it's great and why it will most likely get better. Although the wrap up is good I would've like to see the genre identified and the main idea presented earlier than the third and last paragraph, namely the intro. Other than that, the review was effective and was tailored to the audience that would likely read AVClub.com's reviews or a review of a show of this caliber. I think that the outside pop-cultural references and specific examples helped boost this review into something we could strive for: being simultaneously informative, personal and playful.
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1 comment:
I lilies how you used the example of the sandwich to describe how the reviewer criticized the film. I also found interesting how he said the episodes were only about 10 minutes long not counting the commercials.
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