Narrative Codes

1. Breaking Bad

“Breaking Bad” is a crime dram television show that was broadcast on the AMC network. It told the story of Walter White a chemistry teacher that has been diagnosed with cancer who starts to live out a secret life of crime by cooking crystal meth with a former student named Jesse Pinkman, so that he can leave behind money for his family when he dies.

Being a crime drama “Breaking Bad” has certain action codes that are specific to its genre. The actions and events that that progress the plot forward and keep the viewers attention in “Breaking Bad” would include scenes of characters cooking meth, confrontations between Walter and rival drug criminals, scenes of Walter lying to his family about his lifestyle and threats of violence amongst characters.

Enigmatic codes used in “breaking bad” consist of questions that the viewer would be made to ask based on the plot to keep them interested in finding out the answers. Questions that the audience would ask about “breaking Bad” would include will Walter’s family find out about his secret life, will Walter be able to adjust from a regular life to that of a criminals and will Walter be able to survive threats of violence from rival drug dealers.

Symbolic codes would consist of the themes brought up in a story. There are many themes in “Breaking Bad”. There are themes of fatherhood with Walter often neglecting his own son and acting like more of a father to Jesse. Morality is a theme that features prominently in “Breaking bad” as throughout the show Walter begins to change as a character. He gradually becomes more of a villain than a hero and he audience is challenged as to whether or not they support him. Self-respect is also a theme in the show. Although what Walter is doing isn’t in line with his morals he begins to respect himself more as he uses drug dealing to assert his authority.

2. The Simpsons

“The Simpsons” is an animated sitcom show that is broadcasted on the Fox network. It’s about the titular Simpsons family and it shows the various misadventures that the dysfunctional family goes through.

Seeing as “The Simpsons” is an animated comedy it is able to do a lot of things that live-action television is unable to do. Most of its action codes are jokes and visual gags that are meant to make the viewers laugh. The show is very comedic and uses humorous action codes to keep the viewers both invested and consistently amused. The animation allows the jokes to do more creative things. “The Simpsons” is also a family drama to some extent. Conflict between members of the dysfunctional family through confrontations would be one of the action codes of the show. “The Simpsons” also uses catchphrases in its dialogue as one of its action codes.

The enigmatic codes used in “The Simpsons” makes the audience mostly ask questions about the conflict between certain members of the family in a given episode as there’s running plot throughout the episodes.

The symbolic codes in “The Simpsons” are never usually very serious. A light-hearted tone is usually maintained throughout the show. The main theme of the show is family but the themes will often come out through the characters in the show. For example through the character of Homer Simpson the show explores themes of sloth, laziness, greed, alcoholism and idiocy.

3. Doctor Who

“Doctor Who” is a science fiction television show that is broadcast on BBC One. It tells the story of humanoid alien named The Doctor who travels around in a time machine getting into adventures and saving the universe from dangerous villains.

“Doctor Who” is a science fiction show so it uses some outlandish action codes like threats from aliens and spaceships. Although it’s sic-fi which is a genre that will typically use action “Doctor Who” will very frequently have confrontations between characters in which the evil villain will discuss their plans and the doctor will come up with a counter plan based on what they tell him. Overall the main action code used by “Doctor Who” would be chase scenes. The doctor is a pacifist for the most part and will usually run from danger instead of facing it.

The enigmatic codes used in “Doctor who” will usually make the audience ask questions about the safety of the characters. The hero characters will often be in danger and the audience will be asking if they can evade the danger. Most episodes revolve around the audience asking if the doctor will be able to avoid the evil plans of the villain of a certain villain.

Binary opposites are frequently used in “Doctor Who”. The villains in each episode will often act out in a way that is the complete antithesis of what the Doctor stands for. The doctor is the hero of the show through his character the show will often explore aspects of heroism such as bravery and self-sacrifice. Despite being an alien The Doctor has a great appreciation for humanity and one of the major themes of the show is what makes someone human. Compassion is typically the human trait explored in “Doctor who”.