Tuesday 11 May 2010

Compare representations of ‘the law’ in “The Wire” and “Frost”

The Wire is a TV drama set in America and this extract is taken from episode one, season one. Frost is a British crime drama and this extract is taken from the final episode in the final series. The very fact that the programmes are set in two different countries means that there is already two different representations of the law.

The Wire is established as a police drama straight away with the first scene being that of a blue light being reflected in a puddle on the pavement and because of the diegetic sounds of the sirens and police radio, which instantly indicate that this is a crime scene. The credits also tell us that this is a crime drama as the show a variety of images which we would associate with the police. The panning shot of the body which follows only confirms this and also reveals the injuries that the man has suffered. We cut back to a shot of the man nearer the end of the extract but we are now looking at this shot in a different way because we now have a whole new lot of information which has filled in some of the gaps that we had when we originally saw the victims body. The shots of the children sitting on the wall suggest a lot about the neighbourhood that this show is set in. The children do not seem necessarily fazed by what has happened suggesting that they are use to seeing this but because the children are black we can assume that the drama revolves around a tough African-American community and the mid shot which follows of the police man confirms that this show is set in Baltimore. By setting this in a inner city area you are perhaps playing to the stereotypes that this is the place where crime is most common.

Following the initial establishing of the scene we then here the first piece of dialogue between a police officer and witness. The police man is a well dressed white man, whilst the witness is a casually dressed black man, showing the divide between the police and the people who are actually involved in the crimes and those who solve them. It could be suggested however that the policeman does go someway to try and bridge this gap by brining humour to his nickname, this along with the two-shot camera technique which has been used to show the two males interaction, suggests that in law the police men have to try to get to the bottom of the crime but they also need to build up a relationship with the community to get information as they this community are loyal and are anxious of the police, indicated by the close up shot of the detective in the background and the witness who is out of focus and then via-versa, reinforced by the witness telling the police officer “ain’t going to no court”. The police officer does mange to build a relationship with the witness as the witness does confide in him about how Snot-Boogie didn’t have to get killed because of what happened. The witness talks about how Snot had to “play” because “this is America”, suggesting that that the criminal world in America has its own set of rules and it’s own way of life. The exchange between police officer and witness is edited together in a slow paced way, which creates a feeling of calm, something you would not expect to find at a police scene. The editing of this scene also shows a side of the law that is sympathetic as it is not hectic so does not through the witness in to chaos over what he has just witnessed but instead clams him and the audience down, giving the piece a slow paced narrative. You could also get a sense that because the witness seems to know the victim well, as he refers to him informally as ‘Snot-Boogie’, he has grown up in this area of crime and it has become part of his life. The colloquial way in which he talks also shows that even if he doesn’t come from this area in particular he comes from a background very much like this.

The opening of Frost is similar to The Wire in many ways as this again does not stay with fast paced action but instead it is taken at a slower speed. It is also similar in that they both beginning with evidence of a crime taking place but in Frost the crime is not as sinister as it appears to be someone hotwiring a car, however this scene turns into being fairly comedic as it is an older man who cannot start the car and has to ask to be given a push. This slows the narrative down and is not something that you would expect from a police drama, where you might be expecting to see a car chase. There is also a comedic element, something that is hinted at in The Wire but not really over riding in the opening, because it would appear that there is nothing wrong with the calm, judging by the man tapping on the steering wheel and with his foot on the break. This could suggest that the law is not always as serious as you would expect, particularly those in England compared to the USA. Like The Wire there is also the use of police walkie-talkies to suggest that this is a police series, reinforced by the emergence of the police men from the van. This is when the editing in Frost does however speed up in the opening, something that doesn’t happen in The Wire, when all the police officers emerge from the van to arrests the two men who had been giving it a push. This simple arrest suggests that the police officers in Frost are not dealing with such smart and serious criminals as they are in The Wire. The use of non-diegetic sound, deep but fast, heightens the tension and anxiety, along with the hand held camera used as the police officers enter the building as the audience are allowed to experience what the police officers experience. Once the men have broken into the building we learn the nature of the operation, illegal dog fighting. This highlights the difference between law in America and Britain because of the types of issues they are dealing with.

The opening scene of both Frost and The Wire establish the social setting where the drama is set. In Frost this social setting is similar in that although it is also working class there does not seem presence of violence initially and instead is just police officers trying to drive through football fans.

The hierarchy of police officers is also something that is present in The Wire and Frost. In The Wire it established by the fact he wears his own clothes and is in charge of talking to the victims and in Frost this is also the case and his importance is also shown by the police cars all going on his command.

Law is presented in very different ways in The Wire and Frost. The Wire shows a police officers compassion and bond with the witness whilst Frost is very much about the police officers and criminals being two very different groups of people.