AS Media Studies

Topic – Representation in TV Drama

Exemplar essay:

“Explore how gender is represented in Desperate Housewives”

INTRODUCTION

Desperate Housewives is an American comedy drama series and the clip I am going to

analyse is the introduction to the first episode where we briefly meet the series narrator,

Mary Alice Young, who is a stereotypical construction of the conservative, middle-class,

suburban housewife. Disequilibrium is established in the scene when Mary puts an end to

her ordered, mundane, domestic bliss by committing suicide.

SECTION 1: MISE-EN-SCENE – WHAT AND WHY

At the start of the scene we see the iconography of an idealised middle-class American

suburbia where homes and gardens are immaculately maintained, where the sun is shining

and where people are starting their day, jogging, walking together and greeting each other

in a friendly manner. A woman pushes a pram and a man in a suit sets out briskly for work.

These images connote a conservative gender ideology which is reinforced when we see the

main character. Mary emerges through the front door dressed neatly in cream trousers,

shirt, apron and gardening gloves. She is immaculately groomed for the simple task of

cutting some flowers in her front garden. In the background, a sprinkler waters the lawn

which is bordered by a white picket fence and wisteria-covered arch. There is nothing out

of place in this scene of perfect suburban bliss, the ultimate representation of the great

American dream.

We see Mary going about her daily chores systematically and efficiently. She repaints

outdoor furniture, does some washing, collects clothes from the dry cleaner, prepares her

family’s breakfast and cleans and polishes the house. The overall colour design of the clip is

cream and white, signifying a modern, tasteful and conservative lifestyle. High key lighting is

used to enhance the sunlight, making it dazzle as it pours into the house through the large

clean windows.

Mary even keeps her gun tidied away in a shoebox in her closet. When she holds it to her

head the metal barrel sparkles in the sunshine, as does the framed family photo in which we

see her shoot herself. Even her death is tidy!

Shots of her neighbour’s kitchen reveal an equally tidy domestic situation. There are flowers

on the windowsill, appliances are neatly stored in cupboards and the kitchen looks modern

and expensive. Her neighbour is equally fastidious about her respectable appearance and

the need to perform her civic duty of informing the police about her neighbour’s death. Like

Mary, she shows limited emotion and recovers within seconds from the shock of seeing her

neighbour lying dead on the floor. She regains her equilibrium, realises she can now keep

Mary’s blender and therefore removes the name tag from it. For me, this detail wonderfully

sums up her petty and sanitised life.

SECTION 2: CAMERAWORK – WHAT AND WHY

The establishing shot for Desperate Housewives is filmed using a crane and begins from an

extreme high angle before tracking down to ground level, along a street and up to the front

door of a house where we meet the lead character. I think this long take which moves

smoothly through the scene is used to quickly establish the context for the drama, that of

conservative, middle-class suburbia. It also provides space and time for the title, ‘Desperate

Housewives’ to be superimposed on screen and I think it reflects the fact that the narrator

has died and is drifting down from beyond the skies in order to tell the story of Wisteria

Lane.

In the first half of the clip we see the lead character, Mary Alice Young, in a montage of

short clips, carrying out her daily chores. Each of these shots consists of the camera tracking

from mid-long shot to close-up showing Mary going about her daily routine. The clips make

us focus on the details of her chores, such as switching on the washing machine, in order to

show us what an ordered, precise and mundane lifestyle this woman lives.

After Mary’s daily activities have been shown via the sequence of repetitive shot types, the

camerawork changes. This happens at the point when she retrieves a gun from her closet

and puts it to her head. Here the camera quickly pans 360 degrees around her body,

stopping on a close-up of the gun before cutting to an extreme close-up of the gun barrel,

the last thing Mary sees before she shoots herself. We do not directly see the shot, instead

the action is framed within the reflective glass of the family photo, sitting on her dressing

table. I think this indirect approach is used to soften what could be a gruesome scene as this

is not a violent action drama. I also think it makes a comment on Mary’s ordered family life

which she has just chosen to leave.

After the death scene, we see a series of long, mid and close-up shots of Mary’s neighbour

in her own house which help to quickly establish her location, her thought processes and

her busy-body nature. When she arrives at the back window of Mary’s house, an extreme

close-up of her shocked expression and scream tells the audience she has just seen Mary’s

dead body. A series of quick shots show her going home and phoning the police. The

extreme close-up of her removing Mary’s name tag from her blender so no one will know it

isn’t hers tells us that she has quickly got over the shock of her neighbour’s death and is

focusing on the trivia of her mundane life once again.

SECTION 3: EDITING – WHAT AND WHY

The fade up from black into a long take at the start of the sequence gently draws the viewer

into the world of Wisteria Lane. The pink and purple title graphic, ‘Desperate Housewives’ is

superimposed over the first shot in a calligraphic font, connoting femininity. What follows is

a montage of shots edited together in quick succession to illustrate the list of activities Mary

carries out during the day before she shoots herself in the head. Continuity editing

techniques including shot-reverse-shot and match-on- action are maintained throughout

most of the sequence which makes it easy for the viewer to watch as the drama unfolds. An

interesting cross cut is used between the shot of Mary shooting herself and a pool of red

juice on Mrs Hooper’s kitchen bench which she tastes with her finger. For an instant the

audience is encouraged to think that the red liquid is Mary’s blood, which, for me, adds

humour to the sequence.

SECTION 4: SOUND – WHAT AND WHY

The theme tune is a quick tempo, light orchestral piece which helps to create a sense of

order, pleasure and brightness and is therefore parallel to what we are seeing. The music

reminds me of that used in fairytales, it sounds fun, even comical and it suggests to me that

this perfect scene of suburban bliss might also be a fairytale. The music decreases in volume

when the voiced-over narration begins but remains to carry the positive mood and quick

pace of shots. Only when Mary retrieves the gun and puts it to her head does the music

change. We hear a sustained note, conventional of a serious dramatic moment. After the

gun shot there is silence for a few seconds which helps to highlight the impact of what has

just happened. The theme tune restarts when the action moves to the Mrs Hooper’s house.

It is replaced by a more dramatic piece when Mrs Hooper finds Mary’s dead body but

quickly returns to the original tune, showing that Mrs Hooper does not grieve for long over

the death of her neighbour.

Mary’s voice-over is used to narrate the piece and begins when we see the first close up of

her on screen, thus making it clear who is speaking. She narrates in a precise, calm manner

which reinforces the representation of her as a conservative, efficient, middle-class

housewife. She explains how she completes all her chores “I spent the day as I spend every

day, quietly polishing the routine of my life”. She describes the revolver “that had never

been used” in the same emotionless tone but never actually mentions the act of suicide,

perhaps because this would be considered impolite?

Synchronous diegetic sounds such as the noise of the water sprinkler, people greeting each

other, birds singing and the gun firing are used to add realism to the clip.

CONCLUSION

The women in this clip are represented as stereotypical versions of the conservative gender

ideology for Western women. The fact that Mary puts an end to her mundane life seriously

challenges that ideology.