Television

Most-Watched TV programs in England and the USA

England

Gavin & Stacey 

Written by James Corden and Ruth Jones, this comedy show tells the story of a romance between Gavin, from Essex and Stacey, from Wales. Gavin lives with his parents, Pam and Mick, and spends most of the time with his best friend, Smithy. Stacey lives with her widowed mother, Gwen, and is frequently visited by her uncle, Bryn, who lives across the road, and by her best friend Nessa. The series follows the key moments in their relationship: their first meeting, meeting each other's families, getting engaged, marrying, looking for a flat, briefly splitting up, looking for new jobs, and trying for children.

Analysis

The main characters Gavin and Stacey provide the emotional essence of the story. The comedy focuses on the situations generated by the relationship when the two families come together.  The show presents the families interacting in many events, such as weddings, birthday parties, christenings, and Christmases. Some awkward and funny moments come to the scene in every episode and the characters' behaviors pretend to get rid of them making the show funnier. Their body language tells us they are really feeling what they are trying to state. As this is a comedy, their verbal language is ad-hoc with common people nowadays, they try to keep their manners most of the time, but suddenly the scene becomes more relaxed or more exciting giving the show that sparkle that features it.  

USA

NFL Sunday Night Football (NBC)

It is a weekly television broadcast of National Football League (NFL) games on NBC in the United States. NBC's broadcast begins at 7 p.m. Eastern Time with its pre-game show which runs until kickoff (which usually occurs around 8:20 p.m. Eastern). The show serves the same purpose as NFL PrimeTime did for ESPN, offering recaps of the early action as well as a preview of the game to come. The show emanates from the NBC Sports studios in Connecticut as well as at the game site.

In Salt Lake City, Utah, the NFL in partnership with NBC announced the schedule for Sunday Night Football games for the 2020 season, it begins with the Thursday night kickoff game between the Super Bowl LIV champion Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans on Thursday, September 10.

See the schedule

Analysis

American football as you know is a contact sport, so the players focus on the movement of the ball, keeping their positions and following a determined strategy dictated by the captain of each team. The players are constantly seeking the opportunity to tackle and defeat their opponents. This sport requires many hours of training and effort, people who play it are well-built and spend most of their time practicing it.

Their body and verbal language inside the teams reflect the unity they have and the capacity of acting according to what they previously agreed, showing all the preparation and training in the field. This sport catches the attention of many fans around the world and that's why it is one of the most popular sports all over the world.

Consulted Sources:

Wikipedia, (2020). Gavin & Stacey. Available through https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_%26_Stacey Consulted on May 22nd, 2020.

BBC Trailers, (2019). Gavin &Stacey. [Youtube video] Available through https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ISz1Ps4qd4 Consulted on May 22nd, 2020.

NBC Sports, (2020). Sunday Night Football. Available through https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/sunday-night-football Consulted on May 22nd, 2020.

NFL, (2019). Every team's first touchdown on Sunday night Football! [Youtubee video]. Available through https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jpv4zt56ds8 Consulted on May 22nd, 2020.

Theater

American high school, what is it like?

 

There are lots of stereotypes when it comes to Americans, among them, one of them, is about the different cliques that can be found in a high school, the populars, the jocks, the floaters, good-ats,  etc. For more info, click here. The populars may also have other names, like bullies or mean girls. And this is what caught our attention, mean girls.

In 2004, a film with the same name came out, it was so popular that  in 2017 the musical was released, leading to a massive success in Broadway.
This musical tells like the movie, the story of Cady Heron, a strong girl in Africa, moving back to the US and dealing with all the stuff that involves being in high school in America. 

The musical is a great chance to see a bit of American culture, the language they use in high school and phrases that Americans would say. Most of the phrases are common, the accent is easy to understand. Body language tells us a lot, because it is a musical, so there are scenes where the cast dances and it is important to transmit what is happening to the audience. It is quite interesting the way the musical has been adapted in order to be attractive enough and to still be popular after many years have gone by after the movie was first premiered. 

Here is a link  that shows a peek of  the musical. 



Andrea B.



Source: https://www.broadway.org/shows/details/mean-girls,619 , https://www.broadwaycollection.com/es/shows/mean-girls/, https://www.pinterest.com.mx/pin/463237511670839616/

Movies

The king's speech

Awarded with various academic awards and winner of 4 Oscars, The king's speech is a movie about the King George VI (Bertie) of the United Kingdom, who was suddenly crowned after the scandalous abdication of his brother King Edward VIII. The king George has suffered from debilitating speech impediment all his life. His country was on the brink of war and a leader was needed, his wife Elizabeth looked for an eccentric speech therapist, Lionel Logue, to help him. Through a set of unexpected techniques, and as a result of an unlikely friendship, at the end of the story Bertie found his own voice and was able to lead the country through war, thanks to his final speech. The movie was based on real facts of the royalty when the King George make his first wartime radio broadcast upon Britain's declaration of war on Germany in 1939. 

Analysis

This is one of my favorite scenes where the King George finally gives his speech, the formality and lexicon are very formal in order to reach specific royalty protocols, even though it is a broadcast, the speech is given with certain rhythm, intonation and a formal register. People seem to be at the lookout of what is going on King's speech very respectfully. Everything must to be on time and well-planned, a dress code and protocols are followed for the event. Working royalty team bow to greet him. One of the main features of British people is to be punctual and to pay attention to all the details for the sake of reaching perfection.

If you are fan of British films, you should visit this website click here.

The silence of the lambs

The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American psychological horror film directed by Jonathan Demme and the film stars Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins. a young FBI trainee ,Clarice Starling, seeks the advice of the imprisoned Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a brilliant psychiatrist and cannibalistic serial killer to apprehend another serial killer, known only as "Buffalo Bill", who skins his female victims' corpses. The film won the Big Five Academy Awards, Best Picture, Best Director (Demme), Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Actress (Foster), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally). Also, the film is considered "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant by the U.S. Library of Congress and was selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry in 2011.

The first Clarice's interview with Hannibal Lecter

Analysis

In this movie scene, the language and body language are formal with good manners, because the interview is between an FBI trainee and a   criminal Psychoanalyst, so cultured, both are well educated and behave according to the context, typical American FBI movie scene. They follow a protocol of maximum-security prison. The story takes place in a town, Quantico (Virginia) where the training FBI academy is. Different American cultural aspects are shown, such as FBI protocols in a criminal investigation, living town styles such as where the Buffalo Bill, serial women killer, commits his crimes and the government authorities’ behavior. It is said American people is so direct they always maintain eye contact when they are speaking to someone else; as we can see in this scene they are so direct and cautious during the interview.

If you wantto watch movie trailers or related movie clips, click here.

Consulted sources

The king's speech image .Retrieved from https://www.filmaffinity.com/es/film968462.html on May 20, 2020

The King's speech scene video. Retrived from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPLIw64rLJc&t=30s on May 20,2020

Wikipedia (2020). The King's speech movie. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King%27s_Speech on May 20, 2020

The silence of the lambs image. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/search? tbm=isch&q=silencio+de+los+inocentes,+El#imgrc=oMQqsQVUz4ZBpM on May 22, 2020

The first Clarice 's interview  with Hannibal Lecter video. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5dA92wqmME&t=8s in May 22, 2020

Wikipedia (2020). The silence of the lambs movie. Retrieved from https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Silence_of_the_Lambs_(película) on May 22, 2020

Theater

 A peek of British Theatre

 

Whenever you hear the word Theatre, your mind might take you to the USA, Broadway, music, fame and glamour. However, just 3453 mi away, is London, UK; a city that in the last years has gained importance in the theatre environment. 

One of the most recent British actors that has gone back to his roots and his city is Tom Hiddleston, he has portrayed different roles in Hollywood, but  in the last years he has returned to his first love, the theatre. His last play was last year, Betrayal, written by Harold Pinter. This play was first presented in 1978, and has had many presentations since then. 

Betrayal portrays a typical British character or stereotype, it shows that British or more specific Londoners can be still polite and well mannered as they expect them to be, even if one for them discovers that his wife has an affair with his best friend. Tom portrays Robert, the husband that was cheated on his wife. Tom, discovered the affair, howver, he doesn't make a scandal or recriminites his wife or best friend, he keeps being polite and acting the way a Londoner would act, he kept being nice to them despite the fact that he was hurt. His body language reflected this, his gestures and voice were normal, he was like too calm and in this way he didn't show them that their little secret was discovered.

  To see a bit of this play click  here


Andrea B




Source: https://stageagent.com/shows/play/1283/betrayal , https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1089991/, https://www.londontheatre.co.uk/show/betrayal