Sitcom Confessionals

This week’s discussion focused on audience orientated critique. We talked about how soap operas or serial narratives allow the audience to become involved with the show and feel as if they are actually a part of the cast and involved with what is going on. Soap operas allow this because they have episodes everyday and repeat a lot of what is going on. There are not many soap operas left because I think daytime television is not as popular as it may have been in the past. I related this concept of getting the audience involved with some television shows that only air one a week. The examples I thought of were Modern Family and The Office. These shows are sitcoms but they have parts of the show where one character is face to face with the camera and talks to the audience as if they are having a conversation. By doing this it allows the audience to feel as if they are talking to the character and getting into the characters mind. It almost serves as a confessional for the characters and the audience gets insight that they may have not known before. Since these shows only air once a week this feature allows flashbacks from previous episodes, to keep the audience up to date.