TV & Academic Research: Heroes VS Fringe (Season 1 comparisons)

One of the advantages of doing assignments is that if it is well-written, I can post it to benefit my readers, or maybe others who need to do similar tasks.

The assignment below requires me to make a comparison of the two sci-fi TV series Heroes and Fringe. If you have seen them, you might also have the same feeling as I have.

Here is an assignment I wrote which came back with an 'A' grade!

Image from rollmops.files.wordpress.com Both being science fiction television series, Heroes and Fringe adopt paranormal and interlocking mysteries as the plot development, kicking off with the phenomena which are unexplainable with modern day normal-stream science to draw viewers’ attention. What gives Heroes the competitive edge over Fringe is the scaffolding of the network of characters in the first episode. Each character is unique in their superpowers and the weight of the story is evenly spread amongst the characters that are located in different parts of the world. The potential in developing the threads of the story through each character is huge. Viewers are tempted to see how each of the characters will develop their own stories and how they will eventually unite. Fringe on the other hand has a pattern which is regular and predictable, that is it focuses one individual case in one episode. Image from geek-news.mtv TV series are being watched by viewers globally and viewers love to see their countrymen appearing on the small screen as much as the big screen. The producers of Heroes understand this perfectly. In terms of marketing potentials, Heroes displays several large cultures in the series such as the Indian and the Japanese cultures which definitely suit the taste of the Asian viewers and the massive Asian markets whereas Fringe remains a typical wholly America-based FBI-detective TV series. Heroes also defeats Fringe in terms of depth of thought. Heroes addresses the issues or even conflicts between traditional beliefs and science and in some ways attempts a merger of two, conceptually it is more intriguing to look into the deep philosophical beliefs such as destiny and meanings in life versus the opposing belief of science and evolution than sole paranormal mysteries in Fringe. In terms of filming techniques, Heroes makes use of low-light shooting, night scenes and low key tone in daylight, pictures are tinted with slight purple, dark blue or grey through the use of lens filters, which creates various mysterious atmospheres throughout the episodes; Fringe does not apply lighting effects and filters as often as Heroes does. The use of a recurring sword-like symbol in some scenes of Heroes to trigger the viewers’ pursuit of the story is effective but is slightly overdone at times; Fringe applies similar technique by using frog, leaf and handprint in between scenes to achieve the same result, but because they are not shown in the scenes, it is doubtful that these symbols will be explained in the future.

As you can see, this is the writing style expected at the Master's level, highly densed, highly nominalised, and very little non-sense. If you want to know how to write like this, please revise my earlier articles on titled
"Business Writing: How to write like a pro? -- Part 0,1,2,3,4"

Vocabulary:

paranormal -- (adj) impossible to explain by known natural forces or by science
interlocking -- (adj) firmly joined together, especially by one part fitting into another

be tempted -- (vb) to want something or to want to do something
intriguing -- (adj) very interesting because of being unusual or mysterious
tint -- (vb) [T] to slightly change the colour of something
pursuit -- (n) [U] when you try to achieve a plan, activity or situation, usually over a long period of time




Resources:
Business Writing: How to write like a pro? @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/search/label/Writing

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/paranormal_1?q=paranormal+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/interlocking?q=interlocking
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tempt?q=tempt
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/intriguing?q=intriguing
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/tint_2
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/pursuit_3