Q2

While searching for sources, I had come across some things that were quite advanced and quite interesting to learn about.

On the second page of google after searching “Realism in TV Dramas”, I found a report somebody had done and had gotten the chance to visit the Casualty set, she said that on the set you wouldn't be able to tell the difference between this and an ordinary hospital, the prosthetics used for the program is very detailed n it matches the actors exact skin colour and even goes down to putting on freckles and hairs to show as much realism as possible.

"Walking around the Holby City sets, I was struck by the fact that the surgical wards look so true to life that if it wasn’t for the distinct lack of sick people and the presence of higdh-tech recording equipment, it would be easy to mistake it
for a genuine hospital ward on a regular day at work,

Also there there was somebody who written to say where had all the tv dramas gone in the 00s as the tv drama is now demizing.

“That era now appears to have passed. 'Reality' now means something else, while documentaries often mock their subjects. So it's up to the dramatists to hold a mirror to our society once again. But where are they? Not in Britain. “

There are still some dramas in Britian, the common ones being long time medical dramas like Casualty, Police Dramas like the Bill and Wire in the Blood and there's the completetly different style of dramas like Skins which follows the lifestyles of 9 totally different teenagers in Bristol.

Normally, reliable sources such as Wikipedia plays a big part in anybody's research as it has most things you need to know but in this instance it didn't help much relating to the hypothesis. But despite not having much help from wikipedia, it did go into detail about CSI been critisized because of the lack of realism when it came to dealing with some crime of the scenes but it had nothing to do with Casualty. The source below is a quote from CSI's page on Wikipedia.

“Another criticism of the show is the depiction of police procedure, which some consider to be decidedly lacking in realism. For instance, the show's characters not only investigate crime scenes (as their real-world counterparts would), but they also conduct raids, engage in suspect pursuit and arrest, interrogate suspects, and solve cases, which falls under the responsibility of uniformed officers and detectives, not CSI personnel. However, some detectives are also registered CSIs, although this is exceedingly rare in actual life”

This source explains some of the unrealistic nature of some of the police activity when dealing with certain crimes. Also it suggests that people who are registered as a CSI personnel shouldn't be going out in police raids, as they wouldn't do in real life. I think this source has helped me as it tells me the weaknesses of the show and it shows me how it lacks realism in some key areas which helps towards my hypothesis.

According to www.screenonline,com Casualty on the other hand has a more realistic nature comparing to American medical dramas,

“It revealed that a quarter of patients in Casualty who suffered a cardiac arrest survived after being resuscitated - a similar proportion to real life - while in American medical soaps like ER an over-optimistic three-quarters of patients pulled through."

The source has gathered an interesting statistic relating to my hypothesis, it shows that comparing the patients suffered from a cardiac arrest in Casualty and in different American sitcoms. People in Casualty a quarter of the time survive, which is similar to real life while in America a quarter end up dying while the remaining ones survive. I think this source helps me as it compares the differences between Casualty and American sitcoms and it proves a point towards my hypothesis.

CSI uses strong police force on most cases while Casualty it varies from one crime to another, this varies from cases like gun shots, bulgalries etc. While CSI is more action based so it is expected that more police are involved in it than Casualty, which is just a basic medical drama. Which is typical examples of differences between American dramas and UK dramas.