Critical Investigation - Task 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyK4R8QlhBo

The extract is from BBC's recent crime drama Luther and in this short scene we see black masculinity summed up. Luther 's extreme method to collect DNA is shown and it gives us to views of the police. Firstly we see the representations of Luther, a black detective whose dominant stereotype would infuse that he is an angry black male who goes to extreme methods to get what he wants which is enforced in this short extract, we see how Luther attacks a civilian by hiding his own identity and covers his hand with the unknown males blood to extract DNA, this enforces the representation of 'an angry black male' and portrays how aggressive Luther's character in the show may be. The representation of Luther here is negative, due to the fact, that just after watching this short extract we see that Luther has attacked an innocent law abiding citizen who is helping a woman out by returning her child's dropped toy. Furthermore, we see how Luther must be shown after 9pm (Post-watershed) due to its extreme nature of violence. So the BBC would have to be careful due to regulation and censorship, had this been show pre-watershed, we could have seen moral panic throughout the news which could portray the BBC in a negative way. The change in technology also shown in this short extract, as we know that the use of DNA is fairly recent so we see a change in technology being used in Luther too, which could portray new methods on how police and the gradual change being seen.

The theory of Gender and ethnicity is very important in this short extract of Luther, if one was to watch this extract of Luther they would see the representation of an angry black male who goes to extreme methods to achieve what he wants, although this may show much courage. The fact that Luther is a black male detective (something we do not usually see), makes the viewer feel uncomfortable as Luther could be a very different character to what we have seen, the audience usually see a white male as a protagonist and this is something they become comfortable with as you view him as a man who can save the day, so having a black male as the main character makes the audience ask a few questions. The Hegemonic view about a black male as a detective working for the police force would usually be corrupt as we have become accustomed with the fact that black males usually are targeted by the police and due to this do not have the best relations with the police force.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR94itVheF0

This extract is also from BBC's Luther, and in this we see Luther play a game of 'Russian Roulette' representing Luther as one who does not fear many things, we see how Luther is after a criminal and to adhere him he must risk his own life. The dominant representation we accustom with black males is that they had the police force and if we ever see a black police officer in the media, they are usually shown as corrupt. This is something which is opposed by Luther, the fact that a black DCI is willing to risk his own life to just catch a criminal shows him as admirable. The risk of losing life here is great and Luther still plays the game to catch his criminal. 

The theories used for this are again gender and ethnicity, we become accustomed with the corruption of a black police officer and Luther does well to get rid of this stereotype. Being a black male we would expect him to be pretty masculine but this again is a stereotype he proves wrong as we see him crying, the tears in his eyes show real emotion from him and shows that he cares about the job. It shows how he also protects society, without and reconginiton and even though being seen as the bad guy in many of the seasons, we see that Luther still does his best to clear his name.