Fiske's Theory and The Inbetweeners

Apply Fiske Theory to the Inbetweeners:

Fiske argues that in TV series the representation of the characters lives beyond the end of each episode, he calls this 'plot development', where the plot usually runs over several episodes. We see this in the Inbetweeners S1E3 - Thorpe Park - the end of the episode doesn't tell us whether Simon gets his car door fixed or not, and whether he gets in trouble with his dad about it, in later episodes we find out he gets his door replaced. Another example of plot development in the Inbetweeners is the relationship between Simon and Tara which carries on in more than one episode.

Fiske's second idea is the 'repetition' of characters which makes them appear to live in the same time scale as us (the audience) this is due to the fact that characters have a past, present and future. We see an example of this in The Inbetweeners S1E3 - Thorpe Park episode, we find out about Neil's past: he used to work at Asda, and also about Wills past: he once cried when he was 5 on a ride. in 'The gig and the girlfriend' episode S3E2 Tara mentioned the accident Will had during his exam where he did a number 2 in the exam hall, which is an example of Will's past.

Fiske's third idea is characters representations which are constructed by the writers and producers of the show, the characters physical appearance and social values portray their individual representations. An example of this in the Inbetweeners in both episodes we looked at is Wills representation: he dress very smart at school, his tie is always perfect and he tucks in his shirt and wears his blazer, he also carries a brief case, this represents him as responsible and smart, it also makes us view him as a mini adult, unlike the other characters who don't do their ties properly, have their shirts un-tucked and don't wear their blazers.

Fiske calls his fourth idea 'polysemic reading' which means audiences are diverse and so how they read a representation of a certain character will depend on their own experiences, the audience will also imagine how they would behave if they were in the characters same situation and how they would deal with certain problems. For example in S1E3 when Will is shouting and swearing at the disabled people for sitting in the front row seats on the ride, he calls them 'inconsiderate arseholes' some viewers may judge him to be selfish and thoughtless for being so rude to them, and other people may find this funny.