Analytical task - Hawaii Five O

Hawaii Five O shows that it is a crime drama through different ways. Firstly is the use of the characters which are always used in typical crime dramas such as villains, heroes, experts and ambiguous characters. The episode has the typical characters for this specific genre, for example the heroic characters are the cops and there are villains who are engaged in the crime in the prison. The heroic  The props used are all generic features of the crime drama genre as there are: guns, prisoners uniform, prison guards uniform, body armour and police cars. It is set in an American big city which follows the generic features of crime dramas, as they tend to be set in big cities where crime tends to take place. The camera work in this episode of Hawaii Five O matches the genre of crime drama because the editing is fast making it exciting as this genre is supposed to be.

We can see from this episode of Hawaii Five O that it follows Robert McKee's narrative structure. It begins with the inciting incident when Chin wakes up handcuffed to the bed by those who have broken into his flat. Then progressive complications begin to take place, Chin is drugged, kidnapped and put into a prison. The crisis then occurs as Chin realises he is in prison with people that he himself, as a cop, has put into prison. The climax of the narrative happens when the prisoners escape out of their cells and a riot takes place, those who Chin had put in prison previously now go head to head with him. Then the main issue is resolved as Chins friends break him out of the prison and return him to safety.

Enigmas are used throughout the episode of Hawaii Five O in order to make the audience question what is happening and keep them interested. An example of this is when Chin gets kidnapped and put into prison, we as the audience wonder why he has been chosen to be put into prison and who has decided to do this. Once Chin is in the prison and riots take place we wonder whether Chin will survive and we question if he will be able to escape. This makes us want to keep watching in order to see what does happen. 

A series tells a different story in each episode whereas a serial has on going stories that run through many different episodes. Personally I think that Hawaii Five O is a serial as there a little stories running alongside the main story within the episode, which will carry on throughout following episodes. An example of this is the story of the detectives boyfriend and his suspicious behaviour, we will find more about this later on as it is not the main focus of the episode.