Chicago Community on OTV (2019)
By Chelsea Peterson-Salahuddin
Northwestern University
The below themes are based on 762 audience survey responses to screenings of 19 unique web series on the OTV|Open Television platform: Damaged Goods, FOBia, The Right Swipe, Low Strung, Border’d, Renee, Conspiracy Theorist, Kings and Queens, The Haven, Searching for Isabelle, For Better, Uneverything, Femme Queen Chronicles, Freaky Phyllis, i-Love/Me, Good Enough, Night Night, and F*ck Stan. These shows all shown across 11 screenings in various locations around Chicago, IL between March 2019 and May 2019. Audiences were asked three open-ended questions about each show: 1) what stood out to you the most? What would you like to see more of in future episodes, and 3) what would you like to see less of in future episodes? Responses to these questions were coded using grounded theory, inductively searching for themes that ran across all nine shows. Constant comparison between the surveys was used to help elucidate new themes and patterns across survey responses (Strauss and Corbin 1994; Strauss and Corbin 1997; Charmaz and Belgrave, 2001). Across all 19 shows, five major themes stood out to audiences: processes of production and production value; on-screen diversity and representation; narrative storytelling; relatability, reality, and authenticity; and plot and character development.
Processes Of Production And Production Value
Across all 19 screenings, audience members responded that what stood out to them most was the show’s production and production value. These included things such as camerawork and cinematography, post-production editing and graphics, acting, and the writing and dialogue. For instance, at a screening of FOBia, a 35-year old, Black, Gender-nonconforming Femme audience member said what stood out to them was “Great editing, production values & dialogue.” Similarly, a 28 year-old, Caribbean, Masculine-spectrum audience member at a screening of Border’d commented “Great production and camera work. The way they stitched the story lines together was really well done and tied everything together nicely.” Speaking more to post-production, one audience member at a screening of Damaged Goods wrote “ The shots were very well chosen. Beautiful effects on all unique visuals and edits.”
Conversely, for some shows audience members also cited production as a potential source of improvement. For instance, many audience members noted that the sound quality on some of the camera work and sound quality on some of the shows left room for improvement. For instance, many viewers of the show Granny Ballers, a 32-year old, Black, Cis gender woman responded that in the future she would want to see “Better sound, it was hard to hear and understand the characters.” Similarly, an audience member at the screening of Good Enough wrote, “Needed tighter character shots, convo was confusing, sound mix was rough, edit was rough and shakey.” These kinds of comments about production and production quality were common across this particular screening.
On-screen Diversity and Representation
Our community continues to highlight the power of specificity in representation, across identities.
At screenings of the 14 of the 19 shows, audience members said that what stood out to them most related to onscreen representation of diverse raced, gendered, and sexual bodies. For instance, at a screening of Good Enough, one audience member said what stood out to them was “The diversity of queerness.” At a screening of Damaged Goods, audience members noted what stood out to them was, “The beautiful amount of representation in the series” and that “It's great to see intersectional POC characters take the center stage for a change.” Similarly, at a screening of Femme Queen Chronicles, one audience member commented that what stood out to them was “All the characters were beautiful black trans women! It’s very rare!” Along these same lines, at a screening of FOBia, “A friendship between an Indian person and a Black person - a dynamic not usually seen in mainstream media. There is an interesting intersection between the south Asian and black community that is interesting to explore.” All of these comments from audience members signal not only that on-screen representation, and especially intersectional representation was important, but why it was seen as being so important. As many of these comments allude to, within mainstream media, entertainment content featuring diverse, non-normative bodies is rare and their stories are not often explored. Thus, this diverse representation of bodies and stories resonated with many OTV screening audience members.
However, at the same time, many audience members also noted that they wanted to see more representation from shows. At a screening of The Right Swipe, a show about two friends who start a match-making service, one audience member noted that they wanted to see more about “Challenges that Asian Americans face on dating platforms.” In line with this, at a screening of Kings and Queens, a show about drag performers in Chicago, an audience member said in the future they “would like to see more people of color in future episodes.” In addition, similar comments appeared across other surveys, pushing for more representation of anybody or group they felt was left out of a particular narrative. What these comments may point to are the limits of representation. While shows can make a conscious and concerted effort to feature an array of intersectional bodies and stories, not every narrative will allow for the accounting of all bodies, all perspectives, and all stories that exist in the world.
Narrative Storytelling
Many audience members’ comments about what stood out to them in OTV shows related to the narrative of the story itself and how the stories were being told. For instance, a 47 year-old, Latina, cisgender woman attendee at a screening of the show Searching for Isabelle said that what stood out to her was “The message that missing women of color are not presented in the media like white women are.” At a screening of Uneverything, an audience member said, “I love seeing self care being most important when a character is on a venture for love and connection.” Finally, at a screening of The Haven, about the staff at a domestic violence shelter, one audience member responded that what stood out to them was “Sympathetic situations and great capture of nonprofit workplace culture.” All of these comments highlight, the narratives and stories being told across many of the OTV shows resonated with audiences. The narratives that these shows depict reflect important messages about the world we inhabit in a way that audiences can connect and relate to.
Relatability, Reality and Authenticity
The fact that show many audiences connected with the narratives depicted in OTV shows was also reflected in audiences responses that highlighted the relatability, reality and authenticity of the stories being told. In commenting on how much the show Renee was similar to their own life, a 32 year-old, White, Gender nononforming audience member said what stood out to them most was “The story is very relatable. I’ve been a caregiver before (for my grandma) and know how much it sucks to care so deeply for someone but also be stuck. I’d love to see more of this!” Similarly, at a screening of Uneverything, an audience member said it was “The story of MY life! Trying to find a good man... Meanwhile settling for what’s comfortable and not necessarily what’s best for me.” Both of these comments elucidate one of the key reasons the narratives portrayed by shows on the OTV resonate with audience -- it is reflective of their own lives and experiences.
This sense of relatability, is also attached to the very real and authentic ways these narratives and stories are portrayed. Speaking to the realistic nature of these portrayals, a 28 year old, White, Gender nonconfirming/Trans* audience member at a screening of Border’d commented:
The complex familial past and the difficulties one may have with their cultural heritage and native language when there are problems within the family. Each child has a different role in the family based on age but also based on their interactions with and use of Spanish, which feels like a real-life representation of all of the real ways bilingual and multicultural families use language to connect.
Similarly, an audience member at a screening of Conspiracy Theorist said what stood out to them was “The realness. It was both artistic and accessible.” Further, some audience members also highlighted how grasping the reality of these depictions was not necessarily tied to one’s own life experiences. For instance, an audience member at a screening of The Haven wrote:
As a cis/straight man, I gotta say, I don't get why this isn't shown more. I found it refreshing, I found it sexy, I found it very real and I felt privileged to be let into a room and a community where women were talking about things that they deal with. I think all men would love the female voice if they would just start to hear it. I also appreciated how the men they did show were treated with respect, even though they were being looked at through the female perspective. Represented realistically and compassionately, as if to say, ‘It's not about laughing at men, or bringing men down, it's about simply not focusing as much on men, albeit a bit goofily at times, but realistically nonetheless.’”
As this comment highlights, recognizing and appreciating realistic depictions of the world around us is not predicated on or limited to one’s own experience. Though the audience member is a white cis-gender man, he can still appreciate and have a connection to the reality that many women face as survivors of domestic abuse.
Understandings of something being realistic are also tied to understandings of authenticity, and recognizing authentic depictions of people’s experiences. For instance, an audience member at a screening of FOBia said they appreciated “The characters and how authentic and unapologetic they were.” Similarly, a viewer at a screening of Damaged Goods said what stood out to them was “Authenticity, interesting story line.” In this way, we can see the reliability and realism through which these stories resonated with audiences is also tied to the authentic way these narratives are told. They are reflective of true realities intersectional and marginalized people face in the world, and are not based on derivative stereotypes.
Character & Plot Development
Across 16 of the 19 shows, the thing audiences said they wanted to see more from OTV shows was character and plot development. In speaking to plot development, one audience member at the screening of Low Strung commented “I wish there was more of an actual story/ plot in the episodes rather than just silly situations.” Similarly, speaking to issues of character development, an audience member at the screening of Conspiracy Theorist noted “I’d be interested to see more character development and learn more about how she became the person she is currently.” These and similar comments made across the majority of the shows points to the potential limitations of web series. While short-form storytelling can allow for interesting experimentation it can also be limited by the brevity of the format, leaving less room for plot and character development.