MISFITS OPENINGTomas Mann McLeod

The opening of misfits represents the youth of Britain as abusive, ciminalistic, sexually orientated, rude and in general vile. This representation has been portrayed through the use of costume in the opening.

The first three shots are of teenagers getting changed into orange, community service jump suits, connoting that all the youth in London have committed crime – it can be implied that all youth are criminals as these are the only people of this age group that we see as an audience in the opening and they’re all offenders.

The younger generation are suggested as sexually active as the first shot of the TV program is of a woman in her underwear, as well as this shot the next shot is of a topless man.

As well as costume, props have also been used to give the youth a bad name, a cigarette has been used as a property to a character suggesting, he is unclean and going against the system because as a society it is considered that smoking is a bad thing.

Dialogue is also used as the swearing on the scene is heavy and frequent, so the director has represented the youth using dialogue.

All youngsters are given this representation in the opening of misfits. The characters focused on in the opening range from black and white, male and female, English and foreign. This representation is enforced by characterisation in the clip, all of the characters have different accents that represent their background and social group.

This poor view of young people is also represented using the opening credits. All the shots in the credits are dark, dull and dingy. The credits are used at the beginning of every episode in every series. Therefore it can be denoted that the youth are a burden on society throughout the whole show.

As well as representing the younger generation, it could also be used to represent London. In the opening 30 seconds of misfits it is clear that the setting is of London through mise-en-scene, the opening is set on the Thames, giving the location to the audience immediately.

The representation the director has given London is that it is run down, derelict and depressing. This has been done through the setting and the props, the first shot is in a referral unit changing room, and even the shot of Thames has two high rise council estates in the back ground.

The teenagers are represented as set apart from society by making them stand out from the rest of what is going on in the background.