Author: Nikki Marsh

Johnathan Gray wrote in “Intertextuality and The Study of Texts” that “Intertextuality theory provocatively asks us to what degree a text as entity can exist outside of itself as a physical object and live through other texts. The 2006 movie musical, High School Musical, is arguably Disney Channel’s most popular movie and with such a large fanbase means the movie has existed and been referenced in several Disney Channel shows like The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. Then in 2019, the degree that this entity could exist was pushed and taken to a whole new level when a show was made on Disney+ based on the movie called High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (HSMTMTS).

No, it’s not a cheesy reboot. It’s a series with a lot of intertextuality. The school where High School Musical was filmed is actually a real school in Salt Lake City, so the series is a mockumentary about the real East High’s drama department putting on High School Musical for their seasonal production. The casts cover songs from the film and the last episode of season one is the opening night of the show. The series may seem like a copy of the movie, but the show has its own storyline, characters, love triangles, and songs. The film is referenced and intertwined with the theater kid’s lives, but overall, HSMTMTS is its own entity outside of High School Musical. To separate itself from the film, each episode has two songs: 1) a cover from High School Musical and 2) an original song. For example, in the sixth episode of season one “What Team?,” the drama teacher is on leave when the school board makes accusations about her teaching credentials. Carlos, the student choreographer, has to take over rehearsal for the day. The students argue over the High School Musical scene where Gabriella sings “When There Was Me and You” and how to bring the film scene to the stage. Ricky covers the song to show another character how he thinks the performance should be done on stage. Later in the episode, everyone finds out about the drama teacher potentially losing her job, and they show up to the hearing and sing an original song called “Truth, Justice, and Songs In Our Key.”

This episode is a great example of why HSMTMTS is an example of intertextuality and not a reboot. The show has its own storyline, but incorporates the text of High School Musical into its plot. As Gray would say, the film “lives through” the series. The second season shows the drama club producing Beauty and The Beast (which makes the title of the show confusing), so now instead of a season with intertextuality of High School Musical, its Beauty and The Beast songs that will be covered and references that will be made.

David Morley conducted a study on audiences to investigate different decodings and interpretations of television texts and how different interpretations of the same text relate to cultural factors. If given the opportunity, I would conduct a similar experiment with an episode from The Golden Girls called “72 Hours.”

In this episode, Rose gets a letter from the hospital where she received a blood transfusion that the blood given to her could possibly be infected by HIV/AIDS, and she needs to be tested. She gets tested, but has to wait 72 hours for the results. The audience watched Rose go through a series of emotions as her friends try to comfort and support her during this difficult time. The episode aired in 1990 during the AIDS crisis, and The Golden Girls producers took a huge risk to air this episode during such a sensitive time. Reviews praised the progressiveness of the episode, and how it taught us how AIDS can be transmitted, that it can happen to anyone, and understanding the disease is important. They quote Blanche’s infamous line, “AIDS is not a bad person’s disease, Rose. It is not God punishing people for their sins.”

Nevertheless, the episode was not perfect. One of the women, Sophia, refused to drink from the same mug as Rose and to use the bathroom after her. In the end, she learns how wrong she is and that she needs to support Rose during her time of fear and not add to it. She even drinks from Rose’s mug. Despite learning her lesson in the end, Sophia’s behavior is unacceptable and would not pass if the episode was made today.

If I conducted an experiment similar to Morley’s, I would investigate TV audiences of different age demographics and how they interpreted the message of the episode. Possibly, young adults who did not grow up with the show and only found it on Hulu recently, may understand how the show is progressive for its time, but thought the episode could have went with a different storyline for Sophia. They may have more of a negotiated or oppositional decoding. People who grew up with the show, like my parents, may see the dominant message of the episode, remember The Golden Girls for being ahead of its time, and see no faults with the episode. I would be interested to investigate how television episodes labeled as “progressive” and “ahead of their time” hold up today.

Netflix is arguably the most popular streaming service of all time. Fans are drawn to the service’s commercial-free experience of easily accessible movies and television. While other streaming services like Hulu, HBO, and Disney+ have also found huge success with their platforms, Netflix still remains number one.

Netflix, like many other cable television channels, has a calculated flow to keep viewers hooked to the platform. First, let’s look at the design of the app. When you click on your avatar and enter into Netflix, the first and biggest thing you see is a newly released movie and TV show that Netflix wants you to watch. The trailer for the show or movie also plays after only ONE second of being on the screen. It can be irritating having something play for you without consent, but sometimes if the trailer looks interesting enough, I will continue watching. Also, if I went on Netflix with no prior intention for what to watch, I might even click to watch that show or movie. Netflix makes the content large and bold and plays the trailer to make the viewer inclined to watch it because it’s the first thing they see, so it’s the easiest choice for them. They do not need to overthink it. The content will repeatedly show up at the top of the screen for days or in other categories like “Popular on Netflix” or “Top 10 in the U.S. Today,” so you feel even more inclined to watch it since Netflix keeps recommending it and people seem to enjoy it. For example, I had no intention of ever watching “Ginny and Georgia,” but it was the first thing I saw every time I went on to Netflix, I saw the show in the “Top 10 in the U.S. Today” and was curious why it was popular, and the show made its way into every category on the app (it was in the obvious category “Netflix Originals,” but in less obvious categories like “Because You Watched ‘Glee'”). Eventually, I broke down and finally watched “Ginny and Georgia.”

Netflix uses repetition of showing content on the website, immediate trailer viewing, and categorizing content to make the viewer believe the show is perfect for them in order to keep subscribers hooked onto the platform. While viewers may believe they are in control and picking what they want to watch, they are not, Netflix is slowly brainwashing the viewer into watching what they need to be popularized. Trashy shows like “Ginny and Georgia” need more of a boost to get people to watch them unlike critically acclaimed shows like “Breaking Bad.” I mean, how did “Ginny and Georgia” get a season 2? Overall, Netflix’s flow strategy can essentially make anything popular.