Philip Drake (2016) Reframing Television Performance. Journal of Film and Video, 68 (3-4)

Philip Drake (2016) Reframing Television Performance. Journal of Film and Video, 68 (3-4). p. 6. ISSN 0742-4671

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https://e-space.mmu.ac.uk Reframing Television Performance

philip drake

a decade ago, i wrote an article titled the actor’s publicist). A decade later, although “Reconceptualizing Screen Performance” there has been more sustained exploration for a 2006 special edition of this journal. A of film performance, there is—and this was number of writers have gratifyingly engaged missing in my own article—an even greater with a range of the points I made there; how lack of analysis of television performance. ever, it seems to me that the arguments I This absence is especially odd considering the presented neither changed doxa nor have had significant attention given to what has become an adequate refutation in the rethinking of termed “quality TV” in the past decade or so, screen performance. My central argument was applied to TV shows in which, ironically, televi that performance is fundamentally different sion performances are quite clearly central to from representation and that all media texts the shows’ achievements and audience en are essentially performative, constructing gagement.1 The distinctiveness of such quality particular relationships between performer television as The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking and audience. Further, I suggested that an Bad, and House of Cards, it seems to me, is at emphasis on discerning intentionality “in” least in part due to their screen performances. performance (and by an actor) is, for me, a My starting point in thinking about perfor less productive approach than analyzing how mance in my earlier article was to place empha performances deploy a particular repertoire sis on framing, arguing that “conceptualizing of techniques and skills to structure meaning performance involves not just reading actors’ and inference, regardless of whether the actor performances, important though this is, but also may intend this or not. In my earlier article, I a wider consideration of the ontology of film, also noted that there had been a relative lack and the epistemological frames through which of attention given to critical analysis of screen screen performance makes sense” (Drake, “Re performance relative to the plethora of acting conceptualizing” 84). Only by opening up ques manuals and studies of individual stars and tions of ontology and epistemology, I suggested, the considerable focus on acting in journal can we understand the particularity of screen istic interviews (the latter usually conducted performance, how it is different from everyday in press junkets, carefully stage-managed by performance, and how it is meaningful. In mak ing this point, I was drawing on a range of work from symbolic interactionism, phenomenologi philip drake is head of the Department of Media cal sociology, ordinary language philosophy, and a professor of film, media, and communica and media and performance studies, rather than tions at Edge Hill University, United Kingdom. He the limited theoretical work on performance in recently coedited Hollywood and Law (BFI Pal grave, 2015) and has also written on image rights film and television studies. Part of my article was in Hollywood, on television and deregulation, and focused on star performers who bring extratex on screen performance and celebrity. tual celebrity signification to their roles, offering

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 6 8/31/16 11:29 AM audiences a multiply coded performance, where by insisting that personalities are not elided the actor is recognized both as a star performing with actors/stars. Making a distinction between himself or herself and as a character within a the television actor or star and the television narrative. However, I was also interested in the personality, he argues that “performers who play performance of the nonrecognizable supporting themselves, mak[e] little distinction between actors and the work they perform, anchoring onscreen and private personas” (Bennett 35). those stars to dramatic realism and verisimili Freed from dominant conventions of realism, tude through performances using indirect ad such as indirect address and fourth-wall camera dress. This services narrative and works with placement, television performance is routinely rather than against mise-en-scène, reinforcing more varied: a news presenter, for instance, can fourth-wall staging, and uses effaced camera, perform live and direct to camera; a quiz show synchronous sound, and other conventions of can acknowledge the camera; a comedy can realist drama. My analysis of Marlon Brando’s disrupt conventions of realism without break screen performance in the opening scene of The ing frame. Television performance includes not Godfather (1972), for instance, considered the only dramatic acting but also direct-address performance of the star, Brando, playing Don performance of news presenting, hosting of quiz Corleone against the anchoring function offered shows, performing with non-actors in lifestyle by the Italian actor playing Bonasera, Salvatore and makeover shows, performing “self” in real Corsitto (Drake, “Reconceptualizing” 90–92). ity television formats, and more (Lury). The ex Brando, I suggested, is positioned in order to ploration of a range of performances in Beverley be presented as an ostended sign, mediated Skeggs and Helen Wood’s work on reality televi through his star image. Brando’s performance sion audiences and the varied essays in Chris draws upon the other actor in the scene, who tine Cornea’s collection on genre and film and performs according to a different, realist econ television performance all demonstrate the wide omy of acting. Corsitto—an actor who made very range of performers and modes of performance few film appearances—secures realism through at play across television. his representational performance, anchoring the The familiar relationship one has with televi narrative. sion performances has also changed with shifts I now wish to turn to television. In his reex in television technology (Newman and Levine). amination of television’s “personality system,” The rise of high-definition television sets (1080p updating the term used by John Langer in 1981 to and, more recently, 4K resolution “Ultra HD” outline how television fame differed from cine sets), as well as an overall rise in average televi matic stardom, James Bennett suggests a distinc sion screen sizes and multiple-screen house tion between “televisually skilled” and “vocation holds, means that television performance can ally skilled” performers. He argues, “Televisually be scrutinized more closely and in more detail skilled performers are defined by the performers’ by audiences. The availability of video and then lack of any skill, other than that of television DVD box sets and, more recently, video-on-de presenting, that informs their performance—the mand (VOD) services has meant that audiences content of the show is irrelevant to their ‘real’ life can also experience television performances or any ‘skills’ they may hold therein” (Bennett in new ways: “binge-watching” an entire sea 36; author’s italics). Discerning skill is, however, son, for instance, or watching episodes across a matter of inference, so such distinctions can multiple devices in self-scheduled viewing be made by considering the framing of perfor slots. As is the case for many people, my own mance: the television presenter is placed within viewing practices have altered, and my viewing a performance frame that gives her or his per is regularly done via “catch-up” and nonlinear formance its particular authority and meaning. television services available through the Internet Bennett argues for the distinction to be retained rather than via traditional linear broadcast televi between stars and television personalities, but sion. The example I discuss later in this article,

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 7 8/31/16 11:29 AM FX’s The Americans, I watched entirely online no longer mattering in the ways that it did previ via Internet services (in this case Amazon Prime ously (Caughie, “Playing”; Caughie, “Telephilia”; Video) rather than as a scheduled broadcast. Caughie, “Mourning”). The “must-see” single play of British television in the 1970s has, in the Television Performance: United Kingdom, been partially replaced by the Accumulation, Repetition, Pleasure “must-see TV” imported from US cable networks, available to watch online. Accumulation and To address television performance in detail, I plenitude can be a double-edged sword. For wish to set aside debates over television star Caughie, this “monstrous accumulation of televi dom or personality systems: issues I have con sion” (“Mourning” 418) has led to sidered elsewhere in analyzing television enter tainers and reality television celebrities (Drake, the loss of a “seriousness” in which television “Celebrity”; Drake and Haynes). Through the actually matters; of a “popularity” which is not rest of this article, I wish to examine perfor simply obedient to the market; the fading of the possibilities of a different television which mance in television drama. In Bennett’s terms, seemed to open in the UK with Channel 4; or I am focusing on the television actor, who per the waning of an object of study which has forms a role rather than personifies it, rather simply been overwhelmed by too many texts— than on the television personality. This is in too many texts for the discipline of television contrast to most work on television performers, studies to discipline; too many texts and too which focuses on television’s celebrity system. many carriers of texts. (“Mourning” 411) Here I am less interested in the celebrity per former than on the actor who stars in a drama The discussion of “seriousness” and the loss but is not widely known publicly as a television of “mattering” might be related to debates personality. Specifically, I want to explore the around what has become termed “quality TV.” accumulation of an actor’s performance across McCabe and Akass and also Newman and a television series, or several series, and the Levine position “quality TV” as a discursive familiarity one builds in the repeated viewing construct, quoting HBO’s famous slogan “It’s of that performer over a significant duration. An not TV. It’s HBO.” Through a range of writings example of this might be the accumulated per (especially that published by the journal Critical formance of James Gandolfini in The Sopranos. Studies in Television), analysis of quality TV has Although he was ultimately a star—and had a reignited debates about “serious” television career that spanned television and film—Gan and the breaking of television conventions in dolfini’s performances across work of several terms of content (sex, profanity) and aesthet years’ duration as Tony Soprano defined his ics (“shaky” mobile camerawork, heightened star image, rather than vice versa. realism, naturalistic modes of performance, Accumulated performances—through so- and lack of cause-and-effect relations). Simi called box-set viewing—present analysis with larly, Robin Nelson’s analysis of “high-end” TV some difficulties: Which part to analyze? How drama places emphasis on both the aesthetics was it experienced? In addition, a number of and the thought-provoking cultural politics of writers—most notably, John Caughie—have felt these television series. Such writing positions and expressed their sense of the lost potential in performance, though often indirectly and with television to provoke ideas and offer political en out great elaboration, as key to such television gagement, lost in a seemingly endless supply of drama. Karen Lury points out the unruly nature global television content. The plenitude of televi of television performance across different sion and the accumulation of programming, de genres, and Christine Cornea suggests that coupled from a strong public service ethos and committed political engagement, has—for these the arrival of what is commonly called “Quality” television has also increased the writers—led to a loss of purpose, to television

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 8 8/31/16 11:29 AM relevance of performance as central to the ing of character development for non-star and meaning and success of a genre series: if supporting actors. Across a thirteen-episode film genres were often criticised for their one- US television series, for example, a viewer will dimensional characters, then recent televi spend approximately ten hours accumulating sion drama series seem to have taken those knowledge of a character through the details of characters and added a depth, complexity performance, the repeated gestures, glances, and degree of refexivity that foregrounds the work of the performer. Witness the bravura eye movements, expressive use of body and performance of eccentric and dysfunctional face, infection of voice, and so on. As I de detectives and doctors (e.g. Monk, Silent scribed in my earlier article, the face, eyes, Witness, House), the complex ensemble per and voice of the performer are potent signs in formances in series/serial from The Sopranos the performance idiolect in that they are often to The West Wing to Sex and the City, and the read as the site of presence, anchored through compellingly elusive performances in series/ the body. The 2016 relaunch of The X-Files, for serial like Twin Peaks, The X-Files and Lost. example, draws on the idiolect of detectives (10–11) Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson)—and the familiarity that the majority Depth, complexity, and refexivity are, of of the audience has with the characters they course, partly subjective. In my earlier article, perform—as shorthand for understanding the drawing on James Naremore’s analysis of film new episodes, some fourteen years after the acting, I discussed the way that individual original show ended. performers become associated with a reper Scrutinizing such details is important, and our toire of performance signs: their “idiolect,” the analysis of screen performance in US television performance signs strongly associated with a drama can draw on the approaches elaborated particular actor. However, my analysis lacked by Constantin Stanislavski and developed by adequate elaboration of how idiolect functions Lee Strasberg, Stella Adler, and others (Blum) accumulatively for all performers, not just stars that have infuenced actor training in the United (although the latter bring greater extratextual States. However, as I argued in my earlier article, signification into play). Naremore also argues these models make assumptions of presence that performance can be considered with and intention that tend to efface the inferential regard to two key sets of rhetorical conven work of the audience and the schema through tions: the “mode of address” and the “degree which such performances are decoded. Often of ostensiveness” (34). The mode of address, such schema draw on culturally situated knowl he argues, can be read as operating along a edge, framing performance as meaningful in a scale ranging from indirect to direct address, particular way. For instance, most US viewers which is loosely mapped to the continuum would probably recognize House (Fox, 2004–12) from representational to presentational per star Hugh Laurie through his performances as formance. Representational performance, he a taciturn, obstinate American hospital doctor. suggests, tends to efface the production of the Many UK viewers would note the shift in register performance in order to be read as “behaving,” in this show from Laurie’s earlier performances— whereas presentational performance tends to well known in the United Kingdom—as half of foreground the performer as performer rather a double act (and a quintessential upper-class than character. Naremore uses the term “osten Englishman) in the UK comedies A Bit of Fry and siveness” to refer to the scale of the gestures Laurie (BBC, 1989–95), Blackadder (BBC, 1986– of the performance—the showing of the perfor 89), and Jeeves and Wooster (BBC, 1990–93). mance. Accumulated performances—the build I now wish to offer a more sustained consider ing up of detail and the use of familiar facial ation of television performance through detailed expressions, gestures, movements, and vocal analysis of The Americans (FX, 2013–). signs—are just as important to an understand

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 9 8/31/16 11:29 AM Playing at Being American, Revisited: tor to subscription VOD market leader Netfix), The Americans and Television Performance its Amazon Prime VOD service secured exclusive US VOD rights to The Americans in January 2014 In his 1990 article “Playing at Being Ameri (Spangler), leveraging interest in “catch-up” can,” John Caughie discusses the reception of viewing of the series to recruit subscribers. US television from the perspective of one at The Americans is an interesting example to the margins of American culture. He recounts consider in analyzing television performance engaging in a play of irony and knowingness, for a number of reasons. First, it presents a watching as a detached spectator rather than “quality TV” show that is refexive about nation, caught through cultural imperialism, engaged cultural context, and performance. Second, it yet also distanced. Recalling Raymond Wil offers a layering of television performance that liams’s famous description of watching US rewards closer scrutiny—the very premise is television and his discussion of “fow,” Caughie based on performing a deception, requiring presents his viewing as a game of dissociation the actors to “play American” and sometimes and engagement, as ironic playing with the be “Russian,” yet within a 1980s US setting. cultural codes of “American-ness” that enable As a viewer I have a privileged insight into local understandings and sometimes resistant the characters’ secret and thus can recognize readings to be made (“Playing” 57). The global both “them” and “not them” in their acting. ization of television over the past twenty-five Third—and referring to this section’s heading years since Caughie’s account was written and and Caughie’s article—not only are they playing the rise of formats and global television celeb at being American, but so am I, a British viewer rity have all weakened the possibilities of such watching the show in Scotland, England, and distanciated viewing. Adopting a similarly self- North Africa, streaming it on tablets and smart refexive tone, I want to present an analysis of TV apps and consuming one or two episodes a US television series, The Americans, brought per evening, with gaps. I viewed the show via to the screen by a major US network (FX, owned Amazon Prime Video on a variety of different by Fox) yet experienced by me in similarly dis screens (tablet, laptop, and streaming televi tanced ways as Caughie’s account. sion app) and at different locations, which as The Americans (2013–) is a Cold War spy a viewer experience is removed from the tradi thriller serial drama, commissioned and broad tional weekly linear broadcast mode yet is an cast by the US cable network FX, a subsidiary increasingly common way of watching. of Twenty-First Century Fox, and coproduced An interesting aspect of much “quality TV” is by FX Productions and Fox Television Studios. the casting of performers who are relatively un Beyond the United States, The Americans has known, or at least non-stars, yet highly trained aired in numerous countries worldwide, includ and accomplished actors, in major US televi ing on ITV2 in the United Kingdom. Set in 1980s sion roles. The accumulation of signification Washington, DC, it follows two “deep cover” associated with major stars has the potential to KGB agents living as a suburban American mar work against the emphasis in television drama ried couple under the pseudonyms Philip and on character and performance over star as Elizabeth Jennings, raising two unsuspecting spectacle. The casting of Welsh actor Matthew children. After widespread critical acclaim, FX Rhys as Philip Jennings follows a recent and recently announced that it has commissioned noted trend in which US quality dramas have a fourth season of The Americans. The show cast British actors in major roles, notable exam attracts a modest one million viewers per epi ples of which include Dominic West and Idris sode, a number that FX claims accounts for only Elba in The Wire, Andrew Lincoln in The Walking a quarter of the show’s weekly audience when Dead, and Ashley Jensen in Ugly Betty. Accord time-shifted viewing is included (Hibberd). In ing to Christopher Holliday, British actors are deed, in a coup for Amazon (as a direct competi recognized as “an economically viable alterna

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 10 8/31/16 11:29 AM tive to American performers” with a “productive distinguished from Philip by way of a foppy- anonymity” that “preserv[es] an authenticity fringed gray wig and big fake glasses, along for viewers who do not identify them through with a greater propensity to grin broadly, the prism of previous characters.” Furthermore, emphasizing his upper row of teeth. The pilot “[t]he ‘Quality’ of ‘Quality television’ in the US episode of The Americans, which first aired on . . . becomes ascribed to the acting abilities FX in January 2013, introduced us not only to of the UK actor” (Holliday 66). Just like the Philip and Elizabeth but also to some of their “spies next door” in The Americans, “a growing bewigged alter egos; additionally, via fash wealth of British-born actors in contemporary back, we see their younger selves in training in US television drama have managed to integrate Russia twenty years earlier and then see them seamlessly and convincingly into their adopted arriving in the United States and adjusting to homeland” (Holliday 79). their arranged marriage. Interestingly, though The intertextuality of performance I noted many critics were broadly positive about the in my earlier article relating to previous roles pilot episode, many criticized the use of cos (“Reconceptualizing” 88–89) also occurs within tume changes and the fashback scenes, which television performance, in which an actor can were seen as lacking believability in that nei become known for one long-lived role but in a ther actor looked convincingly younger. Critics distinctly different way—hence, Keri Russell’s singled out the wigs in particular, describing performance in The Americans pilot was regu them variously as “comedy wigs” (Hogan), larly assessed by US critics in relation to her “goofy wigs” (Stuever), “iffy wigs” (Higgins), “a previous starring role as the eponymous char harrowing procession of wigs” (Donaghy), and acter in Felicity (1998–2002). Given the decade- “an increasingly preposterous rotation of wigs” long gap between Felicity and her appearance in (Nicholson). This suggests a critical wariness The Americans, some critics in particular made of the use of props to rekey and accentuate or reference to her age (“A finely matured Keri Rus draw particular attention to performance. How sell,” wrote Stuever) and the contrast in the new ever, Naremore notes how objects and props role in comparison with the earlier one. For the can be used expressively in acting (83–96). The majority of UK viewers, with different cultural Americans uses wigs and other devices as os capital, Russell was unknown, and therefore her tensive tools to rekey the actors’ performances, performance came unencumbered with such his indicating to the viewer that the character tory. Yet the premise of the show means that per onscreen is a performance of a performance. formances are layered—or in Goffman’s terms, The opening ten minutes of the pilot intro laminated—containing sections where the duce us to the leads alongside other minor principal actors need to go undercover, keyed characters, without initially explicitly drawing through their ostensive use of wigs and glasses attention to who is who; instead, the empha alongside quickly changed clothes and makeup; sis is on following several lines of action that this layering is described by Matthew Rhys, who converge upon the abduction of a man later plays Philip Jennings, as “an actor’s dream, be revealed to be a Russian defector. As the cause you’re playing parts within parts” (Geller). episode commences with a title card stating The double-ness of performance here is notable “Washington DC, 1981” and the saxophone in allowing a commentary on the performance solo from Quarterfash’s “Hand on My Heart,” within the primary frame. Rhys and Russell are we glimpse a man and a woman sitting at a playing Philip and Elizabeth, but also a range of dimly lit cocktail bar through a hazy scene of other characters in disguise, and their perfor smoke, martini glasses, and shadowy face mances need to cue the relevant frame for us to less men in suits. We will later come to realize determine which character they are performing. that the woman is Elizabeth disguised with a The ostensively disguised “Clark,” another peroxide-blonde wig, smilingly firting with a one of Matthew Rhys’s American alter egos, is Department of Justice official. At this point, in

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 11 8/31/16 11:29 AM Figure 1: Elizabeth’s (Keri Russell) introduction to the audience in disguise.

this opening scene, we are not aware of her judge who is the “authentic” character (Eliza significance or of her disguise. Here Keri Rus beth) through Russell’s performance, as distinct sell uses a specific technique that recurs in from her character performing in disguise. several scenes in the episode—that of a serious Similarly, in the next scene Philip is first preoccupied glance away to the side, which in shown alongside another minor character, this brief scene interrupts her smile. The glance without any initially clear indications of his sig at this point is subtle and hidden by distracted nificance or of the two characters’ relative impor handling and drinking from her wine glass—a tance. But unlike our first introduction to Eliza combination of what I termed in my earlier beth, he is not using an ostensive disguise at article “diversionary business” and “disclosive this point, which we realize only retrospectively. compensation”—and her performance idiolect Instead, his superficial chat with the other char signposts her character’s hidden agenda. acter (a recruit) about sports is a performance After a brief sex scene we follow Russell’s of normality, charm, and seeming “American- character as she returns to her car. Sitting in the ness.” As their object of surveillance, a Russian driver’s seat, she seems to briefy lose compo defector, gets closer, we first see an indication sure, sighing exasperatedly, wiping her mouth of what becomes and is retrospectively under in disgust, and pulling off her wig, revealing her stood, through repeated use, as a gesture of “true” appearance and feelings to the viewer. “Russian-ness,” in which Philip stares with an Thus, the opening scene of The Americans sets intensely stern facial expression, emphasized up multiple performance frames, and the viewer by a close-up and lighting on his eyes alongside has privileged narrative information in order to the low-key lighting of this nighttime scene.

Figure 2: Philip (Matthew Rhys) in close-up, using facial expression and eyes.

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 12 8/31/16 11:29 AM Figure 3: Philip’s (Matthew Rhys) sideways stare.

Philip’s stern-faced stare makes another enthusiastic. This is not the first scene in which appearance within the first twenty minutes of we meet the children of the Jennings’, Paige and the pilot, after he has threatened the Russian Henry, but this scene uses their performances, defector now trapped in the boot of his and alongside diversionary business with ice cream, Elizabeth’s car and sent the kids off to school, to foreground particular characteristics of their in a scene that involves dialogue only from performance of themselves. The trope of the background police but shows him seated on a family-who-are-not-what-they-seem has recurred park bench. In addition to Philip’s silence and in American high-concept quality TV, with Break- the use of close-ups emphasizing his stares, ing Bad and The Sopranos being key examples, the use of cross-cutting to point-of-view shots and this scene particularly emphasizes how we incorporating crash zooms (as though Philip (the audience) have more narrative privilege has zoom lenses for eyes) further structures his than the children. Here audience knowledge stare for the viewer, aligning our view with his functions to inform an understanding of both look via point-of-view shots. narrative and performance. As such, the relation Not long later, a scene in which the Jen ships between performances are more sophisti nings family gets ice cream together shows a cated than usually ascribed to television acting, recurrence of Elizabeth’s signifying glance. In and arguably, this privileges the long-form me contrast, Philip’s charming, jocular mode is in dium’s ability to illuminate the accumulation of full fight with no sign of his earlier stare. Here character knowledge through performance. we see Philip playing “ice cream Olympics” We might productively recall Roland with his children, while Elizabeth seems less Barthes’s deconstruction of “italianicity” (in

Figure 4: The Jennings family playing at being American in The Americans.

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 13 8/31/16 11:29 AM his well-known essay “Rhetoric of the Image”) Noah Emmerich, an FBI agent who moves in in considering Philip and Elizabeth’s perfor next door. The pilot introduces Beeman as hav mance of “Russian-ness.” This is coded by ing just started working in counterintelligence their performances, drawing on cultural stereo after three years spent undercover among white types of the “unsmiling Russian” prevalent in supremacists. Emmerich is a veteran character American culture and most famously voiced in actor, familiar from a range of film and televi an outburst by Russian émigré and right-wing sion roles, with an understated presence, author Ayn Rand in her testimony in 1947 to characterized in particular by a deep voice the House Un-American Activities Committee. and an “actorly” diction that is camoufaged This case concerned the Hollywood film Song of with a casual drawl. Both the low pitch and the Russia (1944), with Rand lambasting what she drawl imbue his voice with warmth and key it regarded as the film’s suspiciously pro-Commu as sincere and “authentic” (a construct of its nist and “unrealistic” portrayal of smiling Rus laid-back and understated delivery). The visual sians. A number of television critics noted the counterpoint to this is a physical presence that coding of “Soviet-ness” or “Russian-ness” and combines a tall, commanding physique and a “American-ness” in the various performances chiseled, well-defined chin and forehead with in The Americans, not least in Rhys’s skin scarred and pockmarked skin, typecasting him and black eyebrows: “Rhys’s face dominates: as supporting actor rather than leading man. the contrast turned up to 11 on his pale skin His performance style tends to avoid highly os and black brows with cheekbones that could tensive gestures—in the words of one critic, he slice kielbasa” (Raeside). In some fashback is regarded as “an actor’s actor” because “he’s scenes in season 1, we hear the two leading understated and he steals scenes” (Cardace, actors speak Russian, but we never hear them original emphasis). Within the context of the speak English with Russian accents. There is narrative, he is an enigma—we know virtually the anchoring—a term used by Barthes—of the nothing about his time undercover, although in two leading actors, neither of whom are Rus the pilot he clearly is suspicious of the Jennings sian, with supporting actors who are some way (at one point he searches their garage); he and connected with Eastern Europe, Russia, and his family appear to befriend them, raising the former USSR (Arkady Zotov [Russian actor questions regarding whether he is a dupe or Lev Gorn], General Zhukov [Polish actor Olek playing a long game with them. Furthermore, Krupa], and Nina [Annet Mahendru, whose his secret affair with Nina, a former KGB agent mother is Russian and who speaks Russian]). (and then double agent) working at the Russian An interesting exception is the American actor embassy, demonstrates his capacity to conceal Margo Martindale, who plays the “motherly and the truth from his close family and colleagues. deadly KGB handler” (O’Neill), although she His performance, combined with the warmth of too is clearly coded as “Russian” and “playing his voice and its understated apparent sincer American” through her performances: the for ity, codes his character as paradoxically trust mer as severe and unsmiling, the latter as jocu worthy yet also enigmatic and hard to read. lar and friendly. As in my earlier examination of As with the other performances, a game of supporting actors in The Godfather, the anchor cat-and-mouse spying is produced through his ing of the leading actors and their perceived character’s engagement with other characters, authenticity is, here, in part achieved through often producing narrative suspense. the coded ethnicity of the supporting cast. One of the most memorable scenes of the Their “Russian-ness” is anchored by Arkady, pilot episode involves the Jennings family Nina, and others, who provide the background (Philip, Elizabeth, Paige, and Henry) and the performances necessary for narrative realism. Beemans meeting for the first time, with Eliza The adversary of the Jennings family is Stan beth carrying a tray of freshly baked brownies Beeman, played by prominent character actor to greet their new neighbors. As in the ice-

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 14 8/31/16 11:29 AM cream scene, Philip and Elizabeth’s perfor pretation, defining performance as the “mode mance of themselves as a suburban American of assessment of the ‘textual/character/actor’ couple is thrown into relief by the presence of interaction” (Thompson 78). Part of this is the the children, yet it acquires several more lay connection between person (the actor) and ers here, with the Beemans as an “audience” character (the role he or she performs) and how for their performance. But also, it is unclear this is then mediated to an audience, drawing whether Beeman is suspicious of the Jennings, on social, cultural, and technological framing in with Philip’s grin appearing more nervous as order to understand how each differs from the Stan tells him about his job. The final shot other. This is by no means a simple relation is held half a second too long on Philip and ship. For Goffman, “there is a relation between Elizabeth, with Matthew Rhys’s nervous grin persons and role. But the relationship answers reaching screwball comedy levels. Meanwhile, to the interactive system—to the frame—in Emmerich, with his warm, friendly voice and which the role is performed and the self of the welcoming demeanor, manages to be simulta performer is glimpsed” (573). Although Goff neously “open” and inscrutable. man is here principally referring to the roles we Television performers such as Emmerich are, all play in different social situations, he also of course, aware of the way the camera frames considers dramatic performance—such as act them, and they adjust the scale of their perfor ing in television—as a rekeying and layering mance accordingly. The close-up, as Naremore (what he calls “laminating”) of this social pro has noted, is often used to represent character cess. In his terms the process of “lamination” interiority and ostends even the slightest of transforms one whole “strip” of activity into movements. This offers the performer the op another (e.g., through recording) (561). For dra portunity to work in minute detail, where even matic performance, Goffman argues that keying a slight twitch can be registered by the camera. transforms the activity into a “staged being,” The reaction shot, and its repetition and ac stating that “the theatrical frame is something cumulation across a series, is also a key com less than a benign construction and something ponent in constructing a televisual performance more than a simple keying . . . a corpus of tran that is offered more time and space to develop scription practices must be involved for trans than film performance. Similarly, the relation forming a strip of offstage, real activity into a ship between performance and technology is strip of staged being” (138). The relationship significant (Bode). The use of zoom lens, for in between “everyday life” and staged perfor stance, can fatten shot depth and thereby fore mance is therefore more than the performance ground the performer, or bring the minutiae of of self that Goffman famously described; it is the actor’s performance onto the screen. Multi- the inference of a performance of self engaged track sound-mixing and improved microphone in a performance of a character. The complex technology can enable television to present a interaction between text, character, and actor is soundscape within which the actor’s voice may layered, and the inferred relationship we read be brought forward or reduced, often used as a between performance and representation adds means of keying the actor’s performance. to the semantic complexity. In The Americans, Drawing on the work of Erving Goffman, I as we have seen, the layered narrative adds have argued that recognizing performance in extra levels of detail to the pleasures of reading volves evaluation. Goffman insists that the rela the performance. The meaning itself does not tionship constructed between performance and reside wholly “in performance,” then, but is audience—a particular kind of arrangement mediated through sets of contextual epistemo involving interpretation by the latter—is funda logical frames or schema that give performance mental to meaning, stating quite simply, “[N]o signs their relevance and meaning and that are audience, no performance” (125). Similarly, decoded by audiences through accumulated Graham F. Thompson places emphasis on inter forms of cultural capital.

JFV 68_3-4 text.indd 15 8/31/16 11:29 AM Previously, I quoted Goffman’s maxim “no ality, and presence, alongside accumulation and audience, no performance.” The recognition repetition, to consider the experience of watch of performance is a pleasure and one that ing television performances across different de viewers often share, especially in an era of vices, different nations, different social spaces, “second-screen” viewing, where the televi and different times. I have also discussed what sion or larger screen is often supplemented we might call the “accumulated performance,” by a laptop, tablet, or phone screen that is ac the experience we have living with and watching tive during watching. Social networking sites a long-running series, building up knowledge of and applications such as Facebook, Twitter, the performances and close familiarity with the and Tumblr all showcase the fascination and actors/characters over time. pleasure that audiences have with television Television’s economies of performance are, performances. Review and discussion sites, as John Caughie has noted, often rooted in both formal (critics’ reviews, interviews, the pleasures of “an aesthetic of detail” (“What Do show’s “official” website) and informal (blogs, Actors” 167). Fleeting moments of performance, user-generated content), offer useful examples brief glances, tiny gestures, and momentary of the everyday, sometimes vernacular, discus fickers of the eyes are replete with meaning, sions about and engagements with screen yet so often difficult to grasp and hold up for performance. This can be seen most overtly in analytical dissection. The repetition of our fan discourse, where the affective engagement encounters with television means acting is, of the fan ostends and reframes performance as Caughie notes, “layered with little histories signs, leading to what Barry King has called which give no purchase to the theoretical divi the “hypersemioticisation” of the actor (41), sions of identification and distance” in ways in whose expressions and idiolect can be quoted which performance is often theorized (“What and repeated for fan consumption and circula Do Actors” 168). Decoding television perfor tion, layering signification. A recent example mance therefore relies on working through such of this has been the sharing of animated GIFs, knowledge, informing and sometimes decon or images of performances, on social media, structing conventions of interpretation, break created by websites such as Giphy. In the case ing frames that foreground and privilege some of The Americans, a quick search on Giphy re modes of performance over others, and then veals 19,515 animated images, often catching holding up and analyzing the pleasures of per nuanced and memorable aspects of the actor’s formance. As seen in The Americans, by refram performances, especially facial expressions ing television performance, placing it central to in close-up (see links in this article’s notes for an analysis of television, we are better able to animated GIFs), revealing the audience’s in understand the accumulated performances we vestment in the performers’ nuances, idiolects, experience in television and their complex and and idiosyncrasies.2 layered meanings.

notes Conclusions 1. For an exploration of “quality TV” debates, see In his 1974 Cambridge inaugural lecture “Drama the range of essays in McCabe and Akass. in a Dramatised Society,” Raymond Williams— 2. A quick search of Giphy, for example, shows a number of animated GIFs that capture the wordless a Welshman, like Matthew Rhys, and also an glances of Philip and Elizabeth. For glances by Philip acute observer of American television—argued, and Elizabeth, see “#tv #fx #the americans #elizabeth “Drama is a special kind of use of quite general jennings” and “#tv #fx #the americans #310.” An processes of presentation, representation, sig other animated GIF captures Claudia’s (Margo Martin nification” (qtd. in O’Connor 7). In this article, I dale) scowl as she unreassuringly reassures Elizabeth that she is on her side (see “#tv #fx #the americans have revisited issues of performance, intention #111”).

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