ZEN

Zen (BBC1 2011 Sunday evenings) is an excellent example of a crime/detective drama series whose opening efficiently establishes its genre, locations, themes and tone right from the start.

The crime genre is established through the iconography such as the repeated firearms and depictions of the Questura, the police headquarters.

Italianicity is conveyed through repeated washing of the screen with the colours of the Italian flag: red, white, green. Remember Barthes's analysis of semiotic codes in the Panzani advertisement?

Location is rapidly established through depictions of iconic Roman buildings such as the dome of St Peter's towering over the Vatican. 

Fiat Cinquecento cars are stacked up in repeated motifs with connotations of the crowded city streets of Rome; this sequence echoes similar ones such as those showing the guns. The colour codes of the Italian flag again connote Italy.

Black vertical lines are repeatedly used to separate the blocks of colour and to narrow the frame through which we see the characters who are introduced. This creates a sense of spying or voyeurism as if we were seeing what is normally restricted or kept secret. 

They could be read as prison bars, which ties in with generic conventions as Zen is a police officer whose job is to bring criminal to justice: each episode ends with a successful arrest. Zen's expert eye and watchfulness are important to his success. The centre line is used to place the producer's name.






Black and white or sepia tones connote a level of seriousness and indicate the adult nature of the target audience, perhaps with connotations of film noir, whilst shots of the 'love interest' in the person of the glamorous female police officer hint at romance and widen the target audience to include those who enjoy romance.

                                                                                  

The theme tune contributes to the Italian flavour through its sound codes and it reflects the tension, suspense and drama of the genre.