I Love Lucy

            For this blog assignment I decided to watch "I Love Lucy" since it is a show I have not seen many times before and I thought it would be interesting to watch silently. The character relationships are very different when the sound is turned off compared to when the sound is turned on. Turned off, the characters do not seem to communicate very well; they do not consistently make eye contact nor wait for one another to stop talking before the other begins.

            With the sound turned off the relationships in the show do not seem sincere, but they do appear to be relationships that have lasted a long time. Ricky and Lucy seem to enjoy each other with lots of smiles and pats on one another's arms. However, they often talk facing away from one another insinuating that they do not respect each other enough to pay attention and listen effectively. They do not use many hand gestures but they do use body movements to emphasize certain points.

            The characters in this episode of "I Love Lucy" seem to be feeling very stressed and annoyed, according to their nonverbal behavior. They face their bodies away from one another, scowl at one another, and stomp their feet. Their more subtle body movements are sharp and agitated, showing their annoyance.

            When I re-watched this episode with the volume turned on, I realized that the characters are not really annoyed at one another, though they were stressed. The episode was about Lucy and Ethel buying a freezer behind Ricky and Fred's backs. At the beginning of the episode I thought that Ricky and Lucy were communicating poorly, but in reality they were just in the middle of a disagreement about buying a freezer. When Ethel enters the scene after Ricky leaves, I misinterpreted her communication with Lucy as well. I had thought their relationship was rude, but in reality they have a playful and sarcastic relationship that was simply hard to understand without the volume.

            I am not sure if this is the case with all television shows, but this show definitely needs to be watched with the volume on (or with subtitles). The characters spoken words and body language do not always agree with one another. Also sarcasm and irony are difficult to understand without language being used.

            I think that I would be able to interpret a show more accurately that I am more familiar with, but I cannot promise that. A lot of information is shared through verbal communication, which makes sense for a television show; which is typically created to be seen and heard.