Hollyoaks
Like most soaps Hollyoaks will always be open ended, there's several different story's running as there's a lot of characters and each character has their own story. Whilst one story is running another one is running somewhere else. When one story has ended another one is ready to unfold, it may last a couple of months or it could last a year. Basically Hollyoaks has had 19 years worth of open ended story lines. Many characters in Hollyoaks have sub narratives, this means one character has more than one storyline at once, for example Freddie Roscoe is with Sinead his wife, whilst being with his wife he had an affair with his brothers girlfriend when he thought he had killed his brother, Freddie also worked with a drug dealer called Frazer and ended up getting himself in a lot of trouble, whilst all this was happening his daughter had also died so he had that to deal with. The story's mainly stay set in Hollyoaks although they have a weeks worth of Hollyoaks Later a year. Hollyoaks Later usually focus's on about 5 characters and they will go away, this also appeals to the older audience as it includes violence and nudity it will be aired after 10pm.
The editing is structured around dialect and conversation, when two charters are talking the camera angle will alternate between the characters to show conversation and emotion. Hollyoaks doesn't use jumpcuts, if someone is travelling somewhere or mentions they're going somewhere it will cut to another story and cut back to the character being in the destination. There is non-diagetic sounds added to Hollyoaks at the beginning of every episode, a soundtrack will be added to set the mood of the episode, this is the only soap in the UK to actually use this technique, all the others such as Coronation Street and Eastenders don't use non-diagetic sounds, this makes Hollyoaks unique compared to the others.
Awkward
Awkward is an American teen comedy drama based around California, filmed in schools mostly. Each character in the TV series has to over come a problem which will progress into something greater and once its overcome another problem will occur so its open ended at the moment. This series has an over arching linear narrative, for example of the first episode Jenna has an accident which then gets misconstructed as a suicide attempt which brings her immediate and unwanted popularity, this is still an issue as the series unfolds. Jenna also has a sub narrative, whilst dealing with the fact everyone thinks she attempted suicide she's also in love with one boy whilst his best friends in love with her and she has to create a solution. The camera follows the life of Jenna so there isn't many shots where the camera wont drift off unless its there to show conversation, the camera will cut from one character to another to whomever is speaking, it will also cut to show emotion and reaction. Awkward is a comedy so the lights are used to set the emotion of happiness, if it was dark we would immediately recognise darkness and fear. Awkward uses non-diagetic sounds like music to also help set the scene.
Life On Mars
life on mars has a closed narrative as it does end, it has an overarching narrative which carrys on into the series Ashes to Ashes which is a spin off of the show. Life on Mars uses flash forwards to show the overarching narrative, they do this whilst the current narrative plays out. Life on mars uses low light to suggest mood, tension and suspense. They also achieve suspense and tension by adding non-diagetic soundtracks such as the scene where Cortina vs Capri happens they use dramatic sounds to suggest the intended atmosphere. This show uses jump cuts to show travel.
