The television show I chose to watch was How I Met Your
Mother. In this Episode, it was Robin’s wedding day and Ted recounts the time
he insisted on leaving Victoria’s fiancé a note before they drove into the
sunset together.
While watching the show with no sound, I looked at the
relationship between the characters as well as their feelings and expressions
based on their nonverbal behaviors. A lady had come up to Ted at the train
station and began talking to him. Ted
looked angry or frustrated by his facial expression and force when slamming a
book closed before it went to the flashback while the lady was just starting a
conversation that must have set him off.
The bride in the flashback looked nervous based on her hand gestures and
watery eyes. At other times everyone looked happy and smiling at a baby that
their friend just had. Then, it appeared they were having a deep conversation
and blocking the other person out by their facial expressions of pretending to
fall asleep while she was talking and their body language and hand gestures
when talking. When Ted is with Victoria
he seems to be frustrated when he snatches the pen right out of her hand in the
car causing Victoria to shake her head and talk back in a disgusted way (like
did you just really do that). Then while talking with each other they body
language and facial expressions appeared to be sarcastic and anger. Ted then
leaves and gets out of the car. Towards the middle of the episode, Ted was
trying to sneak into someone’s apartment and then is caught by a girl who
grabbed his shoulder out of anger and spun him around with an angry looked on
her face and a scared look on the guys face she began yelling (her eyebrows
were up and she was staring in his eyes).
The relationship between these two did not seem to be very friendly. Towards
the end, the friends had concern looks on their faces when their other friend
was fighting with a girl in front of them. They all have a conversation
together and at the end they seemed forgiving because the people they had a
problem with began to cry and then they hugged. At the end, all the characters
seemed relieved.
Their relationship with each other appeared to be close
friends. They hugged each other throughout the episode and held hands. It appeared
that the conversations were honest and open which friends should be able to do
even if the content might be deep and maybe sometimes hurtful.
When I watched the show with sound, I had a much better time
watching it and understanding what was going on. I had a good interpretation of
the beginning because it started out with Ted telling the lady he would rather
not talk about it and then began venting to the lady. I did however misinterpret the one scene
because I thought the friends were all having a deep conversation when really
they had just found out their friend was engaged and then the other couple who I
thought was blocking out the person talking was really delirious from just
having a baby and not sleeping in days.
I also had a misunderstanding of the scene when Victoria left her fiancé
at the alter for Ted and he brought up writing a letter. She said she never did so he was getting loud
and frustrated with her because she never wrote the letter. He forces her to leave a letter so that is
when they write it in the car and Ted is forced to sneak in a leave it on the
bed for him while Victoria is out in the car. When he gets caught, he waits for
another opportunity and that time, leaves the keys in the room which causes him
to find a way to sneak through the window and get the keys.
While all this is going on, the other friends are discussing
the recent engagement of their friend.
The soon to be bride asks all the girls to be her bridesmaids. Robin feels some kind of way because that is
her ex-boyfriend that she is marrying.
When she pulls him aside, she finds out that he never told his fiancé that
they ever dated. He refuses to tell her
and therefore asks all his friends to never say a word about them dating. Then, the two friends that are delirious didn’t
remember inviting everyone into the baby’s room and they accidently blurted it
out thinking they were in private but she was in there. This caused tension and
shock based on the brides facial expressions.
The other two really had no clue she was in there and therefore could
not believe what really just happened. She then confronts her soon to be
husband about the dating. She was very angry and he rushed to tell her the
story before she walked out. After his story, she walks out and he is upset.
Looking to the end of the show, I misinterpreted the gathering when Robin
hugged her two friends; she hugged them because she was trying to tell the new
parents to get some sleep when the baby started crying. She did hug them to
make them feel better and then they fell asleep standing up.
Reflecting back on the show and comparing what I interpreted
with no sound and then what really happened, I learned the importance of active
listening and fully comprehending what is going on. I learned that my assumptions throughout the
show were completely wrong. I
interpreted many scenes as negative based on body language and facial
expressions when really they were positive.
I also learned the importance of body language and facial expressions
and how you feel might not always be how another person perceives them to be. I
think if I was watching a show that I enjoyed on a regular basis and knew what
was going on based on previous seasons or episodes my interpretations would not
be so wrong. The one thing that I was
correct on was that they were all friends and that in the end nothing will
change that.
