The Mirror in The 4th Wall

The Mirror in the 4th Wall

     

       To say that I watched a lot of TV growing up would be a profound understatement. The same can be said for the rest of my family and this is probably why we have two whole rooms in our house devoted to and arranged around television sets. But this, according to family sitcoms at least, is a fairly normal thing in America and as it is so very normal it is reflected in our entertainment, particularly the sitcom. In the typical American sitcom, which generally reflect some aspect of American life (whether it be Friends or family), we view the world largely from one angle. That angle is very much similar to the way we watch a production on a stage, through the 4th wall. Most sitcoms, especially those with domestic settings are set the same way: the audience is always looking into the house or apartment from the same direction, as if the location was missing a wall. What is interesting about sitcoms is that this 4th wall is generally where the character’s TVs are located.

This leads to an interesting phenomenon wherein we the audience see ourselves almost mirrored by the characters in the TV who are looking at a TV, whose location is in the same relationship as the one that we share with are set. Now that last sentence may be a bit confusing so lets look at an example from Everybody Loves Raymond. Deborah, the wife of the titular character, and Raymond enter and proceed to put their wedding tape into the VCR which is on top of the TV facing directly away from the audience. They then settle onto the coach, as anyone would in this situation, to watch the memories (for about ten seconds until it is revealed that Ray has taped a football game over the ceremony). This is just my favorite example, but there are many moments where the show’s characters sit on that couch facing us, the audience, and perform a kind of pantomime of what we are doing on the other side of the 4th wall. It is in those instances where the fact that the TV and its programming mirror our own lives becomes very apparent.