Review Essay

1500-2000 words double-spaced
Students will view and critique one of the following series – Ratched or The Alienist Or feature films – A Beautiful Mind, Girl Interrupted, Good Will Hunting, Freud’s Last Session, or A Dangerous Method. In the case of the series, you should watch a minimum of three (3) episodes (you may contact us for episode suggestions) to complete the assignment.
Your main task is to critically review the chosen film or series in the context of what you have learned in the course from a variety of the course materials. You need to:
1) Provide a general overview of the chosen series or film which should include – setting, major characters (with brief character descriptions of the most significant ones), plot, significant themes explored (ca. 2 pages);
2) What “psychs” (i.e. psychology, psychiatry, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychosis, psychotropic medications, psychology/psychiatric theory, psychological/psychiatric treatments, and so forth) are explored in the series or film and how effective it is in doing so; you should be using course resources and materials to support your identification and analysis (ca. 2-3 pages);
3) Detail at least 3 or 4 strengths and/or weaknesses (this can be a combination or you may want to focus on just one of these categories) in the film or series and you should include your rating out of 100 for the chosen film/series which should consider entertainment value, relevance, plausibility and accuracy in portraying at least 2 or more of the “psychs” (ca. 2-3 pages).
This should be in essay format, so you should have a clear introductory paragraph, several body paragraphs based on the above, and a brief concluding paragraph.
A marking guide/rubric is provided.