Synopsis and Example

So now let’s actually practice this a little bit.

I’m going to give you part of a synopsis synopsis is a basic overview basic outline of what happened in a movie or a TV series.

OK we’re just going to do that for a little bit.

A short one and then I’m going to also include some of my opinions about it.

We’re going to use some of the words and phrases that we’ve learned in this lesson.

And we’re also going to describe how we feel about different parts of this particular TV series.

So here’s the example.

SIMON X plays so Simon x is the actor right.

Simon x plays a heartbroken doctor named Kyle a heartbroken doctor named kyle in the new series.

Blah blah blah blah.

Have you ever heard of blah blah blah blah.

That’s good.

At the start of the series he is struggling to cope with the death of his wife cope with means deal with if somebody dies that’s very painful.

It’s very sad right.

If you cope with it you’re dealing with that loss.

He’s struggling to cope with the death of his wife.

Anyway he gets a new job at a good hospital.

So we’re just giving some details what happens.

Basically this is what we would call a synopsis.

He gets a new job at a good hospital and gets a reputation for being very fair minded and caring.

So now we can say something about his character.

Now we’re talking about who he is.

Now we go into a bit of a review because the best part about this series is him right.

And so we can talk about why we like him.

He’s a really likable main character.

And even though his story is quite tragic tragic means very sad very sad story even though his story is quite tragic.

He’s got a great sense of humor.

That means he’s funny.

That doesn’t mean it’s a comedy.

It just means he’s funny.

Maybe it’s a drama but he is funny.

He’s got a great sense of humor.

He’s always quick to use a sarcastic remark with his colleagues a sarcastic remark sarcasm is or sarcasm is a very important part of American humor and other humor I guess in an English speaking culture.

So basically it means something bad happened and I say Oh great.

So you kind of say the opposite thing to what you really mean.

OK so a sarcastic remark with his colleagues the people he works with.

So we’ve kind of mixed here the synopsis or a little bit of a synopsis.

What happens with the reason we liked the series which is the main character he’s a likable main character.

And then we talk about why that is maybe because of his own loss.

He’s able to sympathize with people who are struggling and console them.

So to sympathize means you understand how other people feel.

You show them that you care about them.

You sympathize with them.

You feel there may be pain they’re suffering their sorrow and console them if you console someone you make them feel better or you try to make them feel better.

It’s ok you can console people in many different ways but that’s what it means to try to make them feel better.

So my favorite part of the whole series is his character.

That’s what I like about it.

My favorite part of the whole series is his character.

The only thing I don’t really like is that many of the episode plots are a bit repetitive and predictable.

So that means maybe every one every story is different.

Same characters but sometimes what happens in each episode is too similar to what happened in a previous episode.

So I feel like OK I’ve already seen this kind of story.

It’s getting a bit repetitive that means something happens again and again it repeats it’s very predictable.

If you can predict something it means you know what’s going to happen next.

It is a bit predictable predictable.

I would still recommend it though I would still recommend it though.

That means even though there is something I don’t like about it I like it enough to say that you should watch it.

I would still recommend it.

OK so this is just a simple example of a basic synopsis and a review of why we like the series and something about why we don’t like it.

All right.

So to really get a feeling for this you can talk with your friends about it but first you should practice it so you can do it maybe as a recording or if you have a friend you can talk with movie’s about.

Try it with them.

I want you to talk about a TV series or movie that you’ve seen recently.

Explain the premise or the basic story what it’s about without giving away every detail.

So just do a basic synopsis of the story OK.

And then also describe the main character and some of the good things and the bad things some of the positives and the negatives about the story.

I practice this and when you get used to describing movies and saying what you like and what you don’t like you’ll find it a lot easier to have discussions with friends about movies and TV and that’s one of the most common topics there is which people like to talk about.

Correct.

All right.

Good luck.