His Dark Materials: Industry and Audience blog tasks

 Audience

1) Read this audience rating guide for His Dark Materials. Based on the screening and this article, who do you think the target audience is for His Dark Materials and why? What about psychographic groups? You can revise Pyschographics here.

I think that the target audience for this TV show are families Since the rating of the TV show was 12 on the DVD in the UK

2) What audience pleasures are offered by His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies? Apply Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory to the episode. Make sure you provide specific examples from the episode to support your ideas.

Personal Identity: People can relate to the locations such as oxford 

Personal Relationships: People can relate to the characters in the shows and even become attached to them

Diversion (Escapism): It can take people out of the real world and let them be invested int9o the world of the show 

3) Thinking of the 3Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to His Dark Materials?

The 3V audience pleasure that can be applied to His Dark Materials might be visceral pleasure. This means physical thrill of watching something. This is because it allows the audience to want to find out more about the series because of how the episode ended. This may also be because of how the characters appear and interact with each other that grabs the audiences attention more.

4) How did fans react to Season 2 of His Dark Materials? What about critic reviews?

They are a number of ways people interpret and reacted to this season both positive and negative feedback. Some said that "the daemons never quite replicate the humour and self-doubt they convey in the books". People say Its a missed opportunity: what better device could be there for representing the novelistic inner voice on screen?" This shows that some fans would have rather some things stay the same just like how it was in the book. A more positive view is that one said that "It keeps the momentum of the finale going while leaving enough space around Lyra and Will's first meeting to let us get close to them before they're swept up by the plot". This fan may have enjoyed getting to know each character and their background to see how it links to the plot in season 2. A final fan claimed that "Outside, the storm clouds of Destiny, a Mighty Battle, and all that capital letter fantasy stuff are swirling, but cautiously developing intimacy of those two gives us that all-important emotional reason to take their side in the fight to come"

5) What might be some of the preferred and oppositional readings for His Dark Materials? Why did some fans love it? Why have other people criticised it?

A preferred reader might feel that His Dark Materials is a great way of expressing independence as all the characters only rely on themselves and their daemons to get through their journey,they  may feel like they can relate to some of the characters in a way through the way they are expressed and act in the series and try and mimic that behaviour in their everyday lives. Some fans may have just loved the fantasy genre that was portrayed amazingly throughout the series. An opposition reader may feel like His Dark Materials may be encouraging children to be more like Lyra, in the sense where they do everything freely, or like the children Lyra and Will find that don't need to rely on adults to do anything. They may also dislike the way that genders are portrayed, seeing as Mrs Coulter was seen as powerful and cruel and controlling.

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series?

His Dark Materials was co-commissioned for an international audience by the BBC and the American television network HBO, to be distributed as a scheduled, broadcast programme (BBC1) on cable (HBO, as well as on demand (iPlayer) and on DVD). It was created for these platforms by an independent company, Bad Wolf.

2) What were the UK viewing for A City of Magpies? How did this compare to season 1 of His Dark Materials?

The first broadcasts for A City Of Magpies had audiences of 4.4 million on BBC1 and 227,000 on HBO.

3) What was the American network HBO's role in making His Dark Materials and why was it important? 

HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys told Deadline that the show, which launched in November, has performed very well, cumulating to 5 million viewers as episode. This was important because it shows that it was made as a family show and multiple age groups are able to watch it.

4) What famous stars are in His Dark Materials and why do you think they were selected for the show?

His Dark Materials was aimed at a global audience. The show features both British and American star names such as Brits Ruth and James McAvoy and American Lin-Manuel Miranda who wrote the smash hit musical Hamilton. These stars were selected as they helped to promote the show internationally.

5) Who are Bad Wolf and what do they produce?

Bad wolf is a British television production company that was found in 2015 to create ambiguous, imaginative and relevant drama for the global TV marketplace. It had produced high-end drama for broadcasters and networks including HBO, BBC and Sky.