His Dark Materials: Audience and Industries 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.

The audience rating is 14+ because of its mild violence. However, the target audience may have been families as it is broadcast on Sunday at 8:10, similar to Doctor Who. It also targets fans of the fantasy genre and fans of the original books.

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: The teenager protagonists, Lyra and Will.

Personal Relationships: Will represents "everyman" character (normal) and is not used to magic so we may worry for him in the new, fantasy world.

Diversion (Escapism): Escaping to a new world, multiple magical worlds.

3) Thinking of the 3 Vs audience pleasures (Visceral, Vicarious and Voyeuristic pleasures), which of these can be applied to His Dark Materials? Refer to specific scenes or moments in the episode to explain your answer. 

We can apply visceral pleasure as the torturing of the witches may cause a physical feeling or anticipation

4) How did fans react to Season 2 of His Dark Materials? What about critic reviews? You can find some possible answers for this in this BBC website article on the critical reception for His Dark Materials and watch the fan reaction video above.

People think it's good however they agree that it doesn't inspire and meet what it was supposed to.

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?

 Some may not have liked to because of the portrayal of the church which is a representation some may not like.

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series?

BBC, HBO and Bad Wolf.

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

There were 4.4 million views however for the first series there were 7.2 million viewers.

3) What was the American network HBO's role in making His Dark Materials and why is this important? Look at the notes above for more on this.

It allowed more distribution.

4) What famous stars are in His Dark Materials and why do you think they were selected for the show? Watch the Comic Con panel video in the notes above to see the stars talking about the show.

It was a diverse cast which appeal to a huger audience.

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

They work on creating television dramas for the global TV marketplace.