His Dark Materials: Audience and Industries

 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.

Target audience: people aged 14 as the main characters are a similar age 

psychographic group: interested in science , adventure or nature 

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: 

Personal Relationships: 

Diversion (Escapism): a made up world with very little relation to our world

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. 

Visceral : When      mrs coulter  interrogates the witch 

vicarious : being able to speak to animals 

Voyeuristic :

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.

mixed reviews

 The Independent's Ed Cumming said

, external: "It looks great, it's robustly made, and there are great actors everywhere, occupying well-built universes.

"But it doesn't inspire as much wonder as it ought 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? 

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series? bad wolf and new line production 

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

7.2 million in the UK  The first broadcasts of the CSP episode had audiences of 4.4 million 

3) What was 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 got internationally 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.

philip pullman  ruth wilson 

if there is a famous actor their fans are more likely to watch their show 

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

a television production company 

Comparison: Doctor Who - An Unearthly Child and His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies

1) How are the technical conventions different between 1963 Doctor Who and 2020 His Dark Materials (e.g. camerawork, editing, sound and mise-en-scene)?  there is more high level production and technology in his dark materials and the show isnt in black and white 

2) What similarities and differences are there between Doctor Who and His Dark Materials in terms of genre and narrative? themes of space and unusual things like aliens and witches 

3) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows?
his dark materials is more diverse  both set in england