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.
14+

The struggler or explorer as they seek escape 

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: they might like the steampunk genre

Personal Relationships: build personal relationships with fans and care about the characters within the show

Diversion (Escapism): the audience might want to get away from the real world for a while so they watch the show to experience another 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. 

Vicarious: Experience going to different worlds through Lyra and Will

Visceral: Thrill of the action scenes or the plot

Voyeuristic: watching all the different characters doing different things 

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.

The fans really enjoy watching his dark materials and like the new season however critics think that there's not enough magic

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?

 Oppositional it makes women look bad as the villain is a woman 

preferred both are science fiction and feature other worlds

Industries

1) Which companies produced this His Dark Materials series?

 hbo max and BBC

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

A city of magpies had 4.4 mil on bbc1 and 227,000 on hbo but the first episode of series one has 7.3 mil on bbc1 423,000 on hbo

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.

so that it has a more global interest as hbo is american and bbc is british 

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.

Ruth Wilson, James McAvoy, Anne-Marie duff, Lin-Manuel Miranda

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

Tv drama production company and produce tv drama for broadcasters and networks

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)?

The overall technical conventions are much better in hdm than in doctor who because of the advancement in technology

2) What similarities and differences are there between Doctor Who and His Dark Materials in terms of genre and narrative?

They both having running narratives that build each episode and they both are science fiction and follow the same conventions like travelling to other worlds 

3) How are representations of people, places and groups similar or different in the two shows?

 Lyra is very intelligent similar to Susan however Susan is not as independent as Lyra as she does everything according to the doctor and Barbara is ignored by the doctor whenever she speaks whereas in hdm Lyra often speaks to Will in a rude manor and hdm is much more diverse


Grade 8/9 extension tasks and reading

Read this Guardian review of His Dark Materials - The City of Magpies and also read some of the comments 'below the line' (BTL). Do you agree with the review? What about the comments? 

Try this critical Irish Times review of His Dark Materials. Why does it think the show is disappointing?

Here's another review of our CSP episode of His Dark Materials. What does it say about the difference for fans of the book versus fans of the TV show?

This Slate feature on the cultural significance of American network HBO is a long read but gives you a brilliant history of the channel. It also shows how HBO has turned TV into possibly the most respected and culturally significant media entertainment form.