- Mad men has received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its historical authenticity, visual style, costume design, acting, writing, and directing.
- Won many awards: fifteen Emmy's and four Golden Globes.
- Season 2 of Mad men had 1.75 million viewers and has continued to increase over the following seasons.
- Critical reception: The american film institute selected it as one of the best 10 television series of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012. It was named the best television show of 2007 by the Television Critics Association and several national publications, including Chicago Tribune, New York Times, Time Magazine etc.
- In promotion for the series, AMC aired commercials and a behind the scenes making of Mad Men before its premiere. The documentary, in addition to trailers and sneak peeks of upcoming episodes, were released on the AMC official website.
- Mad men was made available on iTunes, in 2007 along with the "making of" documentary.
- For the second series, AMC undertook the largest marketing campaign it had ever launched, intending to reflect the "cinematic quality" of the series. Shuttle buses were decorated with life-size posters of John Hamm as Don Draper and quotes from the first season.
- Groups of people dressed in period clothing would hand out business cards to promote the July 27 season premiere.
Wednesday 29 January 2014
Audience Response: Mad Men
How have audiences responded to Mad Men?
Wednesday 22 January 2014
Lost
"Most media texts target a wide range of different audiences" How true is this of your chosen text?
J. J Abrams' 'Lost' targets a mainstream, wide audience. Passive and active audiences can be gratified by it and has been encoded to be inclusive. Lost appeals to both an advanced and simplistic audience through the use of particular conventions.
The use of an ensemble cast attracts a mainstream audience, and allows flexibility for writers to focus on different characters for the audience to identify with one or more of the characters and narrative issues of different cultural and society groups. A wide variety of characters are used to appeal to a wide range of audience that has a character for each person to relate to,whether that be through age, gender, race, nationality etc. This is shown through the father son relationship of Walt and Michael and how they have a conflicted relationship, this may be a relatable situation for several audience members. Regional accents and stereotyped characteristics are also used to go with the use of an ensemble cast relatable to the audience.
Another convention used by J. J Abrams is the use of enigma codes throughout the first episode of Lost. Various mysteries are portrayed, for example when Walt discovers the handcuffs on the island. The camera zooms into the handcuffs and then is quickly cut and the screen turns black for a commercial. The use of score in the background supports the sense of tension and danger. This creates an enigma code for the audience as they begin to question why they are there leaving the audience in suspense and keeping them hooked to return to watch in order to follow the enigma codes later revealed in the narrative. Todorov's narrative theory can be applied to this scene as the audience can identify something bad is going to happen, disrupting the equilibrium through the use of non diegetic sound which supports this, which helps the audience to feel the same emotion as a character at a particular time in the episode.
Mainstream narrative devices are also obvious within this episode, which attracts a mainstream audience. The use of the non linear narrative and flashbacks/flash forwards provide relatable issues and plots that provide alternative gratifications to an audience, which is common in a lot of mainstream texts. A common convention of the hybrid genre in TV is the use of binary opposition proposed by Strauss. Lost follows this as it addresses the difference between western and eastern culture. As Lost is set on a tropical island, it looks like an ideal place to be, but instead is full of hidden mysteries which keeps the audience entertained to appeal to the widest range of mass audiences. The producers of 'Lost' understand their target audiences and understand what their fans want and can apply it to the episodes to gratify an audience.
J. J Abrams' 'Lost' targets a mainstream, wide audience. Passive and active audiences can be gratified by it and has been encoded to be inclusive. Lost appeals to both an advanced and simplistic audience through the use of particular conventions.
The use of an ensemble cast attracts a mainstream audience, and allows flexibility for writers to focus on different characters for the audience to identify with one or more of the characters and narrative issues of different cultural and society groups. A wide variety of characters are used to appeal to a wide range of audience that has a character for each person to relate to,whether that be through age, gender, race, nationality etc. This is shown through the father son relationship of Walt and Michael and how they have a conflicted relationship, this may be a relatable situation for several audience members. Regional accents and stereotyped characteristics are also used to go with the use of an ensemble cast relatable to the audience.
Another convention used by J. J Abrams is the use of enigma codes throughout the first episode of Lost. Various mysteries are portrayed, for example when Walt discovers the handcuffs on the island. The camera zooms into the handcuffs and then is quickly cut and the screen turns black for a commercial. The use of score in the background supports the sense of tension and danger. This creates an enigma code for the audience as they begin to question why they are there leaving the audience in suspense and keeping them hooked to return to watch in order to follow the enigma codes later revealed in the narrative. Todorov's narrative theory can be applied to this scene as the audience can identify something bad is going to happen, disrupting the equilibrium through the use of non diegetic sound which supports this, which helps the audience to feel the same emotion as a character at a particular time in the episode.
Mainstream narrative devices are also obvious within this episode, which attracts a mainstream audience. The use of the non linear narrative and flashbacks/flash forwards provide relatable issues and plots that provide alternative gratifications to an audience, which is common in a lot of mainstream texts. A common convention of the hybrid genre in TV is the use of binary opposition proposed by Strauss. Lost follows this as it addresses the difference between western and eastern culture. As Lost is set on a tropical island, it looks like an ideal place to be, but instead is full of hidden mysteries which keeps the audience entertained to appeal to the widest range of mass audiences. The producers of 'Lost' understand their target audiences and understand what their fans want and can apply it to the episodes to gratify an audience.
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