introduction
Class is a British science fiction drama programme, and a spin-off of the long running programme Doctor Who. Class was expected to get 1 million viewers but it did really poorly and only managed to get 0.32 million viewers watching the programme. Class was not a success and BBC 3 confirmed in September 2017 that the series was cancelled. The reason why Class wasn't a success is because there was one big problem. No one (not even BBC) were sure which audience the show was for. The show was a teen-oriented drama with adult themes, spun off from a series that was intended primarily for children. The series was all over the place. It was silly, funny, grim and gruesome. This made the every episode really confusing and hard to follow. BBC tried to make a show for a lot of different type of viewers, because it is trying to include everything it actually kind of created nothing. The show also lacked a big selling point. The only reason why people would have watched this is because it was related to the successful series Doctor Who, but it didn't have anything else to keep the targeted audience interested apart from that. Doctor who on the other hand is not a spun off series and it has been able to create a fan-base for years. Doctor Who is also unique and targets a specific audience, which Class doesn't do.
Codes and conventions of sci-fi teen tv series
Props
Some of the props used in the series are aliens, weapons and special effects. These props make it appeal to a targeted audience who like sci-fi. Smartphones are also used, this again means that they are targeting a specific audience who carry smartphones with them everyday; teens and young adults.
Lighting
In the mise-en-scène the lighting is really dull, this depicts darkness.
Costumes
Teen characters are used as 'the good guys' to target a specific audience. The teens wear casual clothing; hoodies, jeans, trainers and T-shirts. This makes the audience broader as there is no specific type of clothing and all teens can relate to it.
Setting
The setting of this series is at a school and in a urban area in the city. This again makes teenagers, watching this series, be able to relate with these characters as they also go to school and most likely also live in urban areas.
Some of the props used in the series are aliens, weapons and special effects. These props make it appeal to a targeted audience who like sci-fi. Smartphones are also used, this again means that they are targeting a specific audience who carry smartphones with them everyday; teens and young adults.
Lighting
In the mise-en-scène the lighting is really dull, this depicts darkness.
Costumes
Teen characters are used as 'the good guys' to target a specific audience. The teens wear casual clothing; hoodies, jeans, trainers and T-shirts. This makes the audience broader as there is no specific type of clothing and all teens can relate to it.
Setting
The setting of this series is at a school and in a urban area in the city. This again makes teenagers, watching this series, be able to relate with these characters as they also go to school and most likely also live in urban areas.
Multi-strand narrative
There several different strands in episode 4 of Class. A multi-strand narrative is a narrative with different stories that all link together in the end. This is used to make the series more appealing to a broader audience. For example someone might not like the romance in a story but because there is action in it they will still watch it.
In this episode of Class there are 4 major story strands:
In this episode of Class there are 4 major story strands:
- April's story
- Corakinu's story
- New head teacher
- Flower invasion
Hybridity
A hybrid series is a series with a combination of different types of genres and styles. Class, for example, is a sci-fi teen drama tv series. Class has sci-fi in it as it uses props such as; alien weapons, aliens and special effect. But its also a teen drama as it has romance in it. This combination of different genres makes it more attractive to a broader audience as they may not like the sci-fi in it but like the romance in it. The hybridity in the series also makes the series more interesting to watch as there are different types of styles in it.
Class is a hybrid as it has four different type of styles in it:
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