No Offence:

No Offence is about a group of police officers try their best to keep the streets of Manchester free of crime. When all else fails, they decide to use unconventional methods to teach the perpetrators a lesson.

The drama show has a rating of 8/10 by IMDb and within the first episode No Offence launched with 2.5 million viewers on Channel 4 and was Channels 4’s biggest midweek drama launch for more than three years. However over night the show was loosing 1.2 million viewers and the weekly consolidated series average remained at 2.5 million views and finished 47% up on Channel 4’s slot average.

The country of origin of the show is the United Kingdom.

The genre of the show is Police procedural, Drama and Black comedy, with 3 series.

The Killing:

The Killing is crime series that follows the police investigation of the murder of a young girl. It interlocks three different stories.

The dram television show has a rating of 8.2/10 by IMDb.

The country of origin of the show is Denmark. The show translates to Forbrydelsen, meaning The Crime’.

The genre of the show is Crime Drama, Psychological Thriller, Mystery and Scandinavian Noir.

The series is noted for its plot twists, season-long storylines, dark tone and for giving equal emphasis to the stories of the murdered victim’s family and the effect in political circles alongside the police investigation. It has also been singled out for the photography of its Danish setting, and for the acting ability of its cast.

No Offence

A police series based in Manchester from the writer of ‘Shameless’. On channel 4. Has a women as the lead role, and other female characters as well as males.

Genres: Drama, Police procedural, Dark Comedy

The first episode launched with 2.5 million viewers.

Mark Scheme notes:

• the importance of targeting an audience beyond the national evident in Channel 4’s investment in online company TRX (The Rights Exchange) which aims to facilitate the sale of programmes abroad
• No Offence is produced by AbbotVision, the independent producer of Shameless – which was successfully remade in the US– suggesting that the appeal to an international audience is a deliberate strategy
• No Offence represents British national culture to a British audience – but this identity is also used as a selling point internationally through the appeal of difference
• The series has a social realist aesthetic which is a recognizable
  national style but is also popular in Europe (evidenced in the
  popularity of social realist films in Europe)
• No Offence was broadcast on France2 the public service broadcaster, to very high viewing figures; the perceived weakness of French broadcast TV provides opportunities for export.
• The series’ focus on the detective narrative and crime drama is familiar and understood globally, the representation of the independent, female detective has proven popularity.

Television – A product which will provide rich and challenging opportunities for interpretation and
in depth critical analysis.

The missing

The Missing is a complex mainstream television product in which the codes and conventions of the crime drama are recognisable but they are also challenged and sometimes subverted.

Media Representations – The Missing provides a range of representational areas to explore; gender, the family, place,
issues, events, class. Negative and positive use of stereotypes
Opportunities for discussion of performative identities in the representation of gender in The Missing – Judith Butler
Feminist debates – Violence and the representation of gender. This could include the controversy around using violent crime against women as popular entertainment
Representations of family and their ideological significance
Representation of place – northern Europe and the Middle East
Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world
Theories of representation including Hall
Feminist theories including bell hooks and Van Zoonen

Media audiences

The production, distribution and circulation of The Missing shows how audiences can be reached, both on a national and global scale, through different media technologies and platforms, moving from the national to transnational through broadcast and digital technologies. The way in which different audience interpretations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances is evident in the analysis of The Missing which is explicitly linked to contemporary issues.

Social, political, economic and cultural contexts
The Missing’s parallel storylines, set in the past and present foregrounds the Iraq war and the political debates and controversies about the British involvement in it. The role of popular culture in examining past history is relevant here. The institution of the army frequently operates as a microcosm of wider social and cultural contexts in the exploration of changing expectations of gender roles as well its relationship to family structures. Values and ideologies of different cultures are represented through different religious and ethnic beliefs.

Witnesses

Television – product not in the English language

Media Language
The series is visually interesting, constructing a stylised representation of ‘real’ places which transmit meanings about characters, places and issues. A detailed analysis of different aspects of mise-en-scene will provide students with a strong foundation to build on in terms of analysing representations, ideological meanings and audience positioning.

Media Representations
Witnesses provides a range of representational areas to explore from the national and regional to family structures and gender roles. All of the areas tend to overlap with representations of nation signified through aspects of ethnicity, religion and class, while the reinforcement and subversion of gender stereotypes allow students to consider how representations reflect social, cultural and historical circumstances:

Representation of national and regional identity (Northern France)

Representation of gender: The woman as detective, the male boss, gender stereotypes etc.
Feminist debates – Violence and the representation of gender. This could include the controversy around using violent crime against women as popular entertainment
Analysis of how the representations convey values, attitudes and beliefs about the world
Theories of representation including Hall
Feminist theories including bell hooks and Van Zoonen

Media Audiences
Issues of audience are also relevant throughout the other theoretical frameworks. In media language, the use of different formal structures to position the audience to receive and interpret meaning is central, while the study of representations has at its heart the reinforcement of social and cultural values for audiences.