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"It is essential for a TV programme to simultaneously target both mass and specialised audiences"

Explore this statement with reference to Les Revenants

A specialised audience is a small, enthusiastic group of people that a TV show is aimed towards, whereas a mass audience is when a show is aimed at a larger, broad group of people. Les Revenants is a French, supernatural drama that was produced by Fabrice Gobert. It was originally released in November 2012 on the french channel Canal+, but it was later release on Channel 4 in the UK the following year. I believe that Les Revenants has simultaneously targeted both mass and cult audiences.

One way in which the TV show targets a cult audience is that it invites many polysemic readings. For example, the audience sees a slow zooming in shot of a frame of butterflies, which then smashes as a butterfly flies out; during this shot the diegetic music crescendos to symbolise that this has a deeper meaning. This allows the audience to create their own meaning as there is no anchorage towards what the scene symbolises. This supports Stuart Hall's reception theory, as the audience has a negotiated reading. However, you could argue that the show challenges this theory, as there is only negotiated readings. Les Revenants doesn't show any obvious ideologies, meaning the audience cannot take the preferred or oppositional reading; therefore, the audience is left having to make their own decisions. Another example of this is when the screen suddenly turned black after the bus crash. This creates polysemic meanings because the black could symbolise the death of the characters, however, it also could represent the audience's own confusion. polysemy is important in a cult tv show as it allows the specialised audience to engage in the show through discusions.

Additionally, the show lacks typical supernatural/ horror conventions that would appeal to the larger audience. For example, the 'zombies' look like normal people, which subverts the stereotype of this genre paradigm. As well as this, the scene where Victor is stalking the woman lacks horror conventions because he isn't a 'monster'. 

On the other hand, the trailer of Les Revenants targets a much larger, international audience. Firstly, it features many quotes from popular British newspapers, as well as British text, which invites their international audiences to watch the show, as they know and trust these newspapers. Secondly, the fast paced editing and montages makes the series appeal to action fans, as the show looks exciting and filled with adventure. Additionally, the producer has picked actors that all conform to stereotypical standards of beauty, for example, the young boy has dark and strong features, whilst all the women wear very natural looking makeup. This appeals to the mass audience as there are characters that everyone can aspire to or enjoy watching.