Madmen is a critically acclaimed drama shown on Sky Atlantic at 10pm, and is produced by AMC. By broadcasting the programme on this subscription channel this already limits the audience, as not everybody is able to watch it. However Madmen is the first cable show to take home an Emmy for outstanding drama series three years in a row, which proves how even though it will never have a mass appeal it is very popular. Madmen does not spell everything out for its audience and there are often hidden issues with in the storyline, this means the audience has to take an active role when watching, and critics have described the episode "The other women" as a 'top-notch episode full of closed-door talks and identity politics'. Madmen is character driven and in this episode there is a very strong representation of each character- especially in the scene where Don visits Joan at home to talk her out of spending a night with the Jaguar boss to gain a higher position in the advertising company and to win the contract for them. This scene is sophisticated as it is constructed as a non-linear sequence and it shows the same scene from two different points of view, firstly it shows Don visiting Joan and then the flashback of his pitch to Jaguar, after this it flashes back to Joan spending the night with the boss of Jaguar but then returns to the scene where Don visits Joan but from her point of view, this adds to the sophistication as you seeing the same situation from two different perspectives, this is entertaining for the audience because this has never previously happened in any season of madmen. The target audience for Madmen is middle class 25-50 year olds who like getting cultural or aesthetic enjoyment from television programmes.
In comparison Lost is more mainstream than Madmen and targets the widest demographic possible, by having an ensemble multinational cast it makes it easier for the audience to personally relate to at least one character, also the cast is made up of different ages so the age of the audience can range from 12-40 years old. Another way in which Lost appeals to its audience is through its hybrid genre of action, fantasy and science fiction- these are all popular genres and by combining them it targets a wider audience. The title sequence establishes the genre, and positions the audience- the scene is of Jack, Kate and Charlie walking through the jungle and Charlie says "before the pilot was ripped from the cockpit he said nobody is going to find us unless the transceiver works" along with misty writing, and the creepy music the audience can still be passive as this gives as much information to them as possible and even if the audience has not watched the previous episode, the scene then flashes back to the plane crash- this is constructed in a non-linear way to reveal more about the character and whats happened, and by showing the crash it highlights the action genre, it does this again in the episode when it shows Kate in the plane- and the audience see the plane crash from a different perspective. Lost appeals to its audience also through the use of a neutral location within the narrative, this creates escapism as it is in an exotic location, it also creates an enigma as they are so isolated. The use of enigmas guides the audience through the use of music, and camera shots, enigmas also keep the audience interested- one scene where this has been successful is when the group go on a walk to get more signal on the transceiver and they run in to a polar bear which Sawyer then shoots- the disequilibrium is set up using a long camera shot to show how lost and alone they are, a low drone plays which indicates danger, also the pace of music increases as the polar bear gets nearer and the camera movement goes shaky and it ends with a black screen. Shallow focus is used to block out the mise-en-scene and just show the characters facial expressions and this highlights also that all the characters are facing the same direction- the enigma continues once the polar bear has been shot as we do not fully see an image of the polar bear but instead get told by Kate what the animal is.
Louis Theroux: Americas most hated family in crisis, is much different to Lost and Madmen firstly because it is shown on a terrestrial channel and also because it is a documentary. It is shown on BBC 2- a channel which has to entertain, inform and educate through the programmes it shows- by including all three uses and gratifications it appeals to a wider audience as it offers more to them. One example of the way it entertains the audience is in the opening scene of the show, the scene shows the Westboro baptist church picketing outside a college, long shots are used to show the location, the amount of people and the offensive signs which they are using which adds to the shocking factor- however Louis Theroux style of journalism softens the situation as he says "is it possible you've become more weird?" which mocks the church and makes them out to be a joke. This scene is also constructed to inform the audience as it shows the last time Theroux visited the church. Audiences are intrigued by the extremist views of the Westboro baptist church, the BBC represents this through interviews with the children where an 11 year old boy is holding a "God hates you sign" and also the viewers see a video the church made against Jewish people which included the swastika symbol, implying that they may be pro nazi.
