Timed Essay 3

 3) Why do long form television dramas from different countries offer different representations?

Stranger Things is an American long form television drama, streamed through Netflix and represents different representations due to their target audience. This US television drama caters to a large audience with global reach, likely due to the international company of Netflix. Viewing figures of Stranger Things is 40.7 million, displaying their audience reach and mass appeal.

Netflix audiences are primarily young adults and teenagers for stranger Things due to the representation of young boys as the protagonists. However, the secondary target audience for the television drama is older people due to the intertextual references. Intertextuality of ET will be recognised by older audiences 

Representations in Stranger Things relate to the 80s time period in which it is set whilst being recognisable to the audience. For example, the nuclear family model is represented in the Wheeler family, with Karen Wheeler portraying the housewife whilst adhering to stereotypical gender roles. Karen looks after the children and cooks dinner for the family, this traditional and conservative representation is clear and familiar to Western audiences. These Western ideologies are important as the main audience is American Netflix viewers who live in a Western, individualistic culture. This links to reception theory and identity of the audience. Audiences who identify with the traditional representations on screen are more likely to have a preferred reading of the text.

The traditional stereotypes shown in Stranger Things links to cultural industries and the idea that industries stay with capitalist ideas in order to be safe and adhere to mass audience expectations. This is shown through the seemingly unoriginal representations. Stranger Tings is set in the 80s, meaning these gender roles were more engrained in society, making these representations of gender easier to establish whilst keeping the mass audience.

Deutschland 83 represents a more niche product for a smaller audience of 2.5 million viewers due to the historical referential codes and it being a German/ American drama. The representations in Deutschland 83 are more real due to the references to the Cold War and real events, meaning they may resonate more with older audiences who experienced the time period of the Cold War and have exposition of relevant knowledge. A clear divide between the West and East is established in Deutschland 83, but the audience aren’t explicitly told which to side with. The main protagonist in D83 is from the East, displaying the socialist ideology. However, the perspective is then taken to the West, showing contrast in the quality of life and affluence in the West. The socialist ideology created through the main character of Martin adheres to a smaller audience.

Deutschland 83 contrasts Stranger Things by providing an alternative viewpoint of both West and East Germany in the Cold War, with less explicitly evil representations of the opposition. This may be more appealing due to the historical references in Deutschland 83. As it is based on a real event, people identify with the representations. The drama was also the most popular foreign-language drama of British television which may show how audiences who weren’t directly involved in the Cold War are less affected or opposed to the representations. 

Reception theory in Deutshcland 83 suggests that audiences of Germany, who support more capitalist ideologies would have an oppositional reading of the text due to the socialist ideas of the main protagonist from the East.

Representations in these dramas may be challenged by the audience depending on their pre-existing view and knowledge of the historical events of the Cold War. Stranger Things is less inclined to opposition due to the representations being fully fictional and not based on historic events. The mass audience of the American TV drama displays how capitalist and traditional representations are more accepted in Western societies.