Cuffs Practice Questions

Q) Why was the pre-watershed scheduling of 8pm significant in terms of the representations they could offer? [3 marks]

A) Due to the program being shown before the 8pm watershed, certain scenes may be inappropriate for certain viewers. These scenes include things like the nudist beach at the beginning - which some younger viewers may find disturbing - , murder - the murder of a person of differing ethnicity by a racist let out of prison - , and suicide attempts - an issue that is relatively high within teens and could be linked to partially promoting suicide as an option for younger, more exposed viewers.



Q) How are the following areas represented in the episode:

• Ethnicity
• Gender
• Sexuality

[10 marks]

A) Within the episode of Cuffs (episode 1, season 1), areas like ethnicity, gender and sexuality are portrayed within and throughout the episode. The social, political, cultural climate at the time (2015) reflects the difference of that time to in the 1960's and the changes that were made.

Within Cuffs, ethnicity is portrayed within the episode as a positive aspect within the episode. This is shown through the actions of the Police Constable, Ryan Draper - a police officer who is black - and how he acts throughout the episode. Throughout the episode, this police officer still acts through with his job even though a racist murderer was recently let out of prison who previously murdered a black individual in a shop. Although, nearer the end, he is portrayed as weak when the murderer backs him onto a corner and is about to murder him when he is saved by a white, gay rookie police officer. This shows that race has come along way since the 1960's when most/all black people were portrayed as criminals and thugs.

Within Cuffs, gender is portrayed within the episode as negative for women. This is shown when a duo of female police officers are too busy talking about the new male on the police force rather than doing their job. When the duo are talking about the new male police officer, a robbery takes place in front of them and one of the females just watch the robbery take place, not knowing what to do while the other hesitantly reports in the crime and reads the numberplate. Although, seeing women in the police force portrays female empowerment and how far women's rights have come since the 1960's when women were expected to stay at home. This shows how gender stereotypes have changed since the 1960's to 2015.

Within Cuffs, sexuality is portrayed within the episode as both positive and negative for homosexuals. This is shown through the actions of Jake Vickers throughout the episode. In the beginning, Vickers is shown as inexperienced through him not being able to communicate properly through radio to other police officers and giving other officers false info on where the people they are chasing are. This shows Vickers as useless and a rookie but this character profile develops throughout the episode when he saves PC Ryan Draper from being cornered by a racist murderer. When this happens, this changes how the audience sees the character and improves the homosexual stereotype compared to how it was in the 1960's.



Q) How did the changes practices of institutions and audience impact the success of Cuffs? [6 marks]

Full List:

• Shifting audience - lack of channel loyalty and indentity
• Loss of large mass of audience
• Loss of national audience - channels and programs focusing on interest
• Need for content 
• Need for stars and glossy production values
• Remakes of old shows
• Strive to produce on-trend products or competing with popular genre formats
• Use of pre-title hooks to entice/keep viewers
• Catch-up TV
• Streaming TV
• Box sets via streaming
• External sourcing of product content
• Search for the next big-thing (the next Breaking Bad/Game of Thrones)

A) Due to the shifting audience and the lack of channel loyalty, people will start to gain interest in other channels and programs as the previous ones will get boring and repetitive to the viewer if they have to wait for the newest instalment. This will draw audience away from the series as they will be more interested in other series on the platform. Therefore, decreasing the viewers of the show, impacting the success of the show.

Due to the loss of national audience, certain channels and programs will lose valuable viewers as they will not focus on the interest  of the current times or will not appeal to the national average of viewers. This links to Cuffs as police dramas are not new on TV platforms. As there are other, more successful police dramas, people will prefer to watch them instead of Cuffs. Therefore, less people would watch and it would affect the success of the show.

Due to the access to complete box sets and binge watching, shows that have a new addition per week will lose fashion as people will want to have instant access to the next episode rather than having to wait for the next instalment. People will be drawn away from Cuffs as they will have to wait for new episodes each week rather than on streaming platforms (like Netflix), people have access to all episodes immediately. This will be more convenient for viewers and people will rather watch these instead of Cuffs. Therefore less people would watch on a week by week basis, affecting the success of the program.