Genre and PurposeThe Genre of The 100 TV series is Post-Apocalyptic fiction and science fiction, meaning it can appeal to most audiences seeing as science fiction is a very widely loved genre. The purpose of the show is to provide entertainment for all who watch, but it also provides a lot of moral issues and decisions within the show for people to think about. A lot of moral issues come up within the show quite often, made worse by the fact that the moral decisions are made by teens, not adults.
ContentThe 100 has a lot of adult themed content, including sexually themed parts and a lot of gory violence, giving it the 15 rating. As I mentioned above, there are a lot of decisions made throughout the 2 seasons that raise a lot of moral questions and really make you think. For example the end of the 2nd season, the main protagonist "Clarke" makes the decision to release a deadly gas into a bunker that only her friends are immune to, killing everyone inside asides from her friends. For a teen to make a decision such as that is odd in a TV Series, and it does not go without moral consequences for Clarke, causing her to leave the newly formed group of her friends.
Target AudienceDespite the show being a Science Fiction themed show, which mostly appeals to pretty much every age group out there, The 100's target demographic is definitely teen/young adult due to the fact that most of the characters in the show are of that age as well. The show doesn't really have a target gender, despite the main protagonist being a female. In fact, having a female main character would most likely appeal to both genders, for women it would mean a lot for a big TV series to have a strong women as the main character, instilling confidence in women. For men, having a female main character has a sex appeal which most teens (the target age group), love to see in TV shows.
In terms of lifestyle, the sorts of people that watch The 100 are usually quite lazy, "geeky" people who spend a lot of time indoors and not much time doing sports etc. This is because of the shows Scifi theme and the fact that it's after watershed, meaning people who watch it are usually lying around on the couch come the evening, instead of being out doing sports or being social. The show is aired on television, but is also then made available on Netflix and catch up services (All4), meaning in terms of spending power the target audience will mostly have enough money to either afford a TV license or at the very least a Netflix subscription. AdvertisingOne of the first trailers for the 2nd season of The 100 first aired on the 21st of October 2014, and was aired on YouTube meaning it would have had no where near as much impact on it's audience as it would have had if they aired it on Television. The trailer is simply a 2 minute clip from the first episode of the season, giving a "teaser" feel more than anything, leaving much to be desired by the fans. This is a good method of advertisement, due to the fact that whoever sees the teaser trailer might then be intrigued about what happens, subsequently watching the season when it airs.
The 100 Season 2 trailer |