MIRANDA

I have chosen to analyse the audience pleasures of watching Miranda (BBC 1). I will give specific examples by close reference to episodes and by quotation.

Miranda is mainstream family viewing, aimed at a target audience who would relate to middle class life. Miranda is a TV sitcom: socially inept Miranda always gets into awkward situations when working in her joke shop with best friend Stevie, being hounded by her pushy mother, and especially when she is around her crush Gary.

A comprehensive review of all four BBC TV channels by the governing trust (July 2014) found that BBC 1 could feel “middle class in focus and target audience" with Miranda cited as an example. They also found that the BBC is falling out of favour with younger people and BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic viewers). The average age of BBC1 viewers is 59, compared with 56 in 2010/11. However, the character of Miranda is also quite like a big child as she is unmarried, always making a fool of herself and getting into trouble with her mother, so I think that audiences such as younger people could relate to her childish behaviour; middle class women from the ages of 20 – 40 could relate to her lifestyle or struggles with her mother; single women could relate to her funny attempts and issues when trying to find a romantic partner.

Audiences also relate to her relationship with her best friend Stevie because it is a very childish friendship that most people experience throughout their life of constant competitions over silly things and witty banter but always looking out for each other and protecting their friendship. However it is also relatable because Stevie is portrayed as the smart, witty confident and physically attractive friends who you are always being compared. Miranda has to compete with Stevie for men and against Stevie’s natural ‘allure’ with her ‘wiles’.  There is also a large contrast between them which gives a good comedic aspect to their friendship. Miranda is tall with short mousy brown hair and very unorganised and clumsy while Stevie is petite, blonde and very confident and organised.

Miranda offers the pleasures of the sitcom genre, such as characters that are recognizable that the audience can relate to, who are stereotypes. Miranda's mother, for example, she is a very snobby and relentless when it comes to trying to find Miranda a husband or ‘a proper job’. She is shown to the audience as an older posh middle class lady firstly with her outfits. Tailored blazers, respectable floral dresses and pearl necklaces along with her very formal and aristocratic sounding way of speaking. Miranda's mother makes us laugh because Miranda and penny have such different personalities and penny has many little quirks and tips she has for Miranda that the audience would find amusing. For example her fake laugh to the tune of the Barbie theme song or her use of the phrases: “what I call…” and “such fun”, which annoy Miranda and again give the audience a funny scene to then watch.

 Miranda's group of girl friends are stereotypes. For example they are portrayed as always watching there figure and eating things like salads when they really want more filling foods like shepherds pies etc. Her girl friends often make us laugh at Miranda, such as in the episode when her friends call her "Queen Kong", referring to the movie king Kong about a large gorilla, making fun of her and basically calling her a female gorilla. However, in many ways, Miranda is an anti-stereotype because she is not the typical female lead you would encounter in a sitcom. She is quite peculiar looking and is very tall with short hair as well as being very clumsy very much the opposite of her girlfriends and all of the woman shown on the show.
 

There are many points of recognition for middle class audiences in the ways in which the sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes, such as Miranda's conflict with her mother as when Miranda’s mother is at first horrified that Miranda will be attending a social event afraid that she will embarrass herself and her mother. This may be relatable to mothers and daughters etc however afterwards she gave Miranda a boot camp in surviving the social occasions maybe relating to other middle class people and their struggles on social occasions. 

Another narrative strand that makes audiences relate to her is her trouble love life. To explain: Miranda’s love life has been mostly portrayed as non-existent except for a few hints at romance during that later seasons. However throughout all the seasons the strong friendship of the cook Gary and Miranda has been an important part of the show giving the audience an image of unrequited love where Miranda loves him but she is just a friend to him.   

Each episode also features predictable running gags such as Penny (Miranda’s mother) always saying “what I call” before a noun for example “what I call tennis”. This phrase: ‘what I call….’ Is used in every episode and creates a good laugh for the audience because of Miranda’s reaction of her predictably saying in annoyance “well it’s not just what you call tennis, everyone calls it tennis, it is tennis’. Miranda always manages to lose her clothing, such as in the episode when Miranda and the girls are at a formal social event and she gets hot so she decides to take of her sweater, which is over a blouse. However the sweater gets stuck on the blouse and she ends up taking off all her layers resulting in her standing in a very formal social event in her bra.

Stevie and Miranda always compete for boyfriends, such as the episode when a customer at the shop leaves his wallet behind also giving them insight into his life. With pictures of him, memberships to self-defence classes pictures of his dog etc. Stevie and Miranda begin a battle to win over the ‘wallet guy’ by buying dogs in hopes of seeing him in the park, attending the same self-defence classes he does and more. Miranda always embarrasses her friends socially, for example in an episode when she was again at a social occasion but UN interested in the conversation that was being had just joined in with the laughter whenever the woman finished a small part of the story. However when she turned away to get a glass of Champaign she failed to notice the subject changing to a man who had just passed and proceeded to turn back to the conversation and laugh.

The sitcom addresses audience’s lifestyles, concerns, hopes about relationships. Miranda always fails to explain her true feelings for Gary, such as when Miranda and the Clive are talking about Miranda telling Gary that she doesn’t want him to leave however when it comes down to it and Clive says ‘Miranda has something to tell you’  she chickens out and says: " And the horse just galloped off".

She competes with, quarrels and makes up with Stevie, for example when they are having a competition about who the wallet guy likes best and then they begin to fight over it because Stevie says that she has the allure that no man can resist but Miranda says that she herself may have the allure too. But in the end once the competition is done they make up. She gets scolded by her mother, such as in the episode when her mother says "just act normal", when Miranda isn’t doing anything but standing there.

Miranda shown lying down with Stevie (her best friend) looking disproving

In most sitcoms, the audience is passive consumer but this show is filmed before a live studio audience. In addition, Miranda establishes a relationship with her audience by beginning every episode by breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to them as well as doing this at small intervals throughout each episode. She confides in us, the audience her feelings, saying to Stevie: " I’ve been on loads of dates” and then turning to the audience and saying; “I’ve literally been on one”.

For Blumler and Katz, audiences use media to gratify needs (the uses and gratifications model of audience behavior). Miranda offers the pleasure of entertainment, escapism and diversion by making us laugh. In particular, both slapstick humor and verbal humor entertain us. Examples of these include Miranda constantly pushing Stevie onto the ground whenever she is annoying her showing slapstick humor or another example is when Miranda says: ‘ I am a smooth operator’ before promptly tripping over things on the floor and falling on her face. An example of verbal humor is when penny says to Miranda that she has to go to event and Miranda’s response is that she can’t because it’s her daughters first birthday when all the people there know very well that Miranda had no children.

Audiences also like to relate to the characters in programmes; I have shown that Miranda offers many points of recognition in its characters. Its also important that Miranda is a likeable character who does not hold grudges. For example whenever she is insulted by Stevie or her mum or friends she never holds it against them. It is also significant that Miranda Hart is a well-known British actress and comedian and even went onto the graham Norton show to promote her show.

Audiences tend to favor programmes that support their values and their sense of their own identity. Part of our sense of self is informed by making judgements about all sorts of people and things. This is also true of judgements we make about TV and film characters, and celebrities. The shows we watch, the stars we like can be an expression of our identities. One aspect of this type of gratification is known as value reinforcement. This is where we choose television programmes or newspapers that have similar beliefs to those we hold. Therefore, equally important is the upbeat, comic atmosphere of the show. Despite set-backs such as Stevie keeping her dog but pretending that she had given it back Miranda bounces back, for example, when she instinctively kept her dog in the kangaroo pouch.

Finally, audiences like to know what is going on in the world (surveillance). This relates to Maslow’s need for security. By keeping up to date with news about local and international events we feel we have the knowledge to avoid or deal with dangers. In a sitcom, the characters face all sorts of situations that we can experience vicariously, some of which are challenging, such as having to say goodbye to a loved one, keeping a strong emotion bottled up or dealing with constant criticism.

In conclusion, Miranda is a comedic sitcom based around the hysterical struggles of life. It is very relatable and attracts a wide audience of many age ranges because of the relatable aspects and topics that the show incorporates. It also appeals to more people because the audience are engaged more in the action because of being addressed to frequently. In my opinion this is a great show that always makes me laugh.