Cuffs Practise Question

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

It is questionable that this would be scheduled at 8pm, as there is some content unsuitable for a younger audience to witness. One example is that the opening scene of the first episode starts on a nudist beach, which is clearly not suitable for younger viewers due to the presence of nudity, yet it was still aired at 8pm.

Another example is the suicide attempt, which showed a very graphic scene where a man had slit his wrists. This would be very frightening and inappropriate for younger viewers, as it is such a dark topic, but it was still aired pre-watershed.

Some parents may also be wrongly concerned about the presence of homosexuality within the show, and may think that content is inappropriate for their children. Due to this, it's questionable that this was scheduled at 8pm.

While all of these are reasons why its questionable for this to have aired pre-watershed, there is the argument that people have become desensitised to this kind of content, hence why people could believe that its appropriate for children to view this content.


How were the following areas represented in the episode: (10 marks)
- Ethnicity
- Gender
- Sexuality

Cuffs is a crime drama that was written and aired in 2015, reflecting and representing the social, political and cultural climate the 2010s. Because of this, areas such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality had to be addressed throughout the series.

Beginning with ethnicity, race was represented in a rather positive light. One of the main protagonists, PC Ryan Draper, is a black man who is shown to be in a position of power and authority, rather than conforming to the older stereotype of black men being lower-class criminals. Ryan is also shown to be a single father, further going against the stereotype of black men being unsuccessful. Because of this, there is much more equal status between white and black people; despite the fact that the show still addresses race issues, such as hate crimes, but the white characters react to those with much more care and understanding than white people would in the past. An example of this is the racist hate crime, where a muslim man walks into a store and gets stabbed to death by some white men with a screwdriver, to which DS Jo Moffat is determined to bring the murderers to justice, shown by her begging the one witness of the murder to give a statement that she can use as evidence. Therefore, ethnicity is represented overwhelmingly positively throughout the episode, which represents the social, political and cultural climate of the 2010s, attracting the target audience of the younger generation by being much more accepting of diversity.

Unfortunately, gender isn't represented as positively. Although the women throughout the show are shown in a non-sexualised manner, and that the fact they're working such high power jobs like policing is empowering, there is still the problem that they're presented as rather helpess and ditzy. A perfect example of this is the scene where two female officers simply stand by and watch as a robbery takes place, then further degrades them as they discuss how hot the new recruit is, which reinforces the ideology that women care about men more than their jobs. While there is the fact that these women aren't sexualised and that they have empowering roles, the negatives outweigh the positives, so overall gender is represented negatively.

However, sexuality is represented overwhelmingly positively. The reason for this is that the LGBT+ characters are extremely open about it, particularly with the main character PC Jake Vickers immediately outing himself to Ryan within the first few minutes of the first episode. This is referenced again later in the episode, when the solicitor gives Jake his contact details, which is an openly homosexual act. Because of this, sexuality is represented positively as everyone is so open about it with little to no discrimination, which mirrors the social, political and cultural climate of the 2010s and in turn attracts the target audience.

In conclusion, a variety of different groups have to be represented throughout Cuffs due to the social, political and cultural climate at the time. Some of these areas are covered positively, while others are disappointingly not.


How did the changing practises of institutions and audiences impact the success of Cuffs? (6 marks)

Unfortunately, Cuffs was not as successful as it should have been. This was due to a number of factors, but particularly the changes of institutions and audiences were to blame.

When Cuffs' aired in 2015, television was beginning to decline in popularity due to the amount of online streaming services that were surfacing, such as Netflix and Amazon. There was a mass loss of audience for television serials because of this, as so many people where shifting over onto these online streaming services instead of continuing to watch television. This is one of the reasons why Cuffs wasn't too successful, as there was hardly an audience to watch and consume it.

This ties to my other point, in which audiences from that time were much more likely to binge watch an entire series in one sitting. Because of this, serials were much less successful, as people just didn't have the patience to wait a week between each episodes release. Online streaming services usually upload an entire series at once, meaning its much easier for people to binge watch on those platforms rather than television, which is one of the reasons for this mass shift and why Cuffs' wasn't as successful as it should have been.

In concluson, the reason why Cuffs lacked success was due to the large scale shift in audience and the changing practices of institutions.