Audience Expectation

As period dramas can be peaceful and romantic or violent and action-packed, it is unclear what to really expect from a period drama. As most period dramas will be about family life, love, power and torture the audience will have some idea but not much. Although a specific genre, period drama can be set in a number of historical times. It can also be based on true events and/or based on a novel or just entirely made up. Either way it must reflect the time in history that it is meant to represent.

Aduience will expect certain things from the appearance of a period drama film. Most audiences will expect the set of a period drama to be reflective of the time. For example, if it is about people of a higher class they will expect a large house or castle where the main characters will be living in. If it is about middle-class people they may expect to see a family struggling with money but still wealthy enough to be in a reasonably- sized house with enough food. If it is about lower-class people then they will expect to witness extreme poverty and possibly starvation and sickness and death. This is a harsh reality that is often portrayed in period dramas about lower-class citizens.

They will also expect detailed costumes. This can range from elegant suits and dresses to torn shirts and old coats used by lower-class people to stay warm. Period dramas consider costume to be extremely important. The costume of a character in a period drama can reflect the type of person that they are. It can give a great indication of the life that they lead and/or the life that they used to lead. Costume also represents social status and so the audience will be able to see a huge difference in the costumes for each social class. Audience will expect to be able to see this and will also rely on this to tell whether to not a character or a numbers of characters is/are wealthy, poor or middle-class.

Producers of period dramas usually have a target audience of girls and women aged seventeen to fifty. Some may have a wider target audience and a wider audience in general due to a range of characters and plot lines. This may cause the TV show/film to not live up to audience's expectation.

Most period dramas will tend to have a strong, opinionated female character and a prominent female character. This means that if the audience are watching and expecting someone that they can relate to they will most likely not be disappointed. The typically female audience will be able to relate to the characters.

Period dramas are often lot more complex than other TV shows/films and involve a lot more emotion which would appeal to the female audience who will be expecting something that they can in a way relate to. They may also be expecting to see something that is similar to a romantic drama which is what most period dramas can be compared to.

However, their expectation may cause some disappointment as not all period drama will be likeable to people who are interested in strong female characters and romance as some involve much more violence and appear to be darker than most, for example "Dorian Gray".

In some cases before audiences have expected something in an apisode/film and have viewed something else entirely which has cause them to be very angry. For example, Downton Abbey had a rape plot for one of their characters, Anna Bates, which left the show's audience furious and it lost more than a million viewers in the episode the week after.