Texts 1 Life on Mars - Genre

In preparation for your exam you need to study three industries and show knowledge of three texts from each industry. The first industry you will study is the television industry.

The first text you will explore is Life on Mars a TV Crime drama series.

The other two texts will be; Common, a TV special written by Jimmy McGovern and the modern TV crime drama Luther starring Idris Elba.

• Learning objectives: To study Life on Mars, TV series, with consideration given to generic issues, signifiers, conventions, iconography.

• Key terms: Pleasures of watching crime dramas, Verisimilitude, Hybrid, Signifier, Convention, Iconography

• Crime drama is one of the most enduring, popular genres, not just on TV but also novels, films and theatre.

• Its engaging narrative offers a space for debates about policing, criminality, gender, race and social and cultural values.

• There are two kinds of TV crime drama, with important distinctions between them. .One-off crime dramas tend to focus on the kinds of crime that create the most anxiety among the viewing public. They are distinguished by the aspects of law enforcement that they focus on, for example a police inspector, a team of detectives, a psychologist or a lawyer.
• Long running TV crime dramas will have a variety of sub-plots over time that help build relationships between characters.

Life on Mars

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• The following are key elements of the genre all of which can be seen as contributing to audience pleasures of watching crime dramas:
• Resolution to a mystery
• Question of morality
• Debates about innocent and guilt
• Verisimilitude- audience can recognise the representations of ‘ordinary’ people in everyday environment. If a text lacks verisimilitude it can be said to be unrealistic.
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• Power struggles between divisions of the police; government and the police and the judiciary system and the police
• Life on Mars is an unusual hybrid of time travel, science fiction and crime drama.
• The central concept is Detective Inspector Sam Tyler who is from present day Manchester wakes up in 1973.
• This programme was a new twist to crime drama as one suggestion Tyler may be in a coma in 2006 imagining his experiences. This innovation is one of the reasons for the success of the series. 
• The audience is uncertain whether Tyler may really be in from 1973 or having visions or if he has traveled back in time.
• This was not a typical crime drama series as it showed how the 1970s were very politically incorrect as it looked at sexism, racism, homophobia, police brutality. This politically incorrectness was one of the main themes that ran through the series as Sam Tyler regularly clashed with DCI Gene Hunt over police approaches.

In the 70's, The Sweeney wasn't Post Modern.
Until the media producers and therefore the audience have a text to compare with they cannot be part of 'the joke'. You live in the post modern era where the majotity of texts rely on intertextual referencing as a factor of post modernism.

Life on Mars, BBC, 2006-07

You will look specifically at Episode 4 of Series 2 which can be found on the student shared drive.

Remember if answering the question on texts (Section A) you must choose one question out of two options.

Your focus for this question will be Common, Luther and Life on Mars.

You should be able to discuss the following:

• Genre: The generic codes and conventions relating to the three television shows we have studied.
• Narrative: The narrative structures and techniques appropriate to the three texts.
• Representations: The main representations contained within the three texts. Specifically; people, places or issues.

Semiotic analysis of opening title sequence:

Dream/ flashback to past (Sam as child)

Golden glow - sense of nostalgia created by warm, high key lighting on Auntie Heather - She is represented as a caring maternal figure in Sam's life.

Sound echoes (dreamy/dislocation), calm emotive music.

Mid shot of Sam in bed -camera on its side, as the camera turns through 90 degrees it signifies Sam's return to reality or waking up.

Mise-en-scene of Sam's flat establishes the 1970's - large floral patterns, old fashioned TV that Sam tries to tune.

There is a sense of impermanence; peeling wallpaper, sleeping bag.

Title sequence:

Explanation of the narrative - generic to every episode ' My name is Sam Tyler...' explains the accident but creates enigma as he says ' am I mad, in a coma or back in time?'

Mid shot of Sam on the ground (camera turned on its side echoing the bed shot)

Dramatic music echoing a heartbeat to build tension

Slow motion effect as Sam talks about being on a different planet to signify his isolation and feeling of being out of step. Connotations of the slow process of policing in 1973

Low angled shots of the police signify authority, upholds dominant ideologies of police and power

Iconography of police genre: Mise en scene of police station, music, male, investigation, violence, car

Female presence suggests love interest

Task 1:

Carry out a semiotic analysis of the post title sequence. Bullet points orange books.

This is the introduction to the main narrative, the discovery of a body is the inciting incident that sets the narrative arc in motion.

Close up of grassy ground; tilting crane shot moves out to reveal children playing on derelict land.

Life on Mars - Genre:

Police/Detective

Narrative: Investigation into a young woman's death.

Mise-en-scene: Police station, blinds, smoke etc. (at times this is iconic of film noir).

Sci-Fi

Narrative: Time travel / Parallel universe.

Mise-en-scene: Technology used as a means of communication e.g. TV, radio, telephone.

Comedy

Themes: Culture clash, conflict of attitudes between 1973 and 2006

Dialogue

Drama

Narrative: Sam's dislocation and desire to return to the present and the attempts to contact him from the present.

Task 1: 

Watch Series 2 Episode 4 of Life on Mars and and answer the following question:

How does the programme consciously show politically incorrect behaviour and attitudes for audiences to judge them in our time?

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Postmodernism:

Life on Mars is a hybrid of different genres. This offers new pleasures for audiences:

There is an evident crossing and fusing of different time periods - misunderstandings, humour, culture clashes.

Irony e.g. naming assumed identities Tony and Cherie Blair.

Influence of other media - Life on Mars is the title of a song by David Bowie (as is the title of the next series; Ashes to Ashes).

It has been argued that, in 1973, sexism hadn't been invented.

Task 2:

How does this episode of Life on Mars use genre conventions?

-You should open your response by outlining what is to be understood by the genre genre conventions of TV Crime drama.
Consider:
Settings, usually well known places or cities which are dangerous places.
Titles, can give a clue to the genre, CSI, Sherlock, Sweeney. Mise-en-scene can include genre conventions, blood, X-Rays, weapons, fingerprints, police tape or cars...discuss Luther titles here.
Characters are divided into types; crime solvers, criminals, victims. Propp's characters can usually be applied here.
At the end of the episode/series the crime is solved, criminal usually is punished. Lead characters will often have a back story, and will weave their personal life in to the narrative. There is usually mystery involved, or some sort of puzzle, so that the audience can try to figure it out themselves. Almost always ends on a cliffhanger to keep the audience watching the next episode. 
Binary opposites are often used to keep the audience interested.
Don't forget audio codes such as sirens and often a humming sound to make the audience uncomfortable.

• How does the episode replicate, with some variation, standard conventions?
• Demonstrate some of the reasons for this approach to production.
• Consider the ideological implications of conforming or challenging standard conventions.