Life On Mars - Media Language - Component 2 Flashcards
What is life on Mars?
(Context)
- Life on Mars is a hybrid tv Sci-Fi/crime drama produced in 2006, but set in the 1970s.
- The show tells the fictional story of Sam Tyler serving within the greater Manchester police as a DCI (detective chief inspector)
- After being struck by a car in 2006, Tyler wakes up to find himself in the year 1973 and finds himself working for a predecessor of the GMP - the Manchester and Salford police force.
- Tyler realizes that he is now a detective inspector which is one rank lower than his previous rank in 2006 as a DCI
- He then finds himself working under a DCI gene hunt as part of a criminal investigation
Who produced life on Mars?
(Context)
- Life on Mars was produced by the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) in 2006 who have been notoriously known and have a strong reputation for making popular TV crime dramas
- Such as a doctor who.
How did the production of life on Mars conform to global events of the 2000s?
(Context)
- During the 2000’s there was a global trend seen within mainstream Hollywood as a lot of tv shows from the 1960s and 1970s were being rebooted
- Examples of these are Chips, Starsky and Hutch, and Charlies angels
What is the major influence of life on mars? remember the technology
- Throughout life on mars we see huge intertextual references to a specific popular 1970s tv crime drama named sweeny
- As we see life on mars pays homage to sweeny by using similar narrative devices, character archetypes, misc en scene and even the same car previously used by regan in sweeny: a burnt orange ford gt
- Hunt’s character is also similar to very similar to regan’s character; ruthless no-nonsense hard man who is a deputy to the law
What are the typical codes and conventions of a ‘70’s cop show? use RESISTS briefly (4-5 examples)
Some typical codes and conventions of tv crime dramas in the 70s include:
- Interrogations
- Suspects and killers
- Rookie
- Justice
- Enigma codes
Brief overview of genre?
- Steve Neale genre theory states that genres all have a degree of repetition but however are also recognises by their difference, variation and change.
How is the “investigating” the disappearance of Dora scene typical of a tv crime drama?
- We also see through the disappearance of Dora some common and typical codes and conventions of tv crime dramas
- Such as missing people and an investigation taking place in order to find that person
Why is variation and change important to genre?
- Variation and change allow tv shows such as Life on Mars to provide itself with a new unique selling point to help differentiate from other programs in the same genre
How does life on Mars break away from the formulaic nature of crime dramas?
- The partners throughout the episode clash culturally, this is due to Tyler’s agitation/confusion about being trapped in the 1970s
- Hunts lack patience with Tyler’s behavior and resorts to him degrading and assaulting him on numerous occasions (hypermasculinity)
- Hunt has a higher ranking over Tyler, where as Tyler’s ranking is much higher in 2006 - clash of egos
How do audiences recognize certain character types? Terminology
- When audiences recognize different character types this is called typology
- Typology is a system of dividing something into different categories and interns of characters this would relate to character types such as heroes, villains, and donors
- An example of the hero in life on Mars would be both DCI Hunt and Tyler as they both solve the case of finding Dora
Brief overview of Todorov’s theory?
- Todorov theory believes that there is a common pattern of movement throughout all linear narratives and this is where there is a:
- Stable equilibrium
- A disruption of the equilibrium
- Recognition of disrupted equilibrium
- Attempt to restore disrupted equilibrium
- Restored equilibrium
How is Todorov’s theory applicable to episode 1 of life on Mars?
- DISTRUPTION:
The disruption to the narrative happens after the disappearance of maya, resulting in Tyler being involved in a car accident and waking up in 1973, leaving questions and enigma codes - Is the head dead? - Is he in a coma? - NEW EQUILIBRIUM
At the end of the episode, we see that the investigation of the disappearances of Dora and the ongoing crime scene investigation has been solved as they capture the killer Kramer,
However, the episode is left unresolved as the narrative conforms to a classic convention of a cliffhanger as a number of incidents are left unresolved including whether or not Tyler jumps to his death at the conclusion of the episode
What is the function of an enigma code?
- Enigma codes are used to create suspense by withholding or delaying answers to particular questions that a narrative sets up to keep the audience’s attention.
How are enigma codes embedded into episode 1 of life on mars?
- Will Tyler jump?
- Why 1973?
- Will he ever go back?
- Tyler and annie?
- Consequences for niel?
- What happened to maya?
- Is it a coma or is he dead
Evaluate which narrative types can be applied to episode 1 of Life on mars.
Both the Flexi narrative and the unrestricted narrative are applicable to the text:
- Firstly a flexi narrative is a structure that combines aspects of the series and serial we see this when the self-contained element of the kidnapping case is resolved, but more episodes are retained for the development of character relationships and the narrative
- Secondly unrestricted narrative is where the audience knows more than the actual characters within the world of the text, the unrestricted is a position of privilege as the audience is aware that Tyler is telling the truth and is from the culture of 2006, however, ray, hunt and Annie think he is deluded and suffering from post-concussion symptoms
