Life on Mars

 Genre- Hybrid genre> Crime and Sci-fi

Genre- crime and sci-fi 

Conventions- murders/ arresting/ investigation 

Unconventional- time traveling

Life on Mars has a very strong regional branding, a lots of people and places from Manchester and other northern parts of the country. The characters, style and setting reflects the location and the time its set- 1970s. Examples would be the vintage cars and costumes, technology is still new (no telephones, restricted tv times etc). The series have two genres combined together, which gives the opportunity to attract more audiences with different interest. This links to Neale's genre theory, which suggests that genres change, develop and vary as they borrow from and overlap with another. The crime genre elements are there- murders, police, investigations etc, we can see sci-fi genre elements too- time traveling. Enigma codes- time traveling, development of the female character (police woman in the 1970s) 

Narrative- By the end of the episode, the case from 1970s is solved, the suspect murderer is arrested, but the mystery around the main character's time traveling is still not explained, this makes the viewers engaged in the story line and it will increase the curiosity- will the main character return back to his normal life? The episode is a restricted narrative, the audience only know as much as the character does.

S1/E1 plot- After arresting and questioning a suspect, Tyler is forced to let him go when he has an alibi for one of the murders. Sam Tyler's girlfriend is reluctant to give up on Raimes and follows him, only to disappear, leaving only a bloody shirt behind. Sam, driving back from the crime scene, stricken with grief, pulls over and steps out of his jeep to compose himself, and is hit by a speeding car. When he wakes up, he's now living in the Manchester of 1973. He is now a detective inspector and his new boss DCI Gene Hunt is a living representation of everything the police force has tried to stop itself being in 2006. 

Representation- We can see the contrast in the representation in the show, when he travels back to the 70s (less representation of people of colour/ gender at the work place). When the main character was working in 2000s, his partner was a young woman of colour in her 30s, while in 70s his partner is a white man in his late 40s. The main character tries to convince the female lead/supportive character to get involve in the case, but back then it was really rear for women to work at the police. The other male police officers were laughing and making fun at her contribution, which shows how men didn't view women as equally good as them in the work place.

Representations of characters:

- Sam Tyler- He is described as a driven and ambitious young detective who is determined to keep the 21st century Manchester streets safe. Sam Tyler is represented as committed to his work by his interest in his job in the modern day. 

- Sam's boss Gene Hunt is represented as a hard-nosed DCI working during the 70s. Gene belittles Sam and prefers to not be told what to do. Gene is also a contradiction to modern day policing, highlighting the social change between the 70s and modern day. Gene Hunt represents hyper masculinity as he is less interested in his work than Sam Tyler but still represents dominance and he takes his police team out to pubs and too socialisation. Both Sam and Gene were doing door to door enquires to find the missing girl, there were no presence of women to show the difference between the genres.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

- Annie Cartright- plays the role as the nurturer towards Sam and reasons with him, helping him through and making him believe he is sane. She is not taken seriously throughout by the 70s police, Sam shows the change in attitudes towards women compared to 40 years ago. Annie is a representation of women during the 70s, she is shown as passive and accepts what the men say to her. When we first meet Annie, she is helping Sam Tyler medically, therefore portraying women as helping men. In another scene, she is implementing her education on psychology to create a profile of the killer with Sam. As Sam encourages Annie to help him, the men in the police team make fun of her. Ultimately, she gets embarrassed and walks away from the team without helping further. There is an absence of women with Annie being told "trot along now, sweetheart". This is done to convey the level of inferiority that women had, and little say that they have in comparison to men. 

- Nelson- He is the Jamaican- British pub worker, he is first seen in the first episode as Sam Tyler comes in for a drink with Gene Hunt. In the first encounter with Nelson, he speaks in a Jamaican accent and the audience assumes this is his normal voice. However, when Sam Tyler goes back to the pub on his own, Nelson talks to him in a British accent. This represents the 70s views on ethic minorities and how Sam Tyler represents modern view for Nelson to open up to him. 













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