Life On Mars

Life on Mars is a British television series which falls into many genres such as supernatural drama, crime and sci-fi. It can be pointed out that sci-fi is an unusual and unexpected genre to be combined with a crime drama. It was created by Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah. It consisted of stars like John Simm, Philip Glenister and Liz White etc. Life on Mars is a reference to David Bowie's song " Life on Mars?" which is played on Sams iPod when he gets hit by the car. Sam is known to the audience as a DCI which represents Detective Chief Inspector, however once he's been taken back to 1973 he's recognised as a detective inspector. His character comes across as a serious detective who is serious about his job. Life on Mars is set firstly in modern day Manchester which changes within roughly 8 mins into the series to 1973. This creates a confusion for both the audience and characters to whether he has died or actually travelled back in time.

It can be said that low-angle shots alongside close ups, zoom in and outs are used within the series. This is proven from the very start of the series when we see a fast paced car drive which is inter-cut by the credits, introducing the stars of the series. For a short period of time we get a glimpse through the detectives perspective of whats going on and what he sees. The audience also is presented with many close ups, zoom in and outs, which are mainly focused on the detective and the suspects. This can show the importance of the character and their relevance to the case. In addition, mid shots were used especially when crumbs from a sandwich was dropped onto the evidence, which then cuts to an mid shot of Sam's face to see his reaction. Credits are again used at the end of the series but there is no detail added, for example white text is applied to a plain black background showing it's simplicity in reading the names of the cast. Slow motion is also used for effect and to show the confusion of what is going on. Although Life on Mars doesn't seem to have a lot of music played other then David Bowie's song, it does however include sound effects which shows some sense of an reminder/ flashback to Sam's accident. An enigma code has been used as the killer's identity is conventionally delayed till the end, leaving the audience guessing who the killer is.   

There are a range of stereotypes within Life on Mars, one being gender relating. You can see the difference between how men and women were treated differently in modern day and in the 1970s. For example in Episode 1 series 1 we as the audience are only introduced to one black male in the 1970s with a bar man profession. This brings me to the office being dominated by men which are not serious and are often joking around. Despite the fact that women have their own department, they are not seen working alongside the men in the office. In other words women's values wasn't like the mens. Another example of an gender relating stereotype is when the detective is shown as weak and helpless which is seen as an unusual thing, as men are often represented as strong and powerful. 

Looking more closely into the context of Life on Mars, as I mentioned before it is made clear that there are two time eras; modern day and 1970s time period. It is easy to identify which time era is being shown for example we see modern day life at the office which includes both female and male working alongside each other. It's clear that Sam works in an well organised office, follows and understands that there are rules to follow, knows the principles and importance of no contamination and preservings. However we see the complete opposite when we are faced with the 1970s time era, as there is no sense of any sort of organisation or rules put in place, for example smoking inside, drinking on the job, no preservation of evidence or of the crime scene and many more. In addition when it comes to technology, it is made clear by the way they speak that they have no knowledge of preserving the crime scene. This is known as it was asked by Sam to his former colleagues "Has the crime scene been preserved?, Has the body been dusted for prints?" which his answer he got given was "How the hell you gonna get dabs of skin?" which was followed by puzzled looks, which supports the theory that they don't have a clue of any advanced technology back in the 1970s. In support with their lack of technology knowledge, it's clearly shown that they never had an appropriate place for interviews to take place but instead used a dark room with one b right light, no camera to record like in the modern day but instead have someone stand in the interview and take notes. Moreover the technique of modern day policing that Sam engages with leads him into frequent clashes with other characters in Life on Mars.