Life On Mars

BBC - Life on Mars (Crime, Drama, Mystery)

Synopsis (series 1, episode 1):

After a road accident in 2006, DCI Sam Tyler awakens to find himself in 1973. Apparently a DI and assigned to work under rough-around-the-edges DCI Gene Hunt, Tyler follows a series of murders which have been committed with the same effect in both 2006 and 1973. The clash of cultures between Tyler and others relates mainly to the lack of importance placed on forensic science in 1973. Annie Cartwright stops Sam jumping off the top of a building after he convinces himself that suicide will take him back to 2006.

Production of Life on Mars:

The television programme was first broadcast on BBC One on Monday nights at 9:00pm. 

Life on Mars was a ratings success. The first series achieved an average audience figure of 6.8 million viewers. Viewing figures for the second series were initially low, with the first episode only attracting 5.7 million viewers, slumping to 4.8 million viewers by episode three, despite being heavily trailed and publicised.

BBC:

• The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster. 
• Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up. 
• The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBC's radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK.

The BBC remit:

To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them

The BBC will provide accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming of the highest editorial standards so that all audiences can engage fully with issues across the UK and the world.

To support learning for people of all ages

Educational content will help support learning for children and teenagers across the UK, whilst audiences will be encouraged to explore inspiring and challenging new subjects and activities through a range of partnerships.

To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services

Innovative content covering many different genres will be provided across a range of services and platforms, setting the standard both in the UK and globally.

To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom

The lives of the people in the United Kingdom today will be accurately and authentically portrayed in the BBC’s output and services to raise awareness of different cultures, contribute to social cohesion and invest in the development of each nation’s creative economy.

To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world

High quality, accurate, impartial news coverage will be delivered to international audiences, aiding understanding of the UK as a whole.

Post-modernism:

Post-modernism is a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterised by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

• Life on Mars follows components of Post-modernism. For example, intertextuality. The show lead to a spin off named Ashes from ashes. 
• Lévi-Strauss suggested that media texts are now made up of “debris” that we recognise from other texts and these are combined – “bricolage”. This may be heard in e.g. a musical “mash-up” or remix.
• Baudrillard argues that the media create hyper-realities based on a continuous process of mediation. What is encoded as ‘real’ (and what we decode through media products) is not ‘real’ but instead a ‘simulacrum’ which offers us a hyper-reality (“A real without origin or reality” – Jean Baudrillard) that we accept as real because we are so consistently exposed to it.

Characters:

• Gene Hunt - detective chief inspector. Brutal and self important.
• Sam Tyler - detective inspector. High-ranking and well-respected. Fell into a coma and woke up in 1973 after a car accident.
• Annie Cartwright - constable, a police officer and eventual girlfriend and wife of Sam Tyler. 
• Ray Caning - detective sergeant and right-hand man of Gene Hunt. He is later promoted. 

Narrative:

• Equilibrium - Sam Tyler in present day. Is a DCI. Has a relationship with Maya. 
• Disruption - Maya's abduction, Sam Tyler is hit by a car and falls into a coma. He awakens in 1972. 
• Recognition - Sam Tyler questions where he is and what year he has found himself in.
• Resolution - Attempts to resolve the disequilibrium, murder investigation, meeting with Neil and making his way onto the rooftop. 
• Equilibrium - Possible closure - revelation and arrest of murderer. 

Binary oppositions:

• past vs present (1973, 2006)
• good vs evil (murderer, victim)
• old vs new (no mobiles, mobiles)

Enigmas:

• Why was Sam transported back in time?
• Are those who claim to be innocent, actually innocent?
• What is the motive for the killings?
• Will he ever get back to present day?

Intertextuality (introduced by Julia Kristeva) is the shaping of a texts meaning by another text. It refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media via another media text. Recognition of the inter-textual reference adds to the audiences reading of the text. 

Some texts refer directly to each other. For example, remakes of films. Interpretation of these references is influenced by the audience's prior knowledge of other texts. 

Types of Intertextuality;

• Overt - obvious, cannot fail to notice.
• Subtle - not as noticeable, more discreet.
• Deliberate - director has chosen to make the reference. 
• Latent - comes from outside influences that may have unconsciously  influenced the producer. 
• Obligatory - reference must be understood in order to grasp the meaning of the text.
• Optional - useful to understand the reference, nut it's not essential. 

Life on Mars - intertextual references;

1. Life on Mars by David Bowie. This is an inter-textual reference to the song as it is played within the show as well as being named after the song itself. 
2. The shot after Sam runs away from the policeman and sees a billboard announcing the construction of Manchester's "Highway in the Sky"—where he was when he was hit by the car—is a deliberate reference to the 1985 film, Back to the Future.
3. Intending to break out of his unreal world, Sam tells Annie he’s going to “follow the yellow brick road.” This is one of many allusions to The Wizard of Oz in Life On Mars. 

Postmodernism can be seen as a reaction against the ideas of modernism, as well as a description of the period that followed modernism's dominance in cultural theory.

In postmdernism media this can be a homage to past styles 

• The term is associated with scepticism, irony and philosophical critiques of the concepts of universal truths and objective reality.