Paper 2A Television: Life on Mars text analysis

Summarise the key points about S1 ep 1 of Life on Mars in the following areas Genre (Life on Mars is a hybrid genre text) Use of conventions in crime and scifi genre ( characters, settings, narrative , iconography etc.) and how they are followed or subverted . Link to Neale's genre theory and how the text is a combination of familiar and different genre elements . Narrative Barthes enigma codes : what enigmas ( mysteries ) remain unsolved by the end of the episode ? Are any solved ? The enigmas unresolved were the Is the episode a restricted or unrestricted narrative ? It is an urestricted narrative as the audience/ viewer know more more than the character (but seldom everything), which helps build suspense. Representations How are gender, ethnicity, the police and wider society represented in both the 1970s and modern day narratives of the episode ? Gender in the 1970s was segregated and unequal for women. In this episode women were represented as the help that is inferior to men. This is also evident through Annie's contributuion to the crime case that she had no recognition or respect from. Gender in todays day and age is more equal than before as women now have more rights. This can be due to the women rights movements made for women plus feminist protests. Ethnicity is also segregated, this is seen through the black man that (How are gender, ethnicity, the police and wider society represented in both the 1970s and modern day narratives of the episode ? Look at career and job roles, attitudes towards opposite genders , attitudes towards the law, use of technology , crime detection methods etc.)