Life on mars

Life on mars

To start with on life with mars we have it start with present time and we have the typical male and female partners. Also during the first interrogation scene we can see the suspect getting uncomfortable and his lawyers and social workers asking the interrogators to stop. Although this is the usual for now it plays an important part later.

Jumping forward into the episode we see the main character go back in time into 70's roughly. What the show does well it's the setting and the way everything successfully gives the feeling that you are in the 70's. For example the way the main character is dressed and everyone around him, the style of clothing everyone has.

Another way the show successfully takes us back in time with it is the way people speak, are treated and how they talk about women. For example when he goes to the police station and wakes up the man in charge he gets punched in the stomach which back then would have been acceptable and no one would've questioned it rather than if that happened today they'd get fired straight away for physical abuse. Again when talking about women they think that they are better than them and talk about them provocatively which contrasts to the future he was in when he has a female partner who he would work with. But back then they would never work with a female and they think that there opinion is irrelevant and that they are there for the sexual pleasure of men.

Throughout the show we see the typical cliche of good cop bad cop due to the way that they would handle situations, for example when interrogating someone back in the 70's they were allowed to physical hurt them and scare them into talking where as in the modern day the social workers and lawyers were telling them to stop asking to many questions it is making him feel uncomfortable which just contrasts the two different methods from the present day to the past.

Also more unusual behaviour used is drinking on the job and then continuing to do their job. Which if we did this during this time we would get fired or worse though back then it is allowed. Another thing back in the day is the lack of black people in the show however when we see the black guy serving drinks we suspect the boss is going to be racist towards him though it turns out they are good friends which surprised us as the audience.

As far as visual codes go we see all the characters dressed in the 70's style to match the scenery and time they were in and the cars were a lot older and nothing seemed modern anymore, all the shops seemed like what you would see if you glimpsed into the past.

Audoe codes used would be the normal background talking, car noises when out in public. There would be some tense music playing at different parts of the episode like when he is about to jump off the building or when he gets hit by the car.

Technical codes used would be the normal background talking, the car sounds when out in public and the non diegtic sounds for example when he is about to jump off the building towards the end of the apisode or when he gets hit by the car. Also the editing used such as the different camera shots and angles, diegetic and non diegetic sounds, the different types of cuts the episode uses.

There are a lot of enigmas throughout the episode like is him in the 70's real or his imagination, the prime suspect in their investigation, how they're going to solve the murder case? Which is good to keep the audience attached as we want to see what happens and we want to solve these enigmas with the characters.