Life of mars is a UK crime drama that represents how life was back in the 1970s as well as within the twentyth century.
This series has several representations, such as the following;
The repesentation of women; Within the police force in the 70s it is only white men that are seen within such a position as within those times women were more seen as nurses, midwives or stay at home mothers. This can be seen as the main character Sam is surprised that the woman tending to him is a female police officer rather than a nurse as he first assumed, as well as within this episode she is the only female police officer that is presented within this scene, this can connote that women are unable to handle such jobs. Women were also presented as sex objects or referred to sexually, this can be seen when annie is within the precinct helping with the case and the men start to flirt with her/ speak to her subtly sexual as well as the reference and i quote,"he was as pale as a ginger bird's ass". These derogotary actions show that women are not respected or valued by men as they are in this day and age.
The representation of race; There is a lack of representation of other ethicities within the series as all that is seen are middle aged white men and women, this can connote that in those times there was not as much immigration and those that were within the country had more behind the scenes jobs which was most likely all that they were offered. The only ethnic character that was introduced so far is a rastafarian black man with a "caribbean accent", he was made to fit the stereotypical represenation of a caribbbean person (bubbly, talkative, with a "cool" vybe), which in some cases is not the case as different islands have different cultures and types of people not just the stereotypical jolly character.
The representation of men; Is that men have a high sense of competitiveness, this can be seen as in many cases in which the head of the department has stated to sam that he's trying to show him up or take his job, as well as the way in which the men work with each other as well as the witnesses represents men as dominant and rough.
The iconography within the episode represents the time frame and connotes to the audience the time period that the episode is being set in, as well as the costumes of the characters depicted represent the job roles that they are in.
This is a contrast compared to how they dressed in 2006 which is his original time period, which is a more modernised view of how people dressed. This also shows how much the police force has grown since the 70s.
The enigma codes within the episode are as follows;the hermeneutic code, in which can be seen in many scenes within the episdoe, for example; while he is watching the television starts speaking directly to him but yet that same person he saw in "real life" is the nurse's ex boyfriend, this connotes an unexplained mystery within the show. As well as the proairetic code; for eg; when sam was going to jump off the top of the building to try and get back to the real world and also when sam was trying to solve the case of the murdered girl(s) in 1970.
The episode has use of restricted narrative as the information is learn't through the interactions such as the body language of the characters among each other as well as through conversations among each other.
There is also the use of audience surrogate which would be those within the 1970s police force who express the same confusion and ask questions that help to fill in the gaps of the story for the audience as they are as confused about Sam's behaviour as we (the audience) are.
There is also the use of investigator and sidekick in which sam and Gene can be seen to fit his role as they conducted the search of the missing girl together and solved the case of the murder together as well as can be seen spending leisurely time together., for example when they went into the pub together.
