life on mars

Life on mars is a british crime drama which uses technical codes, enigma codes and restricted narrative at times to engage its viewers.The series combines elements of speculative fiction l, featuring a present day police officer from the Greater Manchester Police who wakes up in 1973 after being involved in a road accident. The title is a reference to David Bowie's 1973 single "Life on Mars?, with its lyrics "Take a look at the lawman, beating up the wrong guy".
In the opening of Life on mars a close-up of car wheels followed by police cars is used to build suspension, furthermore the fact it cuts between the credits builds adds to his even more, the police and detective cars are a generic theme to the crime drama ,therefore this quickly allows the audience to establish the genre.This enigma code delays information to the viewers and questions are left unanswered for the time being,this sustains audience interest. An enigma code creates suspense by withholding or delaying answers to questions that the narrative sets up.This is very important to do in the opening of a crime drama as the audience watching on could depend of if they are hooked on the storyline.
Throughout the scene of the car accident the soundtrack Life on mars- David Bowie speeds up, this builds suspense and fulfills audiences pleasures to be thrilled. As the Uses and gratification theory states we watch pieces of media to be entertain which is exactly what Life on mars does at this point. To add to this, non-diegetic sound is used as a enigma code, we see a tilted long-shot to suggest something isn't right. In this case we get the idea that his health is deteriorating due to the sound effect of Defibrillation .In this point of the narrative you could argue that we in a restricted narrative as we do not know whats going on, this is mainly because we only hear the sound the scene of the accident.also the fact he has almost gone into another world, this limits the audience's knowledge on the narrative
The mise-en-scene in the a particular scene is a giveaway of the setting change, the costumes such as the suit of the protagonist suggests it is set in the 1970s. Additionally, the billboard about the manchester highway tells us we have gone back in time as well as the props such as cars. At this point the narrative is unrestricted because we know just as much as the lead character. Moreover, the mid-shots of the detectives smoking inside adds to the fact it is set in the 70s.in some ways you could say that these are all generic codes as they symbolise the decade. The room with the detectives and investigators in is generic to the crime genre as similar settings are used throughout the crime genre. A generic code is a system that creates meaning by using technical codes linked to the genre.


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