MOCK EXAM QUESTION PAPER 2A Television Crime Drama (TEXT)

How do your key text episodes of Life on Mars and The Bridge use, follow or subvert genre conventions and stereotypical representations, and how do they use narrative structure and enigmas to produce a response in their audiences? You should make some reference to theory in your answer (30 marks)

Life on Mars and The Bridge are both television crime dramas. Life on Mars is a British show whilst The Bridge is a co-production between Sweden and Denmark.

Life on Mars and The Bridge both use genre conventions to successfully show that the television show is a crime drama. Life on Mars is a hybrid genre text (crime and sci-fi) and that is shown through the characters, settings and narrative. Life on Mars has characters such as investigators, sidekicks, victims, and villains. Sam Tyler is the main character and the investigator. He has the typical backstory of an investigator that has problems and issues to solve personally. His boss Gene Hunt could also be classified as his sidekick, as he assists Sam in his investigations. The narrative of the first episode follows Sam as he finds out who the murderer is and solves the connection between the cases in 2006 and 1973, which fits into the typical narrative of a crime drama.

The sci-fi genre is first shown when Sam time travels to the past after a car accident and is continued when he is trying to find out how and why he is there. This part of the narrative ends up being an enigma code as Sam does not solve this problem by the end of the episode, leaving it a mystery to be solved, resulting in the audience wanting to continue watching the series. Another enigma code would be that it is not yet clear as to how and why Sam time travelled and what is going on in 2006. This is supported by Barthes Action and Enigma codes theory, which suggests that an enigma code is a question posed to the audience to leave a sense of ambiguity and to leave them hooked.

Life on Mars episode one has an open ending as there are many questions left to be answered and is a multistrand as there are multiple plotlines. The narrative is restricted as the audience does not know, see, or hear more than Sam. There are some examples of binary opposites in the episode such as past vs present, how does the case that Sam is solving in 1973 link to the case he is solving in 2006 and how different are the work conditions in 1973 compared to 2006 culturally and ethically. Another binary opposite is police vs criminal which is conventional as this is type of conflict that the audience expects to see and makes them feel happier when the police wins.

The Bridge is a Nordic noir which is a genre of crime fiction usually written from a police point of view and set in Scandinavia or Nordic countries. We can tell The Bridge is a Nordic noir as there are bleak settings, brutal crimes, an investigator with a mysterious past and a storyline with lots of complex threads. The Bridge also has characters such as investigators, sidekicks, victims, and villains. Saga is the main character and the investigator. She also has the typical troubled backstory that an investigator in Nordic noir crime dramas would have. Hanne Thomsen is Saga’s sidekick who joins her on her investigation in this episode. Hans Pettersson is Saga’s laconic and mentoring boss.

The narrative of the episode follows Saga as she tries to solve a murder case. The Bridge has some enigmas that are yet to be solved by the end of the episode such as who is the murderer and what is going on in Saga’s personal life. This hooks the audience as it leaves them wandering about the answers to the questions. This can be supported by Barthes Theory. This episode of The Bridge has an open ending as not everything is solved and not all questions are answered. This leads the audience to keep watching more episodes to see if everything gets resolved. The Bridge has a multistrand narrative as there are different plotlines happening in this episode for example: Saga trying to solve the murder case, Saga’s relationship with Hanne and her connection to Martin, Lise Anderson’s daughter getting bullied at school. The narrative is unrestricted as the audience know, see, and hear more than the characters.

There are some main binary opposites in The Bridge for example Sweden vs Denmark, Danish people think that Swedish people are a bit more politically correct and uptight (this may be a link between Saga sticking to the rules and doing the right thing by reporting her previous partner). Another binary opposite is the relationship between Saga and Hanne. Hanne seems to have hard feelings towards Sage for reporting Martin (a popular man liked in the workplace and Sage’s ex-partner/sidekick). Levi-Strauss’s theory of binary opposites can support this as it suggests that the conflict between the binary opposites drives forward the narrative.

In the crime genre, women are usually represented as victims and in the drama genre, women tend to be represented as overly emotional and family orientated. This episode of The Bridge subverts the stereotypical representation of women as we can clearly see that Saga is socially awkward. Saga is very blunt and has difficulty in building relationships (we see this when Saga is attempting small talk with Hanne). She strips down to her underwear in the office to get changed without any embarrassment and carries on as if that is normal. It can be suggested that her character has autism which is a change for a female character as autism was once seen as a manifestation of an “extreme male brain” and mostly given to males to portray. Saga is often seen as rude or insensitive (thought it is shown as unintentional) as she tells things directly and truthfully, even if it will hurt someone’s feelings. An example of Saga being unable to empathise is when she and Hanne go to visit the victim’s wife and Saga offers to show her pictures of her wife’s dead body at the scene. Hanne stops her as she finds that inappropriate for the wife to see. This subverts from van Zoonen’s feminist theory, which suggests that women as seen as objects in the media.

To conclude, Life on Mars and The Bridge both use genre conventions, stereotypical representation, narrative structure, and enigma codes to actively engage with the audience.