formats.
A series, is a group of episodes of a TV show, which can all stand on their own, yet also come together as one story/timeline. Most episodes of these shows can run by themselves, with a beginning, a middle and an end, but also work as one linear plotline if you put them together. They’re kind of like monster of the week episodes in TV shows, in which you get some minor conflict with a monster, but these monsters all work for this BIGGER and MORE POWERFUL monster.
Examples of series are Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Big Bang Theory and Rick and Morty, in which you can start at any episode that you’d like, and not be confused, but can also be streamed as a whole.
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On average, these would run for about twenty to twenty two episodes. There are exceptions to this, in which some shows run for about 6-8 episodes.
These kinds of shows are most effective with Terrestrial and Cable TV, in which you do not have control over the schedule unless you have a recording system.
Series
Single
Drama
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A Single Drama is basically just a TV film special, which is a single, 45 minute to one hour show. They’re usually one off, stand alone episodes, with a clear beginning, middle and end, and no sequels after it. Like series, they are best for Terrestrial and cable TV, because not only were they the places where single dramas were aired the most, they also fit in with the schedule problem.
Examples include some one offs like Born innocent, and murdered for being different, any of the black mirror episodes, and most, if not all of the Lifetime Originals. However, if you want to get really vague, a lot of Disney Channel movies are in the same area. Yes. Teen Beach Movie is technically a Single Drama.
A serial TV show is basically one linear plot line. Every single episode of that series contributes to that one wide narrative, and many, if not all points in the show are used to develop the story in some way. These shows can usually go on for ages on end, depending on how successful the show is and how long the narrative is.
Some notable examples include Avatar: The last airbender, Game of thrones, Westworld, and house of cards. All of these shows, whether ongoing or not, all feature one, overarching narrative.
These types of stories are best built for streaming sites, being easily bingeable due to their type of narrative. They can do well on Cable TV, but any new viewer will probably be confused if they didn’t join on since the beginning.
Serial
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Genres
+ subgenres
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Genres are basically ways to categorise shows. They are categorised using certain story element, common themes, and types of things that generally can be grouped together.
Examples of these are Action, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Fantasy, Science Fiction, ect. These are pretty useful to find types of music that you like, so if you really enjoy Science Fiction movies, you can find them all in one group specifically.
If you want to get really niche though, there are sub genres. Sub genres are genres within genres, which help to further categorise the shows. An example of this is the Harry Potter series, which is a contemporary fantasy movie, which is a subgenre of the fantasy film.