# Episodic Or Serial?



## Zoolander (May 2, 2015)

I want people to help me identify these shows as "Episodic" or "Serial"

Episodic: Where you can watch a TV show episode and not have to watch any of the show episodes before it. 

Serial: You would have to watch EVERY episode of the TV show. 

Charmed: Episodic or Serial?
Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Episodic or Serial?
Gotham: Episodic or Serial?
Hannibal: Episodic or Serial?
Sleepy Hollow: Episodic or Serial?
Arrow (CW): Episodic or Serial?
Flash (CW): Episodic or Serial?


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## J-Sun (May 2, 2015)

Most shows follow the Buffy model in that there's usually a "monster of the week" (or equivalent) and larger serialized arcs (sometimes part-of-season, usually seasonal, and sometimes whole-show as well. Gotham is highly serialized and sometimes doesn't have a villain of the week and it sometimes takes more than one week to deal with him. Flash is also highly serialized in a background/big picture way but more approachable in an episodic sense than Gotham. I don't watch the rest. I gather that Arrow and Sleepy Hollow are similar - both somewhat episodic, mostly serial. (I suspect Sleepy Hollow is very episodic comparatively but I'm sure there's a big picture serial, too.) No clue about Charmed or Hannibal.

Is this the right section for this? You want to know about TV for writing, so it goes in writing, right? Because otherwise it seems like a TV thread. 

-- Decided maybe the above wasn't clear: what I mean is, most shows try to be serialized, but still provide something for people just tuning in to enjoy (though it probably doesn't really work). All the shows I know of in your list (and I suspect all) would be "serialized" if you had to pick one, though they make varying efforts to appeal to episodic watchers, too.

And, of course, it depends on what the viewer is watching for. If they like tuning in randomly and the stuff they miss doesn't bother them because they enjoy the weekly aspects, then they'll see it as episodic. If they are all about the arcs and know all the details, then they'll see it as serial.


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## J-Sun (May 2, 2015)

Hm, I see your other thread and agree with what others say about "analysis paralysis" and TV being a different medium. When talking about episodic TV, we mean the TV episodes stand alone without reference to events before or after (actually, even the most episodic TV show has some serial elements - Adam-12 will talk about an event of a previous episode once in a blue moon but it doesn't generally impact the current episode). But - key point - the episode as a whole, taken by itself, should still be tightly plotted to provide an enjoyable experience. When talking about episodic writing, it's basically talking about failed plotting, where event A is unconnected to event B. Now, there is a way to get around even this for some readers in that a "picaresque" is basically "episodic" but I don't tend to like plotless stuff.

Anyway - my basic point is that this should be in the TV forum.  It's probably not helpful for fiction writing to consider episodic vs. serialized TV (unless perhaps you're trying to figure out how to write a series and you want to do it like Herbert's Dune or Laumer's Retief).


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## Teresa Edgerton (May 3, 2015)

And you are quite right, J-Sun, so I've moved the thread.


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## Dave (May 3, 2015)

Zoolander said:


> Episodic: Where you can watch a TV show episode and not have to watch any of the show episodes before it.
> 
> Serial: You would have to watch EVERY episode of the TV show.



I'm sorry, but I don't see much of a clear difference between the examples you have given there. In the 1950's and 1960's when (especially US) TV shows were produced by a studio and then syndicated to the networks, it was more important that they could be shown in any order. Someone might catch an episode on one network in one week, another on another network in the following week. Being "episodic" allowed them to be shown in any jumbled order that the networks required. That ruled out any kind of preferred order and it also lead many to have a kind of "rest button" at the end of each story, as if nothing ever really happened or changed. On the other hand, I'm quite sure you would be equally confused watching an episode from a later Season and then jumping back to an early episode of any TV show.

We are living in 2015 with an explosion of channels, internet, pay-per-view, box-sets and what else. The landscape has completely changed. It is possible to have long story arcs across seasons now even within the kind of episodic series you mentioned. They also often pick up and follow up stories from much earlier episodes. That doesn't go to say that actual real serials never existed in the past. 1930's and 1940's Saturday morning cinema was built upon them. Adaptations of books and plays to TV are always going to have an order because the original source material does. There have always been, and still are, plenty of real made for TV drama serials where a story is told from beginning to end. 

I don't think any of the examples you gave were real serials and the reason for that is probably down to the constant possibility that a show will not get picked up in the following season and could be axed. That uncertainty must make writing a longer arc very hard, if not almost impossible. There are also plenty of shows where a complex story was built up and then..... it just ends! Or, where suddenly, in the final three episodes, more happens than in the last 2 seasons put together. Or where the long story arc is completed, but then the story just wanders on, rudderless, for another few seasons until quietly euthanised. This is just a function of syndicated network television.


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## tinkerdan (May 3, 2015)

The definition of serial TV IMHO is a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode . To me this means that it's episodic that's not to say that something episodic is serial, but it hinders a defining quality in sorting these out because consistently all tv series(that's another word with its own definition) seem to episodic and those not necessarily meant to be serialize often contain a number of episodes that lean in that direction.

It becomes difficult to separate them and I'm not sure why you would want to. If you do mean to compare these with writing then you have to look up the definitions as they are used in writing and that differs somewhat; but in a way it still doesn't make much difference  unless you are the one trying to define them.  In some ways these are accepted defined elements and in others they seem to me to be buzz words that might often change as the climate around them changes.

Based on many of your posts relating to Episodic recently I gather you might be struggling with the definition; possibly based on some reference to your writing and episodic. I would just let it rest and write what you are writing and then if you need help with it after you qualify you might leave snippets in the critique section where we might be able to give pointers.

If you are reacting to a critique given somewhere else and are struggling with what episodic might be and whether it can truly have caused you problems with your writing: I would suggest you let it go and do some homework on what is episodic and where it is used.

This is similar to a post I did in another forum where the critic called the work Forced Anime and when I asked for a definition of that it was not forth coming and when I researched it it seemed to be made up. In your case I can find lots of references to what Episodic might be and even some talking about how it can hurt; but also some explaining how to do it right and that seems like the better way to go than to try to pin down which works are episodic in nature.(If the ultimate goal is writing-which your other posts intimate.)

@Dave Though I understand what you are saying; I'm not sure we can discount serialization because they might be cancelled. It seems obvious in many cases that there is a long story within some of these and I've already been disappointed several times by the termination of a series, which I was anticipating a final resolution. They clearly are set out to be serials despite the obvious notion that they stand a good chance of being cancelled before the viewer will see the last.(This is a formula that might be sadistically considered successful despite the larger evidence that one season does not look very successful.)


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