ABSTRACT
For decades, the most common TV series characters have been doctors, lawyers and cops, especially detectives. The formula is easy to digest: case of the week followed by positive resolution. With the digital television revolution, audiences have transcended the formulaic and predictable in favor of exploring the nuanced gray areas of complex, heavily flawed heroes, antiheroes and antagonists in series that defy stereotypes or easy resolution. Today's trailblazing content creators are delivering series grounded in gritty realism, uncomfortable, intentionally cringe-worthy humor and irony. The Good Wife became a hybrid serialized procedural, with season-long, personal character arcs and legal cases of the week. HBO's acclaimed mini-series The Night Of is based on the award-winning British television series Criminal Justice and co-written by novelist and screenwriter Richard Price and screenwriter Steven Zaillian. Series such as Chris Chibnall's Broadchurch present a closed mystery, which means that the audience only knows as much as the investigators.
