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You have been watching a Noughties Drama Series.
These shows are all the rage these days. They typically have a one-word-title. Like "Show". They are heavily character-driven. Each episode reveals only a little more of the overall plot. In many respects, they harken back to the style of old Television Serials like the old Doctor Who... but Darker and Edgier, Hotter and Sexier, and usually with a generous helping of Mind Screw.
Not all of them are TV shows; some are movies. Many are made by J.J. Abrams, Tim Kring or their ilk. Lost is probably the Trope Codifier, though other shows of its ilk came before, including The X-Files, Babylon 5 and Abrams' own Alias. There are many, many, many more. These shows often either are Too Good to Last or, on the opposite end, instead, are Long Runners. Either way, the creator usually makes little effort to actually bother to ever resolve the show's central plot.
See also Ontological Mystery.
Live Action TV[]
- Babylon 5. The Pilot Movie first aired in 1993, and the Myth Arc and its structure was first planned out in 1986.
- The X-Files. Its own Myth Arc was made up on the fly rather than pre-planned, but it beat Babylon 5 to air and was more popular.
- Lost, the Trope Codifier
- Alias
- Heroes
- Jericho
- Invasion
- Fringe
- Surface
- Vanished
- Dark Angel
- Drive
- Dollhouse
- House — an odd case, in that it started as a more or less by-the-numbers mystery show (IN A HOSPITAL!), but eventually began developing slowly dribbled out arcs...that always managed to get sent back to square one at the end of the season (unless reality got in the way).
- Battlestar Galactica (2004)
- Kings
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
- Threshold
- Journeyman
- New Amsterdam
- Defying Gravity
- Carnivale
- FlashForward
- The American version of Life On Mars.
- ~24~
- Ur Example might be The Prisoner (In 1967), which is a confirmed influence on several of the shows listed here, including Battlestar Galactica.
- John Doe
- Scandal, from what we saw yet.
- Twin Peaks
- The Pretender
- Supernatural.
- Six Feet Under, at least after character became more important than Black Comedy and focus shifted from the quirks of running a funeral home and meditations on death to playing with everyone's love life. An early but self-consciously codifying example.
- The Event
- The 2009 remake of V.
- Charlie Jade
- Grimm
Film[]
- The Matrix
- Vantage Point