Serialized Drama - Terminology

Terminology

The term "serial" refers to the intrinsic property of a series – namely its order. In literature, the term is used as a noun to refer to a format (within a genre) by which a story is told in contiguous (typically chronological) installments in sequential issues of a single periodical publication.

More generally, "serial" is applied in library and information science to materials "in any medium issued under the same title in a succession of discrete parts, usually numbered (or dated) and appearing at regular or irregular intervals with no predetermined conclusion."

The term has been used for a radio or television production with a continuously evolving, unified plot and set of characters, spread over multiple episodes. Though some American television shows have introduced serial elements into their narratives, episodically numbered serials are rare in modern US television. They are generally used within episodic series to generate ratings spikes, and are usually limited to two parts. In the United States, the most common form of the serial remains the miniseries.