Written by Emma

Crime dramas are very hit or miss. Some crime dramas put a lot of emphasis on crime and the action surrounding it, whereas others put more emphasis on the drama and reach soap opera levels of character conflict. Depending on the type of person you are and what you’re interested in, chances are that you prefer crime dramas to lean one way or the other. Personally, I always find myself leaning more towards shows that put more emphasis on crime and the action surrounding it. 

A lot of crime dramas focus on a lot more than just crime. Not only do they depict the police force hunting down criminals, but they also often put some sort of focus on firefighters/paramedics, hospitals, lawyers, and pretty much any other similar job. In the grand scheme of things, this makes a lot of sense considering these are people that the police interact with daily or throughout the week. However, some of these shows barely focus on the police at all. Instead, they favor centering around a different job, which begs the question: can you really consider a show that focuses more on, for example, firefighters a crime drama? 

I’m sure a lot of people are like me and lump all of these shows under the umbrella of crime drama whether they focus primarily on the police or not. For example, the ABC show 9-1-1 focuses primarily on a fictional branch of the Los Angelos Fire Department (LAFD). There is only one predominant cop character, yet I consistently refer to the show as a crime drama. Presumably, this is because the LAFD often find themselves dealing with crime-related events even if they are not necessarily dealing with crime directly. Plus, there is still a predominant cop character within the show dealing with criminal(s) in most of the episodes. 

Although I classify the show as a crime drama for these reasons, it is incorrect of me to refer to it as such. 9-1-1 (and other shows like it) are actually known as a procedural drama. A procedural drama is specifically a show which focuses on cases that are solved within one episode and don’t have much impact on the greater story. Crime dramas, meanwhile, focus on cases that do have a 

greater impact on the overall storyline. Of course, both genres will occasionally step on each other’s toes and overlap, so the overall show has to be taken into consideration when deciding which a show classifies as. 

In 9-1-1’s case, in the majority of the episodes the crime has little to no impact on the characters’ overarching stories. Instead, their personal conflicts outside of the crime drive the plot. Meanwhile in a show that is truly a crime drama, such as The Rookie, the cases heavily impact the characters’ overarching stories. While there are personal conflicts, they are often interlaced with and explored through the crime of the episode. 

If you’re like me and have been incorrectly lumping all of these shows together under the label of crime drama, I hope you now understand the difference between these two types of dramas. It’s an easy mistake to make considering how much overlap the two genres have. Perhaps you’ll learn something about yourself thanks to the knowledge of this slight difference in genre, such as that you like crime dramas more than procedural dramas due to the impact the crime has on the plot.