Elements of TV Storytelling

  • Aesthetic: The look and sound of a show. It is characterized by cinematography, lighting, costumes, production design, and music among other elements.

  • Theme: The underlying ideas that a particular show is dealing with

  • Story Engine: A recurring element that products conflict and story.

    • Example: The murder at the beginning of a police procedural or the love lives of the characters on a soap opera.

  • Goals: A well-written character wants something. A story is: Someone wants something. They try to get it. They succeed or fail.

    • Every story should be able to answer these three questions.

      • Who wants what from whom?

      • What happens if they don’t get it?

      • Why now?

  • Character Archetype (Stereotype Build): An archetype is a category of character who shares traits with other characters like them. They fall into a tradition that allows them to find themselves in situations familiar to other characters of the same archetype and respond in similar ways (or different ways to challenge the stereotype.)


  • Tone: The tone of a show is not the story but the attitude or vibes - the way it makes you feel.

    • Grounded: Realistic and straightforward.

    • Heightened: Intentionally over-the-top and unrealistic. Characters may lean into tropes and archetypes.

  • Bottle Episode - An episode, designed to be made as cheaply produced as possible, that uses only series regulars and standing sets

  • Series regulars - Those contracted to be on every episode

  • Standing Sets - sets already built that are typically used in each episode

  • Standalone episode - An episode, such as in a producerial or anthology series, that tells a single-self contained story unrelated to the serialized stories told on the show.

  • Procedural - An episode where the problem is introduced, investigated, and solved all in one episode.

  • Planting and Payoff - A storytelling technique in which an element (such as a prop, character’s mannerism, or costume) is repeated throughout the story, and then takes on a new meaning and becomes integral to the plot when it is paid off.

    • Chekhov’s rule: “If in the first act, you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.”

  • Trope - A trope is a character archetype, image, or story pattern that is used again and again. These tropes can be used as simply cliches that the audience is familiar with, or they can be used in a meta or self-aware way in which the creator is knowingly using them in order to comment upon, or challenge and reimagine their meaning.

  • Suspension of Disbelief - When an audience member chooses to follow a story that they know is not and could not be real.

    • Example: In order to enjoy Game of Thrones, we must suspend our disbelief in dragons.

  • Narrative Conceit - An underlying assumption about which an audience chooses to suspend belief (or concede) that makes a story work

    • Overlaps with story engine

    • Examples: Compressed timelines on medical, legal, and police procedurals. Talking animals in children’s cartoons. Advance technology in science fiction.

  • Objective Correlative - An object (often a prop or costume that) that is used to convey a character’s emotional state.

  • Stakes - The potential consequences characters and the world may face if they don’t achieve their goals or rewards they may receive if they do achieve their goals.

  • Hopes and Fears - A good story will create a set of expectations in the audience’s mind.

    • When watching, consider: what is the audience hoping for and what is the audience fearing?

  • Three TV Formats:

    • Anthology - A TV show that introduces wholly new characters and stories either in every episode (such as the Twilight Zone or Black Mirror) or in every season These different stories usually utilize a similar theme, genre, and tone.

    • Limited Series (AKA Mini Series) - A series that is designed from the beginning to tell a single, close-ended story within the span of one season.

    • Serialized Series - A series that is designed to tell a single story over multiple seasons and which the viewer should generally watch from the beginning (as opposed to procedural) to understand the story and characters.

  • World Building - the construction - through aesthetics, tone, character, and story - of an internally consistent fictional setting that adheres to a set of storytelling rules, conventions, and conceits

    • All TV shows involved world-building, but it is an especially important aspect of science fiction

  • Allegory - A storytelling device in which one setting or character is used to represent or comment on a real person, event, or situation.

  • In TV and film, the camera generally creates a consistent third person POV.

  • Window Character - stand-in for the audience

  • Inciting Incident - the events that sets the story in motion.

  • Verisimilitude - The feeling that a work is realistic, lifelike, or could happen in real life, which helps viewers suspend their disbelief. Some things writers, directors and actors may do to establish verisimilitude: 

    • Use accurate terminology and jargon. 

    • Employ gritty or documentary-like aesthetics that place the viewer in the narrative.

  • Character Arc - When a character wants is now always the same as its needs. The tension (think growth)  produces character arcs.