Writing crime scripts: the difference between TV procedural and film noir

These two forms share a genre but almost nothing else, and confusing them is one of the most common problems I see in crime script submissions here. **TV Procedural (think: any police or forensic drama):** - Plot driven. The case IS the story. - Characters are defined by their function in the investigation - Episodic: each chapter/episode can largely stand alone - Resolution is expected. The audience wants the crime solved. - Dialogue is functional: exposition delivered through scene **Film Noir (think: Chinatown, Double Indemnity, classic and neo):** - Character driven. The case is a lens for the protagonist's pathology. - The detective figure is compromised - morally, emotionally, or both - Linear but spiralling: each act makes the protagonist worse off - Resolution is often ambiguous or pyrrhic. Justice is not guaranteed. - Dialogue is stylised. Characters talk around what they mean. The question that separates them: is the crime the point, or is the crime a context in which we understand a person? For Sproker scripts specifically: if you're contributing to an existing crime story, identify which mode it's operating in and match it. The Midnight Tribunal, for example, is clearly noir - don't write a chapter that treats it as procedural.