American Police Procedural: Genesis of the Format and Typology Problems

The article deals with the television product known as “the police procedural” in order to highlight existing varieties of procedural dramas and its typologies. The genesis of a procedural drama or procedural has been analyzed since the 1950s launch of a project called “Dragnet” on the American television. The analysis of such format functioning showed that the modern police procedural has definite established signs: the maximum closeness to the reality in order to show that policemen and detectives are the same people as others, they tend to have the same problems and life choices; it has no attachment to the storyline, so viewers can watch the police procedural starting from any series of any season, since each episode is a new case of investigation; a clear allocation of characters into “good and bad guys” and usually representatives of the law take the position of the former so as to improve the level of viewers` trust to policemen. In case the procedural drama becomes very popular, several spin-off series might be launched simultaneously. Such procedurals can be classified as franchises, which, in turn, have characteristic features (crossover series are distinguished: dramas, sitcoms and humorous projects). The results of the research show that now there is a certain typological structure of the format that continues to develop