Types of Procedurals: 9 Popular Procedural TV Shows

Procedurals are stories—often played out in a television show or novel—featuring episodic conflicts that a team of professionals (or amateur sleuths) must solve using a set of procedural skills related to a specialized vocation. These shows typically follow professionals working for a team such as a police force, detective agency, legal firm, political think tank, fire department, or medical institution.

The main characters in these stories engage in their specialized technical processes to resolve the episode’s central conflict, whether they have a mystery to solve, a patient to save, or a fugitive killer to bring to justice. Procedural drama is the typical format of this genre, though some of the shows feature comedic aspects. These shows usually focus more on the main character’s procedure for solving the conflict, rather than deep character development or season-long story arcs.

TV procedurals typically follow offices, firms, or groups of upstart amateurs engaging in a specialized skill. Here are some of the most popular types of procedurals:

1. 1. Forensic procedurals: Forensic procedurals like CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), Criminal Minds (2005), and The Mentalist (2008) focus on the technical aspects of solving a crime, adding a cerebral component to the typical detective story. The characters in these shows dig into the science of the human mind and body to either catch a killer or solve the mystery surrounding a victim’s death.
2. 2. Legal crime procedurals: This type of procedural follows the stories behind what happens inside the courtroom and how these events affect those involved outside of work. For example, Perry Mason (1957) focused on a competent lawyer who clears his wrongfully accused clients who usually appear in court due to an incompetent homicide detective or faulty police investigation.
3. 3. Medical procedurals: Medical procedurals follow professionals in the medical field (like doctors and nurses) as they solve life-and-death conflicts relating to their patients. These shows typically take place in hospitals and occasionally offer glimpses into the characters’ personal lives. Shows of this genre include E.R. (1994), House M.D. (2004), Shonda Rhimes’s Grey’s Anatomy (2005), and Saving Hope (2012).
4. 4. Police procedurals: A police procedural, or cop/detective procedural, is a subgenre of detective fiction focusing on police work and investigations. In police procedurals, the lead characters seek to solve major crimes (most commonly murder mysteries). Stories in this subgenre typically follow a police department, detective inspector, or private investigator as they track down criminal suspects. The first police procedural was Dragnet (1951); other series in this genre include Columbo (1968), Law & Order (1990), Cold Case (2003), and Blue Bloods (2010).
5. 5. Supernatural procedurals: Shows like Dead Like Me (2003), Medium (2005), and iZombie (2015) are supernatural procedurals that follow a mystery-solving story structure with a supernatural or “magical” aspect. These procedurals manage to blend a quick story pace with a more fantastical premise.

Procedural dramas have been a staple of television for decades. Some have evolved over the years to include more involved character development and story arcs. Here are nine popular procedural television series:

1. 1. Law & Order (1990–2010): Inspired by real-life crimes, each episode in this police procedural TV series follows both the police investigation and legal trial of a different case. The hit show was also one of the longest-running procedurals of all time. Its spinoff, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU), was equally popular, primarily focusing on crimes of a sexual nature.
2. 2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992–2003): This popular supernatural procedural follows high-school student Buffy Summers as she and her friends battle an ongoing vampire invasion in their small town. Each weekly episode typically featured a new villain, though the show’s story arc grew less episodic as the series continued.
3. 3. NYPD Blue (1993–2005): This cop procedural follows a group of New York City police detectives as they solve crimes in the US’s biggest city. The show interweaves procedural structure with high drama, creating a compelling weekly series.
4. 4. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000–2015): This long-running forensic procedural follows a Las Vegas–based task force dedicated to solving a wide variety of violent crimes. The series was so popular it prompted several spinoff shows, including CSI: Miami and CSI: NY.
5. 5. NCIS (2003): This police procedural and military drama follows the lives of the members of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), a civilian law-enforcement agency tasked with pursuing justice for crimes such as terrorism and espionage. The series was a spinoff of legal drama JAG (1995) and has spawned spinoffs of its own, such as NCIS: New Orleans (2014) and NCIS: Los Angeles (2009).
6. 6. Suits (2011–2019): This legal crime procedural drama, set in an NYC law firm, follows a law school dropout as he uses his knowledge and street smarts to solve cases for clients.
7. 7. Bosch (2014–2021): Based on the hit crime-fiction novel series written by Michael Connelly, this popular police procedural follows main character Harry Bosch in his work as a homicide detective for the Los Angeles Police Department.
8. 8. Lucifer (2016–2021): This supernatural procedural follows the devil, Lucifer, on a vacation from Hell to Los Angeles, during which he joins the LAPD to help their lead police officer solve crimes around the city.
9. 9. FBI (2018): This crime drama follows New York City FBI agents as they use their field skills and technological expertise to keep the city safe.

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