I want to coin a term like sitcom, sitdram (or something far better), for dramas that don't actually have a story to tell, but are dramas about their character goings-on while in a situation, which is not a big part of the story, just a backdrop.
US dramas tend to become sitdrams after the first series or two. Some are that right from the start. I'm not a fan.
@ivan This was prompted by A League of Their Own. I thought "Cool, a drama about the history of baseball and women and PoC in sport," but actually it's about the love lives and relationships of people who happen to be sometimes playing baseball. You could tell the same stories in any era or setting. (Granted I'm only about 5 eps in.)
The West Wing became all about the people; the fact that they were politicians became less relevant as it went on.
Counterexamples: Breaking Bad, Severance
@ivan It's the nature of it if you start with a setting and characters but not a plan for the story you want to tell. That's why I picked out US tv particularly, because of how it's commissioned. Whereas in the UK there's more a culture of having a show commissioned from beginning to end, rather than one season at a time, so you get a complete story.
The other way is to tell one story per week, like Star Trek Next Gen did, and how West Wing started. I like that monster-of-the-week format too.
xanna
Ivan