Tom Maurstad

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – What kind of shows do people want to watch on television? As is so often the case, it's one of those questions that sounds simple but gets more complicated the more you think about it.

Start with the basic premise that people want to watch good programs. That's simple. But in our post-Sopranos culture, the audience-approved, critics-authorized standard of good means serialized – shows in which the stories and characters develop over and beyond individual episodes. Broadcast networks took note; most of their big, hot dramas over the last few seasons have been serialized – Heroes, Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey's Anatomy. On cable, both basic and premium, meanwhile, serialized is now the rule – not the exception – for both dramas (Damages, Mad Men) and comedies (Rescue Me, Weeds).

It's gotten to the point that John Landgraf, president and general manager of FX Networks, is ready to declare, "There's no question now that the best work on television tends to be serialized dramas."

Sounds simple, easy-peasy. People want good shows, good shows means serialized drama, so if you're a network executive – boom, fill your schedule with a bunch of them. Except that doesn't work for broadcast networks, and at least at this summer's Television Critics Association Press Tour, "serialized" as a buzzword was out, and "stand-alone" was in. In panel after panel, the belief expressed was that the serialized approach doesn't work on a broadcast network where the goal is to bring in million of viewers and appeal to a wide swathe of advertisers. That's in stark contrast to the cable game, where either you're a premium network with an audience of subscribers and no advertisers, or you're a basic network with a focused brand and niche audience where, say, 1.1 million viewers can mean a hit (as it has in the case of Mad Men).

"AMC can put $25 million down on the marketing of Mad Men," Mr. Landgraf said. "I can't put $25 million on anything. I've got seven, eight shows to support. Mad Men does a fifth of the ratings of Rescue Me and a ninth of Nip/Tuck, but it's the breakout hit everyone's talking about.

"If you're on a broadcast network that has to drive you crazy."

Buzz is nice, but it has to bring in big numbers to make a difference on broadcast. The problem is that so much of what generates buzz makes attracting (and keeping) big numbers hard. Cool, buzzy, "hit" serials such as Mad Men or Damages or Breaking Bad mix edgy characters with subtle storytelling – little details and minor actions add up, lending momentum to the big payoffs. It's fun, if you're in on it. But it can be confusing and frustrating if you're not. That's the downside of serials, the sense that watching them is like catching a train: If you're late to the station, you've missed the ride.

Again and again during broadcast network panels, producers and executives backed off the serial model and expressed the view that serialized shows aren't viewer-friendly enough. When explaining the switch to more "self-contained" episodes in the upcoming second season of Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, executive producer Josh Friedman said, "Sometimes the shows got overly complicated. The first season was heavily serialized and the ratings dipped as the season went on. In that way, we're going to be slightly less ambitious."

Likewise, Fringe, the new series from Lost creator J.J. Abrams, perhaps the ultimate broadcast serial, is breaking away from that model, with Mr. Abrams promising a "new, week-to-week paradigm" that won't require "insane absolute dedication" from viewers.

But even on cable, serialized storytelling's playground, some dialed-down recalibrations are being applied to the formula.

"While our story is going to arc out over a season," said Daniel Zelman, executive producer of Damages, "we are going to have all the defined plot elements in each episode that TV audiences are aware of and crave. We will continue to play with time [one of the show's signature traits is the use of flashbacks and flash-forwards], but the ways in which we do will be slightly less complex and easier to grasp."

Phrases such as "slightly less ambitious" and "slightly less complex" don't exactly sound like the rallying cries of what Damages star Glenn Close declared to be "the pioneering of a true art form." But what we may be watching is the refinement of a revolution.

Consider the SUV revolution of the 1990s. For much of that time, bigger-is-better was the rule. But, eventually, driver issues of handling and economy spurred a refinement – hybrids with an SUV body built on a car base.

TV may be coming up with its own kind of crossover refinement on the serialized revolution – hybrid dramas with ongoing story arcs that offer deeper, richer character and thematic possibilities with week-to-week plotlines that give viewers a chance to jump in and out, without getting lost or run over.

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