Serial (radio and television)
In television and radio programming, a serial has a continuing plot that unfolds in a sequential episode-by-episode fashion. Serials typically follow main story arcs that span entire television seasons or even the full run of the series, which distinguishes them from traditional episodic television that relies on more stand-alone episodes. Worldwide, the soap opera is the most prominent form of serial dramatic programming.
Quality television
In the 1990s and 2000s, a new model of television storytelling began being used in some US television programs such as "Oz" and "The Sopranos", and later on with shows such as "The Wire" and "Six Feet Under" for HBO which adopted a business model of producing 13-week dramas over the course of five years or so. This was a marked departure from traditional network dramas which would start with thirteen episodes at the beginning of the season with another "back nine" episodes to finish the season, and allowed these cable dramas to have a shot at succeeding by not cancelling them within a year, but concluding them before they moved past their prime. These shows were darker and occasionally more graphic than the typical network drama, establishing dramatic television on cable as a solid alternative to network television. In the years following the end of the run of "The Wire", several colleges and universities such as Johns Hopkins, Brown University, and Harvard College have offered classes on "The Wire" in disciplines ranging from law to sociology to film studies.