Bring the sledgehammer.

July 22, 2010 9:57 AM

I find your lack of faith disturbing (previously) is billed as 'another screenwriting blog,' which author Josh Friedman admits we need 'like the world needs another Michael Bay.' Nevertheless, Josh has been blogging off and on for five years now, on topics ranging from his cancer surgery to the ups and downs of free lunches in Hollywood. This week Josh relays a story of finding out a stranger has been using your office for meeting prostitutes.
posted by shakespeherian (69 comments total)

Oops, (previously)
posted by shakespeherian at 9:58 AM on July 22, 2010

Good update, I love his analogies in this recent post about the state of network tv.


The Mentalist, is, however, going to make a shitload of money for all involved. It's easy on the eyes and is habit-forming much in the same way two glasses of red wine a night is: you'll get a nice, warm buzz but you're not gonna get really wasted and wake up with Cobb's malevolent freight train blasting through your cortex. The Mentalist isn't the best sex you've ever had, but it's also not likely to leave you to finish yourself off while your partner falls asleep to reruns of "Cheaters".

The Character-driven Procedural works for a number of reasons, but the biggest and the best of them is this: they almost never get picked up to series without a Serious Asswhipping Actor in the lead. Simon Baker. Hugh Laurie. Tony Shaloub. Kyra Sedgwick. Angie Harmon. These are legitimate cleanup hitters in any TV lineup. They might not be the favorites of the genre crowd. You might not stand in line for their autograph. And you are not going to see them down at Comic-Con doing funny panels with Jeff "Doc" Jensen. Why? Because they are too busy making the other twenty million people who watch tv every night love them.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:02 AM on July 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

That was insanely wonderful. Magic. Thanks so much.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 10:07 AM on July 22, 2010

Lol just finished that post I quoted and it's apparently about something else entirely which is really hilarious.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 10:08 AM on July 22, 2010

Yeah this is pretty good stuff here. Thanks!
posted by Mister_A at 10:08 AM on July 22, 2010

I'm not the first to say this, but Lost is a freak show that will never be repeated. It's the Michael Jackson of television. No one should try to deconstruct the Lost phenomenon ever again. There is nothing to be gained from studying Lost's success. It's a Black Swan, or an Outlier, or one of many other books on my Kindle I'll never read now because, let's be honest, it's on my Kindle.

Come on, man. This is a cop out. This is what EVERYONE says about anything that takes a chance on being different and succeeds.
posted by spicynuts at 10:10 AM on July 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

That was a great read. Now I want to know what TV shows he's been writing for, because he is genuinely funny. He had me at:

Because I have the iPhone4 and thus cannot use it as a phone, I had forwarded my cell phone to our home phone.
posted by bearwife at 10:10 AM on July 22, 2010

Just checked his filmography. Not bad. But he could do a lot more.
posted by bearwife at 10:12 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Come on, man. This is a cop out. This is what EVERYONE says about anything that takes a chance on being different and succeeds.

I think what he's driving at is that you can't bottle that magic—attempting to recreate the Lost formula and re-engender the Lost phenomenon is a doomed endeavor. The next out-of-the-blue wildly successful original program will be completely different and unexpected — like Lost was from what came before it.
posted by Mister_A at 10:18 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Too bad it's a dupe, because that Sledgehammer and Whore story is the bomb.
posted by Plutor at 10:18 AM on July 22, 2010

spicynuts: "Come on, man. This is a cop out. This is what EVERYONE says about anything that takes a chance on being different and succeeds."

This is exactly what he's saying. There's nothing about Lost that made it succeed, other than its uniqueness. If you try to replicate Lost (like Flash-Forward), you will fail, because you will be non-unique.
posted by Plutor at 10:19 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

For those who don't know, this blog basically made the Snakes on a Plane meme.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:20 AM on July 22, 2010

So, apparently there's a Larchmont in LA, too?
posted by Mister_A at 10:21 AM on July 22, 2010

He's a pretty funny writer, good sense of timing a joke. I laughed out loud at this paragraph:

At which point the woman gives me a very detailed description of my writing office--a second floor one room/one bathroom space that I rent because as much as I love my family...well, The Shining.
posted by octothorpe at 10:22 AM on July 22, 2010 [5 favorites]

Great read.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:26 AM on July 22, 2010

Let me be the first to complain about the horrible readability of white text on a black background.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 10:27 AM on July 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

Yeah, the white-on-black text was crappy, but by Odin's beard, that was a fun little story. Thanks!
posted by Greg Nog at 10:29 AM on July 22, 2010

Awesome story! But wait a minute. Guy's a writer? Why is a producer pitching him instead of the other way around?
posted by Naberius at 10:32 AM on July 22, 2010

Great piece of writing. I like how he ties it all together into the concept of a procedural, analyzing the genre at the beginning, and then proceeding into his true-life story, comparing how real life works vs. what network execs ask for, etc. A lot of fun. Thanks for posting that.
posted by hippybear at 10:34 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I read that and I'm still not sure what a procedural is, and I worked with Hollywood screenwriters for years. I presume this is some new jargon developed since the 1980s.

Anyway, for a writer whose craft is words, I am surprised his blog is so reader-hostile with the white text on a black background. Fortunately, Safari Reader to the rescue! Hooray!
posted by charlie don't surf at 10:34 AM on July 22, 2010

Not to get all FX Blue on your ass, but if you like the Sledgehammer and Whore post, you should really watch Louis CK's new show Louie. Because though both tell strange funny stories, both exist in our strange funny world.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:34 AM on July 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

"Awesome story! But wait a minute. Guy's a writer? Why is a producer pitching him instead of the other way around?"

Maybe the producer needs a script before he line up any funding, so he's asking this guy to share the risk with him by doing a script on spec.
posted by Kevin Street at 10:36 AM on July 22, 2010

Let me be the first to complain about the horrible readability of white text on a black background.

ZAP

Readability
posted by mrgrimm at 10:36 AM on July 22, 2010 [6 favorites]

A Michael Bay Joke. Ha.
posted by drjimmy11 at 10:37 AM on July 22, 2010

charlie don't surf: I read that and I'm still not sure what a procedural is, and I worked with Hollywood screenwriters for years. I presume this is some new jargon developed since the 1980s.

I'm not sure about the new-ness of the word - especially since I know Dragnet was described as it, but since there's a Wikipedia page on it and it's something that is used often in Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide, I'm pretty sure it isn't jargon.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:38 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I came here to also say that was a fantastic story when filtered through Readability. Add the bookmark to your toolbar. If you're anything at all like me you will eventually end up reading like 90% of all web articles through it. Especially great ones like this that you would have given up on halfway through because white text on a black background? Really?
posted by rusty at 10:38 AM on July 22, 2010

I read that and I'm still not sure what a procedural is

I wasn't familiar with the term either but it seems to be a show (like most dramas these days) in which a procedure is followed in every episode.

Think Law & Order: a crime is committed; the police investigate and make an arrest; the lawyers try the case.

Or House: a patient experiences a bizarre health situation; House's team investigates, makes an initial diagnosis and treats the patient; the patient gets worse ("he's not responding!"); the team makes another diagnosis and treats; the patient gets worse or doesn't respond; the patient nears death; House has an epiphany while having an unrelated conversation and makes a last-minute life-saving diagnosis.

For "procedural" think "formula-based."
posted by mrgrimm at 10:44 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

A Michael Bay Joke. Ha.

To be fair the Michael Bay joke was five years ago.
posted by shakespeherian at 10:50 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not to get all FX Blue on your ass, but if you like the Sledgehammer and Whore post, you should really watch Louis CK's new show Louie. Because though both tell strange funny stories, both exist in our strange funny world.

And one of the reasons Louis CK's new show is so good is that he doesn't have to deal with the kind of executive meddling that Friedman satires in the post. From this interview:

[Louie] is shot in New York City by just me and my little crew, and so it feels more like an independent film the way that we run it, and it kind of comes together. We shoot pieces without knowing what episode they're going to belong to. The network is completely MIA. They don't do anything until they watch the episodes when they're finished being edited. So it's just us making a show.

I get that that show business is still a business and the people that put up the money for a project want to protect their investments, but it seems like TV suffers from non-creative people micro-managing talented creative people more than other industries.
posted by burnmp3s at 10:56 AM on July 22, 2010

"Procedural" is a subset of "formulaic." When you hear "procedure," think "police procedural," a highly specific kind of formula that involves dealing with The System, unions, Internal Affairs, and so forth. House is formulaic, but it is not a procedural.
posted by adipocere at 11:03 AM on July 22, 2010

I watched Louis CK's little standup video "Chewed Up" (streaming from Netflix) and laughed so hard I thought I was going to throw up. Just to add a data point on the value of Louis CK. But you might have to really hate deer to find it as funny as I did.
posted by rusty at 11:05 AM on July 22, 2010

From Wikipedia: In television, "procedural" specifically refers to a genre of programs in which a problem is introduced, investigated and solved all within the same episode. These shows tend to be hour-long dramas, and are often (though not always) police or crime related.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:05 AM on July 22, 2010

House really is a procedural, just not a police procedural (which seems to be the most common type).
posted by Mister_A at 11:08 AM on July 22, 2010

""Procedural" is a subset of "formulaic." When you hear "procedure," think "police procedural," a highly specific kind of formula that involves dealing with The System, unions, Internal Affairs, and so forth. House is formulaic, but it is not a procedural."

Sure it is. Any show that tells the same kind of story over and over is a procedural. Crime procedurals are the most common, but there's doctor procedurals, lawyer procedurals, spy procedurals (like mission impossible), and on and on. There's even shows like Dexter (a serial killer procedural), that are unique, but still formulaic.

By the way, I just read that blog entry, and it's a great story. WHAT WOULD THE MENTALIST DO?
posted by Kevin Street at 11:11 AM on July 22, 2010

One of my favorite procedurals was Quincy, which was like House with the recently deceased.
posted by Mister_A at 11:14 AM on July 22, 2010

On the other hand, there's been a lot of recent attempts at "event" television and almost all have been utter failures. Even some of the ones still on the air stagger around like a drunk who woke up with a Season 2 and have no idea who drove them there or how to get home (I'm looking at you, V.).

A million times this.
posted by blue_beetle at 11:17 AM on July 22, 2010

This is fantastic stuff. It's like a blog version of Swimming With Sharks, with more humor and less Kevin Spacey being tortured with paper cuts.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:20 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Love this. Hate his format. Readability is friggin' awesome.

Not only white on black, but also a text column that's about 300px wide. WTF.
posted by antifuse at 11:26 AM on July 22, 2010

That would make House a ... medical procedural? *tries to imagine someone saying that* Angel, at least the first couple of seasons, would be a ... supernatural procedural? Nope, can't buy it. I see "procedural," I hear a silent "police" ahead of it, just by association and lack of hearing anything else associated with it. Maybe I haven't had enough TV-jargon exposure.

Also, white on black forever! Seriously, I love that. My eyes go ahhhhhhh.
posted by adipocere at 11:29 AM on July 22, 2010

House really is a procedural, just not a police procedural (which seems to be the most common type).

House, notably, was produced by people who knew cop shows, but had no idea how to a doctor show, so they basically figured they'd do it like a cop show with doctors.

This is especially notable in the first season, where the main hurdle House and team have to overcome is usually patients lying to them, and where the patient's illness is almost invariably a physical manifestation of some kind of inner moral failing or flaw in their character (i.e. they're sick because they did something they shouldn't have done and they won't admit it to Detective House.)
posted by Naberius at 11:33 AM on July 22, 2010

I think Angel was originally supposed to be a procedural: vampire detective and his quirky friends solve supernatural cases in LA. But uniqueness just kind of leaked in, until the series became as unique and unpredictable as Whedon's other shows.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:34 AM on July 22, 2010

Any show that tells the same kind of story over and over is a procedural.

Ah, well that explains it, I worked with film scriptwriters, not TV scriptwriters. There's not much repetitive procedural scriptwriting in one-off films.

Anyway, after reading more of that blog, and thinking back about my years in Hollywood, it reminds me of why I left. That blog is full of that self-congratulatory insider BS that is so prevalent in Hollywood. It's an insider writing for other insiders, with all the obnoxious self-importance that the industry reeks of. I still remember an article in the LA Times that described this attitude so vividly.

They were writing about the obnoxious behavior of film crews, and in particular, an incident where they were filming in LA City Hall. The crew arranged to film overnight, so they wouldn't disrupt City functions. But of course they ran over and were still trying to wrap up the next morning when the City Council was scheduled to meet in that room. The place is strewn with cables and equipment, and one of the City Councillors came in to start setting up for the meeting. She said something so vivid, I can still pretty much quote it from memory, decades later. "A worker blocked me from entering the room, saying 'we're filming here,' with the same tone of voice and conviction one might use to say, 'we're curing cancer here.'"

That is Hollywood. Industry people think that a fictional film that takes place in LA City Hall is more important than what actually takes place in LA City Hall.
posted by charlie don't surf at 11:34 AM on July 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm a layman, but FWIW I tend to think of a procedural as a whodunit where you get to see the nuts and bolts of how the protagonists find out whodunit. In that sense, House really is a detective show with doctors, or a "whatshegot". Compare Columbo, where the perp is usually revealed early on, turning the plot into a "howcatchum" type of procedural.

Part of the obscured brilliance of The Wire IMO is that it is at its core a police procedural, that grows to incorporate other disciplines to form a sort of kaledoscopic societal procedural. First it's about a bunch of drug dealers and how to catch and convict them, and eventually it's a political procedural, a journalism procedural, you name it. Important exception to this of course is that the procedures aren't wrapped up after an episode, but span the scale of a season or beyond.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 11:44 AM on July 22, 2010

His Boy in the Bubble entry is what hooked me.

Eventually the day came when I was evicted from the room I'd written thirty episodes of my very first television show. I packed a very large SUV with a very large amount of computer equipment, scripts, DVDs, Sarah Connor memorabilia, something that may or may not have been many half-empty tequila bottles, some office supplies I don't want to talk about, and possibly some gum and trail mix. Despite the show NOT yet being cancelled, I was the last person to leave the empty building and would've turned the lights out if I was paying for the electricity.

I drove up to the security gate and prepared to be waved through, knowing there was a good chance this was the last time I'd be on this lot in my capacity as Executive Producer of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was after 8:00 and that meant I was guaranteed a "trunk check," a phenomenal Hellerian ritual by which the guards checked your trunk and NO MATTER WHAT WAS IN THERE let you leave the lot. I had never known ANYONE to EVER explain themselves regarding the contents of their trunk during the trunk check ritual.
...
So on my final official day on the lot I pull to the guard shack with my SUV full of EVERYTHING.

GUARD: Hey. How're you tonight?
ME: Last night, Frank. Last night on the lot.
GUARD: Looks that way. That your whole office in there?
ME: Pretty much.

As I start to pull away--

GUARD: You got your property sheet?
ME: Excuse me?
GUARD: Your property sheet. Like an inventory sheet. With all of this inventoried and signed off on by the production.
ME: What?
GUARD: I'm gonna have to ask you to turn around and return to the lot, go to your production offices, and get an executive to inventory all of this, certify it as yours, and then sign the sheet. Then you can leave.
ME: Frank. Let me explain something. There is nobody else. I'm it.
GUARD: Well someone is going to have to list, certify, and sign.
ME: Someone? Like who someone?
GUARD: Someone. A producer. Someone.

And then it hit me.

ME: Frank! I'm that someone! It's my show! I am the someone that I'm looking for!
GUARD: Wait. Who are you?
ME: I'm Josh Friedman, Frank! And until I drive past this guard shack I am the Executive Producer of this tv show! I am the someone! Can't I give myself permission to leave?

posted by zarq at 11:45 AM on July 22, 2010 [3 favorites]

I haven't seen The Wire, but from the way you describe it the show doesn't sound formulaic enough to be a procedural. Serious drama is almost always unique.
posted by Kevin Street at 11:55 AM on July 22, 2010

I've been reading this pretty much since day 1, and posts like this are the reason I am thankful for RSS readers, as I otherwise would not remember to check in every six months! Dude needs to update his blog more often, but it's always a rare joy when he does
posted by TwoWordReview at 12:05 PM on July 22, 2010

Nahh The Wire would not at all be classified as a procedural. Part of the procedural formula is that there is a resolution at the end of each episode.
posted by Mister_A at 12:06 PM on July 22, 2010

I haven't seen The Wire, but from the way you describe it the show doesn't sound formulaic enough to be a procedural.

The term "police procedural" has a use that is not specific to TV shows and seems to be different (and older) than how people are using "procedural" here in a TV-specific context. Basically it isn't about formulaicity, but about realistic depiction of police work/procedures. (In contrast to, for instance, golden age mysteries.) The wire is definitely a police procedural in this sense.
posted by advil at 12:15 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm working my way through The Wire now (currently mid season 2). It is one of the best TV productions I've ever seen, up there with gems like Six Feet Under and The Sopranos, and I agree it definitely is in part a police procedural. It has a great twist on that genre, which is that in almost every episode smaller puzzles are solved that fit into bigger ones, including an overarching story of city corruption.
posted by bearwife at 12:45 PM on July 22, 2010

I'm so happy he's posting again! I'd given up going back as it seemed he'd either abandoned it or gotten too ill to continue. One of the best insider-type blogs there is.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 1:02 PM on July 22, 2010

Come on, man. This is a cop out. This is what EVERYONE says about anything that takes a chance on being different and succeeds.

Spicynuts, it means more coming from him. He often writes about the directives given him (and by extension other creators) to deliver stuff in the zone of tested, safe, marketable formulae. I saw that statement as being "oh please god don't try to dredge a formula out of that, because a formula is not what made it a success and putting an island in your next show won't make it a success either."
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 1:17 PM on July 22, 2010

Good news, L'Estrange Fruit: He's no longer ill. Bad news, L'Estrange Fruit: he'll probably never resume frequent updating again. He drops in on the blog once every when-ever-he-wants-to and that's about it. But when he does blog, it's like the entirety of Hollywood cuts and pastes and emails and facebooks and reposts ad infinitum. I got emails for 9 different people and saw it on 4 different message boards last night. Everyone reads his blog in town. He's never said as much, but I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't blog regularly because it'd be too much pressure to be this good.

Why is a producer pitching him instead of the other way around?

Because he's that good.

Just checked his filmography. Not bad. But he could do a lot more.

Credits often have very little to do with how talented a writer is.
posted by incessant at 1:18 PM on July 22, 2010

Good news, L'Estrange Fruit: He's no longer ill.

Very good news.

Bad news, L'Estrange Fruit: he'll probably never resume frequent updating again.

When the free cake is this good, you can't complain if you only get one slice a year.
posted by L'Estrange Fruit at 1:27 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Reading this, the hooker story, I am left with one burning question: how does someone whose livelihood stems from words recorded into software come to leave their office computer in such a state that anyone can log into the owner's personal account?
posted by meehawl at 1:41 PM on July 22, 2010

Credits often have very little to do with how talented a writer is.

Talent often has very little to do with how talented a writer is.
posted by charlie don't surf at 2:06 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wikipedia has a good clear definition of procedural drama.
posted by w0mbat at 2:24 PM on July 22, 2010

"...you would have given up on halfway through because white text on a black background? Really?"

You bet. I didn't even make it through the first page. Pain in my eyes isn't something I just ignore.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 2:27 PM on July 22, 2010

Also, the readability bookmarklet is a gem.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 2:31 PM on July 22, 2010 [2 favorites]

Reading this, the hooker story, I am left with one burning question: how does someone whose livelihood stems from words recorded into software come to leave their office computer in such a state that anyone can log into the owner's personal account?

Speaking as someone whose livelihood stems from words recorded into software who basically never leaves his computer in any other state, I'm gonna go with the obvious. To wit, that anyone making such a livelihood who isn't like Tarantino or Stephen King level famous naturally assumes:

1) that no one has ever given their work enough thought to try to steal it;

2) that even if such an improbable thief appeared on the scene, it would be next to impossible to pass off such work as his own, inasmuch as (for example) if the thief suddenly popped up at Universal Studios with a spec script for a thing the studio had hired some other guy through his agent to write and the thief had absolutely no credentials, track record or any other connection to the profession, even a craven Hollywood studio would probably assume something fishy was going on;

and 3) that in any case it's like struck-by-lighting-while-watching-a-full-solar-eclipse improbable that someone will use their office to impersonate them in order to procure prostitutes under whatever mix of anonymity, misconstrued sense of glamour and plain derangement motivated the weirdo in that truly awesome hooker story.

The hooker story was, in any case, truly awesome.
posted by gompa at 2:38 PM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]

What a great blog, I really like this guy. Thanks for the heads-up, shakespeherian.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:47 PM on July 22, 2010

His wife's reaction reminds me of my situation. No matter how bizarre the circumstances, she never makes the assumption that I've fucked something up. It's quite a nice bit of leeway to have, especially when you're me.
posted by SNWidget at 3:58 PM on July 22, 2010

That hooker story is too bad to be real, and too good to be made up.
posted by storybored at 5:18 PM on July 22, 2010

Yay! Used to read this blog all the time! On of his off periods coincided with my adoption of RSS feeds, and I forgot all about it. Thanks for the reminder, I've got some catching up to do!
posted by yellowbinder at 8:34 PM on July 22, 2010

For those who don't know, this blog basically made the Snakes on a Plane meme.

Damn. I thought my linking to it on Metafilter is what made it a meme.
posted by dobbs at 10:17 PM on July 22, 2010

That's the most fun story I've read in a long time. Thanks.

I don't think the success of "LOST" is a big mystery. If we talk about the whole show, it gets a bit complicated, but if we just look at the beginning of it, it's not hard to see why people got hooked.

It wasn't an "event" show. It was a romance (in the original sense, e.g. Shakespeare's "The Tempest") that had mystery elements and cliffhangers. IT WAS THAT DONE WELL. Meaning that the acting was descent, the dialogue was fun, the plot twists were exciting, etc.

Every time I some show is successful, the same thing happens. Networks try to copy THE WRONG ASPECT OF IT, and when that inevitably doesn't work, they throw up their hands and say, "It's all a mystery!"

"LOST is popular! We need more shows set on an island!"

"LOST is popular! We need more fantasy!"

"LOST is popular! We need to cast Matthew Fox in everything!"

How about "LOST is popular! We need to write a romance set on a big canvas. We need to to have a compelling plot with plot twists. We need to get really good actors. And we need writers who know how to write dialog."

I'm not saying that if they did all that, the show would definitely be a hit. There are too many variables to be able to say that for sure (what other shows it's competing against). I just don't understand this drive to copy a popular show by copying it's most surface characteristics and then being surprised when your copy isn't a success. Weird. It's like copying a successful restaurant by buying the same tables, chairs and rug but forgetting about the food.
posted by grumblebee at 10:01 AM on July 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

grumblebee: "Every time I some show is successful, the same thing happens. Networks try to copy THE WRONG ASPECT OF IT, and when that inevitably doesn't work, they throw up their hands and say, "It's all a mystery!""

I remember seeing this with Lord of the Rings.

"LOTR is popular! We need more fantasy/historical epics!" (Troy flops)
"LOTR is popular! We need more nine-digit-budget trilogies from classics!" (Chronicle of Narnia underwhelms)

And we're seeing it again right now with Avatar.

"Avatar is popular! We need more 3D!" (The Last Airbender entertains, but in the wrong way)
posted by Plutor at 10:54 AM on July 23, 2010

I think it would make a great episode in a BIG FUCKING HIT TV SHOW.
posted by not_on_display at 11:03 AM on July 23, 2010

It's always been my feeling that (amongst other things), procedurals mostly tend to hit a reset point every episode (or every few episodes) so the main procedural story goes back to (mostly) the way they were. The procedure is the focus, not the arc. House burns out his team, finds new team, we still attempt to kill a new patient for the first 3/4 of each episode until brilliant insight occurs. Minor variations along the way, a bit of a story arc here and there. Procedural.

Non-procedurals tend to follow a strong story arc that leads you from point A to point B, which is often a long ways from point A. There may be procedural elements, but the arc is the focus, not the procedure. In The Wire, Baltimore PD solves (sorta) crimes in their usual fucked-up way as the show goes on; nothing of consequence changes in that regard. But along the way, the main characters tend to change a lot, and we've told the story of how and why various parts of city institutions (specifically Baltimore, but lessons for everyone) are so fucked up. Not a procedural.
posted by nonliteral at 11:04 AM on July 23, 2010

Oh, and despite a shaky start, Terminator: SCC had a story arc that rose far, far above its premise. If we can't have it back (and alas, we can't), let's at least have some more regular Josh Friedman goodness somewhere, even if it's just on his blog.
posted by nonliteral at 11:07 AM on July 23, 2010