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Mysteries on Screen: Episodic vs Series Arcs
0 Playsin 13 hours
In today's episode, Brook and Sarah discuss the difference between mysteries on screen resolved in a single episode and ones that take multiple episodes to resolve.
Discussed and mentioned
The Woman in Suite 11 (2025) Ruth Ware
Telecrime (1938-39 and 1946) BBC
Agatha Christie's Marple (2004-2013) ITV
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989-2013) ITV
Knives Out (2019) Netflix
Thursday Murder Club (2025 film) Netflix
Gone Girl (2014 film) 20th Century Fox
Murder, She Wrote (1984-1996) CBS
Law & Order (1990-2010; 2021-present) NBC
Father Brown (2013-present) BBC
Poker Face (2023-2025) Peacock
A Good Girl's Guide to Murder (2024) Netflix
Department Q (2025) Netflix
The Lincoln Lawyer (2022 to present) Netflix
The Lincoln Lawyer (2011 film)
Bosch (2014-2021) Amazon Prime Video
The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016) Ruth Ware
The Woman in Cabin 10 (2025 film) Netflix
Related episodes
Mysteries on Screen (released January 17, 2023)
WWYD: The Woman in Suite 11 (released October 21, 2025)
What Would You Do: The Woman in Suite 10 (released September 6, 2022)
Murder, She Wrote at 40 Years (released October 8, 2024)
A Good Girl's Guide To Murder Watch Along (released August 16, 2024)
For more information
Instagram: @cluedinmystery
Contact us: hello@cluedinmystery.com
Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
Sign up for our newsletter: https://cluedinmystery.com/clued-in-chronicle/
Order Life or Delft by Brook and Sarah
For a full episode transcript, visit https://cluedinmystery.com/13-1-mysteries-on-screen-episodic-vs-series-arcs/
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Transcript
Return from Break and Mystery Show Enthusiasm
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Brooke. Hi, Sarah. It's so great to be speaking with you again after our little spring break.
00:00:24
Speaker
Yes, I have missed speaking to you about mystery. And you know, something we haven't spoken about in a very long time and we're long overdue for it is mystery shows.
Series vs Movies for Mystery Adaptations
00:00:38
Speaker
That's right. So we have discussed mysteries on screen several times. And I think this was in the fall when we were talking about either the woman in Sweet Eleven or possibly when we were talking about Richard Osman's adaptation on Netflix ah We, one of us said something about whether adaptations were better as, you know, multiple episode series arcs or single episodes or movies. And I thought maybe we could dive into that a little bit more.
00:01:14
Speaker
That sounds like a lot of fun because there are so many differences in each of these formats. So in our Mysteries on TV episode that we did ages ago, we discussed telecrime, which was one of the first crime dramas and one of the first written specifically for television. And it was on air on the BBC, either side of the Second World War.
00:01:37
Speaker
Each episode featured a mystery and served up clues for viewers to solve
Engagement in Multi-Episode Series
00:01:41
Speaker
it. The BBC has a long history of mystery, often presented as limited series, so two or three episode adaptations of a novel, beginning first with radio and then now on on TV.
00:01:55
Speaker
Screen adaptations, for example, of Agatha Christie's works, and either Miss Marple Investigates or Agatha Christie's Poirot, each episode is an adaptation of a book or a short story featuring one of those characters. And the show ends with a mystery resolved. You turn off the television and you're satisfied. But more recently, we have seen more multi-episode treatments of books. You know, I can think of Harlan Coben's adaptations that are on Netflix, right? The mystery is told over eight or 10 episodes, and it is really hard to turn off.
00:02:26
Speaker
after one or two episodes, because you just want to see what is going to happen next. So let's talk a little bit more about that, Brooke. And, you know, as a viewer, what is more satisfying as, as a reader, you know, if you've read the source material first, and then seen the adaptation, how do we respond to to those different treatments?
00:02:54
Speaker
Yeah, I love that you brought up the older BBC productions because I had actually forgotten about that. But this um limited series, I guess we'll we'll call them, or serialized stories, it's super hot right now. It's what we're seeing on all the streaming services, but it's not new, as you said.
Novel Adaptations and Character Development
00:03:18
Speaker
Really, since the 30s, 40s, 50s, it was a very popular way to tell a story. And so we're just kind of coming back to it. It's not something brand new.
00:03:30
Speaker
Well, and often the source material, the first time it was released, was serialized in a publication. There were all of these great ah publications that that serialized stories because radio didn't really exist and certainly television didn't. So this was how people would um know spend their evenings was was was reading these. And so it would have made sense to just transform the medium, but not the way that the that the story was told.
00:04:05
Speaker
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Excellent point. In this situation, the writers and producers sort of had it presented to them already in those episodes. I'm sure there were some changes made, but the source was that way. Not so much now, right? there It's a novel that they're adapting for screen. And there's a few different ways that they can do that.
00:04:33
Speaker
That's right. So let's talk a little bit more about some of those more recent examples. So um Thursday Murder Club, for example, the Netflix screen version was released, i think it was in December of 2025. And it was a single 90 minute or maybe two hour long movie featuring all of the characters that we know and love and featuring the story from the first book.
00:05:04
Speaker
And if I remember when we talked about watching this, neither of us was really satisfied with that.
Storytelling Styles in Adaptations
00:05:13
Speaker
No, I've been considering what makes a good one shot mystery, let's say like a movie, a film versus the limited series. And I think it comes down to, and I'm interested to hear your take on this, um how much the story is about the plot, the big twists and things like that, and how much it is based on character development. And that is very different depending on each story, each book. um I'll use the example of the Knives Out movies.
00:05:52
Speaker
Obviously, these are not adapted from books, but just for the sake of of the example, they are not particularly interested in character development. We don't need to know a lot about the backstory of these people. We don't need to see how their lives are impacted by this crime.
00:06:13
Speaker
um We just watch the puzzle get solved in a sense. And that's not the case for the Thursday Murder Club. In my opinion, that book falls into the other category, which is very character rich, very dependent on interpersonal relationships and character growth. um And so in my opinion, that would have been a better limited series.
00:06:37
Speaker
what What's your take on it? Yeah, I i agree, Brooke. I think people would have um really responded to it with a lot more affection ah if it if it had been um a series. You know, i think about Gone Girl, for example, which is a domestic thriller.
00:07:00
Speaker
And it did very well as a film. Right? Well, so there are a couple of differences. The the style of or the the type of story is different, right? A domestic thriller versus a cozy mystery. um And there were fewer characters, right? It really was about this relationship between this husband and wife. in Gone Girl versus all of the members of the Thursday Murder Club. And so you need some space to be able to really get to know all of those characters. So I think i think there's a whole bunch of factors that feed into whether something is better as a series or a film.
00:07:42
Speaker
h Yeah, I would agree. And that's a great example. um And makes me wonder if in general, and we'll have to watch over time, if in general the thriller mysteries do better as this one-shot storytelling versus a detective mystery, so to speak. um I'm guessing that it won't be a so that much of a straight line because I think of the Harlan Cobins that you talked about. And those are fantastic, definitely domestic thrillers typically, um that are stretched out over...
00:08:17
Speaker
anywhere from what, four to 10 episodes. And they wouldn't be as good in a single miss mystery movie, I don't think. Yeah. Well, and there's not always in his stories, but there often is a police investigation element, right? And I think maybe that's what helps um propel some of those stories, right? The the kind of discovering of clues along along the way. um You know, I think about BBC's Sherlock screen adaptations, so the ones with Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock, um each of those were standalone films that
00:09:05
Speaker
were adaptations, modern adaptations of a single short story or or or novel by um Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
00:09:15
Speaker
And think those worked really well as a single, that one shot telling of those pieces. Right. But are those more of the episodic case of the week kind of shows like such as Murder, She-Row or House, the things we used to watch on regular network television? Even though they're longer, the the Sherlock shows you're referencing, um I feel like they're still that ah case of the week demonstration of a way to tell a story. Right.
00:09:52
Speaker
Yeah, i I can't remember when they were released, if it was there was like three released at a time. i don't I don't remember that. But as you say, for a long time, that's what we saw was this mystery of the week, whether it was Murder, She Wrote or, um you know, Law and Order. That's still the way that Law and Order exists.
00:10:16
Speaker
tells its its stories, right? The characters are the same. It's the same
Standalone Mysteries vs Series Satisfaction
00:10:20
Speaker
police investigators, the same legal teams, but the mysteries that they're, that they're solving are different. And I guess it depends on what kind of mood you're in. Like I'm, I'm equally, i i do think that I'm equally satisfied watching a mystery of the week type movie.
00:10:36
Speaker
telling, right? and And we do get some of those on on streaming services now. Father Brown, for example, um is a different ah different mystery every week with the same core characters that that are investigating it. um Poker Face is another recent example where it's, you know, that main investigator encounters different people and and is is solving the um solving the mystery.
00:11:07
Speaker
I don't know if Poker Face is an adaptation though. I don't believe so. But Father Brown is an adaptation of G.K. Chesterton's. It started out as it as an adaptation of G.K. Chesterton's stories. I don't think the stories that they are telling now because it's in its 10th or 11th season, I think. um eight They have moved away from that original source material.
00:11:36
Speaker
Yeah, you're right about them being equally as ah satisfying or entertaining. I think it depends on what you are in the mood for ah because these give us that familiarity, right? They're very comforting. You know what you're going to expect when you turn on Poro and ah the somewhat of a formula is not troublesome. It feels really good and comforting. And there again, these characters are quite static, right? you're not going to have a lot of character development. The point is the mystery and the solving of it with these people that you've come to kind of know and love.
00:12:15
Speaker
aha aha I don't remember if it was last year or the year before when the, a good girl's guide to murder was on Netflix and that was adapted from the YA novel, uh, over,
00:12:32
Speaker
I don't remember, was it six episodes or 10 episodes? I can't remember, Brooke, but over multiple, multiple episodes. um And, and,
00:12:41
Speaker
i I thought that that was the right treatment for that. I agree. And if anyone's interested, we did do a breakdown episode by episode on that. And ah subscribers to the newsletter can listen to our thoughts because we did have a lot of fun. i had not read the book and Sarah had read the book. So it was a really great conversation of watching the story unfold. And I do think it was definitely the right choice for that story.
00:13:07
Speaker
Because i think, you know, with a 90 minute 120 minutes, that's just not very long to get into a
00:13:20
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Right. Again, I'll go back to the fact that we needed that backstory. We needed to know everything that was going on with Pip. She had some family troubles. Certainly the accused had a lot of backstory that we needed to get into, and you weren't just not going to get it in, yeah, an hour and a half. Another example that I really, really enjoyed last year was Department Q. And I hear that there's another series coming. um This is based on a Danish crime novel series. And again, this is a police officer who has been off work because he was shot in the line of duty, as was his partner. And part of that story is finding out how he's going to find his place again as a police officer. It's not just solving the particular case that he's on this time. So we needed that um that lengthy, drawn out storytelling. um i also think that it's really important if there are subplots.
00:14:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's a great point. Some other examples, again, this is on Netflix, is The Lincoln Lawyer, adapted from Michael Connelly. And there's a Bosch series that's, I think it's on Prime. that i actually haven't seen that one.
00:14:45
Speaker
But The the Lincoln Lawyer is on Netflix. And you can do a little bit of a comparison with that because there was a film that with Matthew McConaughey of, and that was an adapt adaptation of one book, whereas the Netflix is a series. It's multiple episode adaptations of single books. And ah i I think the Netflix series is better than the Matthew McConaughey film.
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah, i I really like the series structure. But I will say bringing up the older Matthew McConaughey movie just struck me with something else, which is,
00:15:27
Speaker
they did one book and they told the story of one book, which is not what the Thursday Murder Club tried to do. Rather than taking book one, we have information and parts of the storyline of the characters drawn in from different parts of the series. And maybe that was part of why that was off-putting to someone one who had read the
Author's Role in Adaptations
00:15:54
Speaker
book.
00:15:55
Speaker
That is such a great observation that they did pull in information from subsequent books. I remember us saying we weren't sure how they were going to take it further if they wanted to make additional seasons or i guess that wouldn't be a season, but because they had spoiled some things and that felt off.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, no, you're totally right, Brooke. So, and around the same time, the adaptation of The Woman in Cabin 10 came out and Brooke, I just realized that in the introduction, I made a mistake because I was talking about The Woman in Sweet 11, which is the sequel to that book.
00:16:33
Speaker
Mm hmm.
00:16:41
Speaker
in um i think in october on netflix and ah i thought it i thought it worked i don't i don't actually think it needed to be dragged out into a series Yeah. Isn't that interesting? I can't imagine that being multiple episodes. I think it would have become tedious, but it worked as a movie.
00:17:06
Speaker
And this is another question I've been pondering is how do they decide they being the the producers and writers? um I'm assuming that it has a lot to do with you know budgets for a particular project and what their audience is watching. like They can probably look at stats and be like, oh, you know what? Limited series are really hot. We'll do that. um their Their needs on their particular network or or company. But um probably the
00:17:39
Speaker
worst part is that I imagine that the author of the original story has very little input to be able to shape that. And that makes me a little bit sad.
Conclusion and Listener Invitation
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I think um the author, i guess, unless they are fronting some money and are also a producer, um they just have to kind of let it go.
00:18:04
Speaker
And just be happy that the story is out there and will hopefully draw people into ah you know the rest of their work. Well, Brooke, this has been fun to dig a little bit deeper into the differences between multi-episodic retellings characters.
00:18:23
Speaker
novels and and short stories versus, as you call them, the one-shot retellings. And I'm sure we will have more to say on this at some point in the future.
00:18:36
Speaker
Absolutely. Thanks, Sarah. It's been fun. And listeners, here's a question of the week for you. When it comes to mystery stories on screen, what's your favorite format?
00:18:47
Speaker
We'd love to hear your thoughts. Send us an email or come find us on Instagram and Facebook. Until next time, thank you for joining us on Clued in Mystery.
00:18:57
Speaker
I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Stephen. Music is by Shane Ivers.
00:19:09
Speaker
If you liked what you heard, please consider telling a friend, leaving a review, or subscribing with your favorite podcast listening app. Visit our website to sign up for our newsletter, The Clued in Chronicle, and get mystery news, podcast updates, and bonus episodes.
00:19:23
Speaker
We're on social media at Clued in Mystery.