Keyword idea: A term to convey that a show or film is about a single characters story.

@ACT_1​ Possibly. But what term would one use to convey this?

@keyword_expert​ Those other keywords are good, but they lack the innate emphasis I suggest. So a "personal-history" or "personal conflict" might be good concepts, but there's no way to *emphasise* their relevance to the narrative vs. a particular instance where one character might undergo some "personal conflict" - if you get what I mean.

"one-character" isn't quite accurate imo, because all of these primary-character driven shows/films still have other characters - they just focus on one in particular. "personal-narrative" implies a narration of sorts, a perspective that may not be the case. "personal-quest" implies a specific purpose.

"Monodrama" seems like an interesting term though... although it's been applied 30 times in a way I can't really understand. 

I am continually surprised that so many of your keywords contributions are declined. 

In this case, in their defence, I have no guarantee that other people may use "personal drama" in the way that I propose. Someone else could interpret it very differently.

Also I did get "healing drama" approved, which was nice. And I just got "great detective" added to the system, which is basically really smart detectiving ie Sherlock holmes. So that's nice.

I think the overriding problem here is a root problem with the keyword system - it simply has no way to distinguish between "thing sometimes present partially within the narrative" vs. "thing the narrative is primarily about" - which means we have to come up with new terms to emphasise their importance.

An example of this is "detective". In common lingo, someone looking up a "detective" keyword would expect to find detective-driven shows investigating a murder or disappearance. A show or film that primarily follows the detective on their investigation and their troubles - and it is used like that on IMDB. It is also used though to just say "yes there is a detective in this show/film that actually may not specifically be about that" - so you have two uses put together. 

@Skavau​ 

"great-detective" as a keyword violates the guidelines because it introduces subjectivity.

To find titles that focus on a particular topic, use the genre and plot functions in combination with the keyword function.

For example, you can search for titles in the Mystery genre with "detective" in both the plot and keyword fields:

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?genres=mystery&keywords=detective&plot=detective

That may not get you exactly what you want, but it helps.

There is also this keyword:

"great-detective" as a keyword violates the guidelines because it introduces subjectivity.

They approved it.

Great Detective is a well known trope in fiction, and is widely understood. And in terms of 'subjectivity', then by that metric a lot of subgenres in use would have to go. Most things that are not specifically pointing out the obvious are subjective in some sense. Dystopia would have to go, for a start.

For example, you can search for titles in the Mystery genre with "detective" in both the plot and keyword fields:

Not all detective + mystery settings are "great detective". There's a big difference in thematic between Sherlock and Luther. Or Columbo and Paris Police 1900, for instance.

Also, there's a lot of police procedurals that turn up in the search you've linked - which isn't really accurate.

"detective-drama" seems to be being used somewhat to elevate the presence of the detective into a primary function of the story.

@Skavau​ Just because a keyword is approved doesn't mean it meets the guidelines, especially when a keyword is approved automatically rather than manually. There are hundreds of thousands of existing keywords on IMDb that violate the guidelines and need to be removed. 

Good evidence about the Great Detective trope. I do still wonder if this keyword could be misunderstood by some. That's always the problem with words that inherently involve subjectivity, in this case the word "great." 

Other keywords you might consider:

detective-series (244 titles)

detective-film (16 titles)

Good evidence about the Great Detective trope. I do still wonder if this keyword could be misunderstood by some. That's always the problem with words that inherently involve subjectivity, in this case the word "great." 

I mean, as we've seen when removing Samurai Jack, Billy the Kid, and OZ from dystopia - there exists a level of obvious misunderstanding about the term "dystopia".

Yes, sorry, detective-series is correct - not drama (IMDB adding these new thematic genres has probably caused lots of new [X] drama keywords). But "great detective" is still a distinction concept within detective-series.

Just like hardboiled detective.

@keyword_expert​ My keywords went into review, so I assume a human eventually approved them btw. Same way my "personal drama" concept got denied.

Curious about monodrama though. Rolls off the tongue better, but idk if it has wide understanding. I don't think anyone but me would think to use it, mind. So there's that.

@jay_spirit​ Ehhh... I mean yes they literally work (although I would argue not "exclusive" focus), but part of it is to brainstorm a more discoverable term of reference.

Some keywords on here are so verbose and complicated that I'm willing to suggest no-one uses them.