In the context of film, television, and radio,
drama describes a genre of
narrative fiction (or
semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than
humorous in tone, focusing on in-depth
development of realistic characters who must deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a
comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such as a
fantasy. To distinguish
drama as a genre of
fiction from the use of the
same word to mean the general storytelling mode of live performance, the word
drama is often included as part of a phrase to specify its meaning. For instance, in the sense of a
television genre, more common specific terms are a
drama show,
drama series, or
television drama in the
United States;
dramatic programming in the
United Kingdom; or
teledrama in
Sri Lanka. In the sense of a
film genre, the common term is a
drama film.