Analysis examining consultant procedural vocabulary across Elementary, Hannibal, and Perception television series
Based on research of consultant procedural television series, this cross-tabulation examines how key genre terms manifest across three additional shows featuring defective detectives: Elementary, Hannibal, and Perception.
| Term | Concise Definition | Elementary (Sherlock Holmes) | Hannibal (Will Graham) | Perception (Daniel Pierce) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consultant Procedural | Crime-solving series built around external civilian specialist working case-by-case with law enforcement | Modern Sherlock Holmes adaptation - recovering drug addict consultant helping NYPD solve crimes | FBI profiler with extraordinary empathy working with team including psychiatrist consultant Hannibal Lecter | Neuropsychiatrist with schizophrenia consulting for FBI on complex cases involving behavioral psychology |
| Defective Detective | Brilliant investigator whose impairments both hinder daily life and enable extraordinary deductions | Drug addiction recovery combined with brilliant deductive abilities creating social dysfunction and genius insights | Severe empathy disorder allowing him to think and feel like killers, causing psychological deterioration | Paranoid schizophrenia with hallucinations that both impair daily function and provide unique investigative insights |
| The Watson | Loyal companion who explains clues to audience, provides emotional balance and conduit to normal society | Dr. Joan Watson starts as sober companion, evolves to partner - translates Holmes’ methods to police and audience | Jack Crawford exploits Will’s abilities while claiming protection - morally ambiguous authority figure | Max Lewicki (teaching assistant) helps distinguish hallucinations from reality while Kate Moretti provides FBI access |
| Friend on the Force | Sympathetic officer who grants consultant access, legitimizes arrests and acts as comic foil | Captain Gregson provides NYPD access despite frequent conflict over Holmes’ disregard for police procedure | Jack Crawford provides FBI cases requiring Will’s unique profiling abilities despite ethical concerns | Special Agent Kate Moretti (former student) provides FBI cases and legitimizes Pierce’s involvement |
| Consultant Hook | Protagonist’s singular talent that justifies weekly involvement and differentiates the show | Extraordinary observational skills and deductive reasoning solving cases through minute detail analysis | Perfect empathy enabling reconstruction of crimes by adopting killer’s exact mental state and perspective | Neuroscience expertise combined with schizophrenic hallucinations offering unique perspectives on criminal behavior |
| Accessibility Factor | Narrative techniques translating esoteric expertise into visual or conversational clues viewers can grasp | Step-by-step explanation of deductions with visual evidence examination and logical reasoning chains | Pendulum visualization sequences and crime scene transformations making empathic process visually understandable | Lecture format explaining brain science concepts and hallucination sequences visualizing Pierce’s insights |
| Dark Mirror Protagonist | Consultant whose insight stems from sharing traits with criminals, creating moral tension | N/A - Holmes catches criminals through superior intellect rather than shared psychological traits | Ultimate example - Will’s insight stems from mentally becoming killers, blurring investigator/perpetrator line | N/A - Pierce’s insights come from neuroscience knowledge and hallucinations rather than criminal identification |
| Mythology Arc | Central ongoing storyline spanning multiple episodes/seasons providing deeper character development | Holmes’ recovery journey, relationship with Moriarty, and partnership evolution with Watson over 7 seasons | Will’s psychological deterioration, relationship with Hannibal, and descent into darkness over 3 seasons | Pierce’s struggle with mental illness, academic career challenges, and relationship with hallucinated Natalie |
| Procedural Grounding | Ensuring fantastical elements anchored in realistic police work and legal procedures | Realistic NYPD procedures, proper evidence handling, and legal constraints on investigations | Accurate FBI procedures and forensic investigation methods anchoring supernatural empathic abilities | Accurate FBI investigation procedures and realistic portrayal of academic neuroscience research |
| Moral Ambiguity Hook | Ongoing dramatic question of whether consultant’s darker impulses will overtake crime-fighting purpose | Whether Holmes’ addiction and antisocial tendencies will undermine his crime-fighting effectiveness | Whether Will’s empathic connection to killers will corrupt him or drive him to become one himself | Whether Pierce’s schizophrenia helps or hinders his ability to distinguish reality from delusion in cases |
| Competence Differential | Deliberate skills gap making consultant indispensable while preserving police credibility | Holmes sees patterns and connections that escape trained detectives - NYPD needs his unique perspective | Will sees what profilers and investigators miss - FBI needs his empathic insights despite psychological cost | Pierce’s neuroscience expertise and hallucinatory insights reveal behavioral patterns FBI agents miss |
| Empathic Profiling | Visual/narrative device where detective mentally reconstructs crimes by “becoming” the perpetrator | Logical reconstruction of crimes through evidence analysis rather than emotional identification | Literal empathic profiling - Will mentally becomes killers to understand their exact motivations and methods | Hallucinations provide alternative perspectives on crimes, sometimes revealing psychological truths others miss |
These three shows demonstrate the flexibility of the consultant procedural formula in supporting diverse approaches to the defective detective archetype:
Each show develops unique methods for making specialized knowledge accessible:
This analysis demonstrates how the consultant procedural format accommodates different types of mental and psychological conditions as both impediment and investigative advantage.
