Concept: A Rashomon-Style TV Series

This idea came to me a while ago while chatting with a coworker. I got to talking about Rashomon-style narrative structure, and then as I was talking, I came up with this idea. More below the break.

What is Rashomon-Style?

If you don't know what Rashomon-Style means, and you don't feel like clicking the link above to the TV Tropes page about it, the gist is that it involves multiple characters recounting the same event, but their respective perspectives are different and irreconcilable. You may have seen this sort of thing in numerous sitcoms, as it lends itself well to comedy. However, it has its origins in drama, and can also be used as the basis of a mystery plot.

The TV Tropes page names this narrative structure after the Akira Kurosawa film Rashomon, in which several characters give their accounts of events, frequently with contradictory information. However, in Rashomon, no definitive answer is given as to which account is true, or closest to true.

The Idea

Well, as I was talking to my coworker about the style, I got to musing aloud about how you could do a TV series using it, specifically structuring it like an after-action debrief/investigation. For instance, there was an event, some criminal act-- a terror attack, high-profile murder or assassination, or even a big-time heist-- and the main characters are the investigators trying to piece together everything that led up to the event, with each episode serving as a POV episode for one of the witnesses/suspects/victims/whatever. Each episode would explore the backstory/motives/personality of the various characters, show the event from their perspective, but with notable bias or skewing. It wouldn't be until the finale that the "real version" of the event is finally shown, with the culprit(s) being revealed and possibly captured.

I tried looking online, and I didn't see any specific TV series that seem to use the Rashomon-style narrative structure for the series as a whole, only for one-off episodes. I know Lost did something like it for the flashbacks, since sometimes we'd see the same event from different perspectives, but it didn't happen too often. And even then, it was less about mystery surrounding events in the flashbacks, and more about showing the interconnectedness of all of the characters in the setting.

I just think that this would be an interesting way to do a series. I'd picture it being like American Horror Story, an anthology series, with each season focusing on a different, probably-unrelated event/crime. The investigators would probably be the only recurring characters through the series, but if the events across seasons turn out to be connected, then recurring witnesses/suspects could be a thing.

The Characters

I'll stick with just using basic descriptors for the main characters-- i.e. the investigators etc.-- since their names can always be hashed out later. Presently, I'll simply refer to the crime that they're investigating as 'The Event.' It could be any sufficiently complicated crime-- as noted above, a heist, a high-profile murder, a terror attack-- with a number of players involved.

The Detectives are the main investigators working out what happened at the Event. We're looking at a full team, at least four or five strong. This team could easily break down into your standard Five-Man Band arrangement, and they should settle into roles along those lines. I could easily see a Veteran (whether ex-military or just an experienced investigator) and a Rookie (new to the unit, but not the job) dynamic with a couple, but generally I think the Detectives' backstories should not be the primary focus, in favor of the Suspects. (At least in a first season, that is. If the series were successful enough to be picked up for more seasons, then fleshing out the Detectives further could obviously happen.) The Detectives umbrella also covers those analysts that aren't a direct part of the unit, such as lab techs, psychiatrists, etc.

Next are the Outsiders, characters not part of the investigative unit, but not Suspects either. This is my catchall term for news reporters and talking heads that might be giving the audience further insight into what fallout may be happening as a result of the Event, or reveal new details that were either missed by the Detectives, or were concealed from them. Depending on how the series were produced, use of the Outsiders in marketing would work as well. For instance, a "breaking news" video mentioning the Event as if it had just taken place, to help world-build, and drum up interest. This could also include eyes-on-the-street style characters, people directly outside of the Event, but who maybe can at least provide "objective" perspective. Someone recording something on their phone, for instance.

And of course, then you have the Suspects, which is again a catchall term for the POV characters for each installment. Not all of them are suspected of causing the Event, necessarily, some may just be witnesses giving a statement, but if they receive any sort of focus in an episode to explore their motivations and/or backstory, then they fall here. All scenes that focus on a Suspect's story are necessarily going to be biased, especially in their recollection in their witness statements.

An Event: Terror Attack

So let's take a look at a potential Event for our series to tackle in a season. It's a terrorist attack on a diplomatic function. This gives us a selection of potential Suspects. The function was some kind of peace summit among a couple of countries in the developing world. I'll avoid giving any kinds of actual names or locations here, since that can always be hashed out later when writing out details. Let's just call the countries Ruristan and Qurac. They've been at odds a while, many generations of warfare and skirmishes and so forth, bad feelings abound. However, the new Ruristani Premier wants to try to reach an accord with the Quraci Prime Minister, to find some place where their peoples can try to heal and move past their hatred. The summit is held in a different country, where our Detectives reside, thus bringing them into the narrative.

The summit is disrupted by a bombing and attack on the Ruristani Premier. He survives the attack, but is left in critical condition, necessitating surgery. Many other people died, in various diplomatic parties, as well as civilians, and there's pressure on the Detectives to figure out what happened. Among the suspects (note the lower-case letter there) are some of the diplomatic parties, but only two or three of them are Suspects.

A Chief of Security for the Prime Minister who doesn't approve of the "soft stance" on the Ruristani, but also insists that he would not let such feelings compromise his job. Not least because the Prime Minister is his half-brother, a fact which isn't highly publicized or well known. A lower-level functionary in the Quraci party with ties to the terror group behind the attack, but who has been having second thoughts. A security officer in the local delegation, handling on-site security, whose statements about what happened with the attack don't line up, because he has an unconnected secret that had gotten him out of position, and contributed to the terror attack. A local agitator who caused some disruption during the summit-- their reasons being a combination of objections to the policies of the foreign governments (various allegations of human rights violations, perhaps) as well as local "intervention" in that part of the world (something like your basic "it's not our business, stop sending our troops to die there" kind of thing)-- whose actions also contribute to the terror attack's chaos.

These and other Suspects all receive some exploration in their focus episodes. Again, the key here would be to deepen our understanding of these characters, so they're not just flat strawmen. There needs to be proper development of their motivations, so we understand why they are the way they are. This isn't necessarily to make them sympathetic, but just to avoid making them "bad guy for bad guy's sake" characters.

With the Terror Attack Event story, I see the climax coming about when the Detectives and authorities realize that a second attack is imminent. Piecing together clues from the scene of the first attack, plus details from their interviews with some of the Suspects, they deduce that a second attack is coming, potentially more deadly than the first. So it culminates in the authorities-- with assistance from the Detectives, who have just secured a key detail to thwarting the attack in their last interview-- rushing to intercept the terrorists and stopping the second attack before it can accomplish its aim.

Conclusion

Rashomon is a classic film, and the narrative structure that it popularized has been used many times across media. While some media use it for individual episodes, it hasn't been used as the structure for the entire series itself. Written well and developed properly, it could be the basis for a great series, to unravel the motivations and mysteries of a nefarious crime or attack.