Hello,

I'm interested in writing something along the lines of "Criminal Minds" and "CSI" but I want to make sure I avoid being too similar to these programmes, set in America.

I want a team of detectives, more preferably a unit in the FBI so that I can go nationwide, who each have a speciality or certain role to do.

Any advice?

- Tyler.

Sort of like The X-Files, but without the Sci-Fi?

Quoted from Mr. Blonde Sort of like The X-Files, but without the Sci-Fi?

Basically, yeah.

If you research on line, you'll find there are numerous investigative agencies within the US government. We all know FBI and CIA, and recently we've seen JAG and other military related investigative branches. There's also Secret Service, which is far older than the FBI, as well as Customs. ATF is in the news a lot lately, with operation Fast and Furious.

There are more obscure agencies too, ones that don't get attention, but most of these federal departments have investigative and enforcement branches. You can always make one up, and make it sound real because it's related to something real. For example, the OSI in WW II became the CIA. Maybe not all of it did. Maybe there were smaller branches that remained separate.

BTW, if you think these agencies are ranked, it's not usually that way. FBI might seem more elite, but they have no more authority than the others. If there's a dispute, I think ultimately the DOJ has to decide jurisdiction, and that's case by case and often highly political.

These things are all available inline, Tyler. Depends what you're looking for. I think Secret Service is cool. I know I guy in it. People think their job is primarily security for the President and other biggies, but it's actually a branch of the Treasury, and the founding purpose was investigative. They look for things like counterfeit money operations, but pretty much anything that could undermine national security.

1. If it ain't broke don't fix it...keep all the conflict/drama/soap opera character chemistry that makes those shows popular.

2. To give it it's own voice pick a new topic or go further on an existing topic...more realistic, deeper, arder, faster...whatever.

You can invent your own "secret" Department that is concerned with a certain issue or use one of the many existing ones.

You can do the sort of Liar approach...pick a special skill that the team uses to solve cases.

Both.

Or just do the Wire and make it more real.

You might want to think about what you're trying to say about the world/America....to provide for an overall arc for the story.

Just write about 3 chicks and 4 dudes and bill it as The A Team meets Charlie's Angels. Trust me, no one will care about the agency and the plot once bikinis are worn and cars are blown up...

Sorry, I'm a little bitter today...

I actually like the sound of that one tbh honest ajr....

Regardless, I bet you're right, Anthony. Don't forget the fun factor, though. You know why the original Charlie's Angels was popular but the remake wasn't? Well, I don't, but I'm guessing it was more fun.

And, let's not forget about everyone's forget fictional government agency: CTU, otherwise known as Jack Bauer and Company.

Funny thing is, what you want sounds exactly like The X-Files except their specialties wouldn't be medicine and psychology/paranormal. Good luck with it either way, though.

I know EXACTLY why the original Charlies Angels worked. I had the posters on my wall as a kid. Trust me, that was enough.

Like I said, more fun... =)

Good - I'm copyrighting this thread now...

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Quoted from ajr Just write about 3 chicks and 4 dudes and bill it as The A Team meets Charlie's Angels. Trust me, no one will care about the agency and the plot once bikinis are worn and cars are blown up...

Oooh, yeah...or maybe they're like, competing male and female crimefighting teams, both good but wanting to be the one to beat the bad guys, and it's like, they meet up at different crimes and get in each other's way during action sequences, and although they pretend to hate each other, the romantic tension between them is evident in the witty banter that they share during firefights and car chases, and over the first season a relationship develops between the "nerdy" female and the "ruggedly masculine" male of the respective teams, and the conflicts and jealousies surrounding that begin to cause problems that frequently force the two groups into teaming up...

Yeah, it was a dark day for all of us when the new Charlie's Angels was canceled.

But one agency you could write about would be the NSA.  National Security Agency.  One of the more powerful, yet mysterious organizations in the US.

Haven't they done the NSA on TV yet, or is it just Splinter Cell that's done it?

NSA tends to be data collection, not so much guys in the field. So not as good for drama. Think of analysts looking at intercepted phone calls and satellite data. The CIA is more field oriented.

CTU is basically the culmination of the CIA and NSA which sucks because if you do something like that again, everyone will say you're ripping off 24.

True, NSA mainly deals with intel analysis and code breaking.  But maybe invent some special clandestine  field ops unit that deals directly with detected threats.

Or just invent your own agency.

Just remember, you can't do the rogue government agency thing because people might try and claim you're ripping off "Person of Interest"... possibly.

Making up your own is definitely the best, though. =)

How bout a show about the IRS?

$(%*$(#(#U%*&&@ IRS!!

Only if you make them the bad guys!

But, that wouldn't be an interesting premise. An interesting premise would be to make them the GOOD guys... =)

I liked the action in 24. I never watched in on tv but enjoyed watching all the seasons on netflix. I'm tired of the CSIs sort of.

Quoted from ajr Just write about 3 chicks and 4 dudes and bill it as The A Team meets Charlie's Angels. Trust me, no one will care about the agency and the plot once bikinis are worn and cars are blown up... Sorry, I'm a little bitter today...

I say Charlie's Angels MEETS The A-Team!

The A-Team tracks a drug cartel using exchange students as unwilling mules to Miami.
The baddies hold the parents hostage while the kids are sent out.
But where do the kids go once they land in the Sunshine State?
Meanwhile, the Angels go undercover at a special day care run by lesbians.
They stumble into an "extraction" on a kid by the day care's greasy tranny doctor.
The girls get Mr. T to pose as the day care janitor to win the mule kids' trust.

Then, hilarity ensues.

E.D.

Can we use some kind of technology to bring back the angels from the 70s? As they looked then? Man, they don't make angels like that anymore. There wasn't a boy in the country who didn't have a Farra Fawcett poster back then. Cheryl Ladd was a pretty damn good replacement, too!

Cheryl Ladd is 60 and she still looks awesome, btw...

Quoted from Mr. Blonde CTU is basically the culmination of the CIA and NSA which sucks because if you do something like that again, everyone will say you're ripping off 24.

Exactly what I thought. Then how do I avoid this?

To quote 'Zodiac', "Get creative."

There are a lot of agencies that havemt been tapped I.e. ATF, DEA, CID, AFOSI, And others... any couls make a good series

Yeah. I might do something on the DEA.