Plot Tags

Description

“Plot tags” refers to the keywords and phrases that describe the media property’s storylines and themes. Select the most applicable IMDB plot keywords. If needed, generate your own keywords based on episode synopses and other contextual information. Plot tags can include smaller subcategories within larger genres (e.g., “narco,” “yakuza,” or “mafia” as a subset of “crime”).

There are two general categories of plot tags: the first is diegetic events e.g. things that occur on screen and/or within the universe of the text. The second is about how texts present themselves, market themselves, and how creative leadership describe the text.

There is no upper or lower limit to the number of plot tags.

Tag Values

Tags include:

  • female friendship

  • mafia

  • father-son relationship

  • lesbian relationship

  • friends to lovers

  • afrofuturism

  • -led tags (female-led, black-led, asian pacific-led, indigenous-led, queer-led)

  • diverse ensemble

Plot tags can also be used to signal the relationship between the text and other existing texts and franchises. These tags, which are not mutually exclusive, include:

  • adapted from ____ (when a story from one text is retold in a different medium, e.g. The Walking Dead is “adapted from comic”)

  • remake (when a story from one text is retold in the same medium, e.g. The Ring is a remake of Ringu)

  • based on ____ (when a text tells an original story taking inspiration from a source text without being a straightforward adaptation, e.g. HBO’s Watchmen is “based on comic”)

  • spin off (when a secondary character from one text is given a further storyline in a second text, e.g. Fear the Walking Dead is a spin off of The Walking Dead)

  • expanded universe (when a text elaborates on an existing media universe but does not necessarily maintain narrative continuity with other texts in that universe)

  • sequel (when a text maintains narrative continuity with earlier texts and/or identifies itself explicitly as a sequel)

Notes

“Diverse ensemble” tag refers to a media property with an ensemble cast, meaning no individual lead, and a diverse cast, meaning the main cast members are not all the same identity. Sex and the City and Girls are woman-led but not diverse ensembles. Insecure is woman-led and Black-led, but not a diverse ensemble.

No need to tag white-led, male-led, or straight-led texts.