Legal drama in the context of "Drama film"

In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera, police crime drama, political drama, legal drama, historical drama, domestic drama, teen drama, and comedy drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate a particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage a broader range of moods. To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict—emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline.

All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in the broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent (mimesis) characters. In this broader sense, drama is a mode distinct from novels, short stories, and narrative poetry or songs. In the modern era, before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" within theatre was a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy. It is this narrower sense that the film and television industries, along with film studies, adopted. "Radio drama" has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio.

Boston Legal is an American legal-comedy-drama created by David E. Kelley. The series, starring James Spader, with Candice Bergen, and William Shatner, was produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for the ABC. Boston Legal aired from October 3, 2004, to December 8, 2008. The series is a spin-off of the Kelley series The Practice, and features Practice actors including Spader, Rhona Mitra, Lake Bell, and Shatner. It is set at the legal firm of Crane, Poole & Schmidt.

Boston Legal is an American legal comedy drama television series created by former lawyer and Boston native David E. Kelley, produced in association with 20th Century Fox Television for ABC. The series aired from October 3, 2004, to December 8, 2008. The series stars James Spader, William Shatner and Candice Bergen. It is a direct spin-off and continuation of the TV series The Practice, with several characters from the eighth season of that series moving to Boston Legal. While never a Nielsen ratings smash hit, the show was critically acclaimed. It received 26 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, including for Outstanding Drama Series in 2007 and 2008 and a Peabody Award in 2005.

Sacco & Vanzetti (Italian: Sacco e Vanzetti) is a 1971 historical legal drama film, based on the trial of Italian-American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, whose guilty verdict and execution was considered a politically-motivated miscarriage of justice. The film is directed and co-written by Giuliano Montaldo, and stars Gian Maria Volonté and Riccardo Cucciolla in the title roles. The cast also features Cyril Cusack, Milo O'Shea, Geoffrey Keen and Rosanna Fratello.

An Italian and French co-production, the film is mainly shot in color although it both starts and finishes in black and white, and also includes period black and white newsreels. The musical score was composed and conducted by Ennio Morricone with the three-part ballad sung by Joan Baez.

Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama television series created by David E. Kelley that originally aired on Fox from September 8, 1997, to May 20, 2002. It revolves around Calista Flockhart in the title role as a lawyer working in the Boston law firm Cage and Fish. Although the series is ostensibly a legal drama, its main focus is the romantic and personal lives of the main characters. The series was produced by David E. Kelley Productions and 20th Century Fox Television, with Kelley serving as executive producer alongside Bill D'Elia.

Ally McBeal received critical acclaim in its early seasons, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy in 1998 and 1999, and also winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1999. Despite these achievements, it was canceled by Fox after five seasons. In March 2021, it was reported that a revival as a limited series was in early development at 20th Television with Flockhart possibly returning. In August 2022, it was reported that ABC was in early development of a sequel series and had approached Flockhart to reprise her role and executive-produce. However, despite the report, neither project has eventuated yet.

The Good Wife is an American legal political drama television series that aired on CBS from September 22, 2009, to May 8, 2016. It focuses on Alicia Florrick, the wife of the Cook County State's Attorney, who returns to her career in law after the events of a public sex and political corruption scandal involving her husband.

The Good Wife is a serialized show with standalone storylines that are concluded by the end of each episode. It also features several story arcs that play out over multiple episodes or seasons. These serial plots—a rarity on CBS—were especially showcased in its highly praised fifth season.

The Good Fight is an American legal drama television series produced for CBS's streaming service CBS All Access (later Paramount+). It was the platform's first original scripted series. The series, created by Robert King, Michelle King, and Phil Alden Robinson, is a spin-off from and standalone sequel to The Good Wife, which was created by the Kings. The first season premiered on February 19, 2017, with the first episode airing on CBS and the following nine episodes on CBS All Access.

The series follows Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart, as she loses her employment after an enormous financial scam destroys the reputation of her goddaughter Maia (Rose Leslie) and Diane's savings, leading them to join Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) at one of Chicago's preeminent law firms. The series stars Baranski, Leslie, Jumbo, Erica Tazel, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha, Delroy Lindo, Nyambi Nyambi, Michael Boatman, and Audra McDonald, and features Paul Guilfoyle and Bernadette Peters in recurring roles. It is executive produced by Robert King, Michelle King, Ridley Scott, David W. Zucker, Liz Glotzer, Brooke Kennedy and Alison Scott.

L.A. Law is an American legal drama television series created by Steven Bochco and Terry Louise Fisher for NBC. It ran for eight seasons and 172 episodes from September 15, 1986, to May 19, 1994.

The series centers on the partners, associates and staff of a Los Angeles law firm. The show contains many of Bochco's trademark features, including an ensemble cast, large number of parallel story lines, social drama, and off-the-wall humor. It reflects the social and cultural conflicts that were occurring when the show was produced in the 1980s and early 1990s, and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot-button issues such as capital punishment, abortion, racism, homophobia, sexual harassment, HIV/AIDS, and domestic violence. The series often also reflects social tensions between the wealthy senior lawyer protagonists and their less well-paid junior staff.

Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer who made his film debut with a minor role in the 1981 romantic drama Endless Love. Two years later, he made his breakthrough by starring in the romantic comedy Risky Business (1983), which garnered his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. In 1986, Cruise played a naval aviator in the Tony Scott-directed action drama Top Gun which was the highest-grossing film of the year, and also appeared with Paul Newman in the Martin Scorsese-directed drama The Color of Money. Two years later, he starred with Dustin Hoffman in the drama Rain Man (1988). His next role was as anti-war activist Ron Kovic in the film adaptation of Kovic's memoir of the same name, Born on the Fourth of July (1989), for which he received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.

In 1992, he starred opposite Jack Nicholson in the legal drama A Few Good Men, an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name also written by Aaron Sorkin. Cruise next appeared in The Firm (1993), a film adaptation of the John Grisham legal thriller of the same name, and in the same year, also made his directorial debut by directing an episode of the anthology television series Fallen Angels. Cruise starred as spy Ethan Hunt in the action film Mission: Impossible (1996), the first project of his production company Cruise/Wagner Productions, which he had co-founded with Paula Wagner in 1993. As of 2025, Cruise has appeared in seven more films in the Mission: Impossible franchise: Mission: Impossible 2 (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015), Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (2025).