| CATEGORY | SIMILARITIES | DIFFERENCES | THEORY |
| CHARACTERS | the detective who has a ‘natural’ instinct for law and order Both involve female children | The Killing, The missing has the main detective as female | PROPP |
| NARRATIVE | the first episode often introduces a lot of different characters | difference in what happens to the child (one gets killed, one goes missing) | TODOROV |
| THEMES | the use of binary oppositions around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice. | family justice | LEVI-STRAUSS |
| REPRESENTATION | reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, urban/rural | representation of a stereotypical victim | SEMIOTICS |
| TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc) | opening montage sequence that often gives clues as to the whole series – themes, locations, characters, events etc. | ||
| SETTING | a forest & a more urban area | lake |
