Beyond genre

I was surprised to find myself sucked into The Good Wife, which is technically a legal drama TV show — something I've never before been interested in watching. But it has great acting, good writing, complex characters with realistic relationships, and varying shades of morality; it expects its viewers to be intelligent.

It made me wonder how fixed my genre preferences are. Can I be won over by any show as long it offers the above traits? What about in books?

Reading-wise, I've dipped my toes into mysteries, for example, and have discovered at least two series I reliably enjoy. But it's incredibly difficult for me to search out other mysteries I think I'd like. Perhaps I need someone knowledgeable who can identify the sub-genres that would interest me, or just a guide in general. When confronted by a shelf of mysteries, I have no idea where to start. Many of them seem to expect the reader to figure things out, or at least leave breadcrumb clues, while I'm quite happy having everything explained to me, and obfuscation works just as well as a red herring.

I remember my brother reading a romance draft of mine and expressing doubt over some character interaction, but he added the caveat that he's unfamiliar with the conventions of the genre. I think this is probably the key: do you write with the assumption that certain elements will occur, and that readers will find it acceptable or even welcome, because they're found in all members of that genre? Are there major aspects of your story which don't lean on these conventions?

I don't pretend to write genre-transcending literature (my latest work actually began with the heteronormative boy and girl meeting up in the first sentence, and didn't buck assumptions). But it's interesting that I do tend to gravitate toward fantasy and science fiction, and now romance (and I did find romance jarring at first; I wish I'd taken better notes before I grew accustomed to it). And I wonder what I get out of them that I don't in other genres — and what I seek that might also be found elsewhere.