Latest / The imuRgency Room / The Problem With Vertical Microdramas

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The Problem With Vertical Microdramas · The imuRgency Room

• 0:01
  I'm sick. If only somebody could help me.
• 0:04
  Ohh. I certainly can't help you.
• 0:06
  Ohh yes, get it. Ohhh, yeah.
• 0:13
  Oh, oh, OK. Stop, stop right there.
• 0:15
  Can we, can we cut for a second? Is anyone concerned with
• 0:18
  anything we're doing here? Hey, guys, it's up to emergency.
• 0:20
  Welcome. Welcome back to my channel.
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  And if the words vertical short don't mean anything to you, then
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  you definitely have been living under a rock.
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  And if you think that you haven't seen a vertical, yes,
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  you have. And no, I'm not just talking
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  about whatever just played in front of you right now because
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  you most definitely have seen one either with or against your
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  will when you're scrolling on TikTok and get your government
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  mandated ad every, I don't know, four to five scrolls.
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  You know those little random dramas that lead you to get an
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  app like drama box to see, I don't know, the big brother's
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  bad boy best friend doctor will kiss the nerdy girl.
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  That, my friends, is a vertical. You're holding back your whole
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  life. Let me show you what it feels
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  like to finally my girl. Is this what you want?
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  Kim? And Verticals, also called micro
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  dramas, are a serialized series shot and made to be watched on
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  your phone. You know, vertically.
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  They usually span about 20 to 100 episodes, with each episode
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  being about as long as a TikTok or around 1 to 3 minutes each.
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  And in every single episode, and yes, I mean every single one,
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  they end with a cliffhanger or something phrased to be a
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  cliffhanger to get you on to the next 60 to 90 seconds of the
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  series. And it kind of just feels like
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  this cataclysmic multiverse combination of like telenovela
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  writing, the structural modeling of like mobile games and the
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  editing and production quality of someone using iMovie for the
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  first time. And like didn't know how to
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  remove the fade to white transition all mixed into one
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  reel. Because let me be clear, these
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  things are not known for their cinematic qualities.
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  Like no one's going to verticals for their Oscar winning acting.
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  And actually they're going to them for the opposite with these
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  verticals becoming popular for their bad acting, cheesy writing
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  and low budget set and decoration.
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  And all these things are just par for the course and what
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  these dramas are kind of known for.
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  Another way that I like to think about it is like these verticals
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  are just the video form of like those CBS romance books with
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  Fabio on the cover. Just optimize and film for
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  TikTok and that's all fine and dandy.
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  But the reason why we're talking about verticals and vertical
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  shorts is, for one, because the content in these vertical shorts
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  can be extremely salacious and honestly can be considered a
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  form of softcore with plot points also being very
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  suggestive, like falling in love with my stepbrother or like a
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  secret between sisters. Like all the titles are.
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  Some of the most popular verticals are kind of strange
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  and the fact that these things are being advertised so brazenly
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  on platforms, TikTok, Facebook, and the likes is kind of
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  concerning, but even more so concerning.
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  On the back end, behind the scenes, the verticals industry
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  can be very exploitative to its actual actors and pretty much
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  everyone involved. And we need to talk about that
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  because again, if you haven't heard or seen verticals now, you
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  will in the very near future because it seems like the future
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  of entertainment, for better or for worse, is vertical content.
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  And you may be asking yourself, where did this vertical stuff
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  come from? Well, this vertical style of
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  entertainment content originated in China in the 20 tens and
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  began gaining traction in the US in 2023 with an uptick in 2025,
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  which is essentially when we began seeing big entertainment
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  companies start to take an interest in them and investing
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  heavily in them. Because unfortunately, these
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  verticals are not just a fad, or at least they don't seem to be.
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  And much like Ozempic, it seems like it is here to stay in
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  Hollywood because Hollywood, as the rumblings have been for a
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  while now, has been on the downturn as an industry.
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  And it seems that companies are jumping on the boom that are
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  verticals. And let me be clear, despite
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  what we're going to get into later in the video, not all
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  verticals are nefarious and creepy.
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  It just so happens that some of the most viral ones are.
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  But we'll start with some of the less creepy and nefarious ones.
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  But as a company that I am interested in seeing what they
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  do after announcing that they're joining verticals bandwagon is
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  Hooray Media, you know, Issa Rae's production company.
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  Like, yes, Issa's always on the cutting edge, but Hooray Media
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  just cut a deal with TikTok and Tik Tok's vertical drama app,
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  Pine Drama. And in a way, I am excited to
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  see what her company creates because it is the 2026 version
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  of her start on YouTube in 2011 with her web series, The
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  Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl.
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  And based on how initial reactions have been to that
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  vertical series, it's been very popular.
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  And I'm not necessarily shocked because Issa Rae would be the
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  only person I would want to see verticals from.
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  But I haven't even given it a full we'll watch yet.
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  But again, from what I've heard and what I've seen, it looks
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  like it's got a narrative and a storyline and people really like
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  it. So we shall see, I guess.
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  I mean, I don't expect it to be extremely smut filled and like
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  trope dependent like some of the other dramas that we're going to
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  get into, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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  And ES Race Company isn't the only company hopping into the
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  verticals business. Fox recently invested in
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  undisclosed amount to Holy Water, which is an AI first
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  company that has already produced vertical dramas using
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  Gen. AI, which I mean, of course
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  they're doing. And if this page doesn't
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  completely flatten your hopes for the entertainment industry,
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  I don't really know what will. Like, it just baffles me that
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  the careers that people dream so big and work so hard to attain
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  are all being passed on to slop tech companies to give us
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  essentially AI vertical slop. Like, you know, we just love
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  this timeline that we're living in.
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  I'm sorry, I needed a second to compose myself.
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  Moving on, some things that you can look forward to from this
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  company that Fox Entertainment Studios is producing include
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  things like Billionaire Blackmail and Bound by
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  Obsession. And like, don't worry because
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  it's part of their deal. They're set to create like, I
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  don't know, like 200 vertical video titles.
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  And they also said that they would have development deals
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  with top Hollywood talent soon. So like, can you all imagine
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  Sedea being in like an AI slot vertical?
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  I think if you can and if we do, the end times are definitely
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  near. But that is neither here nor
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  there. And like, I don't want to be
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  dense here. Like, I know that it's fully
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  possible that vertical dramas are the next frontier, but there
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  is something about the way that these founders and execs talk
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  about it that kind of give me the vibes of like, when tech
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  Bros are trying to convince people about, I don't know,
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  like, crypto when like NFT's or like what else they be doing the
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  metaverse. Like, I just have to kind of see
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  it to believe it. And nothing that I'm seeing
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  makes you want to believe, at least not yet.
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  And it's also interesting and, like, not advising you to
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  actually do it. Like, if you scroll through Holy
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  Waters page, a lot of these vertical houses that
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  entertainment companies are investing in aren't even calling
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  themselves entertainment companies or production houses
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  or studios. They call themselves tech
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  companies. Like, they're not even going as
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  far to try and hide it. Like all they're really caring
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  about is money and data. And like, yeah, like, just look
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  at how this vertical actor and producer Eric so Mighty talks
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  about. It viewers that will say like
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  that they don't like watching the, you know, sexual assault
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  scene or the child scene or whatever.
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  If you don't watch it, if you actually don't watch it, the
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  apps, again, these aren't necessarily filmmaking apps.
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  They're tech companies that are putting stuff out.
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  They are data-driven. So if they see that you skipped
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  that part of the film, maybe we can inflict some change there.
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  And actually they'll be like, oh, maybe we don't need to have
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  900, you know, ridiculously overdramatized scenes.
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  So that's part of it as well. But also like it also comes down
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  to money. All, all of these apps are very
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  money focused. And if they have to, that's why,
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  if you've noticed, the subtitles never match what it comes out of
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  our mouth because they would have to put more money into
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  actually making sure the subtitles properly fit us.
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  So like it will cost money to actually have a content rating
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  on stuff. It, it, it's hard to inflict
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  that change. It would be great in in theory,
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  I think it'd be very helpful. But I, I, it's, it's, it's hard
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  to get these apps to do anything that that cost money.
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  They definitely know what they are.
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  And what's interesting about this is that it feels like art
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  or entertainment, whatever you want to call it, is increasingly
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  becoming made by the people that fund it.
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  And while I won't get into a whole art history lesson here,
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  it seems like the creatives, the artists, the writers, you know,
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  like the people that used to be funded and paid and commissioned
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  are being nixed and cut out of the process and are just being
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  seen as superfluous expenses. Because like, why would you pay
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  for someone that actually embodies the craft, has a love
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  for the game, and actually has the God-given talent to do it?
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  If people just watch something generated by AI, we end with
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  virtually no money out of pocket.
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  I don't know, it's kind of like the art, it's actually matter
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  and this is some people's livelihood and you shouldn't
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  just extract it for all that it's worth.
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  But again, I digress. I'll get off my homework for the
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  rest of this video. I just needed to get that off my
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  chest. And actually Speaking of chest,
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  crazy segue, I know. Well, let's actually get into
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  what you're actually here for. I know you're Bob.
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  I know y'all be freaked out and y'all seen the verticals and
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  been like, what is this or being like, oh, what is this?
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  But nonetheless, I know you gagged and let's address the
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  elephant in the room right now. What is this weird soft core
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  nature that is kind of entrenched in all of these
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  vertical shorts? Now let's be fair here, are all
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  verticals created equally freaky?
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  Now there are some that don't even talk in that tone at all,
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  such as Lisa Ray's screen time. But those non romantic and dare
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  I say erotic verticals do feel like the exception, not the
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  majority. Because the majority of
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  verticals that are popular and that are promoted online are
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  romance and even like smut censored plots, often times
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  having something to do with like a secret billionaire or like my
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  brother's best friend or like workplace sort of school themed
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  scenarios incessantly playing into those tropes that we've
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  seen time and time again on Grey's, Wattpad, AO3, and
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  whatever sites you end your nights on.
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  And the thing that'd be gagging me is that like they can get
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  pretty bad. Like even in making this video,
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  I'm like kind of scared because it kind of feels like I
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  shouldn't be able to play this on YouTube, but we're going to
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  try. So let's take a look at a few of
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  these ads. And of course, I hate to feel
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  like I need to say this, but just to be clear, I'm not
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  sponsored by any of these companies.
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  And this is not an ad. This is purely for entertainment
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  or reactionary purposes. And the theme here for a lot of
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  these is that like it's very like BL, like boys love coded,
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  at least the ones that have come up on my preview page and other,
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  there's a lot that are not that, but a lot of them have been
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  trying to RIP off of heated rapper's nachos because this
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  one's about a relationship between I think a hockey player
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  and his medical examiner. It's very odd.
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  Like let's just like just take a second to look how this starts.
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  He just. He's a fever.
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  And is. Is delirious right now.
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  I'm just going to take him to his door, OK, We could stop it
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  right there. Because what is going on?
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  What is actually going on? I think a part of the list that
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  really just drives like the vertical aspect of it is that so
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  much of it is crotch because it is like in a vertical format
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  that it just kind of elicits itself to be suggestive when it
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  probably isn't. Because there's no way that it
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  looks like they're having the time of their lives in front of
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  those other people and they're just cool with it.
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  Like it's meant and filmed to be suggestive and to pique people's
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  interests. Especially if you're just
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  scrolling along and see that pop up on your purview page.
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  Like you're going to be like, what am I watching?
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  And then what am I watching? And then if we really want to
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  talk about biting off heated rivalries, nachos, there is
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  literally a one called hockey rival.
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  You want me gentle or rough? I don't want you at all.
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  Hello, too bad. OK, not enough.
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  I did not know this before, but this one is just AI slop.
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  Like this one is just AI. And mind you, I've seen ads like
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  this from different scenes in this vertical that start just
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  like that. You're hearing Tremont TikTok
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  like coconut water. Scroll up and see some stuff
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  like this. Like this is strange, this is
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  strange, this is slop and this is the future of entertainment.
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  There's also another one called Breaking the Ice which I'm sure
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  is real. And like, what's with all of
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  these being hockey themed? Like Heated Revelry and Tate
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  Mccree's impact? Easton has a.
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  Full ride hockey scholarship and I will not let you ruin his
• 11:06
  life. Oh my God, I love you Carolyn
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  Mills. You are going to break up with
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  him and you are going to get rid of that baby or else the acting
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  of this is just so bad. And the fact that it has like
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  that typical like AI slop speed up version of like a popular
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  song. Like why is Alicia Keys here?
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  Like why is this girl on fire? There's another one called How
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  to Tame a Silver Fox and it's looking like this one room into
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  my closet. When I wasn't here, I was doing
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  you a favor and helping you move out because you shouldn't be
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  here. Why is she handcuffed?
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  Why is he shirtless? And why is the ebook for this
• 11:44
  also available on Amazon Kindle? Like there's so much going on, I
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  hate to see it. And there's this really
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  interesting Guardian article that has a whole list of them
• 11:51
  that you can go check out. I'm going to try and link it
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  down in the description below. But this is all just so wild to
• 11:55
  me because like, these are the ads that play on our public
• 11:58
  TikTok forum. Like a lot of times the ads for
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  these will be the spiciest or raunchiest parts of the video.
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  And then just add fade to black and link you to whatever paywall
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  all drama app the micro drama is behind.
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  Like it's almost like commercialize edging.
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  Like I was saying, using those inescapable close frames to be
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  suggestive, like they're getting real creative out here.
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  And I don't like it. And like all forms of content,
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  like there is an audience for this because it's like this and
• 12:23
  edited like this for a reason. My question for this is like,
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  who is this actually for? So there's a billion dollar
• 12:29
  industry in entertainment who's watching the slop?
• 12:31
  And I think it's so easy to be like, oh, this is dumb.
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  This is slop. Like no one's actually watching
• 12:34
  this. Who's the real audience here?
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  As if big Youtubers haven't been making a pretty Adsense penny
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  from their eyewash flag vertical drama.
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  So you don't have to like, didn't I just do that?
• 12:45
  Oops. And it's OK, it's OK.
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  You could say that you are intrigued by the seemingly
• 12:50
  addictive, fast-paced, overly dramatic entertainment.
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  Like they're spending money making these for a reason.
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  And I don't know how steadfast these demographics are.
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  But seriously, when in doubt, cater to the untapped markets.
• 13:01
  And that same Guardian article, vertical drama consultant Jen
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  Cooper states that the reason it's gone.
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  So big is that it's serving a massively underserved audience,
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  which is women who read romance novels.
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  You might watch them and think this is not the Godfather.
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  This is so bizarre. But then you look at romance
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  novels and you're like, ah, right, OK.
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  It's serving all that audience that couldn't find anything
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  anywhere else. And it meets people where they
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  are, which is on their phone. People pay more attention to
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  verticals because they're not also on WhatsApp at the time.
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  And also the call out to WhatsApp is crazy because that
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  definitely is setting an age for the certain demographic.
• 13:31
  And like the specific data is all over the place.
• 13:33
  But from what was gathered, the audience here is generally women
• 13:37
  from 18 to 40 years old. I know a wide range, and I think
• 13:41
  I get it. Hallmark has been making movies
• 13:43
  for so long because it does have an audience, even when the
• 13:46
  content itself isn't really amazing.
• 13:47
  So when thinking about that demographic, it kind of does
• 13:50
  sort of make sense. I also feel like it does hook
• 13:52
  people in the way that like Coco Melon hooks babies on like a
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  psychological level. Like from the fast cuts, the
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  narrative, the high drama, the overacting, the high pitched
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  speed up music in the background.
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  Like sometimes you just can't look or swipe away.
• 14:04
  But enough geeking in about the ridiculousness of these
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  verticals. We need to talk about the actual
• 14:08
  real impact and why these things entering the industry are so
• 14:12
  troubling. And I think this TikTok comment
• 14:13
  really does set the tone stating that verticals are terrible
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  because it's top producers. They don't need to pay a union
• 14:18
  wage, be union or higher writers and can just do AI.
• 14:21
  They have set us backwards. So much for what unions fought
• 14:24
  for. And I agree with that.
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  I feel like this is the start of something that is not beneficial
• 14:28
  for anyone but the people actually making these shorts.
• 14:31
  You know So what that a lot of companies are throwing massive
• 14:34
  amounts of money at this form of entertainment.
• 14:36
  Well, So what is right? This means that a lot of
• 14:39
  entertainment resources and jobs are going to this and a lot of
• 14:42
  the actors in these are kind of pigeonholing themselves to these
• 14:45
  overacted and corny roles. I'm a * and this is really no
• 14:51
  shade to anybody that does verticals or is interested in
• 14:54
  getting into verticals because as an actor, you need to get
• 14:56
  your experience. You need to get your back.
• 14:57
  And I'm never going to knock anyone for that, nor am I going
• 14:59
  to use that to speak to anyone's talent.
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  Like I'm sure you can be a great actor, but micro dramas and
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  verticals don't necessarily demand that kind of greatness
• 15:05
  from its actors in the same way that previous forms of acting
• 15:09
  and media have. Instead it over relies on things
• 15:11
  like TikTok acting or like over face acting and snippy comments
• 15:14
  and essentially looks casting. And the casting director says we
• 15:17
  don't want a female lead over 25.
• 15:19
  I use that kind of example as a comparison of you would never
• 15:22
  say that about a male lead. Not only are actresses physical
• 15:26
  appearances really put under the microscope, but they get asked
• 15:29
  their weight why no one is putting them on a scale during
• 15:32
  filming. They're two irrelevant stats
• 15:34
  that casting directors are using to justify casting decisions
• 15:39
  because they've kind of put those arbitrary numbers and
• 15:41
  targets there. Whereas for the male lead it's
• 15:43
  more just can you send me a photo with your shirt off?
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  Though comparatively I think the actresses are put under a lot
• 15:48
  more. Pressure, like if you've ever
• 15:49
  seen them, notice how they're actually never any people of
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  color in them, right? And not trying to put my DI in
• 15:55
  verticals, but if this is where Hollywood is going, doesn't it
• 15:57
  just feel like we're trying to find a loophole to revert to old
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  Hollywood without the glitz, the glam or the talent?
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  Like with verticals already. We got no unions and no black
• 16:05
  and brown people. We're off to a great start here.
• 16:07
  They were saying company loves Caucasian blue eyed people.
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  Have you noticed that? For sure, the blue eyes aren't a
• 16:13
  necessity, but you definitely see that a lot.
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  And I think that's one of the main issues with verticals.
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  I'd love to see diversity, but you know, it has to do with most
• 16:21
  of the clients that make these are from other countries where
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  this Western standard of beauty to them is white, blue eyes, and
• 16:29
  that's what they want to see. But getting more into it, as
• 16:32
  mentioned, a lot of these jobs, if not all, are non union roles
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  from both on and off screen roles.
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  You know what a big company just loves?
• 16:40
  UN unionized and exploitative cheap labor.
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  Especially when it's really using all that work to teach AI
• 16:45
  models to generate this type of content, putting less money into
• 16:47
  production, offering fewer resources, and reclassifying
• 16:50
  things that should be considered the norm a luxury like things
• 16:53
  like accredited intimacy coordinators.
• 16:55
  Because of the low budgets and because of the low budgets and
• 16:57
  insanely fast turn around times, shooting schedules are often
• 17:00
  maybe a week long to get all that content.
• 17:02
  So as you may assume, these things are crazy hours for not
• 17:06
  always great pay. Typical day on a vertical set.
• 17:09
  My wardrobe doesn't fit. They have crew guys as extra
• 17:12
  background. They're having me do stunts
• 17:14
  despite never mentioning that before the booking.
• 17:16
  Now the first two things I think you know it's going to happen on
• 17:20
  a micro budget set. Crew is background, yeah,
• 17:23
  wardrobe, probably no time for fittings.
• 17:25
  But it was the third thing that I was particularly off put by.
• 17:28
  I left a comment saying even on a micro budget movie with no
• 17:32
  money, there is 0 excuse for anything that is unsafe.
• 17:35
  And having actors do stunts when they did not agree to that, I
• 17:39
  would say it's very unsafe. And again, I have to reiterate,
• 17:41
  this is no tea, no shade to the people that are taking up this
• 17:44
  kind of work. I completely understand the
• 17:45
  state of the entertainment industry, the state of the
• 17:47
  economy, and the state of the world right now.
• 17:48
  But it just feels like this weird balance of like either be
• 17:51
  OK with low pay and at best mediocre labor practices and at
• 17:54
  worse exploitative work scenarios, or hey, they can get
• 17:58
  generative AI to do it faster and cheaper and arguably worse.
• 18:01
  And that's why unions are important, my friends.
• 18:03
  Like, unions were created to avoid people being exploited.
• 18:06
  But this all feels like some kind of freaky loophole to get
• 18:08
  around all this. According to the Guardian, when
• 18:10
  consulting Jen Cooper for actors in America, 90% of jobs on
• 18:13
  actors access are verticals. It's what's being cast nowadays.
• 18:16
  So really it's sink or swim for actors.
• 18:18
  This gets extra tricky when you see the commentary of like real
• 18:21
  casting agents don't like when you have verticals in your reel
• 18:24
  or it's actually harder to get Hollywood roles coming from
• 18:26
  verticals. There is a real stigma
• 18:28
  associated with being a verticals actor, which as we did
• 18:31
  mention, it's not exactly HBO level acting.
• 18:33
  But if those are the roles that are out there, people got to pay
• 18:36
  their bills. And I think this whole thing and
• 18:38
  the rise of verticals is such an interesting conversation about
• 18:40
  how industries are trying to keep up with the times and the
• 18:43
  economy. Because no matter how you slice
• 18:44
  it, we're witnessing the in slopification of yet another
• 18:47
  entertainment media platform. And while in some cases people
• 18:50
  are claiming this to be like some sort of innovation and
• 18:53
  keeping up with the times, this ultimately is just a giant
• 18:55
  response to the times that we're currently living in.
• 18:57
  Because if the powers that be actually cared in the industry
• 18:59
  actually cared, they would just put more money into things that
• 19:02
  people actually care about and things that actually have value
• 19:04
  as opposed to just trying to make a quick buck and try to
• 19:06
  make as much money as possible without any form of actual love
• 19:09
  and care for the game. And I'm not going to deny that
• 19:11
  some of the vertical content can actually be really high quality
• 19:14
  and can be entertaining. But as of right now, most of the
• 19:18
  time this is all just some overly freaked out slot.