Things in Vertical Dramas I LOVE
So, I ranted about my Vertical Drama pet peeves, but if I left it there, it gives the impression that I don’t actually enjoy them, or that there is more about them I hate than actually like, and that can’t be further from the truth. There are a bunch of things I really enjoy in a Vertical Drama! Here are just a few :)
One of the things I love the most is when the business in Vertical Dramas are pointing back to the production companies themselves. In my favorite Vertical Drama, You Belong With Me, the” big business” deal the main characters are trying to secure is a deal with Crazy Maple Studios, the company behind the ReelShort app. It’s like the characters are pointing back towards their real life employers when they’re doing “business” and that just makes me laugh. I feel like it’s a full circle moment when they do that.
I LOVE when the clothes show up again in another Vertical Drama. The men’s fashions aren’t as exciting and don’t stand out as much, but when the women’s clothing starts showing up in another Vertical Drama, I just get a kick out of it, I don’t know why. I guess it makes me think about how small the Vertical Drama industry is. I’m sure that main character fashions in mainstream movies aren’t recycled in other work, I guess it’s more like plays where an outfit could be use again and again in other productions. The ones that stand out most are the green dress with the cream center strip that Kaley Lohrli wears in The Double Life of a Billionaire Heiress and the shiny sparkly number Sarah Noelle wears in Dear Husband, Delete My Number. Oh man, thinking about those makes me want to rewatch them right now. They are absolutely on my watch again list. Love them so much.
Along with the clothes is my frequent contemplation of how the head of wardrobe is constantly needed to care and clean for those clothes after all the “wine” being splashed onto the clothes. You can sometimes see a few pieces of clothing has been extra loved when they have left over stains or fabric snags on the fabric. It doesn’t sound like an easy job having to care for clothes that are most likely already slated for another production. I want to see what that closet looks like!
The jobs as a “designer” usually fashion or jewelry. I totally get why those jobs are chosen, it’s a lot easier to show off the “work” a character is doing during the “working all night long” montage. Watching a character type away on a computer is so not compelling compared to a character grabbing a colored pencil and shading in their latest design. I need to keep my eyes open to see if those “designs” are the same props showing up in other Vertical Dramas. I have a feeling they probably are, but you know, I’m distracted by the jealous non-fiancé lurking in the background ready to swoop in a destroy the characters hard work just before the big presentation…as one does.
Another thing that makes me laugh in Vertical Dramas are when the EXACT same story is retold, but with different characters. I once saw a special on one the apps where they were giving away a week of one ad-free series each night. One of the series was actually a double header with Big Bad Husband, Please Wake Up! followed by Big Bad Husband, Please Wake Up 2 where the story is nearly identical but star the EXACT SAME ACTORS! That just got me! Roman Chsherbakov and Samantha Drews playing the same characters they did before but with different names and a slightly different plot. Usually, I see a repeated story, down to the main antagonist trying to take down the protagonist with a peanut allergy, but usually they are played by different actors at least. LOL. I want to ask if they remember what their character’s names are, it seems like it would get confusing fast.
