Vertical Dramas Pet Peeves that ARE about the story lines…

Okay, now I am a fan of Vertical Dramas and even though I have major story line pet peeves, it is 1000% not going to stop me from watching them at all. Like you got me, boo. That being said, if I could wave my magic wand and fix these things, Vertical Dramas and the world would just be a much better place. Jen from VerticalDramaLove mentions the misogyny and abuse of women and those things are wooooo. Yeah, they are certainly swimming along in the stew that makes up Vertical Dramas. Let’s talk about a few more.

The hidden identity trope. Okay, if this was any other time on our planet, having a hidden identity would be a lot more possible. Today though, in our social media, tabloid, celeb centric world, I just can’t really believe a hidden identity would be possible. I mean, a super secret CIA spy? Sure. They wouldn’t have social media or it would be fake “I’m totally a normal person” coverage, but billionaire’s just walking among us? Desperately needing a wife to escape the arranged marriage their family is forcing on them? Um…no? How about a good arranged marriage where they’re just trying to make the best of it and they find love? Like old historical romance novels, the whole world knows he’s a Duke, and she’s a sweet minor nobility lady with a heart of gold. Yes?

All the fucking drugs. They don’t even show the villains having to sidle up to a scary dealer to “get the stuff,” they all just walk around with it in their bras or pockets like it’s loose change. I mean c’mon. And then there is the flow chart of accidental drugging consumption, which ignores most of reality that date rape drugs don’t often lead to horny behavior but actually disable and paralyze their victims. If he’s drugged then they do it. The woman is never like, “umm… I don’t know you, why are we making out?” If they’re both drugged, they do it. That’s just required so they can forget who they slept with the night before and have secret mystery babies and conflict when they meet up again. If she’s drugged, then the men are often portrayed as “noble” and get them into a cold shower. Ummm, thanks for being just a decent human being. Man, the bar is so low.

All the fucking hitting. The constant slapping with no consquences for that behavior drives me nuts. At first when I started watching Vertical Dramas it was funny because I was like, “Oh my god, no one hits people that much in real life, how silly.” And now I’m just to over it. I hate when women slap women and I especially hate when men slap women. Like at all the banquet humiliation tropes when the father realizes “He’s THE secret billionaire, shut up daughter!” SLAP! Like I get it, a part of it is to also demonstrate how repulsive they are as human beings, but let’s have a one slap per series rule. Like how TV used to be in the 90s (yes, I was born in the 1900s) when you could only have three bad words per primetime show.

Jen reminded me of the high drama primetime soaps such as Dynasty and the like were certainly slap forward productions, but those often were to punctuate a plot point rather than the only activity available for you hands when the antagonist and protagonist are talking for longer than one episode. It would be more than okay with me if the slapping was lowercase slapping rather than uppercase Slapping all the time. Right? No? I think I can make that movement happen…