Thoughts After Binge-Watching 20 Short-Form Dramas
I heard these were trendy lately, so I watched about 20 short-form dramas over a month. Each one was a little over an hour, so I watched them in bits and pieces on my commute.
They’re definitely fun. Conflict erupts within 3 minutes, and there’s a twist every 10 minutes. But after watching 20 of them, almost nothing stayed with me. They didn’t stick in my memory, for better or worse. From the fifth one on, I could predict every ending, so I watched them on sped-up playback.
What was interesting was the production style. To fit vertical screens, they shoot only close-ups of the characters’ faces and barely show the background. The dialogue also spells everything out. It’s designed so you can follow the story even if you’re only half-watching the screen.
The conclusion is that it’s probably best not to make a steady diet of them and just watch one occasionally. Binge-watching them definitely turns your brain to mush.
8 answers
Agreed—if you binge-watch it, your brain really turns to mush lol
I totally agree about the vertical framing that only captures the face. It's so obvious it was made for viewing on a phone.
I dropped it at episode 3, but it's impressive you watched 20 episodes lol. I couldn't even get through it sped up.
But hmm. Isn't “explaining all the dialogue” something other genres do too? It’s about making it understandable even with the sound off, so that doesn’t seem unique to short-form. And if each episode is an hour, that’s not short-form—it’s just a low-budget web drama, isn’t it?