When the trend of vertical dramas started, I was a fan. Because instant gratification is a thing, and I can now watch and entire drama in two hours rather than 50-11 spanning weeks. But very quickly, I realized these dramas aren’t good for anyone, especially young girls who are impressionable.

I mean, the fact that grown women don’t know toxic when they see it is a problem but not mine. Realizing most of the fans to who watch these dramas and are gushing over the men/women in them are children scares me.

What is WILD to me, they’re becoming more and more popular and the number of apps dedicated to them is crazy. Now, people on this side of the planet are making the – same stories but just Caucasian actors and they are worse. Why? Because no one edited the scrips to match the culture. They just took what came out of China and regurgitated here and it doesn’t make any kind of damn sense.

Now, this is just my take and frustrations – you don’t have to agree with me. To each their own.

But I’m going to try and list just a few because we don’t have time for all of the problems I’ve found.

Spoiler ALERT

Now, I’m not making this statement just to say it or rage bait anyone. I’ve watched so many of these dramas, I think my eyes want to start bleeding. Here are a few reasons why I stopped watching..

Useless Security – There is always some big confrontation and there is always security guards, more security than a ballroom needs but still the bad guy / girl always ends up causing some damage before anything is done. So what was the point of all this security?
The damsel effect – The women in most of these dramas are shown as these weak creatures who can’t do anything on their own. They can’t think for themselves. .They need mommy and daddy to find them mates and then these mates take over their ENTIRE existence while patting their heads and treating them like children. And then they write these HEAVILY suggested “sex” scenes and all I can do is skip through those bits or cringe and drop it.
The random knife – At the end of almost everyone one of these reels someone gets stabbed. Why? Well that seems to be the go to. Most of these happen in places that no one in their right minds will bring a knife to, but there is always a knife.
Cheating – For a culture that shows they’re so conservative, everyone apparently is cheating on everybody else.
Virgins – Apparently, every woman in China is a virgin and need these big bad daddies to teach them the ways of the carnal. All the woman speak in a voice that make them sound like a five year old and the men are patting their heads going “good girl”. But it’s not the sexy kind of “good girl” all I do every time is cringe and move on to the next drama – imagine, she is already petite, speaks in the voice of a 5 year old, doesn’t seem to have the mental capacity to make decisions on her own and this GROWN man is patting her head saying “good girl.”
Drugging / Rape – Because of course. Let’s say Mary and Pam are having an argument – usually over a man because apparently women in China beef about this ALL THE TIME. So, Mary and Pam are beefing over Brad and Brad being the A-Hole that he is picks Mary and they move on with life. Pam doesn’t accept defeat, oh no. She hires a bunch of thugs to gang rape Mary and film it because – you know- that’s how they roll. Or say Mary and Brad was dating and Mary finds out that Brad is also sleeping with Pam and Mary dumps him. Brad wants Mary back so he promptly tries to rape or whole-ass rapes Mary because he things, in his tiny mind, that when he does that, Mary is going to take him back. We have one character breaking up with their spouse because the spouse cheated and the spouse decides that they are going to slip a little something in the other’s drink and have sex with them and that will make them reconcile…the drugging…OMG! Almost ALL of them have the drugging – one woman drugged the guy and tried to have sex with him…you get the picture.
Murder to get a man’s attention – One movie has a woman straight up merc her kid because she believes the man will take her back after she does. One woman held her daughter down in a bath tub full of ice so the child caught hyperthermia because she felt that the man will then feel sorry for them and wants to sleep with the mother. We have one where a man merely picked up his mistress and yeeted her off a balcony to her death because he thought that was going to make the main female take him back. We have women running over people with their cars.
Kidnapping – EVERY. SINGLE. ONE! I am not kidding. The ending of all these series are the same. The bad person kidnaps the wife of the main lead and there is that. And it’s always the white rag over the mouth with the female not even struggling.
The No DOESN’T mean No thing – A woman can’t seem to say know and a man takes that as the end of things. Noooooo because – well, No. O)r the other way around. Susan broke up with Tom and Tom then proceeds to stalk her, grabbing her arm (because in them you can’t talk too anyone without grabbing their arm and holding onto their arm). And he shows up EVERYWHERE Susan is. And he just randomly walks into her house to confront her because it doesn’t seem like anyone in China locks their doors and apparently their servants are dumb as a bag of rocks because they are never available to answer the door. And every time is stalking Susan, her new man Bradley is always close by to swoop in and save her because remember, Susan cannot be left on her own because she’s too dumb to make her own decisions, right? And if one character says no to sex, they other character just has sex with them anyways because–all of them folks.
The Pretend Strong Woman – Ooh Lord where do I even start? They write a character that you think, oh here is a strong woman – And then you realize it’s a facsimilia woman – it’s a man but they made him a woman. There is nothing remotely feminine about her and we fall into that stereotypical ‘bad ass’ who screams when they talk (all the damn time), they dress her in all black and give her a motorcycle and think that makes her strong. When she’s dumb as back of rocks and still need a man to save her.
The Man-Child – So the main lead in these are supposed to be Alpha, strong, loving – if someone comes after his girl he knows how to stand up or lurk in the background while she rains fire and damnation down on their heads. But these men are children. They think to make their women happen they have to make TERRIBLE financial decision like signing over controlling shares of his company to a woman who has NO idea how to run a company. Signing over ALL the properties that his parents worked like a dog to accumulate to a woman who has NO clue how to manage them. Men who when having an argument that the woman is CLEARLY wrong, will apologize and grovel like a dog just so she won’t be mad. Then after these wild actors, they want us now to go on getting wet over this man.
Physical abuse – *deeeeeep breath* that means exactly what it means. One drama had this man whipping his daughter in the middle of a crowd, people watch, films it and posted it online but no one stopped to call the cops. I mean a real whip – first of all who walks around with a fucking WHIP?

And when he was done, they all walked away and left her their bloodied and sobbing passing in and out of consciousness. We have men just straight up back-hand his wife or sister repeatedly across the face IN PUBLIC and people just be like “this is normal” and moves on. We have bosses putting their hands on workers, other women fighting each other in public – I mean fisticuffs- and nothing. Parents abusing their grown kids saying “she is family so we have a right to” – we have a woman who kidnapped her ‘brother’ because he would smash with her and held him captive for a year then he escapes and nothing…

Trust me, there are many other issues I find with these reels. And while these are in almost every drama out there, these issues are in ALL of these reels. I guess I’m not the demographic and I’m off that ship.

XO

Susu