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🏋️‍♂️ Bro, but make it vertical. Tiffany is on tour again, which means Jieun is back on her solo adventures and this time she’s digging into micro-vertical dramas on Instagram and TikTok. This week, we’re talking 'From the Ground Up', a tiny but surprisingly heartfelt vertical created by Lukas Silva and Andrew Campen. And when I say tiny, I mean this is a true micro-vertical: short, character-driven, and built around something we don't see nearly enough of: the bromance. (Male loneliness epidemic where?) Lukas Silva stars as Jackson while Andrew Campen plays Philip, aka “Gym Bro,” and the entire story asks a surprisingly simple question: What happens when your girlfriend leaves you at your lowest, but your bro stays and helps you rebuild your life...from the ground up? Jackson suffers an injury after being pushed into the water, loses his girlfriend, and finds himself struggling with a body that no longer works the way it used to. Enter his best bud bro, who talks him through his panic attack, admits that he's experienced them himself, and then basically says, “Okay, in gains we trust.” And somehow, it works. We talk about the friendship at the heart of this story, male vulnerability, why vertical dramas could do SO much more with friendship-centered stories, and why sometimes you don't need a billionaire, a mafia boss, a dragon, or five Alpha Kings to make a story work. Sometimes you just need a good bro. Then we take a little field trip to Backstage to see what the vertical world is casting right now, desperately hunting for Christmas verticals. And because this is a solo episode, there is, of course, a little Tea Time. Is it good tea? Debatable. Is it mostly Janelle Evans and her internet swamp people drama? Unfortunately, yes. So if you have 15 minutes to kill, why not spend them watching a tiny bromance instead of doomscrolling? And if you know of other vertical dramas living outside the usual 50+ apps, SEND THEM TO US. 🎙️ Talk Drama To Me drops every Wednesday wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Substack for the clips, thirst traps, and theories.

Brace yourself. 🦷⛓️😬 This week we are going back to the deep, dark recesses of the internet: ‘Brace Face Betty’.  This is not just another vertical drama for us. This is the vertical drama that started it all. Before the K-dramas, before the C-dramas, before we knew what we were doing, Jieun found these Eastern European uncanny Americana productions and something about them completely rewired her brain. So naturally, we had to bring Tiffany into the darkness. Set in an aggressively American high school, ‘Brace Face Betty’ has it all: an evil stepsister, a hot-headed basketball captain, and a heroine whose biggest crime seems to be… having braces. Poor Brace Face Betty. So naturally she gets bullied, humiliated, shoved into the boys’ locker room, and forced to work with basketball boy on a school project that somehow turns into a lot of touching, whispering, neck massages, and absolutely no explanation for when this man suddenly became interested in her. There’s a stolen project presentation, blackmail via vlogs, a bathroom meltdown, and a glow-up that transforms Brace Face Betty into Bombshell Betty. As their connection deepens, she must navigate hidden agendas and unexpected feelings while discovering her own strength. If you’re ready to take my hand and descend into the deep dark places of the internet with us… welcome to ‘Brace Face Betty’. 💅🏀 🎙️ Talk Drama To Me drops every Wednesday wherever you listen to podcasts.

🎧 Moonlighting as sound engineers now. See, this is what you get when you party in Poland! Between a night out, Polish Cheetos, McDonald’s, pierogies, and unchecked recording conditions, there are a few audio gremlins in this one. Consider it part of the international TDTM experience. It's a feature, not a bug. This week, we’re talking 'One Night in Vegas', starring Jackson Tiller and Faith Orta, and honestly, Jackson may have found his vertical drama niche. Hot, tatted up yearning older brother's friend who talks very closely in your face? Don't mind if we do. If he looks familiar, you might remember him as the CEO in 'Country Girl', and apparently he’s been popping up in plenty of mafia verticals too. He’s also building his own production company getting that mogul money. Faith Orta caught Tiffany’s attention immediately and then we discovered yet another one we now need to watch: 'Ranch King’s Forbidden Sweetheart'. You’re welcome. As for 'One Night in Vegas', the maid of honor and best man are sworn enemies, they get drunk in Vegas, wake up married, and discover that a million-dollar inheritance is riding on her relationship status. So obviously they have to figure out how to undo the whole thing while simultaneously discovering that maybe they’ve been in love with each other this entire time. Except… have they? Because we have QUESTIONS about that lifelong love story. We get drunken Vegas romance, a missing marriage veil, family drama, an Elvis impersonator who looks suspiciously like Howard Stern, and two love confessions. Double the fun. Plus, we recorded this one while traveling so expect plenty of food discourse, TikTok ambitions, terrible pronunciations, and so on. 🎙️ Talk Drama To Me drops every Wednesday wherever you stream podcasts.

📱 A movie about vertical dramas. 🎬 Pure cinema. In today’s episode we’re talking about ‘Verticals the Movie’, a short film that takes us behind the scenes of the vertical drama industry through Milo, an aspiring actor who lands his very first acting job and quickly discovers that he has entered a world of shirtless alphas, algorithm-approved faces, recycled plots and absolutely no concept of personal space. Milo (Jack Rykert) gets a crash course in the business, from the tiny group of writers apparently responsible for every vertical ever made to actors being squeezed into frame for a wide shot. There’s a male lead making six times what everyone else makes. A costume designer who points out just how restrictive the industry can be. And, of course, a whole lot of shirtless men who apparently must all look exactly the same. Yet ‘Verticals the Movie’ also asks some surprisingly serious questions about the people making these dramas: who gets cast, who gets paid, what creative compromises actors and filmmakers make. Is the opportunity to work in the industry worth it? Then it’s Tiffany’s Tea Time, where we leave the vertical cinematic universe behind and get into Bravo and The Bachelor drama including Leah Remini, Jax/Brittany, and the truly wild Clayton Echard/Laura Owens saga. Listen now for our full breakdown of ‘Verticals the Movie’ and everything else we got distracted by along the way. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Substack for more drama, thirst traps, and theories. Talk Drama To Me drops every Wednesday.

📱 Webtoon to vertical drama. 💍 Childhood best friends to fake marriage. Webtoon has been turning some of its most popular manhwa into vertical dramas and in today’s episode we’re talking about 'Maybe Meant To Be'. It starts with Gia and Percy, childhood best friends whose families are convinced they need to get married. So Gia comes up with a brilliant plan: why not just marry each other? It’s practical. It gets their parents off their backs. And they definitely, absolutely, positively do not have feelings for each other. Then there’s a honeymoon in Cancun in full wetsuits. Percy drinks chicken smoothies. There’s an accidental kiss involving a toy car. Gia is secretly a romance novelist. There’s a toxic ex, a drunken confession, and eventually an elevator kiss that had us both kicking our feet. And when Percy finally decides he wants to make their fake marriage real, his proposal involves a leg pull, a headstand and a curtsy. So, you know...romance. Molly Anderson brings Gia’s big, expressive energy to the role, while Zachary B. Rist makes Percy impossible not to love as the brilliant, practical, slightly strange childhood best friend and chicken smoothie aficionado. We’re also talking about Webtoon’s growing move into live-action vertical dramas, how 'Maybe Meant To Be' compares with the original manhwa and the not-so Korean-ness of it all.But don't let that rain on your parade. We are actually excited to see more Webtoon stories enter the vertical cinematic universe. Listen now for our full breakdown of 'Maybe Meant To Be'. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Substack for more drama, thirst traps, and theories. Talk Drama To Me drops every Wednesday.

Jimmy Fallon has entered the vertical cinematic universe and he brought friends. This week on Talk Drama To Me, we dive into NBC Peacock’s new microdrama experiment, where a billionaires marry billionaires, a mysterious stranger appears, and one very rich man somehow loses his entire fortune betting on whether the Muppets will appear during the World Cup halftime show. John Stamos is here. Jimmy Fallon is here. Our very own Kasey Esser is here. There’s a Rolls-Royce Phantom. There’s a $255,000 wedding venue. There’s also a very sad charcuterie board. NBC, you have the money. Please give these people more cheese. Plus we get into whether Hollywood celebrities jumping into verticals means the format is finally getting some respect, why Jimmy Fallon might actually make a great villain, and whether we’ve reached the point where we can officially call ourselves vertical drama experts. Then Tiffany brings us down a much darker real housewives rabbit hole with the Lindsay Clancy trial and the conversation around postpartum psychosis and motherhood. Plus, New York survival stories, the difference between being nice and being kind, our extremely tepid girl summer, and plans for a future hotel-room recording involving robes, sheet masks, champagne, and a vertical drama we promise Tiffany will actually finish. Welcome back to Talk Drama To Me, where the vertical cinematic universe keeps expanding and we keep talking all that drama.

We’re back with our very last DNF, and it’s the one that started it all (conceptually). 'All I Want Is You' stars Noah Fernley as a rich CEO and Haley Evans as the woman he’s unknowingly been searching for since high school. The two are pulled into a contract marriage, complete with a childhood connection, a failing family business, and maybe a baby. Haley is genuinely charming. Noah brings the kind of ridiculous vertical cinematic universe physicality we’ve come to expect. And then there’s the violin. Tiffany, our resident professional violinist, has questions. We break down everything from the playing (the stiff wrist, the tiny bow strokes) and why you can fake the left hand on a violin but you really can’t fake the right. Naturally, this led us to wondering why the writers gave us a whole butt test to determine who could be a suitable wife but never thought to have the CEO simply ask the woman he loves to play the darn violin. We also somehow got into Pedro Pascal learning cello for a movie, because apparently that’s what happens when you put a strings aficionado on a podcast. Elsewhere, we went completely off the rails talking about 'Obsession' and why Tiffany was sitting there laughing during a movie that was supposed to scare her. We also discovered that James Franco has apparently entered the vertical drama universe, which sent us down a very different rabbit hole about disgraced Hollywood actors, whether verticals are becoming the final stop on the career trajectory, and more. Scary. Should we review that one too? But back to this vertical drama: butt tests, bullying, a secret identity, attempted murder, kidnapping, repeated rescues, a suspicious body-wash clue, and a pregnancy after ONE night together. And somehow, with all of that available to us, the thing that might have saved this DNF was simply… more violin. We finished it so you don’t have to. Stay if you love Noah Fernley. Leave if you were looking for anything else. We recap vertical dramas every week on Talk Drama To Me!

When your soulmate isn’t the one who gives you butterflies, but the one who quietly gives up everything for you, would you even recognize that kind of love before it slips away forever? In this week’s episode of Talk Drama To Me, we’re diving into ‘When Time Unlocks Love’, (사랑은 시간 뒤에 서다) a Korean vertical drama that’s equal parts infuriating and addictive. It’s the story of a devoted husband who spends five years cooking, cleaning, and even curing his wife’s rare allergies only for her to remain oblivious, pining after her first love. Meanwhile, her family treats him like garbage, and when he finally reaches his limit, he walks away to find myself and someone who actually appreciates him. Tiffany’s this close to finishing one (a miracle in itself), while Ji’s over here analyzing why a mainstream K-drama actor like Lee Sang-yeob is slumming it in verticals. Please support him in ‘Dream to You’ (그대에게 드림), the mainstream K-drama where he plays Seo In-uk, a film production company CEO who goes on a wild, unhinged quest to find the woman who ghosted him after their one-night stand. It looks like their love story doesn’t get the fairytale ending you might hope for. Catch the final episodes on August 17 & 18, 2026, and stream it on ENA, Genie TV, or Viu. Plus, we tease possible episodes: Stray Kids’ vertical drama, Jimmy Fallon’s foray into the format, and more. You’ve got to love more content in this ratio aspect.  Welcome to Talk Drama To Me, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and what-did-we-just-watch world of vertical dramas. Tune in every week for more drama, more laughs, and more DNF-worthy content.

Channel your inner Elle Woods, pink robe on, glass of rosé in hand, deep into a vertical drama about Harvard’s elite. You’re watching a nerd with a chainsaw and a Freddie Krueger mask and you pause to ask, *What in the Florida is happening?* Did Not Finish? Did Need Finishing? That’s right. It’s our next DNF. In Catfishing but Make It Ivy League - sorry - we mean 'My Quest for Harvard', Grace the brainiac is suddenly the second-smartest in her new school. Her online crush is giving us Hottie nerd with shirtless scenes, intellectual spars, and awkward YA yearning, delivering a really easy and enjoyable watch all free on TikTok Daily Shorts! This episode also dives into our love for guilty pleasure content because even the most successful women can’t resist a good vertical drama. This summer, tune in every week for more drama, more laughs, and more DNF-worthy content.

🎄 Christmas in July. ☀️ Sweaty girl summer. Host Tiffany played “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at a July wedding and in today’s episode we’re channeling that vibe. Welcome to Christmas in July where we review a Christmas themed vertical drama we just couldn’t get to last holiday season.  There’s this country girl. She meets a mafia king on a train and he’s obsessed with her after she slaps him. (K-drama lovers, it’s that darn slap of love! It’s super effective.) Then her fiancé tries to trick her into marrying some old guy but the mafia king motos in through the literal air, hands her a gun and she starts shooting. Pew pew. Then there’s so much drama, betrayals, a forced marriage, a kidnapping but she fights alongside him to escape. And get this, he’s the same guy who saved her as a kid. Now they’re together promising to spend every Christmas together.  Sofia Lopez brings a Disney Belle-like warmth and optimism to Aurora, while Tim Stein fully commits to Vittorio’s brooding billionaire body with dehydrated abs and all. Their relationship takes a wild ride from toxic to romance, sometimes so quickly that we found ourselves asking when it actually happened? Even so, both actors embrace the over-the-top world of vertical dramas, making the fake marriage chaos entertaining from start to finish. Listen now for our full breakdown of this Christmas in July mafia romance. Follow us on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Substack for more drama, thirst traps, and theories. Talk Drama To Me drops every week. #TalkDramaToMe #Podcast #MeetMyMafiaKingOnChristmas #VerticalDrama #DramaWave #ChristmasInJuly

For the culture, you’re scrolling through and suddenly you’re in a telenovela. Our telenovela dreamer returns home from a trip with newfound confidence, only to pine for the one guy who’s off-limits: her brother’s brooding best friend, Alex. Stolen kisses, secret arrangements, and a glow-up spiral into heartbreak before Mr. Best Friend finally admits the truth he’s been hiding all along. You blink. You rewind. You ask yourself, Is this a soap opera but make it vertical? Did Not Finish? Did Need Finishing? That’s right. It’s our next DNF. Welcome to Talk Drama to Me, where we dive headfirst into the wild, wacky, and what-did-we-just-watch world of vertical dramas. In this episode, Ji and Tiffany tackle Candy Jar’s 'Don’t Say Te Amo'. OR! ‘Loving My Brother’s Best Friend’ but make it telenovela. Same story, different font. Meet Mia, the telenovela dreamer who’s suddenly the hottest girl in school. Her brother’s best friend, Alex, is toxic, brooding, and impossibly hot. The wind machines, dramatic confessions, and inches-apart tension are all there. This summer, tune in every Friday for more drama, more laughs, and more DNF-worthy content.

Hey Jude~ If you thought Jude Bellingham had relationship drama, wait until you meet this soccer superstar. Did Not Finish? Did Need Finishing? Blow the whistle! It's another DNF but make it soccer! This week we're tackling ‘Offside My Fake Marriage with the Soccer Superstar’, where a wild Vegas night leaves a PR pro and a soccer superstar with wedding rings, no memories, and a mutual agreement that this was a mistake. But when she lands a job for his team with a strict no players rule, their secret marriage becomes the ultimate test of willpower. Between fake moans, jealous exes, and a near death experience that exposes their real feelings. Certainly these two stubborn love averse souls can’t decide if they’re playing house or playing with fire. Will their fake marriage score a real love story or will fear keep them offside forever? Plus, we were actively watching the England vs. Argentina semifinal live while recording, thirsting over footballers, questioning frosted tips, and getting a little too shady toward Argentina. The spirit of competition got to us Big Bellingham Broads. But as any queen knows, if we didn't like you, we wouldn't be talking about you. Argentina, you're still that girl.  Welcome to Talk Drama To Me where we dive headfirst into the wild wacky and sometimes what did we just watch world of vertical dramas. This summer tune in every Friday for more drama, more laughs and more DNF worthy content. #DNF.Fridays

Take me to church. 🥵 You're strolling the Vatican when you see him: the hottest priest ever. Then you start to think...is that a priest or does he just play one for the hot priest calendar photoshoot? Well in today's vertical our battered housewife stumbles into his confessional, and discovers the real deal: a hunky dory Man of God. Did Not Finish? Did Need Finishing? That’s right. It’s our next DNF. Welcome to Talk Drama to Me, where we dive into the wild, wacky, and what-did-we-just-watch world of vertical dramas. In this episode, Ji and Tiffany tackle Gamma Time’s 'Hot Priest'. We’re celebrating the forbidden love trope, the hot priest energy, and the sheer audacity of taping fake flowers to banquet room walls and calling it gala decor. This summer, tune in every Friday for more drama, more laughs, and more DNF-worthy content. #DNF.Fridays

Jieun and Tiffany are back with another DNF (Did Not Finish or Do Need Finishing...you decide!) episode, and this time, we’re tackling '100th Assassination, Silent Love', a C-drama that had us confused from the jump. Picture this: a deaf heiress accidentally regains her hearing and speech. But her scumbug bodyguard only treats her a shield for her evil step sister. Oh, and let’s not forget the sign language that had us falling out of our seats because apparently, a question mark is a universal sign? Yikes. We made it seven minutes (Tiffany) and twenty minutes (Ji) before tapping out. The bodyguard’s BDSM-inspired outfit gave us the ick, the makeup was suspiciously white, and the auction paddle that bids 100 million on everything had us dead. But hey, at least the heiress finally regains her hearing, overhears the truth, and drops the bodyguard like a bad habit...only for him to crawl back when he realizes his mistake. Classic. So, is this a DNF or a DNF? We’re letting you decide. Tune in every Friday for DNF Fridays this summer! Follow us on TikTok, Insta, YouTube, and Substack for clips, thirst traps, and all the theories.

Give up. You cannot win with these people. Jieun and Tiffany are diving into The Mayor’s XXL Wife: Her Stunning Return, the vertical drama that starts with a wedding where the groom literally can’t even look at his bride because she’s gasp fat. Yes, you read that right. Sophia Wellington, our plus-sized queen, marries Damien Thornton, the heartthrob mayor, only for him to close his eyes during the kiss because, well, fat. The ring doesn’t even fit her finger. The humiliation is next-level. Then, in a wild turn of events, Sophia disappears, only to reappear three months later as a skinny mini, leaving everyone shocked (except Damien, who finally recognizes her by her wedding ring). Cue the tango dance-off, the dramatic wrist-grab kiss, and the ultimate lesson: No matter if you're fat or skinny, it’s never enough for these people. Fat? They mock you. Skinny? They still mock you. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. So, is this a DNF (Did Not Finish) or a DNF (Do Need Finishing)? We’re letting you decide. Tune in every Friday for DNF Fridays this summer! Follow us on TikTok, Insta, YouTube, and Substack for clips, thirst traps, and all the theories.