Technology

How soapy micro dramas became Hollywood’s next big bet

Published

4 months ago

November 16, 2025

How soapy micro dramas became Hollywood’s next big bet

This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on Hollywood trends and streaming culture, follow Charles Pulliam-Moore. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.

Once upon a time (read: a few years ago), there were a pair of upstart streaming services called Quibi and Go90 that were supposed to appeal to phone-addicted millennials. These platforms were supposed to compete with Netflix and Amazon by offering up short-form videos designed to be watched on the go. Both services were touted as being the future of entertainment, and they had sizable financial backing. But neither Quibi nor Go90 managed to gain any real traction before their names became shorthand for “bad ideas exemplifying how out of touch studio and telecom execs can be.”

Quibi and Go90 were not long for this world, and much has been written about how they were doomed from the jump. Quibi was oddly expensive, Go90’s landscape mode-focused branding confused people, and neither service made it easy to share their content on other platforms. Back then, people — especially here in the West — laughed at the idea of watching scripted series that were meant to be viewed on a smartphone. But that same basic concept began to take off in China as the covid-19 pandemic ground the entertainment industry to a halt and forced movie theaters to close. Some were supernatural period dramas, while others were romantically charged thrillers set in the modern day. And their stories were all filled with wild twists that played out over the course of dozens of episodes.

In 2025, “micro drama” companies like DramaBox and ReelShort have demonstrated that there actually is an audience willing to pay for content that can be consumed in small, quick bites. And the recent micro drama boom has been a fascinating case study in old, failed ideas finding wild success in the present day because the way people think about and interact with media has changed.

When you open up any of the dedicated micro drama apps, you can see that the companies behind them took notes from social media platforms like TikTok and streaming services like Netflix in order to create a new, slop-filled third kind of thing. You’re immediately presented with a grid of posters for multipart series whose “episodes” each run for about two minutes max. And the titles — gems like I Kissed a CEO and He Liked It, Betrayed Alpha Queen Rises from the Ashes, and The Unwanted Wife Strikes Back — are as self-explanatory as they are ridiculous. Almost all of the shows involve elements of pulpy romance and women getting revenge after being scorned for not embodying the “right kind” of womanhood or femininity.

Many of the series frame fertility, motherhood, and werewolf / Omegaverse culture as the things that define their heroines’ sense of self. And while these female characters are often introduced as people who are able to fend for themselves independently, their main goal is usually to find a man who can sweep them off their feet and take care of all their worldly needs.

Micro dramas’ overwhelming focus on stories about downtrodden damsels in distress speaks to the fact that female viewers make up a substantial chunk of these platforms’ subscriber base. On some level, these series are tapping into the same kind of tawdry energy that kept the romance lit space humming along even as the larger publishing industry has seen a steady drop in sales. But unlike romance novels from traditional publishing houses with rigorous editorial processes, there’s a slapdash shoddiness to micro dramas’ production values that reflects how incredibly inexpensive they are to make compared to a Netflix or Hulu original.

That relative cheapness is one of the major reasons that ReelShort and DramaBox — which are backed by Chinese and Singaporean companies, respectively — have been making a bigger push into Western markets over the past few years. That’s also why US-owned studios like GammaTime and MicroCo are starting to pop up. It doesn’t seem to bother viewers that basically everything about micro dramas, from the writing to the acting to the lighting, is absolutely terrible. Globally, the micro drama industry is expected to rake in about $3 billion by the end of the year thanks to the platforms’ surprisingly aggressive and gamified pricing strategies. And with Hollywood execs deciding to get more serious about making micro dramas, the business has become something of an unexpected boon for young actors, writers, and production workers trying to maintain careers within a contracting job market.

Though you would be hard-pressed to find a micro drama that felt like a strong piece of storytelling, there’s no denying that people are paying to watch them at a time when traditional streamers have been struggling to draw in new subscribers. Are series like Carrying His Triplets, Becoming His Wifey, and Found a Homeless Billionaire Husband for Christmas destined to become mainstream pop cultural phenomenons? Probably not. But these kinds of projects are keeping people employed and making enough of a profit to justify their existence.

By launching a new kind of labor contract designed to address “the unique needs” of actors working on serialized micro dramas, like ensuring they’re paid a fair wage and earn screen credits for their labor, SAG-AFTRA has sent a signal to the rest of the entertainment industry about this kind of content’s future potential. These shows might not be particularly good right now, but that could change if the studios put more effort into producing them. And even if micro dramas were to stick to their current style of stilted acting / lackluster directing / weak writing, their success right now suggests that their subscribers might not really be interested in something “better.”

As different segments of the tech and entertainment industries vie for people’s attention, micro dramas feel like an unusually strong contender. Micro dramas don’t quite add up to streaming series in the way we typically think of them, and they don’t exactly scratch the same “look watch some randos do stuff” itch that TikTok is built for. Ironically, ReelShort and DramaBox’s success feels like a direct byproduct of the way that TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have gotten people into the habit of endlessly scrolling through vertically shot video. But these micro dramas are their own weird thing that have carved out a unique niche and found a ravenous audience in the process. And if these new platforms can keep their upward momentum going, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see their streaming and social media competitors rushing to make the similar content of their own.

More and more micro drama production houses are embracing generative artificial intelligence into their workflows to keep production costs down while churning content out even faster. As ill-suited as the tech generally is for more polished projects, it makes a lot of sense for the style these kinds of shows are known for. It’ll be interesting to see if micro dramas’ use of AI will become a point of contention for the human actors relying on these projects for work.
Micro dramas’ rise in prominence also happens to coincide with a sharp downturn of film and TV production in Los Angeles. That’s another reason more performers are turning to the platforms to stay afloat, and this moment could be a choice opportunity for micro dramas to establish themselves as a viable source of entertainment.

Though micro dramas are currently on the come up, this Puck piece does an excellent job of illustrating some of the challenges these platforms will be up against as their growth leads to market saturation.
It’s important to understand just how hostile toward users basically all of the big micro drama apps are. Janko Roettgers’ recent piece here breaks down what makes these apps feel so predatory, and how many of them have been informed by mobile gaming’s freemium model.
The Ankler had a great sit-down with ReelShort CEO Joey Jia about how the company’s approach to monetization turned it into a billion-dollar business. The piece also includes a chat with actor Kasey Esser about how working on micro dramas has had a profound impact on his career.
SAG-AFTRA’s micro drama contract makes it seem like the union is being proactive about shifts within the entertainment industry. But this Variety piece digs into how the new contract was — at least partially — a response to the fact that some actors were just deciding to work nonunion.

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Charles Pulliam-Moore

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Technology

Soundcore new Space 2 promise improved ANC and sound

Published

7 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Soundcore new Space 2 promise improved ANC and sound

We finally have an update to the Soundcore Space One that launched two and a half years ago. At MWC 2026, Soundcore has announced the Space 2, which will be available in the US on April 21st in three colors — linen white, jet black, and seafoam green — for $129.99. That’s $30 more than the Space One’s original price.

According to Soundcore, the Space 2 have had a full-band noise cancellation upgrade with the focus of those improvements on the low-frequency sounds we all generally use ANC headphones to block — things like airplane, train, and bus engine sounds while traveling. The Space 2 use the same number of microphones as the Space One for noise canceling, instead relying on optimized mic placement and structure and materials improvements for the boost in performance.

Redesigned 40mm drivers incorporate dual layers in their design. There’s a silk diaphragm with metal ceramic that supposedly results in faster transient response — the driver’s ability to respond to sudden sound quickly and accurately — with better balanced sound reproduction. The Space One had great sound performance for the price, but I’m all for any improvement to sound performance accuracy. Like the Space One, the Space 2 will support LDAC high-res audio.

The headphones connect wirelessly over Bluetooth 6.1, although they do not support Auracast transmissions — an unfortunate exclusion. There’s also a 3.5mm jack for a wired connection.

Battery life has been increased to up to 50 hours with ANC and 70 hours with ANC off. This is up from 40 hours with ANC and 55 hours without ANC with the Space One headphones. With a five-minute charge the Space 2 get an additional four hours of listening.

The Space 2 will include many of the features found on the Space One. You can use HearID 3.0 to go through a series of sound samples to tune the headphones’ sound to your preferences. It worked well for me on the Space One to get them closer to a sound I liked, with a bit of the edge taken off the higher frequencies. There’s also a sensor that detects when you remove the headphones and stops playback so you don’t miss any of your music or podcast. They once again come with a cloth bag that matches the color of the headphones instead of a case, which is one change I wish Soundcore had made, as the cloth bag doesn’t offer as much protection if you tend to throw your headphones into your backpack or bag.

The Soundcore Space One were among the best budget ANC headphones when they came out, and still hold up to more recent releases. But with the bump in price to over $100 for the Space 2, there’s a bit more expectation on them. ANC performance continues to improve — and products get cheaper — across manufacturers, so the Soundcore Space 2 has some competition from companies like Sony, EarFun, and JLab. If the ANC on the Space 2 stands up to current budget headphones and they still sound as good and are as comfortable as the Space One, you can expect to see the new Soundcore Space 2 on many recommendation lists.

Technology

Tired of websites blocking your VPN? A dedicated IP fixes that

Published

8 hours ago

March 1, 2026

Press Room

Tired of websites blocking your VPN? A dedicated IP fixes that

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If you have ever turned on your VPN and suddenly could not log in to your bank, email, streaming service or work portal, you are not imagining things. In fact, this is one of the most common frustrations VPN users face today.

However, the issue is not that VPNs stopped working. Instead, websites have become far more aggressive about blocking traffic that looks suspicious.

As a result, the way your VPN is built now matters just as much as whether you use one at all.

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Shared VPN IPs often trigger red flags, which is why banks, email providers and streaming sites sometimes block access. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

Why websites block many VPN connections

Most VPNs give you a shared IP address. As a result, hundreds or even thousands of people can appear online from the same address at the same time. From a website’s perspective, that traffic pattern raises red flags. When platforms detect too many logins, rapid location changes or unusual activity tied to one IP, they step in quickly. In many cases, they respond by:

Blocking access
Triggering captchas
Requiring extra verification codes
Temporarily locking accounts

Meanwhile, you did nothing wrong. Instead, you end up dealing with restrictions caused by other users sharing that same IP address.

What a dedicated IP does differently

With a dedicated IP, you get an address that belongs only to you. Unlike shared VPN connections, no one else uses it.

Each time you connect, you use the same IP address. As a result, you avoid sharing traffic, rotating locations or competing with random users whose activity could trigger blocks.

Because of that consistency, your connection looks much more like a typical home or office internet setup. And that simple difference can dramatically reduce website suspicion and login headaches.

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A dedicated IP gives you a consistent address that looks more like a normal home connection, reducing captchas and login alerts. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

What a dedicated IP can do that shared VPN IPs usually can’t

That consistency does more than reduce suspicion; it improves how smoothly you access the sites and services you use every day.

Access more websites without blocks

Banks, government portals, healthcare sites, and streaming services are far less likely to block a dedicated IP because it does not show heavy or erratic traffic patterns.

Reduce captchas and security challenges

Those endless “prove you’re human” messages are usually triggered by shared IP abuse. A dedicated IP dramatically reduces them.

Make banking and email logins smoother

Financial institutions and email providers often flag constantly changing IP addresses as suspicious. A dedicated IP stays consistent, so login alerts and lockouts happen far less often.

Support remote work and secure systems

Some employers only allow access from approved IP addresses. Shared VPN IPs cannot be approved. Dedicated IPs can.

Improve streaming reliability

Shared VPN IPs are often the first to get blocked when streaming services crack down. Dedicated IPs are less likely to be flagged because traffic looks normal and predictable.

What a dedicated IP does not do

A dedicated IP:

Does not remove encryption
Does not expose your identity
Does not weaken your privacy

Your traffic remains encrypted, and your real location stays hidden. You simply get a connection that websites trust more.

Who benefits most from a dedicated IP

A dedicated IP is especially helpful if you:

Use online banking regularly
Travel and access sites from different locations
Work remotely
Stream often
Get tired of captchas and blocked pages
Want a VPN that feels normal to use

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With fewer blocks and smoother logins, a dedicated IP helps your VPN work quietly in the background instead of getting in your way. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)

How to choose a VPN that offers a dedicated IP

If you want these benefits, look for a VPN provider that offers a dedicated IP option built directly into its service. Some providers include it in premium plans, while others offer it as an add-on. Either way, the process should be simple. You should be able to select your dedicated IP inside the app without advanced setup or manual configuration. Before signing up, check that the provider also offers strong speeds, reliable uptime and clear privacy policies. A dedicated IP improves access, but overall performance still matters.

What to look for beyond a dedicated IP

A dedicated IP reduces blocks. However, a quality VPN should also deliver strong security and smooth performance.

Fast, stable connections: Speed matters for streaming, video calls and everyday browsing. Look for providers known for consistent performance.

Wide server coverage: More server locations give you flexibility when traveling and help reduce location errors.

Clear privacy practices: Choose a VPN with a strict no-logs policy and independent audits when possible.

Secure server technology: Modern VPNs often use RAM-based servers that automatically wipe data on reboot.

Easy-to-use apps: Protection should feel simple, not technical. Clean apps across major devices make daily use effortless.

For the best VPN software, see my expert review of the best VPNs for browsing the web privately on your Windows, Mac, Android & iOS devices at Cyberguy.com

Kurt’s key takeaway

If your VPN keeps getting blocked, the problem may not be the VPN itself. It may be the shared IP address behind it. Websites are increasingly aggressive about suspicious traffic. When hundreds of users share the same IP, banks, email providers and streaming platforms take notice. That is when the captchas, verification codes and account lockouts start. A dedicated IP changes that experience. You still get encryption. You still protect your real location. But your connection looks stable and predictable, which helps you avoid constant interruptions.

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Should protecting your privacy really mean fighting with your bank, email, and streaming apps? Let us know by writing to us at Cyberguy.com

Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson is an award-winning tech journalist who has a deep love of technology, gear and gadgets that make life better with his contributions for Fox News & FOX Business beginning mornings on “FOX & Friends.” Got a tech question? Get Kurt’s free CyberGuy Newsletter, share your voice, a story idea or comment at CyberGuy.com.

Technology

Polymarket defends its decision to allow betting on war as ‘invaluable’

Published

19 hours ago

February 28, 2026

Press Room

Polymarket defends its decision to allow betting on war as ‘invaluable’

It might be World War III, but at least I won $20. | Image: Polymarket / The Verge

Polymarket has been allowing people to bet on when the US would strike Iran next. Obviously, now that it’s actually happened and people have died, the prediction betting market is feeling some pressure. The site has been at the center of controversy before, including suspicions of insider trading on the Super Bowl halftime show and the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

In a statement posted on its site, Polymarket defended its decision to allow betting on the potential start of a war, saying that it was an “invaluable” source of news and answers, before taking shots at traditional media and Elon Musk’s X. The statement reads:

…

Read the full story at The Verge.