“The 25th day begins throughout my life,” Reagan Lynch says in a short video. “Now I’m wandering around the city I just moved to. In a country I’ve never seen before, and after my relationship ended, I was all alone on my own and I had to leave behind an old life.”
This is a pretty attractive hook. So Lynch starts all the videos like this. She draws us towards us as we navigate the UK’s grocery aisles – it’s clearly quite different to the American people – and bravely praises the clothes of strangers in weak attempts to make new friends.
Within months of posting her first video, Lynch grew her account to over 588,000 followers on Instagram and 432,000 on Tiktok. But what makes Lynch’s story viral has more to do with her vivid storytelling and attention to cinematography than her catastrophic parting. The web series-esque videos of these episodes bring new spins to short content, pushing Tiktok from Raw’s “Get Ready” routine into more ambitious territory.
@raeganlynchh 25th!! #startingover #breakup #movingon♬Original sound – Reagan
Like last year, Tiktok flourished the idea that everyone could become a star. “Who Did I Married?” series, you can go viral by telling your craziest story while you’re in and out of work. Viewers seemed drawn to the casual style with this cuff. The video feels like a friend is talking about FaceTime. Even the brands have shifted their marketing style, swapping studio shots for simple footage of people talking to the camera.
In the past, holding a clip-on microphone in front of your mouth seemed like an expert, but at the moment it was a more carefree nature that was the point.
Now, a year after Reesa Teesa explodes, short form video viewers are beginning to crave something different from these casual clips, and movie-like.
As viewers confirmed whether Lynch was settling in her new life, a scripted microdrama called “The Group Chat” went from Tiktok to Today Show.
The creator behind the group chat, Sidney Joe Robinson plays each character in a group of friends as he navigates the tenuous text conversations. The wastefulness of this drama is very enjoyable. The group chat is about a group of friends who have planned a girl’s night, but the confusion continues as one friend asks to bring her boyfriend. The series entered its second season after the first season won nearly 100 million views on five Tiktok videos.
@thatgirlsydjo Group Chat: Series #groupchat #friends #drama #tea♬Original Sound – Sidney Joe
Serialized shows were so much attention that instead of combining ads with casual content, brands like Alo Yoga and Little Caesars are now creating high-budget microdramas to take advantage of the trends.
Like Robinson, Nicholas Flannery, who has 5.5 million Tiktok followers, plays each character in a serialized Tiktok drama. He draws inspiration from popular film cliches, like the series that performs from the prompt “all films in which a powerful CEO has to do with young men.”
@nicholas_flannery oop It’s not a work trip where they don’t isolate the time they are ties!! He barely can’t see her lol – I wonder what the meeting will be like, maybe they’ll be nervous for the time being… #babygirl #harrisdickinson #nicolekidman #thriller #cheaters♬Original Sound – Nicholas Flannery
However, Flannery and Robinson tell the full story in several videos, each clip can stand on its own. That way, if videos from the center of the series are surfaced on the people’s pages on your page, they will still be drawn in.
Before the rise of vertical video, the scripted web series on YouTube was successful enough to spin out into cult-popular TV shows such as “Broad City,” “Insecure,” and “Letterkenny.” However, when YouTube tried to mimic this success on its own, it didn’t grasp the original content initiative.
But trends have faded and flowed, and now creators like Lynch, Robinson and Flannery are reviving the concept of the web series for a new generation. They are not without direct competition with the streamers themselves.
Streaming platforms like Rakuten Viki have pinned themselves in the Asian market with short serialized video series and have timed comments. Recently, Microdrama apps such as Dramabox and Reelshort have been booming in the US
According to App Store Data Provider AppFigures, Dramabox and Reelshort have earned $99 million and $152 million from in-app purchases in the US, reflecting 203% and 233% year-on-year growth in 2024, respectively.
American viewing habits are flowing more towards social video and bite-sized entertainment than traditional television shows, which could lead to increased demand for this scripted, crisp, edited content.
Tiktok is also rumoured to be looking into the scripted video, with streaming network Peacock training four Tiktokers through creator accelerators to create four new TV shows. American viewers seem to enjoy this kind of social-first scripted comedy, even when they previously rejected this kind of media (remember Milk?).
Tiktok viewers will never fully return to “Get Ready With Me” style videos that are widely accessible and easily overlapping for beginner creators, but short form videos could pave the way for web series renaissance.
