TikTok’s popular microdramas shrink TV into bite‑sized chunks |
Some of the hottest casting calls in Hollywood right now aren’t for Netflix, Disney or HBO.
In January 2026, TikTok rolled out PineDrama in the United States and Brazil, an app devoted to microdramas, also known as “verticals.”
Unlike TikTok’s traditional user-generated content, PineDrama primarily features scripted series produced by studios, production companies and media partners. These are short, serialized shows meant to be watched in one-minute increments, and they often feature melodramatic tales of romance, revenge or the supernatural.
By March, TikTok was already casting for new PineDrama series, just as professionally produced microdramas such as “Love at First Bite,” “The Officer Fell For Me” and “The Return of Divorced Heiress” were attracting millions of views on the platform.
By late April, actress Issa Rae had premiered her series “Screen Time,” a PineDrama exclusive about a double date gone awry that has already garnered over 100 million views.
At first glance, a social media app becoming a television studio might seem like a radical shift.
But in our recently published research paper, we argue that TikTok’s move into scripted storytelling is not a break from television; it is a continuation of it. In fact, TikTok’s success can be attributed, in part, to the ways it has pulled from both........