In April, the Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated actress Issa Rae released what quickly became a viral sensation, a 57-episode microdrama called “Screen Time,” which her media company, Hoorae, produced in partnership with TikTok. It drew nearly 75 million views in the first week of its release. (Rae does not perform in “Screen Time.”)
“Younger audiences are increasingly mobile-first, and short-form serialized storytelling has become habitual viewing globally,” said Jenna Rosa, the senior vice president of unscripted development for Bravo and Peacock. “And so we’re just meeting audiences where they are.”
Bravo’s new microdrama series with Georgia Gay, “Campus Confidential: Miami,” which NBCUniversal released through its Peacock app on June 15, tells of life for Gay and her friends at the University of Miami through 50 crisp episodes. The network’s “Salon Confessionals With Madison LeCroy,” which will debut next month, will feature the secrets spilled by the clients who visit LeCroy’s hairdressing chair in Charleston, S.C.
“I’ll be honest with you,” LeCroy said in a recent interview, “sometimes these stories that I hear on ‘Southern Charm’ and reality TV are dragged out for way too long.”
LeCroy described “Salon Confessionals” as a natural fit for her. The aim is to spotlight the stylist’s chair as the therapist’s couch, a place where, as she put it, “all the stories happen.” Clients, she has found, are more relaxed in front of a small phone than a large camera.
“I love it just as much as the other person that’s sitting in my chair loves it,” she said.
The kind of soap opera drama that may well result from those interactions has long been the genre’s bailiwick. “Off Limits & All Mine,” Diggs’s initial foray into microdramas, tells of a steamy relationship between a music mogul and his best friend’s daughter, who “returns all grown up and determined to pursue the one man she has always wanted,” as a summary on CandyJar put it.
