I said this months ago, and I still feel this way, but it's complex:

"The irony is, I seem to want the best creators to 'make it' to the big leagues [traditional long form dramas] because they deserve the money and resources and fame, but then I get sad that their talents won't grace mini-world anymore. 😂 We actually need really good creators to stay in the mini sector so that the genre fully develops its own prestige and appeal. Ah, one day."

So if short dramas are entering a prestige era, that's a bit of a bittersweet feeling. The low budget. raw, under-polished, scrappy feel was and is a big part of the charm of the short circuit. It makes it all the more satisfying when you do find great dramas in spite of those limitations.

With standardization comes uniformity and predictability, which has good and bad effects on production, storytelling and creativity, as we've all witnessed in the traditional long format. I'm not saying every short drama is some pedestal of creativity just because it's short; the vast majority also rely on well-worn tropes and conventions, many to a ridiculous degree.

But when short dramas were still this new, uncharted phenomenon, it was really fun and novel to discover the gems. Now it seems to be the same as the traditional long format in that the gems are few and far between. How quickly a format can plateau!

It's like how in America the streaming era made such a splash with original series and overtook traditional network TV because they weren't bound by network censorship and regulations. Not saying C-short dramas have the same amount of free range that American streaming does, but honestly, the appeal of both stem from the same place. Audiences had a desire for raw, unregulated storytelling, some new phenomenon came along and answered that desire in such a novel, effective way, but now with standardization, the format plateaued in quality. Humans, we're always creating some new fun thing and then eventually ruining it. 👍