Why Are AI Short Dramas So Addictive? | From Where to Watch to Making One Myself
The AI short dramas everyone's talking about, where to watch them, and how I made my own just by chatting with Carat.
If you've ever been scrolling through Shorts on your way to work and suddenly stopped on a one-minute drama, you're definitely not alone, especially lately. I've done it more times than I can count, and whenever I opened the comments, I found myself nodding along to people saying how fun and addictive these were. What surprised me was that most of them were made with AI-generated actors and sets.
In this post, I'll look at how big AI dramas, or AI short dramas, have become on everyone's commute, and what it's actually like to make one yourself.
AI Short Dramas Are Catching Up With K-Dramas
AI short dramas are usually about a minute per episode. What makes them special is how quickly they pull you in within that short window. I assumed people would just watch them in passing because they're so short, but these one-minute dramas are now at the center of the short drama market. The numbers make it even clearer.
The romance fantasy short drama Possessed, but My Face Came Along passed 1.5 million views on its first episode alone, and reportedly started running paid ads from episode 3. On YouTube, there are already more than 10,000 videos tagged #AI드라마 (#AIdrama). Online posts talking about AI short dramas jumped from 94 in June to 565 in September, almost six times as many in just three months.
Instagram is even hotter. Episode 2 of ACROSS THE STREET, a romance set in 1990s New York, got 2.28 million likes as a Reel, and a 27-second video from the same creator hit 55 million views.
Instagram Reel@dreamfall.art × @higgsfield.creatorsACROSS THE STREET · Episode 2Watch on Instagram →Honestly, I was a little shocked by the numbers while doing my research. It finally hit me that it's not just my feed that's full of AI dramas.
Crossing Genre Boundaries
AI dramas are going places that traditional dramas rarely could. Romance fantasy, which usually needs expensive sets and lots of CG, has already produced a wide range of titles. On top of that, AI dramas are expanding into genres you don't often get to see, like animal-human fantasy, sci-fi, martial arts, and BL.
That doesn't mean only flashy genres are popular, though. On Instagram, Mongttang Geochimeopsi Sunpung Gamjabyeol, a mash-up of classic Korean sitcom titles, recreates the feel of 2000s Korean sitcoms in 15 to 30 second clips, and its "You Smell" episode passed 4.11 million views. On the other end, an account called Seodamsi, which pairs the uncanny texture of AI video with horror, became a hot topic on X after gaining about 40,000 followers with just nine videos.
AI Drama Picks | Editor's Picks You'll Actually Enjoy 🙂↕️
You can usually find AI short dramas on dedicated apps like NetShort, DramaWave, and DramaBox. Personally, though, I find Shorts and Reels the easiest, since you can watch AI dramas there for free. With so many people making and uploading their own these days, there's also the fun of discovering AI dramas nobody else knows about yet.
So here are the dramas I've been hooked on lately.
Making an AI Drama From Your Bedroom
These days the tools are so well known that plenty of people are making AI dramas on their own. All it takes is one idea, with no big budget or film crew, so it seems like a lot of people are giving it a shot.
And it's not just a hobby. Possessed, but My Face Came Along, which we saw earlier, actually made money from paid ads, and the studio behind ACROSS THE STREET has said it has over 2 million social media followers and more than 300 million monthly views. Of course, not everyone will earn side income right away, but it does feel like we're in an era where you can start a channel with a single story of your own.
So I decided to give it a try. There are plenty of sites for making AI dramas, but I went with Carat because you can make one just by chatting. This time I got a bit ambitious and wanted something that felt more like a real movie than the usual AI dramas on Shorts. I was curious whether just describing it would really get me a video with the mood I wanted. With no detailed planning or prompt studying, I simply typed the mood I wanted into Carat's chat.
My first message was a single line. Just the genre and the mood. Carat read it and immediately put together an eight-scene storyline! It even laid out the setup for each scene in quite a lot of detail.
Hiding from zombies in a shop, the hand that pulled her in belonged to the ex-boyfriend she broke up with three months ago.
① Spotted in the alley
② Under the shutter
③ Standoff in the dark
④ Rooftop zoom-in
⑤ News screen
⑥ Shoelace
⑦ The run
⑧ Ending behind the car
Since it built the whole story from a single line, deciding the mood for each scene was so much easier!
From the Leads' Faces to the Zombie!
Once the story was set, Carat generated matching character sheets on its own. It explained that this keeps the same person consistent across scenes, then showed me sheets with the front view, back view, and a face close-up all on one page. If you want to know more about making character sheets, check out our AI short-form drama production guide.
When I said I wanted a cinematic feel, it even picked outfits like movie costumes. The female lead gets a worn work jacket and white pants, and the ex-boyfriend a brown flight jacket! Even the one untied shoelace on her sneakers is foreshadowing for scene ⑥.
It also picked one representative zombie and made a sheet for it. Carat said this way, even when the scene changes and other zombies show up, they can keep this zombie's features.
Finally! Generating My First Video
All that was left was turning the scenes into video! But before jumping into the main scenes with the two leads, I wanted to see what kind of mood this city had.
So I asked Carat to make a few insert shots that fit the mood. Once again, there was almost nothing I had to handle myself. Carat first laid out which shots it would make and asked whether it was okay to go ahead.
I was honestly blown away by the results. Smoke rising into the sky, people running in a panic, police blocking the road, and even someone in a hazmat suit. Doesn't it look like a scene from a real disaster movie?
Placing shots like these between scenes should naturally convey that the whole city is collapsing behind the two leads' story.
With the backdrop ready, it was finally time for the two of them to appear. For the first scene, Carat again laid out how it would shoot it.
My favorite part of the result was the moment her wrist gets grabbed. The way she looks up after falling felt more natural than I expected. Even though it's an AI video, you can see a subtle flicker of recognition, and it captured exactly the feeling I wanted!
Putting the first scene right after the insert shots made it feel like the opening of a real movie. Showing the collapsing city first and then moving into the alley made the tension so much stronger.
There's no dialogue yet, but you can add lines just by asking Carat. I used to only make videos without dialogue because I worried the lip movements wouldn't match, but starting with the next scene, where the two face each other inside the convenience store, I'm planning to add short lines through Carat for real!
It was kind of amazing to make scenes from the one-minute dramas I used to just scroll past on my commute, this time with only a few words. It was a short video, but since everything from writing the story to choosing the characters happened through chat, it was really simple and fun. If you have even one scene in your head, I'd recommend just putting it into words and diving in.
In the next post, I'll continue the story of the two leads face to face inside the convenience store with Carat. 👋🏻
References (in Korean)
- Hankyung · "Awkward, but I watched to the end": the drama that hit 1.54M views from Ep. 1 (2026.09.30) · Cites OpenSurvey and Sometrend data
- Yonhap (via Jeonnam Ilbo) · Why AI dramas are taking off (2026.09.06)
- Aju Business Daily · The 'AI short drama' that hit 55M views (2026.09.18)
- Ilgan Sports · The AI drama taking over Instagram, Mongttang Geochimeopsi Sunpung Gamjabyeol (2026.10)
- Instagram · @dreamfall.art ACROSS THE STREET Episode 2
- X · Post introducing Seodamsi
- Instagram · AdRush marketing letter "Give Us the Next Episode Already"
