AI dramas and the families they imagine

Beginning early this year, I have found myself awake until three almost every morning. I normally sleep between nine and ten, and insomnia has never been an issue. But what has stolen my sleep are AI short movies, also called an AI-generated or AI-assisted vertical microdrama. It has replaced my usual Netflix, HBO Max, Disney+, and Amazon Prime bingeing. I start watching upon waking, when eating, and even while working, sometimes continuing until 5 A.M. when a story is too good to abandon.

Not every vertical drama is entirely generated by AI, and many use real actors but employ artificial intelligence for scripts, dubbing, translation, faces, backgrounds, or effects. Early AI shorts began in 2016, written by an AI called Benjamin. Mobile microdramas started in China in the late 2010s and became popular during the pandemic. They later reached international audiences through ReelShort, DramaBox, and similar apps. In the Philippines, their growing popularity became unmistakable when Cignal Play introduced local microdramas in 2025 and Viu launched Viu Shorts in 2026.

The numbers are remarkable, though no reliable count exists for AI movie viewers in the Philippines. Sensor Tower estimated that leading short drama applications registered 475 million downloads and $1.45 billion in consumer spending in 2024. AI movie downloads in Southeast Asia reached 87 million during the first quarter of 2025.

Unlike ordinary films, these stories are presented vertically in installments lasting between one or two minutes. Every episode features a humiliation, seduction, revelation, or cliffhanger. The servant is secretly an heiress. The rejected wife is a billionaire. The abandoned omega is actually a royal wolf. It is genealogy accelerated to the speed of social media.

Their technical peculiarities are truly entertaining. Most characters wear the same clothes through weddings, pregnancies, kidnappings, and funerals. Faces suddenly change, strangers materialize in rooms, and American accents become British. Names also morph suddenly. Ethan becomes Li Wei, while the Sterling Group turns into the Shen Corporation. Names such as Sterling, Blackwood, Vance, Ashcroft, Moretti, Damian, Ethan, Noah, and Liam appear repeatedly, suggesting stories localized hastily from shared templates.

As a genealogist, I find their treatment of family even more fascinating. Nearly every plot revolves around bloodline, legitimacy, inheritance, marriage, or a missing child. These are the same concerns that fill old parish registers, wills, court cases, and family legends. A birthmark, necklace, photograph, or DNA test can rearrange an entire pedigree. The adopted daughter becomes an impostor when the biological heiress returns, although some stories may eventually conclude that affection and loyalty matter more than blood.

Werewolf dramas offer fated mates, partners supposedly selected by destiny. Yet chosen mates, rejected mates, adopted pack members, and hidden heirs complicate that biological certainty. Boys’ Love, or BL, stories widen the definition further. Two men marry and build families through adoption, children from earlier relationships, or, in Omegaverse tales, male pregnancy. No dependable percentage of AI microdramas classified as BL is available, but their visibility is undeniable. Here family is created through commitment and care rather than biological arrangement.

Mafia stories present the Family as both kinship and organization. The don’s heir could be a daughter, adopted son, nephew, bodyguard, or a protégé. Blood may create a claim, but loyalty proves who belongs. Billionaire dramas treat arranged marriage as a merger between dynasties, with children serving as heirs, bargaining pieces, or restorers of family honor.

These productions are addictive because they promise genealogical justice. The abandoned child finds his parents. The illegitimate son gains recognition. The rejected mate establishes another union. The adopted heir is chosen over a treacherous biological one. Their family histories are absurdly compressed, but the questions are ancient

Movies have traveled from theaters to televisions, streaming services, and now telephones. Their faces may be artificial and their pedigrees impossible, yet their central storylines remain human. We want to discover where we came from, to know where we belong, and sometimes to create a family different from the one destiny originally provided.