At My Drama — the top vertical streaming platform among American and European companies — our goal with Engaged to the Enemy was to expand the boundaries of what vertical series can achieve and prove that the format can support high-stakes action, mafia drama, and thriller-level tension, not just conventional romance tropes.
The core objectives driving the project were:
1/ Redefine genre expectations
Show that vertical series can successfully deliver traditionally cinematic genres — mafia action, crime drama, revenge arcs — without losing emotional depth or character complexity.
2/ Bring cinematic action into a mobile-native format
Use creative framing, dynamic movement, lighting design, and rapid pacing to recreate the intensity of action films within 1–2 minute vertical episodes.
3/ Capture and grow new audience segments
Engage viewers who crave fast, suspenseful stories and plot twists, and introduce them to mafia-driven drama adapted for mobile consumption.
4/ Prove the efficiency of HOLYWATER’s production model
Demonstrate that vertical action series can be produced quickly and efficiently while still delivering polished visuals, compelling performances, and a tightly structured narrative arc.
Engaged to the Enemy was developed as a proof point for HOLYWATER’s larger mission: to shape the future of entertainment by delivering cinematic, high-impact stories where audiences already watch most — on their phones. It also supports our broader vision of positioning My Drama as the go-to home for creators and studios looking to experiment with action, thriller, and crime genres in vertical format for massive mobile-first audiences.
The production of Engaged to the Enemy is deeply rooted in HOLYWATER’s technology-driven content ecosystem — an integrated pipeline that allows us to create, test, and scale vertical series with exceptional speed and precision. My Drama operates alongside two other HOLYWATER products: My Passion, the #1 independent digital book publishing platform among non-Chinese companies, and My Muse, the leading vertical streaming app for AI-generated series. Together, these platforms enable us to identify high-potential stories early, refine them through iterative testing, and bring only the strongest concepts into live-action production.
The process began on My Passion, where we tested hundreds of exclusive novels and analyzed real-time user behavior to understand which themes, characters, and emotional arcs resonate most. Engaged to the Enemy quickly emerged as a standout, driven by strong engagement around its mix of mafia intrigue, romantic tension, revenge motives, and high emotional stakes. This strong data footprint led the story to the second stage on My Muse, where we produced AI-generated pilots to test tone, pacing, hooks, and visual direction. Viewer reactions during this stage guided key creative decisions — from character presentation to scene intensity — ensuring that the story’s structure was optimized before entering live action.
Only concepts that meet or exceed performance benchmarks move forward, and Engaged to the Enemy was validated through audience insights at every stage of development. Once greenlit, the project entered full production for My Drama, where our creative team focused on bringing mafia-driven action and suspense into a vertical, mobile-native format. The series follows Gwen, a poker dealer in an underground mafia club and a secret FBI informant, whose life becomes entangled with Vincent Moretti, heir to a powerful crime family. After losing a high-stakes bet that forces her into Vincent’s world, Gwen must navigate a dangerous web of deception, attraction, and survival while confronting a larger revenge plot and fighting to save her father. The narrative blends action, crime, and romance — genres traditionally associated with cinematic filmmaking — making it an ideal candidate for a fast-paced vertical adaptation.
During production, we emphasized cinematic execution tailored for phones: mobile-first framing for tension-heavy scenes, dynamic lighting and high-contrast palettes to enhance danger, and editing designed around rapid engagement.
This combination of data-driven story discovery, AI-supported pre-production, and visually polished execution is what makes Engaged to the Enemy — and the HOLYWATER pipeline behind it — distinctive in the vertical entertainment landscape.
Engaged to the Enemy successfully achieved its core objectives, proving that mafia action and high-stakes crime drama can thrive in a vertical, mobile-native format. The series quickly became a standout performer on My Drama, gaining strong traction during its premiere window and sustaining high engagement across its run. According to SocialPeta’s H1 2025 advertising analysis, Engaged to the Enemy ranked among the Top 20 most impactful vertical series globally, reinforcing its status as one of the category’s strongest performers. The title’s success also validated our strategy of expanding vertical storytelling into traditional cinematic genres like action, crime, and thriller.
Audience behavior showed a clear appetite for fast-paced, emotionally charged mafia narratives — genres that had previously been underexplored in vertical entertainment. Engagement patterns indicated strong retention, high replay behavior, and strong resonance with mobile-first viewers looking for intensity and momentum in 1–2 minute episodes.
Beyond audience success, Engaged to the Enemy strengthened HOLYWATER’s position as a leader in vertical entertainment, demonstrating that vertically shot action series can deliver cinematic tension and narrative depth traditionally associated with film and television.
The series served as a proof point for HOLYWATER’s pipeline-driven model: data-informed story discovery, AI-supported pre-production, and polished live-action execution. Ultimately, Engaged to the Enemy delivered on its mission — to push genre boundaries, engage global mobile audiences, and show that vertical series can command the same emotional and cinematic weight as traditional formats.
