In “Eavesdropping,” two friends from high school reconnect and have to navigate their burgeoning friendship/probably more/maybe not, without messing anything up. The twist? This entire story is told exclusively through Instagram, and episodes are 3 minutes or less.
Each episode of the show is written to be both an installment in the overall story and a standalone reel on Instagram’s Explore page—the way that many fans discovered the show. In stark contrast to many pillars of the genre, the show’s plotlines feel authentic, and the dialogue sounds like how people actually talk.
Cameron and Bea, the two main characters, both feel refreshingly human. That’s a weird thing to say about characters that… are, but many rom-coms reduce their leads to “Half of Couple” and “Other Half of Couple.” Here, though, they each have depth and interesting points of view that extend beyond their relationship to each other. Similarly, when Ethan arrives as an obstacle to this potential romance, he never comes off as evil or manipulative—he’s just very irritating. (Also, he should probably go to therapy.) It’s easy to see why Bea likes him, though, and the audience routinely expresses that they might, too.
“Eavesdropping” also makes the important decision to give even its side characters unique experiences and personalities. What a concept. Cameron’s former roommate, Rique, arguably the fan-favorite character, only appears in a handful of episodes and rarely contributes to the plot in any significant way. Despite that, he has a realistic and identifiable connection with Cameron that makes audiences root for him, and his subplot with his girlfriend is interesting in its own right. Similarly, Bea’s roommate, Yaz, has an organic and dynamic relationship with Bea that’s a little messy at times, but always true to both of their personalities.
By building out these side characters, the creative team can take the time to develop the main arc with proper pacing, since the audience also looks forward to episodes that only feature less important characters.
“Eavesdropping” is written by Nicolas Alayo, Kaleigh Howland and Christian Sullivan, who play Rique, Bea and Cameron, respectively. The show being written exclusively by people who also star in it means that each character tracks remarkably well through each episode. The comments section is always filled with praise and criticism (often, both at the same time) for a character’s actions, but never at the writing— everyone agrees that it’s captivating.
Much has been said about the agony of The Slow Burn, and “Eavesdropping” is a show all about it. It avoids the pitfalls of the format, though, by filling each scene with reasons to keep watching anyway— it isn’t just about hoping that Cameron and Bea end up together, it’s about watching them grow as friends and as individual people, too. Each character has a full and messy arc that propels them to interesting places, and each episode feels like… well, eavesdropping on a real conversation that’s interesting in its own right.
By leaning into the restrictions of Instagram, the team behind “Eavesdropping” managed to avoid the stale cliches of the genre and instead tell a story about people that just so happens to have a great romance plot at the center of it. With their twice-weekly release schedule and short episodes, the show never feels like it’s overstaying its welcome or stretching to fit a time slot. It feels like moments that are really happening and that just happen to be filmed, something that’s especially important in this genre.
The rom-com as a concept is formulaic enough that unoriginal and half-baked stories have largely become the norm. “Eavesdropping” changes that by creating engaging characters first, and then adding a slow-burning romance to everything else the show says about them. As the show wraps up its second season, it brings to the table a unique and genuine array of plotlines that stands out in a landscape where media with a soul is increasingly hard to find.