ReelShort is really out here putting in effort with these book-to-vertical adaptations, and honestly, I’ll give them that. Turning books into vertical dramas can’t be easy because the format itself is so limited, but we’re always hoping that someone breaks the mold with these adaptations. Carter Reed by Tijan honestly feels like the kind of story that makes sense for this space. Not because it’s groundbreaking, but because it already has that dramatic, over-the-top energy that works in short-form episodes. It wasn’t good, it wasn’t terrible — it just kind of existed in the middle for me.
And when you hear that Jared Staub is starring in something, you already know exactly what kind of character you’re getting. He plays intense men very well — controlling, emotionally unavailable, deeply obsessed with one woman they absolutely should not be in love with. It’s basically his brand at this point. But Carter is supposed to feel different. He’s supposed to be this ruthless mob boss that the entire city fears.
The problem is… the show keeps telling us he’s terrifying instead of actually making him feel terrifying.
And that removes us from the whole plot, but showcases a lack of being able to see that there is one that makes sense.
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A lot of the dialogue leans so cheesy that it starts feeling less like a mafia story and more like a young girl’s diary entry where she is confused over what feelings are. Every other line sounds like it was written to be clipped into a TikTok edit with the trending song of the day playing in the foreground. So instead of feeling dangerous, the whole thing ends up feeling weirdly soft around the edges.
Carter’s big weakness is Emma, the younger sister of his dead best friend, and we’re supposed to be sold on the idea that he would literally burn the world down for her. But the emotional setup just isn’t strong enough for me. Yes, he made promises to her brother. Yes, there’s a flashback trying to establish that he cared about her. But one flashback is not enough to convince me that this man would go to war over her within five minutes.
The chemistry is there sometimes, but the emotional logic? Not really. It doesn’t seem to exist here.
The setup itself is dramatic enough: Emma kills a mafia prince while trying to save her best friend from being assaulted, and suddenly the entire city wants her dead. The only person she can run to is Carter Reed — the most feared man in the city and the man her brother trusted before he died. It’s very classic “I can’t have her, but I want her” energy. It is the type of energy that works for this genre, but it is also something that is filled with plot holes.
Emma had a card her brother gave her before he passed, basically telling her that if she was ever in trouble, she needed to find Carter. And honestly, the show does establish early on that she’s afraid of Carter too, which probably works better than the instant-love approach a lot of these stories take.
Only it is instant love, and that is hard to believe.
Once Carter realizes who she is, he goes all in almost immediately. Full protection mode. Full obsession mode. Constantly reminding her she’s safe with him while also acting like he’s the biggest threat in the room. Again: very on brand for a mafia romance, but very confusing here.
The issue is that the show keeps confusing intensity with depth.
Emma sneaking out constantly to save Mallory gets repetitive fast, especially because Mallory’s husband Ben is so cartoonishly awful that every scene with him feels like the writers screaming, “THIS MAN IS TRASH,” just in case we somehow missed it the first ten times. And the Bertal Mafia never really feels intimidating either, because everyone talks in these overly dramatic one-liners instead of acting like actual criminals.
And then there’s the virginity storyline.
I already know why these stories do it. It’s supposed to heighten the emotional attachment and make the romance feel bigger and more consuming. But it’s become such a predictable trope in these mob romances that the second it came up, I just sighed. Especially because the show spends so much time pushing the “I can’t touch her because of my loyalty to her brother” angle when we all know that boundary was never surviving the season anyway.
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There were so many other ways to build tension here besides repeatedly circling the same “he wants her but shouldn’t” inner dialogue. There are so many other ways to build the drama.
Emma also becomes obsessed with Carter very quickly. Her entire world starts revolving around getting him to choose her, be with her, want her openly. And Carter absolutely feeds into it because he clearly enjoys being needed that intensely. That obsession becomes the core of the relationship more than any actual emotional development does (because it is non-existent).
And somehow that obsession escalates into a full-on war.
Of course, things implode once Emma finds out that Carter is responsible for her brother’s death. She runs, takes off the tracker necklace he gave her — because apparently every mob romance legally requires a tracking device at this point — and Carter still finds her with Mallory’s help.
By the end, I wasn’t emotionally invested so much as mildly entertained. It’s one of those shows you watch knowing exactly what kind of ride you’re signing up for: dramatic stares, obsessive love, cheesy dialogue, and a “mob” story that somehow feels less mafia and more bad fiction fantasy with guns. And honestly? That may be exactly what ReelShort was aiming for.
Though I doubt it was what the actors wanted.
ReelShort knows how to do a mafia romance, so I am going to need them to tap into that energy and give us more of what we know they can do – create stories that people want to watch vs. cringe at.
