Jade Picon finally seems to have found a territory where her performance blossoms naturally: vertical soap operas, or microdramas, a format in which Globo is betting big. After a turbulent debut in Travessia (2022), in which she became the target of criticism for an interpretation considered rigid, the actress seems to be much more comfortable in Tudo por uma Segunda Chance, the network’s first vertical soap opera.
The vertical aesthetic does not match the traditional “naturalism” that guides nine o’clock soap operas. In microdramas, time is minimal, the framing is tight and the dramaturgy almost always needs to be delivered in quick bursts: a look that lasts a second, a phrase that resolves the conflict, a gesture that pushes the viewer to the next hook.
It is a style that requires actors to have a more projected register, almost always more emphatic. In this context, exaggeration becomes a tool to be used, and not a defect that needs to be fixed.
This is precisely where Jade Picon stands out. Like Soraia, the villain of the story, the young influencer fits much more organically into the rhythm and language that the format demands.
The firmness that previously seemed plastered transforms into precision within the vertical drama. His economical way of speaking and his tougher stance, previously highlighted as a problem, now function as an aesthetic reading.
Soraia is intense, direct, often sharp; and Jade delivers it confidently. In microdramas, there is no room for long nuances or slow evolution: each scene needs to communicate a lot in a short time, and the influencer does this naturally.
The audience notices this fit because, in Everything for a Second Chance, character construction is made to work in short dramatic blocks, almost like narrative pills. In formats like this, smoother performances tend to disappear at the speed of the feed.
The most marked profiles are precisely those that sustain the visual and emotional impact that the narrative requires. The format does not penalize intensity, in fact it rewards it.
Another point is that, in vertical soap operas, the limit between drama and a certain “canastrice” is healthy. Not in a negative sense, but as part of the essence of the genre: expanded expressions, quick reactions, antagonists made clearly and without dubiousness.
Globo itself reinforces that microdramas seek a balance between intensity and accessibility: fast-paced stories, easily recognizable characters and constant hooks.
In this terrain, Jade navigates with ease. Instead of trying to fit into the traditional pattern of conventional soap operas, she benefits from a product that speaks directly to her digital trajectory and the way she has always acted in front of the cameras.
It is possible to say that, for the first time, the actress appears truly comfortable within a work of fiction. Not because she drastically changed her style, but because the format finally speaks to her.
Jade doesn’t seem to be trying to adapt to the terrain — in this case, it’s the terrain that seems tailor-made for her tools. In Everything for a Second Chance, she takes on a character that not only matches her energy, but that translates well the potential of the vertical format.
If in Travessia the debate revolved around limitations, now the focus is on fit. Jade Picon found, in microdramas, the place where her performance makes sense and she can grow more consistently.
