M for Melodrama

"Melodrama is traditionally defined as a dramatic storyline of villainy, victimization, and retribution, in which characters’ emotional states are hyperbolized and externalized through grandiose facial expression, vivid bodily gestures, and stirring musical accompaniment; music is the “melos” of melodrama"

"for at the heart of melodrama is the principle that by virtue of suffering, one becomes good. It grounds this notion in a condition of moral purity that existed prior to victimization and is held out like a carrot throughout the plotline, promised back to the sufferer if her/his virtue can be reestablished through an act of heroic restitution that demonstrates moral might"