What is Melodrama?

Answer 1

plots centered on a moralist conflict in which the main characters were archetypes of good versus evil

In melodrama emotions, actions and scenarios are simplified and exaggerated, contrived and 'wild and woolly' as well as implausible. The characters lack depth and are often stock characters, such as the 'damsel in distress' rescued from the clutches of an unspeakably evil tyrant by a dashing young man.

For example, consider two pairs of lovers, where through a series of implausible events the two couples swap partners, possibly by accident, and everything goes very, very badly wrong. Not content with this, the author has all four people involved commit suicide at the end. Oh, the drama of it all! It may be easily created entertainment but it is implausible.

Answer 2

A type of drama in which everything is Hyperbolized or Exaggerated