Some of the TV series broadcast in 2021 Baidu Pictures
2021 is a big year for the creation of domestic TV series. The whole industry truly listens to the sonorous footsteps of the development of the times, vividly praises the fiery practice of reform and innovation, celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and other major theme creations bloom, make comprehensive breakthroughs in multiple types and themes, and continuously produce high-quality works, forming a wave-like broadcast boom, leaving a strong mark in the history of TV series creation.
The theme drama of the centenary of the founding of the party is full of color
Starting from the "Age of Awakening" at the beginning of the year, the theme TV series celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China has continued to be popular. "The Age of Awakening" takes the founding of "New Youth" as the starting point and uses the ideological and cultural history that has lasted for six years to reveal the historical inevitability of the founding of the Communist Party of China; "Glory and Dreams" tells the history of the cpc's founding from the beginning of the founding of the CPC to the battle to resist US aggression and aid Korea in a panoramic manner from the beginning of the founding of the CPC to the battle to resist US aggression and aid Korea; "The Great Waves and Sands" takes the party's development as the foundation and reveals the process of constantly revealing the power of faith; "Crossing the Yalu River" presents the magnificent historical picture of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in a magnificent tone; "Crossing the Yalu River" presents the magnificent historical picture of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in a magnificent tone; "Fragrant Mountain Leaves Are Red" takes Xiangshan as the entry point, showing the posture of the Chinese Communists who are always on the road to "catch up with the examination". These TV dramas look back on the century-old history with their unique aesthetic temperament, reveal the right way in China for a hundred years, inherit the red gene, carry forward the spiritual genealogy, and reach new heights in theme excavation and artistic expression.
In terms of the excavation of themes, these works have reviewed the major historical turns in the past hundred years from the perspective of history, the position of the times and the perspective of the people, and there are also the highlights of the waves in the torrent of history; there are restorations of important events, and there are also analysis of ideological transmutation. Many works have carried out wonderful image transformation and dramatic expression of the clash of ideological trends, and have a deep dialogue with all circles of society, especially young people, forming a spiritual resonance spanning a hundred years. In terms of character shaping, these works combine grand narratives and people's narratives, with full individual personalities and rich group portraits. The portrayal of great people, in addition to the general pattern of "pointing out the country and the mountains", mostly uses meso and microscopic perspectives to show their warm and life-oriented aspects, laying a delicate and real image foundation, allowing the audience to feel the temperature of history from the grand narrative of home and country. In terms of artistic presentation, these works fully excavate the value connection between historical situations and contemporary spirits, faithful to historical facts and historical spirit in the overall description of important events, and add reasonable artistic imagination to the details, reflecting a distinct sense of the times and a rich artistic background. In terms of expression, the creative method is more flexible and diverse. For example, "Ideal Shines on China", which selects 40 groups of character stories from 4 historical periods for "co-creation by the whole people", "Meritorious Service" based on the true stories of the first 8 "Medal of the Republic" winners, "Hundred Refining into Steel", which connects major events and characters from the Great Revolution to the new era with 8 classic songs of the times, and relives the century-old struggle process of the Communist Party of China with the artistic technique of "national narrative and expression of the times", and relives the century-old struggle process of the Communist Party of China in the form of light-weight short dramas and unit dramas. There are also the times report drama "Our New Era", which summarizes the previous successful experience and carries out artistic processing based on real people and real events, and the special program "Spiritual Power", which uses classic film and television drama materials as the main video content. These works innovate artistic expressions, cast historical background in a limited space, and enhance the thinking, attractiveness and appeal of theme creation.
Realistic dramas show the spiritual weather of the new era
In 2021, reality TV dramas grasp the pulse of the times, show the spiritual atmosphere of the new era in an all-round panorama, and successfully shape a number of new artistic images.
Relaying the trend of "brushing the screen" of the theme drama of poverty alleviation in 2020, the enthusiasm for the creation of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization theme TV series continues, further focusing on the fiery chapter of the party leading the people to create history, and enthusiastically depicting the magnificent atmosphere of the new journey in the new era. "Mountains and Seas" allows the national narrative to naturally run through the lens full of fireworks in the world, and substitutes the audience into a miracle that spans mountains and seas and time; "So Many Delicate Rivers and Mountains" focuses on helping the zhi and helping the intellect, showing the youth power in the poverty alleviation campaign with documentary shooting techniques. There are also works such as "Warm Taste", "Jingshan Lihai", "HuakaiShanXiang", "Aba Family" and other works, which diversify the same theme from different styles, angles and regions, gather points into faces, show the new rural atmosphere of the new era, and constitute an era of poverty alleviation and rural revitalization.
Tv dramas based on family and urban life take on a new look. These works break through the previous models of focusing on marriage, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationships, and go deep into Chinese-style family relations, depicting the struggles and lives of Chinese in the new era from different angles. "Children of the Qiao Family" combines the growth line of personal destiny with the development line of the trend of the times, "Little Shed" continues to deepen the education problem, "Love for You is Beautiful" shows the intergenerational relationship that transcends tradition and equal respect, "Life Home", "My Three Sisters and Me", "Dear Parents", etc., have innovations in ideology and artistry, with vivid and full, distinctive family members image, reflecting the development process of society and changes in people's inner world, winning a good reputation. "The World of Two People" and "Xiao MinJia" think about different types of love marriage stories, which arouses attention. However, there are also some urban dramas and family ethics dramas that shut themselves in the narrow space of family and emotional entanglement, pursuing the ultimate dramatic conflict and pen portrayal, although there are highlights in art and hot spots in the ratings, but the vision pattern is not large, the foundation of life is not deep, the spiritual strength is insufficient, and it is urgent to break through the bottleneck.
The theme of industry dramas has expanded from traditional occupations to current hot industries, and the innovation of themes has been deepening. Focusing on speed skating and table tennis sports competition dramas "Flying with You in the Wind" and "Winning Gold", "Emergency Public Relations" showing the public relations industry, "Ideal City", which reflects the current situation of China's construction industry and the professional characteristics of cost engineers, etc., to directly face the industry pressure with the depiction of the real professional environment, through the continuous growth of the protagonist, reflecting the positive energy of upward goodness and self-esteem. These works focus on the real appearance and professional quality of practitioners, pay more attention to the unique phenomena and working conditions of the industry, and seek unity between the real industry and theatrical creation.
Television dramas on the theme of rule of law and television dramas on the theme of military service have achieved good results. The former focuses on the mission of maintaining social stability and protecting people's security on the fronts of public security, political science and law, and procuratorate, and the innovative atmosphere is outstanding, and the military dramas that show the style of "post-80s" and "post-90s" soldiers are unique, and set up a heroic group portrait in the new era. Dramas such as "Overseas Actions of Criminal Police" with overseas as the narrative space, and "Sweeping The Black Storm", which is based on real cases, show the achievements of China's rule of law in a positive and positive manner, highlighting the style of the public prosecutor's and procuratorial fronts in defending social fairness and justice in the new era and performing their duties according to law. Dramas such as "The Trumpeter in Place", which shows the Chinese Rocket Force, portrays the heroic group close to ordinary people in a way that is easily accepted by young people, highlighting the idea of strengthening the army in the new era and the high state of contemporary soldiers.
The popularity of the "she" theme continues. Dramas such as "Flowing Golden Years", "I Am Good in Other Places", "Great Girl", "The Ideal Life of Love" and other dramas focus on women's self-growth and professional life, and incorporate a number of independent and self-reliant new female images into the mainstream narrative of domestic TV dramas, reflecting the real life and value pursuit of young women from different classes in modern cities.
It is worth noting that as China is approaching the center of the world stage as never before, domestic TV dramas have also begun to focus on the global story of Chinese. Dramas such as "Boat of Peace" and "Ebola Frontline" take overseas assistance as the background, based on China's role as a major country in the international community in the new era, and have made new breakthroughs in international tv dramas, explaining the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind with vivid artistic images.
The development of TV drama genres is more mature
In 2021, the genre development of TV dramas is more mature, and some dramas are the eternal themes of national spirit and family and country feelings behind the high-intensity plot settings. For example, the period dramas "Rebels" and "Forwarders" aim at the battlefield behind enemy lines without gun smoke, and express the blood and sacrifice of heroes on the hidden front; "Radiance" and other legendary dramas have added unique images such as bankers and industrialists.
In terms of network dramas, after policy regulation and market selection, pure network dramas and network premiere dramas are changing to improve content quality and highlight value. First, continue to exert efforts on realistic themes, emerging works such as "Set Sail: When the Wind Rises" and "Glory Ping Pong" that focus on innovation and entrepreneurship, sports competition and other fields; "You are my city fortress", "You are my glory" and other dramas have changed the mode of creation, highlighting the depiction of SWAT, doctors, aerospace and other industries on the basis of the original IP (intellectual property rights), adding diversity of life in love and "sweet pet". The second is to continue to deepen the theme of suspense and reasoning, and under the impetus of major platforms, suspense dramas have formed a certain scale and brand effect. In 2021, dramas such as "Fatal Wish", "Octagonal Pavilion Mist", and "Double Detective" have been integrated into the reflection on social phenomena and problems to varying degrees in addition to the bizarre and brain-burning plots, but it is difficult for niche stories to produce mainstream values, and it is difficult to break through the bottleneck of topical heat and lack of spiritual nutrition. The third is to seek breakthroughs in the field of history and culture, such as ancient themes such as "Wind Rises in Luoyang" to further strengthen the creation of historical atmosphere and the pursuit of cultural texture, and fantasy themes such as "Siteng" also have distinct traditional cultural colors and oriental charm. While pursuing ornamentality, such works focus on expressing cultural self-consciousness, and it is expected that there will be more followers.
Throughout the year, the reputation and influence of domestic TV dramas have been significantly enhanced, high-quality products have become the consensus of the whole industry, and the mainstream status of realistic themes and realistic creative methods has been further consolidated. It is foreseeable that realistic dramas focusing on the development of the times will continue to lead the trend.
(Author Affilications:Development Research Center of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television)