At the beginning of the year, a "Mountain and Sea Situation" helped the noonday sun to return to the peak of word of mouth.
Perhaps it is the noonday sun production that has been pulled up the expectation value, and the "Children of Joe's Family" that began broadcasting in August has encountered a high-open low-go evaluation trend.
Judging from the Intuitive Douban score, the score dropped from close to 9 points at the beginning to 8.0 points.
What's worse is that it has been broadcast for 30 episodes, and the number of evaluations has just exceeded 80,000, compared with the more than 300,000 of "Mountains and Seas", and the "Great Rivers and Rivers 2" at the end of last year exceeded 150,000, and the attention is much lower.
Naturally, the ratings are also unsatisfactory.
Some commentators believe that director Zhang Kaizhu will never be able to make a tv series well.
So disappointment is normal.
The plot is bloody and procrastinating, which is a more representative evaluation.
Indeed, as early as "Qing Ping Le", Zhang Kaizhou's slow-paced style has been criticized. Obviously, the things that can be said in episode 1 have dragged out several episodes. In the end, it was filmed for 70 episodes.
In the era of fast-paced, even many fast-paced ones have to be played at double speed, Zhang Kaizhu still shoots like this, no doubt knowing that it cannot be done.
It is not strange that the result is not satisfactory.
Looking at the noonday sun from the beginning of "Langya List" and "The Pretender", the directors who can really hold the word of mouth and have the topic degree, counting and counting, are probably only Kong Sheng and Li Xue.
Count the episodes where the noonday sun reaches 8.5 on Douban.
"Langya List", directed by Kong Sheng and Li Xue;
"The Pretender", directed by Li Xue;
"The Wind rises in the Long Forest", directed by Kong Sheng and Li Xue;
"Big River", directed by Kong Sheng and Huang Wei;
"Big Rivers and Great Rivers 2", Li Xue, Huang Wei;
"Mountains and Seas", Kong Sheng, Sun Molong.
Without exception, they are inseparable from Kong Sheng and Li Xue.
Of course, the noonday sun does not just rely on the standard of 8.5 points of Douban to eat.
Take a look at a few other ratings hits.
The first is 2016's Ode to Joy.
The director still has Kong Sheng sitting in the seat, partnering with the top female drama director Jian Chuanxuan.
Female lead actors such as Liu Tao and Jiang Xin have gained very high popularity by relying on this series, and the characters they play have more distinct personalities.
This may be more due to Kong Sheng, whose skills in group portrait drama are obvious to all.
For example, the depiction of various forces in "Langya List", what characters each force has, and it is clear that it is filmed;
"Ode to Joy" unfolds from the perspective of five women, each story line is clearly told, and the story has an anti-dog blood and anti-Mary Sue structure, which is one of the strengths of the series.
However, many viewers expressed doubts about the concept conveyed by the content, which led to a continuous decline in later evaluations.
In the sequel "Ode to Joy 2", Jian Chuan continued to direct, but Zhang Kaizhou replaced Kong Sheng.
Although it is relying on the popularity of the previous work, it continues to get high ratings, but without Kong Sheng, the "old fritter", the plot rhythm of the series has a problem, and the character shaping is basically in place, coupled with the exaggerated setting is more exposed, and the reputation directly collapses.
This has also become the lowest-rated work since Noonday Sun started its business.
With Kong Sheng and without Kong Sheng, there is a clear difference between the two "Ode to Joy" alone.
Or 2016's "If Snails Have Love", the ratings are not explosive, but they are not bad.
The director is still Zhang Kaizu.
The word of mouth that has just started broadcasting is very good, after all, there is a small student Wang Kai starring, and other people's performances have also been recognized by the audience.
In particular, the combination of suspense and love elements is relatively new for domestic dramas.
But with the deepening of the plot, Zhang Kaizhou is a bit unable to hold it.
However, this time, due to the suspense, he has already filmed very tightly, and more bad reviews focus on the logic of the plot. It is more the original author who is complained about.
In any case, he still couldn't save the show.
The Douban score has dropped to 7.2, which is only a pass for tv series.
In 2018, Zhang Kaizhu continued to exert his strength, and his "Do You Know If It Should Be Green Fat Red Skinny" also achieved high ratings.
However, this high rating is difficult to say that it is his credit.
"Ode to Joy 2" relies more on the popularity of the previous game;
"If snails have love" has Wang Kai and Wang Ziwen, who has just earned enough popularity with "Ode to Joy";
"Do you know if it should be green fat red skinny" has the top 85 flowers Zhao Liying as the top card, actors Feng Shaofeng and Zhu Yilong have good popularity, and another director can have high attention.
With the signature sophisticated production of the noonday sun and a solid plot, this costume love drama also gained a good reputation at the beginning.
However, the Douban score ultimately failed to keep 8 points, unfortunately locked at 7.8, why is this?
One of the reasons is that Zhang Kaizhou has begun his slow storytelling method again.
Just watching the volume of 78 episodes, it is estimated that many viewers who do not have much time have to watch at double speed.
Sure enough, in the negative evaluation, it is not a minority that is too procrastinating.
The other is the riot operation of the partner Hunan Satellite TV.
This broadcast plan is sometimes one episode a day, sometimes two episodes a day, and the finale is suspected to be the original episode, which is edited into two episodes.
Some speculators believe that Hunan TV delayed the broadcast time in order to get more ratings.
Whether it is or not, in short, the already slow pace will test the patience of the audience, and the broadcast time will be tested once, so you can't blame the audience for giving a bad review in one breath.
In 2019's "All Is Good", Jian Chuanyu showed his strength in directing women's dramas.
With the issue of directly attacking social reality, the fierce plot conflict, and the distinct role shaping, especially Su Daqiang, played by Ni Dahong, he has directly become a circle-breaking character.
However, as with the Ode to Joy series, there was a heated discussion among viewers about the issue of values. Coupled with the forced consummation of the ending, the depth of the theme has been weakened, and the reputation has not been able to stop falling, and it has not become a real divine drama level like "Big River".
2020's "I Am Yu Huanshui" is also a work that has won high attention by relying on realistic issues, but the perspective has been changed to men.
Sun Molong is worthy of Kong Sheng's ace partner, under his control, in the first 12 episodes, "I Am Yu Huanshui" was once considered the light of national drama and a milestone work to open the door of domestic commercial boutique dramas.
Wanwan did not expect that it was only because of the controversy about feminism in a line in the ending, and the word of mouth was directly falling to the altar.
The high score of Douban originally 8.5 fell to the current 7.3.
In addition, the different views of different audiences on the real society and whether the series is real enough are also a major reason for the polarization of this short drama in the later stage.
So is it impossible without Kong Sheng Li Xue?
Not all.
Kong Sheng and Li Xue are good at the main drama, they are basically shooting what they are good at, and their ability is placed there, and their works are naturally the biggest sign of the noonday sun.
And other dramas whose reputation is always high and low, are not necessarily stable when replaced by Kong Sheng and Li Xue.
At best, Kong Sheng only guaranteed that "Ode to Joy" was not bad, but he could not control the controversy of the text.
The realistic themes that open the market rely more on Jian Chuan and so on, and the love theme mainly relies on Zhang Kaizhou, and these directors are also shooting what they are good at, but unfortunately their fire is not as good as Kong Sheng.
If there is only Kong Sheng Li Xue, the noonday sun may be more niche.
It is precisely by relying on other genres to open up the market that their family has had greater success.
Commercial dramas such as "Ode to Joy" and "All Is Well" have merits, but also have obvious shortcomings, while "Joe's Children" just repeats the same mistakes.
The directors of the noonday sun need to continue to grow, but at the same time, it is also important to polish the script. Always let the audience be entangled in the issue of values, although it can be exchanged for traffic, but it is more difficult to achieve brand breakthroughs.