I don't know if you have heard a term, called "retaliatory compensation", the American drama at the beginning of 2022 made Uncle Mei feel the signs of "retaliatory compensation", the day after recommending "Messenger of Peace" to everyone, Uncle Mei saw a series worth recommending, the rhythm of this one after another, this year's good drama should have a lot.
The American drama to be recommended to you this time is called "Archive 81", which currently has a Freshness score of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, a Popcorn Index of 64%, an IMDB score of 7.3, and Douban giving a rating of 6.8. It seems that the results seem to be relatively general, mainly because this is a suspense drama with a slightly slower pace in the early stage, once it is "survived" the laying out in the early stage, then the later plot will let you chase it all the time.
The story of "Archive 81" is that the male protagonist accepted a mysterious invitation to repair a batch of videotapes that were shot in 1994 and later destroyed by fire, in the process of restoration, he felt that he could talk to the heroine in the videotape across time and space, so he decided to use this method to let the heroine avoid dying in the fire, and as the plot developed, he gradually excavated the greater conspiracy hidden in the fire that year, so what are the highlights of this drama? The following Uncle Mei shared with you:
Excellent suspenseful atmosphere
As I told you earlier, this is a suspense drama, so the first criterion for judging whether this drama is good is naturally whether there is enough suspenseful atmosphere. At this point, "File 81" does a very good job, this drama is not the kind of deliberate atmosphere to create a mysterious atmosphere, but in the plot to let the audience follow the protagonist's line of sight step by step and naturally have various doubts.
Of course, if you just dig a pit and do not fill it, then this drama will naturally not be recommended by Uncle Mei, and the most outstanding part of the plot of "File 81" is that it not only naturally digs a lot of pits, but also fills in every pit, and even when filling in the pit, you will sigh: It turned out to be him?
In addition to creating a suspenseful atmosphere in the plot, the background music used in this American drama is also a must, and the "classical opera" in the play is a very key message, until it is close to the end to reveal why the heroine will have a series of psychological and physiological reactions such as breathing difficulties, anxiety and panic after hearing this music, and the music itself has the effect of making people listen creepy.
Perfect plot design
I don't know how many friends remember the plot of why Ardor became like that when "Game of Thrones" revealed, I believe that friends who remember must have admired Martin's means of shaking baggage, although the plot design of "File 81" has not yet reached this height, but it can already be counted as very good.
Take, for example, the plot of Episode 1 of Archive 81: The male protagonist, Dan Turner, is an expert in videotape restoration, and in Episode 1 he repairs a bizarre film that the late director has not made public, called "The Circle". At first glance, this plot seems to be just to show Dan Turner's technical level, but in fact, this plot is an early preparation for the future.
In addition, about the plot design of "Archive 81", Uncle Mei felt that the best thing was that the initial suspense of the story was why the dog in the heroine's photo was exactly the same as the one the male protagonist raised when he was a child, even the collar was the same, and it was this suspense that attracted the male protagonist to quit his job at the museum and accept the "mysterious invitation", but as the plot developed, the story transitioned from "what is the connection between the two" to "what purpose does the male protagonist's employer hire him to repair the videotape", and then transitions to " What is the connection between the employer and the heroine", and finally string everything together to end.
Just like "The Circle", the male protagonist is like a circle center, centered on him, and as the story progresses, it finally draws a closed loop. Of course, the "Circle" mentioned above is not just a metaphor, but has a clear promotion function in the play.
The two-line narrative is slightly brain-burning
Although more and more American dramas have begun to use the performance method of multi-line narrative, most of the episodes are just like the above Uncle Mei said, just to deliberately create a suspenseful atmosphere, and the kind of rigid multi-line narrative is actually unnecessary. The two-line narrative in "Archive 81" is very novel.
The story begins with "Fixing the Tape", and every time the male protagonist repairs a tape, he brings in a plot that happened in the past (1994) and belongs to the heroine. This feeling is like the audience entering the "time tunnel" with the male protagonist, analyzing the memories exclusive to the female protagonist from the perspective of the onlooker: the male protagonist's doubts are answered through the videotape, and then the content of the video tape leads to the new doubts of the male protagonist in the "present", and then repairs a disk, then solves, and then generates doubts, forming a perfect closed loop.
But as the story progresses, when two people begin to "talk", the camera becomes interesting: there is a crossover between the "time and space" between the two people, the male protagonist will "go back to the past", and the female protagonist will also "travel through the future", but this intersection is done very naturally, sometimes even making the audience trance.
Finally, if you are a fan of suspense dramas, then this American drama is very suitable for you to watch, but if you can't accept the slightly slow plot, you may look uncomfortable in the early stage.
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