Just like the original comic book title "Strange Rumors", the first season of the Korean drama "Exorcism Noodle House" gave the audience the impression that it was really "surprised".
Initially, it was launched under the disadvantage of a bunch of strong IP adaptations: the production budget was not as good as "Sweet Home", the appearance of Cass was not as good as "Goddess Descending", the topic was not as hot as "Queen Zheren"... Ratings unexpectedly skyrocketed, from 2.702% in the first episode to 7.654% in the sixth episode, which broke the record for an OCN drama program, and finally set a surprise record of 10.999% since the opening of OCN.
The official poster faithfully restoring the cover of the manga version.
A large part of the reason why "Exorcism Noodle House" can create a rating record comes from the plot of the Blood King Road that is loyal to the original work. The original work is plain and the story is calm, the process of the ghost hunter team to track down each evil ghost will not drag mud and water, and the probability of inserting the memory killing page is not high. Lu Zhina's plot really captures the essence of the original book, especially the first eight episodes, each episode at least one large fight, interspersed with two or three chases, and did not waste space to design a reversal of temperament. Whether it is a pilgrimage to the original party or a simple theater fan, it is difficult not to follow the rhythm of the plot, while enjoying the surprise of the straight-forward type and catching up.
However, the unsuspecting extension of episodes 9 and 10 seems to announce that the fate of "Exorcist Noodle House" will take a turn. Although the broadcast platform OCN and the producer Studio Dragon did not announce the actual reason for the delay, compared with the storm of changing the screenwriter later, I am afraid that the rift between the creators had reached the point where it could not be repaired at that time. Sure enough, from episode ten onwards, there are more and more irrational or incoherent plots, and even in episode twelve, there are unnecessary setbacks and reversals. After the twelfth episode ended, the ratings reached a record 10.581%, but the screenwriter Lu Zhina announced on Twitter that "there was a disagreement with the crew that could not reach a consensus" and withdrew, and the unfinished thirteenth episode script was handed over to director Liu Shandong to unify on the spot.
When Shi Zheng was busy with filming, he did not forget to go online to appease enthusiastic theater fans.
As soon as the news came out, the audience was in an uproar, and they poured into the official website, and the main actors complained on Twitter, and Kim Se-jong, who played Duhana, also sent a special article calling on the audience to calm down, "Please believe and follow us". The production team quickly found Jin Xinchun, the screenwriter of the movie "Pure Love Comics", to take over the rescue and complete the script of the last three episodes. In fact, in the week of the eleventh and twelfth episodes, OCN officially announced that it would renew the second season, announcing that the main creative team and all the casts would return; now it seems that Studio Dragon has obviously hidden important information from OCN.
Su Jiong's various awakenings in the second half of the plot, although it supported the ratings, could not help but make the audience feel tired.
The ratings of "Exorcism Noodle House" did drop a lot after Lü Bian decided to quit; fortunately, it has come to the second half of the plot, the various awakenings of Su Jiong (Zhao Binggui), the bloody struggles of Hana, Jia Modu (Liu Junxiang), Ms. Qiu (Lian Huilan) and others, and even the sixth ghost hunter Sun Haojun, who made a pop-up cameo, still held up the ratings under the disadvantage of the plot. However, the ratings high of the last episode fell in the first ten minutes, which is very different from the performance curve of the first fifteen episodes.
Sun Haojun crossed the knife in friendship, but the character quickly took the bento, making the audience very dumbfounded.
In fact, the precedent of changing the screenwriter during the broadcast is not uncommon in South Korea, even in the mini-series with short episodes, but it is usually because of the poor ratings found during the filming and broadcasting, or the personal factors of the screenwriter; such as "Exorcism Noodle House", the case of the main creator breaking up at the high point of ratings is quite unusual. After all, this is Lu's return to the television circle after eleven years since 2009's "The Man Who Can't Get Married", but unexpectedly he did not have a beginning and an end, which is a pity.
Modu is alone in the end, I don't know if there will be a new official match in the second season?
Although the production of the second season is not in the original plan, but has been signed back to the schedule of the four main actors, according to the studio Dragon to OCN's pre-production plan, the script of the second season has now entered the outline stage, is expected to start in September 2021, and the target will start broadcasting in the spring or summer of 2022. The "Strange Rumors" comic is still in serialization, although the TV series version has changed a lot of plots and settings, but there are still quite a lot of plot weights that can be adapted; now I only hope that everything will go well, and there will be no more "Surprise" that changes the main creator halfway or the plot is big.