"Smash out the ratings sinkhole of Yangba", "Pounce on the king, pounce on the horse"... With the launch of "The Wind Rises longxi", it has hit a low ratings for two consecutive nights, complaining about this costume spy drama, as if it has become a prominent science of self-media.
The ratings of "The Wind Rises longxi" are indeed not good. The lowest rating of cool cloud on the first day was only 0.51%, the lowest rating of the next day reached 0.43%, and the overall did not reach 0.5%, from the result, the statement of "smashing through the central eight ratings chassis" seems to be correct, and Chen Kun's consecutive works have not met expectations, which is also a fact.
But since when did the poor ratings not deserve to be called a good drama?
And since when did the ratings of a well-known drama succeed or fail, and the reason can be simply attributed to - the actor can do / can't, carry the drama / do not carry the drama?
If I must say so, please allow me to move out another costume drama that once "smashed through the Hunan Satellite TV ratings market". The ratings of this costume drama were also less than 0.5% that year.
It is "Daming Dynasty 1566".
Although it has now been sealed with a Douban score of 9.7, its high rating is the result of a long and late broadcast after many years.
In order to write this script that year, Liu Heping spent three years, and director Zhang Li filmed this drama for another year.
It is said that CCTV originally wanted to broadcast this drama, but Hunan Satellite TV saw it and then won the drama first, smashing the heavy book to preemptively win the drama, and broadcast as the opening year drama of Hunan Satellite TV in 2007, but the episode not only fell through the ratings chassis of Hunan Satellite TV, but also encountered multiple questions such as the dullness of the episode and the slow pace of the story in that year.
Before the episode was broadcast, Hunan Satellite TV also released news, ready to shoot a sequel "Daming Dynasty 1587", that is, the famous Wanli fifteen years, the main creator also looked for Zhang Li Liu Heping, unfortunately, the drama was tragic, the sequel naturally disappeared, and "Daming Dynasty 1566" has also become a difficult peak for domestic historical dramas.
Looking at the audience's evaluation of "Daming Dynasty 1566" that year, do you feel that there is some similarity with the evaluation of "Wind Rises Longxi"?
But in recent years, there are only these two costume dramas that have encountered the cold reception of ratings? Have not the recognized high-quality "Crane Hua Ting" and "Tiansheng Long Song" also had similar encounters?
If I had to find a common denominator for these cold-rated and hard-known costume dramas, my conclusion is: a sense of luxury.
But is the high-grade costume drama street physique really metaphysical? Are these costume dramas all lost to Qu Gao and Oligarch? "Smashing through the ratings chassis", should we blame the lead actor for not carrying the drama?
Three questions about costume dramas, it's time to unravel.
1. "The Wind Rises longxi", which has a good reputation but cold ratings, has lost to Qu Gao and Oligo?
Now the group ridiculed "paste through the heart of the earth, even the central mother can not save" "the wind rises Longxi", was originally placed high hopes by the platform.
This is a costume drama that combines strong IP, strong creators and three kingdoms themes at the same time, plus the strong broadcast platform of Central Eight, there is no reason not to have high hopes for it. After the episode was broadcast, the word of mouth was indeed good. Some viewers said, "It is a fine collection of costume dramas in recent years."
But ratings and network popularity are another matter.
First of all, according to The Cool Cloud's real-time viewership data, "Wind Rises longxi" continued to break the lowest point of CCTV's eight sets of ratings on the second day of broadcasting, and only recorded 0.5% of the average live broadcast attention. In the episodes broadcast that night, it not only lagged behind Yang 1's "Covenant of New Homes", but also lagged behind Beijing Satellite TV's other historical drama "Mountains and Rivers Moon Ming" and Hunan Satellite TV's "Speak Well".
According to the real-time popularity list of Maoyan Professional Edition, the popularity of "Wind Rising Longxi", which has broadcast six episodes, ranks fourth, lagging behind the "Gate of Rebirth" broadcast by Youku on the same day, Tencent's ancient puppet "And Try the World", and the military theme "Special Battle Glory". The popularity in iQiyi's station is close to 7000.
In general, the network broadcast situation is better than that of the TV side, but in general, the above data is not up to the expectations of many parties.
The problem is that "The Wind Rises longxi" is definitely not a bad drama, and at the production level, it can even be said that it is the most top part of the domestic costume drama. So what's the problem with "The Wind Rises in Longxi"?
First, there is expectation management.
At present, the audience's point of complaint is unprecedented: the pace is slow, the picture is dark, the plot cannot be understood, how does the Three Kingdoms story tell the workplace espionage war?
Traditional historical drama audiences will be more concerned about the question of the line, "I always feel that behind all this, there is the shadow of the candle dragon, if you don't catch the candle dragon, you and I will be finished" "Then catch the candle dragon and ask him." “
"Don't pull the mountain, make a small circle, check one, do one, lurking inner ghosts, shuffle my cards." These dialogues are clearly too modern.
But these are the problems of the episodes or the problems of expectation management.
The long history of the development of historical dramas in China has also cultivated the audience's habit of watching dramas. Standardized historical dramas can also put the audience's expectations at a stable level.
One of the shortcomings of "The Wind Rises longxi" is that it has never been able to please the audience by managing expectations.
For example, dialogue, such as the ending song, chose a song with new pants, the opening is "I don't want to extinguish in the wind", but the traditional historical drama audience loves to listen to "the rolling water of the Yangtze River, the waves exhaust the heroes." “
The real target audience of "The Wind Rises in Longxi" is the audience who has a certain amount of spy drama and historical knowledge accumulation, hopes that the series will have depth, explore human nature, and achieve an excellent balance between commercial and entertainment elements.
Facts have proved that this part of the audience is generally satisfied with the series, but many of the ratings chassis of Central Eight are middle-aged and elderly viewers, and the expectations of this part of the audience for the series are obviously difficult to meet.
So these viewers complained about the episode, the dismal ratings of the episode, the sound that occupied the mainstream, and the positive support of the series was suppressed.
So if the drama side really did something wrong, it is that it did not think clearly about what kind of expectations the series should have.
The second problem is "the honey of Ru, the arsenic of the other."
What does that mean? It is that the actual target audience of the series and the current viewing group have different hobbies, different viewing habits, and completely different wants.
Therefore, many of the advantages of the series, in the eyes of the audience who do not like it, have become the biggest disadvantages.
For example, some viewers said that the plot could not be understood and not good.
But can't the story of the first six episodes really be better? Is it really the plot that lacks appeal?
It must be admitted that the rhythm of the opening of the series is indeed relatively slow.
But this slow pace is not a mind-to-heart water injection. Instead, while slowing down, it completed the laying out of a three-country espionage battlefield, explained many characters, and left a lot of preparation and details.
Even, it is a historical science popularization that is completed for the audience.
For example, what is the Intermediate Military Division? What is Si Wencao?
For another example, the audience feels that the plot is a hammer and a hammer and a stick, and they don't know what they are talking about. Talking about espionage warfare is talking about espionage warfare, how come there are so many scenes of Li Yan interfering with Si Wencao and fighting with Zhuge Liangquan for wisdom?
But this is precisely the best part of the story, in the story, the intelligence agency changed the day, nie Yuan played by the intelligence agency leader not only the power was suspended, but also suffered from the frame of his own people, and then may also be killed.
In fact, this allows the audience to further immerse themselves in the reality of the environment - not only an infernal environment of the Three Kingdoms espionage war, but also a workplace environment commonly encountered by modern people.
This kind of seemingly unintentional but careful details give "The Wind Rises longxi" a different story foundation from the general Three Kingdoms historical drama. That is, What Ma Boyong is best at is combining suspenseful reasoning with history.
After cutting into the classic theme of "catching internal traitors", the story integrates more ancient costume plots such as the dispute between the Shu Dynasty and the situation in the Three Kingdoms, obviously wanting to cross the foggy long river of history, weave a logical and meticulous puzzle and puzzle solving chess game, and look for the aftertaste of history.
But for many viewers, such a plot is really too unpleasant, even depressed.
In the final analysis, costume spy dramas need to be watched at a threshold.
However, traditional historical dramas do not need the threshold of watching dramas the most. When I was a child, my parents did not allow me to watch TV, and the only thing I let me watch was "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
However, many traditional historical drama audiences have difficulty fully understanding the excitement of "The Wind Rises in The West", and even regard the honey in the eyes of the creator as arsenic.
This is also the third core problem of the series: the cinematic aesthetic of the series is inconsistent with the aesthetics of traditional TV audiences.
Director Lu Yang is a director with a very high-end aesthetic, and what he pursues is to make TV series with the method of filming.
In the afterword to Ma Boyong's original novel, Ma Wang also bluntly said that he replaced the name of the person and place, "This is a standard Western spy novel."
It is no wonder that director Lu Yang will tell this story in a cold and dark way, so that the texture of the series is closer to that of a spy film. And this kind of spy film is not a modified Hollywood blockbuster such as "007", but a traditional European and American spy film.
This is also why the director uses a lot of gray and dark realistic main colors and a large number of long shots to shoot this drama, because this is the usual method of traditional spy movies.
The director even used a lot of candles in the play to replace the big flat light of the TV series. But the result is that only a faint candlelight shines on the faces of the actors, and the tone of the whole play is very dark, and everyone looks gray.
Younger audiences may be fine, for older audiences, even Chen Kun and Bai Yu can't see clearly and may immediately change the stage.
For another example, the series is full of intrigues, everyone has to calculate everything, even if it is the simplest line, it may not have a deep meaning.
Different characters in the treacherous situation, you sing and I on stage, tearing and tension between each other, making the plot become very chewy.
But there are things that chew on the head, and it is also difficult to eat.
This is why a large number of male audiences affirmed the show's intentions in terms of theme, picture texture, and costumes, but the reputation of the series is still not so good.
Because the good of the series is not the good in the aesthetics of many viewers.
What it deciphers is not the excitement of the rolling waters of the East Yangtze River, but the exhaustion of the competition for the infernal path of the Three Kingdoms; it focuses not on the romance of the heroes in the waves, but on the demise of the classic hero Romantic. It is the sorrow and joy of the little people in the world of great strife.
He did not believe in his brother-in-law's rebellion, and as a result, he was served by a great punishment, sent to hoe his brother-in-law's adultery, and drank poisoned wine before leaving.
It was Chen Gong, who was in the enemy camp, feared every day by the snake, and had to be raped by his own people.
At the end of the day, this story is not very refreshing, nor does it lack the fun of traditional historical dramas.
But there is a kind of poignant romance that is common in Luyang movies.
Of course, the audience can refuse to watch such a series as "Wind Rises Longxi" because they "can't understand", but the creators can't use this as a reason not to make such works.
Those who dare to eat crabs must be prepared for high and low.
2, "smash through the CCTV chassis", is it really because Chen Kun does not resist the drama?
The second question, "smashing through the CCTV chassis", is it really Chen Kun who does not carry the drama?
Many people complained, looking at Chen Kun's film and television works in recent years, a big "flutter" word is almost like a shadow.
But is this Chen Kun's curse, or Chen Kun's choice?
Found that no, in the four dramas given by the complainers, two of them are dramas with good reputation and cold ratings in recent years, and the other is Chen Kunni's "Tiansheng Long Song".
Another costume drama with cinematic production and high aesthetics, but it is incomprehensible to the plot and the pace is too slow.
Why is it always Chen Kun?
Skeptics believe that one of the logics of the so-called shoulder ratings is that watching TV = watching stars.
Star fire ratings are high, other is not important. Therefore, Chen Kun's episodes have lost one after another, of course, Chen Kun does not carry the drama.
But in fact, ratings are a collection of many factors such as theme, word of mouth, IP, director, schedule and publicity. In the case of other factors, the actor effect is the icing on the cake.
Why is "Tiansheng Long Song" ratings? Is it really because of Chen Kun? Change the top star, the ratings of the series will win steadily?
I think the real reason is that, as a power drama, the drama is too emotionally unsettling and too depressed.
When the creator took the initiative to choose the high-end aesthetic of the costume drama, for the elderly uncles and aunts, the story is too difficult to understand, and for the audience who want to see the ancient puppet, the drama is not sweet enough.
So why is it always Chen Kun? The answer is that Chen Kun always picks this type of drama. But why is Chen Kun always picking these works? The answer is that Chen Kun's aesthetic is consistent with it.
But is this aesthetic and choice wrong?
If so, data and traffic = king fried. Being able to carry ratings is king. Whoever can make a blockbuster is the top of the industry. That Chen Kun was wrong.
But if some actors just don't cater to the wind and don't believe in this carnival of data myths.
What I saw was that Chen Kun starred in two rare costume dramas in succession.
I decided to watch this drama because of Chen Kun. And in the end, it is not only Chen Kun.
In this sense, Chen Kun is not wrong, and CCTV, who chose this drama, is even more not wrong.
It's never wrong to shoot good works and choose good ones.
3. Is the high-grade costume drama really metaphysical?
But why in recent years, this kind of high-quality costume drama has repeatedly suffered the "defeat of the street kiosk".
If there is an inner ghost in the story of this domestic costume drama, then who is the "Candle Dragon"? Or is it all really metaphysics?
My answer is: because these high-end, cinematic costume dramas are half a step ahead of the audience.
The truth is that all successful costume dramas have routines to follow.
The author of "Qing Yu Nian" has concluded that Shuangwen's character setting has two different directions: "One is to let the reader substitute into the 'dick silk' and follow the protagonist to counterattack." A substitute for 'noble prince', how refreshing. The rise of teenagers and the winners of life are more popular. ”
As long as costume dramas know how to follow the formula of past blockbuster success, it is easier to be bought by the audience.
However, all the high-end costume dramas with high reputation and low ratings are precisely not played according to the routine.
On the one hand, it is these works that make domestic costume dramas have a "sense of high-end", and they have begun to catch up with British and American dramas and movies in the presentation of pictures.
But on the other hand, this kind of innovation also often brings about aesthetic barriers -
Chen Kun and Ni Ni starred in "Tiansheng Long Song", which was questioned for its slow pace, even if it scored a high score of 8.1 on Douban, it was helpless for Mango Station's "first to last in ratings" in the past decade.
Luo Jin's "Crane And Hua Ting" won people's hearts at the beginning because of "sophisticated service", but with the continuous reversal and reversal of the plot, the audience could not stand the plot of the drama with "abuse" as the core, and also made the drama miss the hit.
"Qing Ping Le" by the noonday sun tries to outline a group portrait of the historical figures of the Northern Song Dynasty monarchs, but it is also questioned that the plot pace is slow, the protagonist's personality collapses, and finally the ratings "poverty alleviation" end.
Why does the good reputation of high-quality costume dramas not trigger ratings counterattacks every time?
Because people overemphasize the link between word of mouth and box office, they may overlook an important problem, that is, the motivation of the vast majority of audiences to watch costume dramas is not to watch a "good" drama.
Instead, I want to watch a good costume drama.
"Langya List" can counterattack, not only because it is good, but also because it is good enough. And what about the above-mentioned costume dramas that failed in ratings? The audience knows that its costumes are good, the production is good, and the actors are acting well, but they still don't plan to see it. Only when the word of mouth of the episode shows that it is "not good-looking", word of mouth will really drive the growth of ratings.
This is also the deadliest ratings weakness of all haute couture costume dramas: they cannot prove to more audiences that they are good-looking.
Finally, back to the "Daming Dynasty 1566" of that year.
At that time, Liu Heping wrote the script, hung the portraits of Hai Rui and Jia Jing in the studio, and burned incense every day before writing. Not only did he study the "Fifteen Years of the Wanli Calendar", but he also consulted Liu Zehua and Feng Erkang. Finally, "there were academic achievements in the field of historiography before there was the 1566 Ming Dynasty." ”
After the script was written, Liu Heping asked Zhang Li to be the director. At the beginning, the two decided to expand the plot to a higher level, starting from historical reflection and the depth of cultural thought.
Subsequently, the old drama bones continued to join, Wang Jinsong said that at that time, everyone had eaten the script thoroughly, and if anyone had a line on the set, "it would be looked down upon."
Ni Dahong played the 80-year-old Yan Song, the whole time in the play, even if it is preparation time, he is like an old man sitting on the set, not moving like a mountain.
In order to make the image more suitable for Hai Rui, Huang Zhizhong ran 10,000 meters every day and lost 19 pounds in 12 days.
In the end, Wang Jinsong, Huang Zhizhong, Ni Dahong, Chen Baoguo, Wang Qingxiang, and Zhang Zhijian used god-level performances to make all the characters come to life. Dapeng, who is still a host on the website, can't help but summarize: "The most capable actors in China have all got into this play." ”
But the episode ratings still pounced.
After the ratings hit the street, many media concluded that because of the "entertainment platform" in Hunan, most of them were young audiences, so no one watched. I am very skeptical of this statement, when "The Name of the People" was broadcast, was the main audience of Hunan Tv not a young audience? But the series created a ratings myth.
The problem is obviously not here with the platform audience, the episode is cold, the reason is very simple, that is, the audience does not like to watch.
The history shown in the play is thick and the people's hearts are subtle, those small views reflect the worries of ancient Chinese society, and those that leave the audience with the space for interpretation to look at it and play again and again, young audiences can't watch it, and middle-aged and elderly historical drama audiences still can't watch it.
That's the root of the problem.
So are these costume dramas that are half a step ahead of the audience valuable?
People often say that those dramas that spend money to buy traffic actors, those dramas that regard the audience's intelligence as nothing, those dramas that take the circle of money as the only orientation, and those dramas that give gold bars to garbage acting skills are destined to be forgotten by the audience.
Perhaps, but before it was forgotten, many of them achieved real viewership success.
On the contrary, those good dramas made with heart also let the series have a threshold, and put forward quite high requirements for the audience's knowledge reserves and aesthetics, and as a result, they failed in ratings.
People always say that these good dramas will be remembered by the audience, but the truth is that the day when the audience's aesthetics can understand "Daming Dynasty", they have forgotten to watch this drama.
If a bad drama wins ratings, and a word-of-mouth masterpiece wins the future, who wins and who loses?
But you can't say that these failed episodes are worthless.
One of my favorite passages in the first six episodes of "The Wind Rises in Longxi" is that a group of Elite Shu Kingdoms surrounded in the mountains decided to fight to the death in order to cover chen Gong's men.
Before the decisive battle, Captain Jin raised his head and said, "The weather is good, today's martyrdom, there is no death or life." Then the group of warriors shouted "Xinghan and destroy the thieves", and one by one they were generous and righteous.
Any ordinary historical drama will not give such a group of small people who do not even have a name, such a moving paragraph, but "The Wind Rises longxi" will certainly be.
And to be able to shoot this moving drama, it must be meaningful, even if its ratings have been tragically swept on the street, I don't know if it can be counterattacked.
The real costume drama creators, just like the protagonists in these costume dramas, do not know where the future is, do not know what the result is, but the mission is where the feelings are, and they must continue to step into the foggy future, without fear or regret.
Perhaps they are doomed to be unable to defeat the fate of Qu Gao and Widow, but no one can deny that the disregard for the romance bursts out.