Under the pressure of a cold market environment and a decline in program quality, it is especially important for a "comprehensive N generation" to be able to maintain the basic market. From this dimension, the results of "Detective 8" can be regarded as breaking the difficult dilemma of "comprehensive N generation" to sustain.
Author|Wei Qiao, Editor|Ding Yu
Who would have thought that the "Great Detective" series was broadcast to the eighth season, and the word of mouth that slipped year by year turned out to be counterattacked.
The program Douban scored 9.2 points, locking the position of the first word-of-mouth variety show in the opening year. After the three cases aired, the rating stabilized at 9.1 points, the same as the third season and second only to the first season's 9.4 points.
However, the other side of the word-of-mouth "return to the peak" is that compared with the Douban score of more than 100,000 times in the first five seasons, the number of Douban ratings of the "Great Detective" series has decreased year by year in recent years, and the current Douban score of the eighth season has just exceeded 20,000.
In horizontal comparison, the number of broadcasts of "Detective 8" still occupies the forefront, but the popularity of public opinion is even less than the sixth season of its own derivative variety show "Detective Academy" on the data list.
The number of broadcasts in the head, super high word of mouth, and calm public opinion, for a "comprehensive N generation", can it be considered a success?
On the one hand, as a pendant variety show with a niche theme, it is already a miracle that it can achieve the eighth season, and it is not easy to maintain the current reputation. On the other hand, after events such as changes in the market environment, the departure of the production team and the withdrawal of core guests, the show itself has also been impacted, and now "Detective 8" can be broadcast on time, which is already a victory.
In 2016, "Star Detective" was born, which brought out a "mystery fever". As a pioneer of "script killing variety shows", the "Detective" series is equivalent to carving out a road from a desert. Since then, a series of competing shows have appeared in the market, but none of them have the influence of the "Detective" series.
Over the years, the show has cultivated a loyal audience for itself through hardcore, brain-burning, meaningful content, and even if it may not be as popular, at least the core audience has never been lost.
Under the pressure of a cold market environment and a decline in program quality, it is especially important for a "comprehensive N generation" to be able to maintain the basic market. From this perspective, although the sponsors of the eighth season have been reduced from 4 in the previous season to 2, the results of "Detective 8" now can be regarded as breaking the unsustainable dilemma of "comprehensive N generation".
High reputation for warm swallowing
"Detective 8" uses a pilot film to show the intention and determination of the main creative team: eating old books and selling feelings is no longer feasible, and making a really good story is the only way to revitalize the show.
The pilot, which the audience called "the best ever", highlights the dramatic conflict at the beginning. The guests sat around the round table and played a board game called "Forest Evolution", the rules of which included a complex identity system, exciting offensive and defensive methods, and endless prop skills.
The show no longer mentions Sabine expressing his thoughts about him, and all the emotions are condensed into the title of "acting president". The main creator focused more on the content of the program itself - the freshness brought by the innovative model, the suspense returned to the brain-burning mode after the suspense was upgraded, and the acquaintance group collided with the variety show effect.
Judging from the programs that have been broadcast, the main creative team is very attentive from scene construction to case presentation. The first case, "Sunset Horror", was recorded in a luxurious real scene as usual, and the magnificent and mysterious "Sunset Mansion" not only provided a venue for the "Blizzard Mountain Villa Mode", adding visual spectacle and immersion, but more importantly, using the structure of the building itself to complete the core modus operandi of the case.
When the guests unveiled the mystery of the lifting mechanism composed of elevator shafts, niches and oil paintings step by step from the changes in the murals and the differences in the clocks in the video, it also refreshed the audience who were accustomed to seeing bizarre secret rooms and strange secret passages. The elevator rises and falls to the change of clock, the design of time and space are intertwined, and the complexity of the modus operandi and the brain-burning degree of plot development have been effectively upgraded.
In the second case of "Sunset Horror", in addition to the usual soul exchange routine, the show introduces a new gameplay of camp warfare, pulling the atmosphere that has been rendered low by painful stories and supernatural phenomena back to a tense and exciting confrontation state, and the mutual temptation and camouflage performance between the guests have become a new attraction, and the climax of the show is enough to continue to grab the audience's attention.
The third case of the latest broadcast, "Leaving the Surface of the Planet", although it does not have the blessing of luxurious real scenes, but the case is also maintained above the standard. Whether it is the modus operandi of letting the victim drown in water in weightlessness, creating an alibi by adjusting the speed of time flow, or the reasoning process of the guests to calculate the character's line of action through the consumption of solar energy, the background setting of space flight is used to the extreme while completing the logic of the story.
In addition, this case is also closely related to the current pop culture, the sci-fi theme not only links with the popular "The Wandering Earth 2", but also has many tribute to the setting and bridge of "Interstellar" and "Beijing Fold", and audiences familiar with these works are easily evoked more resonance.
The eighth season effectively continues the advantages of the previous game, and completes surprising format innovations, which makes sense for old fans who are looking forward to a new season.
But on the other hand, the process of brainstorming and high-energy reasoning of the guests increases the difficulty of marketing and communication of the show. Even if the audience watches it from beginning to end, the complex modus operandi and rich and profound story background and character relationships in "Detective 8" may not be able to understand and sort out clearly in the first time, resulting in the "CPU burned" comment in the barrage.
All these make it difficult to condense the content of the program into half-sentence hot search terms, let alone make card segments or golden sentence screenshots to spread on new media. Compared with those already lively and noisy TV series and fierce movies, in the public opinion field, "Detective 8" is difficult to divide much public attention.
The high rating and the separation between broadcast and public opinion are the true reflection of the actual situation of the program.
New value and new meaning
Since the seventh season, the "Detective" series has undergone a revamp. In addition to the change of the name of the show to "Detective", the biggest change is the addition of "Detective Collegiate Court" after each case. So much so that "The Great Detective" changed from a "reasoning reality show" to an "Internet law popularization education reasoning program".
However, this link, which was initially considered a "tool for passing the trial", is very meaningful to take a closer look. The program invited judges from the Supreme People's Court and Shen Yifei, associate professor of sociology at Fudan University, to interpret and popularize the law on the criminal circumstances and social issues involved in the case.
They did not memorize the law and shout slogans according to the script, but made an in-depth and simple analysis of the specific details of the case from the legal and academic perspectives, and the vivid story combined with logical expression, which was quite similar to "listening to Mr. Luo Xiang talk about criminal law".
During the season, the issues explored by the Full Court were more in-depth and extensive. After "Sunset Horror", the collegial panel talked about the reasons behind stereotypes and violent bullying from the logical relationship between the clan rules under the clan system and the modern rule of law in the pre-modern society, and even conducted an objective and in-depth analysis of such a sensitive issue as "whether there is a gender issue behind the violence of the Tangshan beating case", which won the audience's applause in the barrage.
After "leaving the surface of the planet", the collegial panel also took up the imagination of the future world for space exploration, not only analyzed the scope of use of the current law, but also revealed the significance of legislation and the process of exploration and development.
"Dare to Say" has always been an important trait of the "Great Detective" series, and strong and profound reality care is an important reason why this show can firmly hold the first deal of similar programs. If you recall carefully, the problems presented in "Sunset Horror", including the original family, intergenerational issues, media ethics, victim guilt, gender stereotypes, etc., are almost all topics that have been highlighted in past cases, and each of them is a topic that is easy to arouse heated discussions in the current public opinion environment.
The valuable thing about the show is that the main creator does not treat the topic as a gimmick, but through solid construction of the story and shaping of characters, he explains the cause and effect of different problems in the process of growth. There is no black-and-white conclusion and judgment in the program, but it provides a rich enough field and puts forward multiple perspectives of thinking.
For example, the victims who looked "damned" in the previous three issues, Jia shark shark in "Sunset Horror" gradually distorted and extreme in the suppression of the original family, and finally spared his life in order to maintain the so-called family dignity. In addition to exploring the causes of his extreme personality, the show also puts forward a more rational point at the end, "Every native family is not perfect and cannot be an excuse to get away with sin." ”
Zhen Space's spirit of advocating sacrifice and dedication is admirable for fear of sacrifice and deception and harm to others, but under the grand narrative, whether "selfishness" is allowed to exist, and where the boundaries of "personal will" are, are also worth discussing.
"The Great Detective" has always been restrained in expression, hiding the theme in the plot, allowing the meaning to burst out in the emotion, not preaching, not indoctrinating, the ups and downs of the plot and vivid and vivid characters, enough to please the audience's more diverse and rich thinking.
Can Detective be copied?
From 2016 to the present, the "Detective" series has reached its eighth year, and the "mystery fever" brought by it has risen and declined, and a variety of gimmicky programs have emerged one after another, but there has never been a show comparable to this series.
"Meng Detective Detective Case" once won the siege with its reproduction of classic IP and strong entertainment effects, even if the reputation was not good, it still gained a high degree of popularity and became the opening of iQiyi's "Fan Season" that year, but the subsequent "Strange Script Shark" and "The Last Winner" had a mediocre reputation and failed to open a new chapter of "professional script killing show".
In 2022, after the bombardment of a series of nostalgic shows, the emotional routines of "Detective Detective 2" are no longer tried, the problems of insufficient reasoning content and insufficient logic are further exposed, and the show can no longer achieve the voice of the first season.
Another highly anticipated is "Let's Start Reasoning", which is operated by the main creative team Little Box Studio for the first six seasons of the "Detective" series. The show has some remarkable, but it still failed to achieve the expected effect due to mixed forms, mismatched guests and other reasons.
Now, after experiencing turmoil and crisis, "Detective" has returned to the state in the eighth season, and it is clear that Yanji Studio, who is in danger, has found the key to the success of previous seasons after a season of running-in.
The advantage of the "Great Detective" series has always been that it has a solid script and story, which can balance the reasoning styles of Benge, declension and social in the script, so that the wild imagination has a realistic foothold, so that the audience can feel the power of social issues in the brain-burning suspense story.
The cases that have been aired in "Detective 8" have been well received by most viewers, but have also experienced some controversy. The script of "Sunset Horror" is pointed out that the elevator design in the mansion is highly similar to the balance structure building in the incident of "Libra Women's College" in the Japanese mystery novel "Kirikiri"; Among them, Zhen Huohuo's life story is also considered to be very similar to the life story of the male protagonist in the Korean drama "Pinocchio".
Due to the differences in the types of works and presentation methods, the borrowing and parody of film and television works in variety shows are often allowed, and even popular with the audience. However, whether the core tricks in the program can also be copied, and how to define the boundary between tribute and plagiarism in the program, still need to be sorted out and improved, which is conducive to the long-term development of similar programs.
On the other hand, for puzzle variety shows, guests must "go one step more" than the audience. Because as long as the audience is invested in the plot, even if the "CPU burns" when the guests analyze the case, they will feel enlightened when the truth is revealed. On the contrary, if the guest's thinking and reaction speed is not as fast as the audience, the subsequent plot has already been guessed, the guest is still repeatedly deliberating or even making wrong decisions, and the audience will soon lose patience.
Therefore, the program needs guests with strong observation, excellent analytical skills and rich knowledge reserves, as well as guests with clear logic and smooth expression, and timely questions and explanations from the perspective of the audience. Further, it is the variety show spark randomly collided by the "Acquaintance Bureau", which can add entertainment in a timely manner and mediate the atmosphere and rhythm.
There are laws in the "Great Detective Universe", "There is Rong Tou Rong (Yang Rong), there is Xin Tou Xin (Wu Xin), there is Gull and Gull (Wang Ou) Chosen, Qi and Qi (Qi Wei) Choose, Secret Room to See Bai (Bai Jingting), Organ to Look at Zhang (Zhang Ruoyun), Brain Power to Look at Liu (Liu Haoran), There is Lock to Find Ghosts (Wu Yingjie), There is Terrier and Wei (Wei Chen), There is Big Zhang Wei (Da Zhang Wei)...
This is the tacit understanding generated by the long-term companionship of the program and the guests and the audience, and it also brings strong audience stickiness.
Interestingly, although it seems that the show did not rashly invite newcomers to join, and the audience said "acquaintance bureau YYDS", in fact, in the eighth season, in the starting lineup, the earliest core members "He Ghost Sa Baiou" only left He Jiong and Wang Ou, and the rest of the members were joined in the follow-up shows. After several seasons of running-in, everyone has their own distinct personality and suitable position.
It is necessary to have a very high original ability, can create suspenseful brain-burning and wonderful cases, but also be able to find suitable guests among the vast sea of artists, and gradually cultivate the tacit understanding between guests and guests, and between guests and audiences. At present, if you want to replicate the success of the "Detective" series, it is not enough to just follow the trend and do "mystery".
But fortunately, the program familiar to the audience is back, even if the voice is slightly weaker, it is difficult to talk about "breaking the circle", but the variety show market is still cold, only grasp the most core audience, in the pendant program to hold the top position, is not a success.