Last year was the year when period dramas shined. The two in the annual popularity Top3 of the V list are period dramas, with the webcast index of "The World" being 93.67 and the webcast popularity of "Wind Blowing Half Summer" being 91.02, which is a proper network-wide hit. In addition to high popularity, the commonality of these two dramas is also high reputation, the former has a Douban score of 8.1 points, and the latter has 8.2 points.
There are actually traces of period dramas accumulated last year, and a "Mountain and Sea Love" in 2021 came out of the circle with a super high reputation of 9.2 points, becoming an important turning point for period dramas to enter the public's eyes. "Children of the Qiao Family" broadcast in the same year, although the reputation and popularity did not explode, but it also made the audience's eyes shine.
Going back further, "Big River" broadcast in 2018 and "Big River 2" broadcast in 2020 are also iconic works with hot period dramas. Thanks to the deep cultivation in previous years, this year's period dramas ushered in a blowout in the number, according to incomplete statistics, in addition to the "Our Day" and "Love Full of Nine Daowan" that have been broadcast, the head period dramas to be broadcast this year have at least "The Sea in the Dream", "Big River 3", "Life Luyao" and other dramas.
Unfortunately, the two dramas that took the lead this year failed to continue the "glory" of the period drama last year. "Our Day" also surprised many audiences at the beginning of the broadcast, and even some viewers compared it with the classic period dramas "Parental Love" and "Please Answer 1988", but as the plot unfolded, word of mouth continued to decline, and the Douban score has stayed at 6.1 points so far. "Love Man Jiudao Bay" broadcast at the same time received a mediocre response, and its reputation and popularity were not as good as the previous work "Love Man Courtyard".
Of course, good works can bring valuable experience to the creation of similar works, and works with poor feedback also have exploration value. We have selected several period drama works with polarized feedback, and respectively, we have looked for the creation methodology of period dramas from their commonalities.
Appreciation of works out of the circle: people are simple in material and real in emotions
From "Great Rivers" to "Mountains and Seas" to "The World", these popular period dramas on the Internet have many similarities in content. In terms of the overall tonality of the story, these three works are simple and hanging, especially "Mountain and Sea Love" and "The World" with strong regional characteristics, which are almost rough. It is in extreme contrast with the current mainstream aesthetics that pursue visual refreshment and typed narratives, just like throwing "Xu Sanduo" into a bunch of "Jack Sue", bringing a clear stream of beauty back to basics.
This simplicity mainly comes from the temperament of the characters, in these works, the protagonists are down-to-earth and diligent kind ordinary people, whether it is career or life, whether it is family or emotions, they are "plain" like most ordinary people, they do not have a prominent family lineage, there is no "golden finger" when facing life difficulties, and every high and low is the posture of small people.
But these ordinary little people are very infectious. This infectious power comes from life force and emotional energy. From the audience's point of view, watching an ordinary person who is close to the ground step by step and working hard to live a good life by himself, watching an ordinary person struggling indomitably for life in the development of the times, is like watching the ordinary self in life, so their frustrations, hardships, and happiness can easily trigger the pity, sympathy and emotion of most ordinary people.
In terms of emotional expression, these dramas are not limited to love, but amplify the influence of family and friendship. Such an expression will undoubtedly make the work weaken the appeal to a specific audience, but it will expand the radiation surface of the audience, and when audiences from different circles are moved, there will be a spread of topics from point to point, and eventually the trend of encirclement will lead to a national hit.
The reason why "Wind Blows Half Summer" can be out of the circle is because of the novelty from the character. It is not uncommon for "growth series" period dramas that depict the protagonist struggling to pursue his career in the tide of the times, and such works often detach the perspective from the short and short of the parents, and bring a sense of story refreshment with a stronger career line, which is a "typed" work in period dramas.
But this drama is based on female entrepreneurship, this big heroine is full of aura, personality, pattern and courage are not inferior to the big male protagonist, such a character is highly in line with the current market's aesthetics of independent women, plus the starring Zhao Liying is not only one of the most appealing actors in the current mainstream market, the actor's aura is also highly compatible with the role, injecting a strong personal charm into the role. To some extent, this is a good chemical reaction produced by the collision of female themes and period dramas.
The same route as "The Wind Blows Half Summer" is "Set Sail, When the Wind Rises", which adopts the popular dual male protagonist model. In casting, actors Wu Lei and Hou Minghao are also actors loved by young audiences. Although the popularity of this work is not out of the circle, the overall performance is excellent. The two works have a similar charm: they retain the nostalgic filter of period dramas and add the latest elements of the current market. Positive exploration was made between integrity and innovation.
Whether it is "The World", which shows the fate of ordinary families, or "Half Summer Blows", which shows the theme of struggle, they all bring positive emotional value to the audience. The former shows the joys, sorrows and emotions of ordinary people, and the latter inspires people with their bloody struggle experience.
Defeat work demining: the conflict is full of blood, and the characters are off track
There is no harm without comparison, last year's two popular "The World" and "Wind Blows Half Summer" have an online broadcast index of 90+, a Douban score of 8+, and the previous "Mountains and Seas", both of which achieved a breakthrough in popularity under the blessing of high word-of-mouth. The word-of-mouth route has become the correct posture for period dramas to come out of the circle. And this year's two period dramas, word-of-mouth performance has shown a trend of high opening and low going.
Objectively speaking, "Our Day" and "Love Full of Nine Daowan" at the beginning of the broadcast, once brought a good first impression to the audience, both dramas are very careful in production, and the details are also highly restored to the era at that time, the actors in the play are also powerful, only from the texture point of view, these two dramas are also full of sincerity.
The word-of-mouth turning point of both dramas occurs in the middle half of the plot. "Our Day" from the play "Snowflake" after adulthood to poor evaluation, this character's childhood is very outstanding, can be called a highlight of the work, but many of the jumping performances in adulthood have been complained by many audiences that "there is no sense of boundaries". And the biggest slot of "Love Full of Nine Daowans" is that the male protagonist is not "single-minded" enough, entangled between three women, and the single-mindedness of the female protagonist is seriously inequal. Under the huge gap, the infatuated heroine was also complained by the audience as "love brain".
Period dramas often come with their own nostalgic filters, and the aesthetics and values of people in the specific era described in the play are of course different from the current society. However, if the play wants to use the outlook on life and emotions conveyed by the work to resonate with the audience, it cannot ignore the feelings of the viewer, especially in the love line, if the emotional view of the male protagonist and the woman is contrary to the current mainstream aesthetics, the male and female protagonists will not be pleasant.
In addition to the unpleasant character of the protagonist, the outdated concepts of the older generation presented in the play also caused the audience to complain on a large scale. For example, in "Love Full of Nine Daowan", the male protagonist's mother still does not agree to the marriage of the two after learning that her son is living with his girlfriend and getting pregnant, unless the child born to the female protagonist is a baby boy.
In period dramas, it is common to show the collision of values between different generations, but if the work exaggerates too much outdated values that are incompatible with the current society, the focus will be blurred in the theme transmission, and once this negative theme is noisy, the audience will have negative emotions. This kind of emotion may ferment the topic for the play, but it is also likely to make the word of mouth back. For period dramas, word of mouth is obviously more important than negative topics.
Overall, this year's two works are a bit too hard in the production of contradictions and conflicts. In the story line of young people in "Our Day", there is either a heart-wrenching love triangle or a character disability caused by various accidents, and the degree of intensity is quite the "pain" of early domestic youth films. In fact, 2021's "Children of the Qiao Family" is already a lesson in the past, and it was originally a high-reputation period drama, but the five brothers and sisters all had an abnormal emotional marriage state, which reduced the warm tone transmitted by the work, and finally led to the failure of the word-of-mouth reputation of the work to reach excellence.
The emotional journey of the male and female protagonists of "Love Full of Nine Daowan" is equally tragic, with the strong intervention of feudal parents, the intervention of love enemies, misunderstandings outside reason, and so on. After the contradiction is too full, no matter whether the emotional direction is in line with emotional logic, it will be full of dog blood. "Meet the Season", which will be broadcast in 2022, has also stepped on the pit of plot blood.
The feedback from these works also once again cleared the mine for the creation of period dramas: it is important to be likable characters, and it is necessary to create conflicts in moderation.
In fact, period dramas have a lot of creative space, whether they continue the traditional simple style or take the refreshing route of opening and closing, which is why period dramas have ushered in a small blowout in recent years. From the perspective of the overall appearance, the development of the current period drama has entered the era of boutique, no matter what feedback the audience has on the plot and characters, the overall satisfaction of the quality of the drama is very high. I expect later period dramas to bring surprises to the audience.