Why is it "good to survive the first X episodes"?

Author|Weinika

Editor|Li Chunhui

I don't know when I started, almost every drama I watched was advised to "survive the first x episodes to watch well".

"Love Only", which is being broadcast, although the ratings of Yangba have been falling all the way, there have always been netizens who are bitterly "advised" passers-by: it will be good to survive the first few episodes. People who originally watched the drama with a "judgment" attitude, from "one episode abandoned" to "four episodes abandoned", how many episodes do they have to see? What's more, like "Guangyuan", it really doesn't look good until the sixth episode. However, the middle road collapsed, and the eight were absolutely resounding.

To say that this is completely a marketing trick to deceive people to watch the drama, but there are indeed some dramas that are also "gradually getting better". However, it is clear that since ten years ago, TV series have entered the era of online dramas, and "the beginning must be good" has become the golden rule of film and television creation. This is the same as the "6-minute rule" of online universities, which is the basic law for the elimination of online dramas and online content.

Tencent Video's executives shared the rules of users' drama chasing in the past few years - "golden seven minutes, the first three episodes of life and death": about 40% of viewers will abandon the drama in the first three episodes. If an online drama or online university cannot attract the audience at the beginning, it will quickly lose them. And low user retention means fewer people pay for content.

In the past, even if it was a youth drama, many platforms had unwritten rules: resolutely put an end to too many children's scenes in the first five episodes, and abandoned the drama for fear that the audience would not be able to bear it. Why has it long been a matter of industry consensus, but now it is becoming more and more common to persuade people to watch a few episodes and then make a conclusion, and even begin to be accepted by the audience?

Persuading people to survive the beginning of the atmosphere, it was excusable to appear in high-scoring dramas before, but now it seems to have entered the stage where every drama must have "persuasion fans". So much so that Hard Candy Jun himself began to implement a "sixth episode rule" - directly from the sixth episode, if you are not interested, you will directly abandon the show, and then make up for it from scratch when you are curious. Is that a conscientious consumer? This is the sixth episode that is sure to get better.

In the end, marketing is "brainwashing" the audience, in order to deceive people to rush the data of the first few episodes. Or the creative side also wants to "oppose the general and one army" - no longer blindly focusing on the Internet atmosphere, but hoping that the audience will have a little patience under the impetuous mood of watching dramas, and savor the integrity of the content from the beginning and turn. Why Korean dramas and American dramas are often extremely tempting at the beginning, and gradually disappointed in the pit, it is generally a road of high and low, but domestic dramas are completely the opposite. The first few episodes of domestic dramas are not good, whose pot is it?

What went wrong with the first few episodes?

Counting these years, the originator of the "persuasion" atmosphere can no longer be studied.

However, Hard Candy Jun found that the "persuasion drama" nominated by netizens contains many popular dramas or word-of-mouth dramas. For example, "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "Langya List", "Chen Qingling", "Dance Music Legend", "Three Lives and Three Pillow Books" and so on.

In general, the problems of the opening episodes that are not good-looking are generally in three aspects:

First, the pace is slow, and historical dramas and ancient puppet dramas are the easiest to "hit". Because the "foreshadowing play" at the beginning is a heavy task, it is necessary to explain many characters and backgrounds, and may also instill a new world view to the audience. It is easy to make people gradually lose their patience to watch the drama in the "foreshadowing play" that comes from the story.

When "The Legend of Zhen Huan" premiered that year, some people complained about the slow pace of the plot of the first few episodes. Who would have thought that the current Douban 9-point divine drama had a score of only 2.7 points when it was broadcast. Moreover, the TV ratings at that time only ranked 24th in the country, and the average ratings of the Oriental Satellite TV and Anhui Satellite TV simulcast were 1.480% and 1.340% respectively, far inferior to the champion drama "Palace Lock Bead Curtain" that year.

But now looking back, the opening plays that the audience felt were "slow" back then were actually hidden and worth savoring. Judging from the enduring classic drama such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan", it is indeed impossible to use the first few episodes to determine the "life and death" of a drama.

The second big problem is that it is too bland, and it generally appears in modern dramas. Although there is no need to explain the background, it is rendering a certain daily atmosphere too long, making people wonder what the core point is. The popular Taiwan drama "Want to See You" with 9 points on Douban has a high abandonment rate at the beginning of the episode because it is "dull".

Although the genre of this drama covers the three major genres of love, suspense, and crossing, the first two episodes have no "high-energy" plot at all, telling the story of an ordinary female white-collar worker who lost her boyfriend. Each episode renders sadness, and it's exactly a "Sad Than Sad Story" version 2.0.

It wasn't until the third episode that the story entered the story line of crossing + reasoning suspense. Only those who patiently see three episodes and are surprised by the story setting will spare no effort to Amway others to "survive the first two episodes and watch better", trying to save the audience that has been lost.

And urban romance dramas like "Love Only" can be expected to have no high-energy settings attractive. If the interaction between the male and female protagonists in the opening episode is insufficient and the suspense of life and career is insufficient, it is true that it is a little unspeakable. Although a lot of "sugar" short video cuts with later episodes were marketed, it was too late.

Finally, there is an uncontrollable problem: the plot is chaotic and "incomprehensible". Most of them are because the drama has encountered uncontrollable post-editing, such as the Douban 9-point drama "Red". The "chaos" in the first two episodes was caused by cutting the scene of "French coffee" Gao Hu. Noon boss Hou Hongliang also responded that the reason why the first five episodes of "Langya List" were "incomprehensible" was because the TV station was worried about the slow pace when reviewing the film, so it cut the first five episodes by three.

Who decides the opening set?

But having said that, you can't tolerate the creation of the opening episodes of the entire film and television industry just because the opening episodes of many high-scoring dramas are not good. There are also many popular dramas that are good at the beginning, such as "In the Name of the People", "The Beginning" and so on.

From the level of film and television creation, who should carry the pot that is not good-looking in the opening episode? "The result of the multi-party game cannot be blamed entirely on our screenwriters." Faced with this question, Hard Candy Jun's screenwriter friend Xiaoyu replied helplessly. For ordinary screenwriters, the first few episodes of the script they write usually have to go through three levels. The first level is the chief screenwriter, the second level is the production company, and the third level is the person in charge of the platform.

As we all know, the first few episodes of the script are required for the platform to set up a project, and the script of the first few episodes will generally be revised many times. "For a script for the first few episodes, we will receive many rounds of comments." Xiao Yu explained to Hard Candy Jun.

In his experience, the opinion of the production company is a lot like the "middleman" who creates trouble. Because the platform is obviously the last person to pay and the person with the most right to speak, the screenwriter can directly modify it according to the platform's opinions. But many times the production company has to participate, there are too many opinions, it is difficult to reconcile, and in the end it is often self-defeating, which is understood by every miserable Party B person and executor.

"And in terms of the professional level of opinions, the opinions given by the platform are often more professional. The opinions given by the production company are easy to be one-sided, and the opinions given by the platform are mostly based on their observation of the latest data of the series, which has great reference value. Xiao Yu believes that screenwriters are prone to fall into the creative dilemma of closing doors, and if there is no more real, scientific dimension for reference, it is no wonder that there are so many bad dramas in the industry.

Of course, if the production company has its own stable team, such as a production company like Noon, the screenwriter, director, photography, art, etc. are all fixed, and the drama that can output stable style and quality can be according to its own opinions.

"We small screenwriters like to cooperate with big screenwriters, not necessarily because they share more money, but because big screenwriters have a lot of say and save a lot of trouble with revision. Both the production company and the platform will be appropriately delegated and there will not be many opinions. Xiao Yu sighed.

The script is not finished in the early stage, and when it comes to the filming stage, the director is involved, and the script of the first few episodes is usually adjusted again. If the director modifies the script too long, he generally has to inform the production company and platform, and seek another result. In the later stage, the director, the company, and the platform will have to play another round of games to set the first cut of the first few episodes for review.

In the end, what the audience sees is the fixed version after another round of games obtained according to the review opinions. The meals cooked under the command of so many layers of "mothers-in-law" can be imagined by anyone with workplace experience. I am afraid that in the end, people at the executive level will only be fooled by "good and good, the leaders are satisfied".

Should the audience stay up?

Although the opening set is the result of a multi-party game, the circle does not pay attention to the opening set. Is the prevalence of "it's good to watch the first x episodes" a blessing for poor creations, or does the aesthetic of our series really need to change?

If the opening episode is uncontrollable and ends up bad, that's it. Other reasons caused by "flat" and "slow pace" are not inevitable. Just because the theme is historical and ancient puppet dramas, the audience cannot be required to endure the "foreshadowing" of the opening episode. And the premise of patience is that the quality of the subsequent script is good enough, the plot is contrasting and surprising enough, and it is worth "patience", otherwise it will cause word-of-mouth backlash.

"The Legend of Zhen Huan" opened with a score of 2.7 points to rise to more than 9 points, and the plot behind it is also worth it, and naturally more and more audiences will "rehabilitate" it. "Ancient Jue Dust" is a 49-episode drama, and some people advise it to look good after 38 episodes, which is a proper "fraud". And until now, its rating is still 5.3, without any upward trend.

Of course, it is undeniable that in the current communication environment, the audience's mood for watching dramas will be more impetuous than in the early years. In the era of short videos, the audience's tolerance for the plot has become lower, after all, the golden five-second content rule of short videos is changing the audience's content consumption habits.

But to persuade the audience to be "patient" is a bit idealistic. As long video platforms gradually resume copyright cooperation with short videos, many domestic dramas can see the full commentary version of the short video. A short video of 2-3 minutes can explain the bland plot to "fascinating", why should the audience choose to endure more than 40 minutes of "bland" and "slow pace".

Therefore, film and television dramas have a popular "persuasion" atmosphere, and we should think about what is wrong with ourselves. The word "simmer" was originally used in scenes of hard labor, for example, workers need to "endure" only when they are tired from work. As a way of leisure and entertainment, watching dramas also requires the audience to "stay up", which is to put the cart before the horse. Because the audience does not have to watch the show, it is not unavoidable to choose a more relaxed pastime for detours.

In addition to marketing, those "persuasion fans" that really exist can be described as living bodhisattvas in the film and television industry. Because they are patient enough, they also encourage incompetent but innovative creators, giving them enough room to grow. But you can't expect "persuasion fans" to gradually grow to save more viewers who were dissuaded by the first few episodes.

There must also be a limit to persuasion, and when persuasion becomes an abusive marketing meme, the number of episodes of persuasion changes from one or two episodes to more than five episodes, and the audience gradually begins to be immune to the "persuasion" behavior. It's time for the creators to revisit the creation of the opening episode, and perhaps it's better than a chicken and a duck pair of repeated compromises. There must be a balance between grabbing the audience's attention and completely foreshadowing the plot.