"Ordinary Road" has made an innovation in workplace dramas, no longer focusing on the so-called "elite", but more landed, focusing on the "ordinary" of the protagonist.
Author|Lian Lu\Editor|Wu Cheng
"Rectifying the workplace after 00" is one of the hottest topics at present. In the TV series "Ordinary Road" that is being broadcast, Guo Qilin after 95 is not to be outdone, and opened the "mouth cannon" mode, preparing for a workplace rookie counterattack.
Although Pan Yan, played by him, is a trainee lawyer who has just joined a law firm, he is not timid in the face of unfair incidents, but protests in the face of difficulties.
Pan Yan, played by Guo Qilin, turned on the "mouth cannon" mode
For example, after being accused by Du Feiyu (Zhang Zixian), a senior partner of Rongke Law Firm, for no reason, Pan Yan directly replied: "Fair, just, orderly, beautiful, you don't account for any of these four words." He is also not afraid of authority, and dares to go directly to the leader with the contract to protect his legitimate rights and interests.
However, "Ordinary Road" is not a so-called "workplace cool drama", it focuses on newcomers who are new to the workplace, presenting the survival picture of workers in real life. Although Pan Yan has his bravery, he also has to face endless overtime and difficult customers. Among his colleagues, there is the wise and courageous Zuo Na (played by Jin Chen), and Shu Yinan (played by Yan Zidong), who has repeatedly been frustrated when the turtle returns, and the three eventually form a team of lawyers to work together in the workplace.
Because it is real enough, the play has aroused a lot of resonance, and some Douban netizens said that "I work overtime to play me, complain about playing me, and want to survive to play me". From this level, "Ordinary Road" has made an innovation in workplace dramas, no longer focusing on the so-called "elite", but more landing, focusing on the "ordinary" of the protagonist.
"Ordinary Road" stills
Basic sense of reality
"Ordinary Road" abandons the elite perspective of successful people, but cuts into Pan Yan, Zuo Na, Shu Yinan, three newcomers who have just entered the workplace, so that the migrant workers in the audience have a sense of substitution.
The male protagonist Pan Yan does not have any halo, his appearance, family background and education are very ordinary, the job search process is not smooth, he submitted hundreds of resumes but did not receive a reply, and finally relied on his girlfriend's matchmaking and got the interview opportunity of the law firm.
The ordinary perspective breaks the routine of previous workplace dramas, and also adds more drama and rhythm. At the beginning of the series, Pan Yan, dressed in casual clothes, and a group of newcomers with bright resumes squeezed into the elevator of the office building. I thought they were competitors, but it soon turned out that this was a trick set by the screenwriter, Pan Yan had no chance to interview at a first-class law firm, and his world was Rongke Firm, a third-rate law firm.
Pan Yan's career path makes people feel substitutionary
In just a few scenes, the topic of "academic discrimination" that has attracted much attention in reality has been explained. "Ordinary Road" does not avoid this cruel reality, but directly plays out the screening mechanism of academic qualifications and job search.
Pan Yan, who graduated from Shuangfei University, and Shu Yinan, who graduated from Peking University with a bachelor's degree in law and an Oxford master's degree in law, have a different starting point, but what about the future? The real story of "Ordinary Road" begins here.
Shu Yinan, who is highly educated and has a good family, although he got the admission ticket to a high-level law firm, he failed to seize the opportunity to stay, and finally had to go to Rongke for an interview. In actual work, Shu Yinan, who grew up in a superior environment and received European and American education, was not satisfied with the domestic environment, and his academic halo gradually disappeared, but Pan Yan, who understood human accidents better, was more prominent.
Shu Yinan is another representative of the workplace
But the act of "academic cult" does not end. During the interview, Rongke's senior partner Lawyer Du heard that Shu Yinan was a highly educated talent, and thought of asking Zuo Na to replace Pan Yan, who was about to become regular. In his subsequent work, Mr. Du habitually assigned high-end clients to Shu Yinan, because such clients often trusted the "elite".
The portrayal of workplace culture is also close to reality: 200 people cramming a position, there is always someone who can get opportunities through relationships; The work assigned by the boss should be undertaken by the employees who will come to the scene, but it will be handed over to the most obedient in the team; A small team of 5 people, there are several groups of private chats and gossip alone...
There is also a backpot in the workplace, the client has an urgent matter to find Lawyer Du, Pan Yan can not find colleagues by WeChat and call, can only deal with it himself, but was misunderstood by Lawyer Du, but asked the personnel to immediately fire Pan Yan. There are also those moments when you can't help yourself: moving into a new home and living in Wenju, but suddenly being called by your boss to deal with his personal affairs; Pan Yan had dinner with his girlfriend and his parents' house, and as a result, more than an hour ago, others were waiting for Pan Yan to work overtime, and after eating, he had to return to the company to continue working overtime.
Mr. Du has typical character characteristics
In the presentation of the living environment of the characters, the screenwriter's treatment is more three-dimensional. In order to save money cheaply, most ordinary people who struggle from small cities to big cities will desperately reduce their expenses in living and eating. Therefore, in recent years, the audience has seen the young people who have parties in TV series, living in luxurious and well-decorated houses, and inevitably have a sense of dislocation - is this really my workplace story?
In "Ordinary Road", the audience saw Pan Yan and his mother living in the old community studio where they couldn't turn around, and they still slept in bunk beds, so they felt right. Later, Pan Yan and Shu Yinan rented a house together, and the sharing contract of the two and Shu Yinan's concern for the sense of the boundary of the shared house were all real daily routines of contemporary migrant workers.
From fine decoration to old and dilapidated, the most basic life reality of contemporary social animals has finally been respected.
"Ordinary Road" stills
They are just starting their careers
Workplace dramas are not easy to shoot, it must pay attention to the psychology of professionals, but also have stories and social nature.
South Korea's high-scoring workplace drama "Wei Sheng" is known as "a TV series that touches the hearts of all working people in this era and touches people", from which we can glimpse the workplace spirit and workplace culture of Koreans, and also provide a reference direction for later workplace dramas.
This drama was later remade into "Ordinary Glory" in China, starring Zhao Youting and Bai Jingting. Because of the consideration of China's local workplace ecology, the play encountered a lot of difficulties in actual operation, and finally chose his career in the financial industry. The story targets two groups: the middle level of the workplace played by Zhao Youting and the workplace Xiaobai played by Bai Jingting.
However, the show did not cause much repercussions after it was broadcast, first, the remake was somewhat unsatisfactory; The second is that it is not focused, and the middle level of the workplace and the workplace are portrayed more superficially, and there is a lack of female perspective, and excessive emphasis is placed on male workplace stories.
"Ordinary Road" is more focused, abandoning the line of middle-aged professionals, and the main play is all focusing on newcomers who are new to the workplace, not only selecting multiple workplace samples, but also focusing on female professionals.
Pan Yan and Shu Yinan are both new to the workplace
Pan Yan's setting is a wild road player, but he can always achieve unexpected results, and in the process of dealing with the divorce case of Zhang Rumei (Arya) and Sun Jianye (Zhao Jun), he advocates to impress Zhang Rumei with affection and persuade Zhang Rumei through words of encouragement. Shu Yinan is a player in the regular army, and everyone had high expectations for him at the beginning, but what the main creator gave first was the process of him slowly being beaten by reality.
Pan Yan and Shu Yinan are mirror images of each other, with complementary personalities, and they are both protagonists. Therefore, while cheering for Pan Yan, the audience will not hate Shu Yinan, a returnee student, even if he speaks English and lacks a sense of boundaries in his work. They all have their own workplace challenges that they need to tackle, and these issues are similar to yours and me. The metamorphosis that Pan Yan needs to go through is how to change from a small white without any professional experience to a professional lawyer; Shu Yinan's workplace challenge lies in how to fade the innocence of the ivory tower, adapt to the unspoken rules in the social workplace, and add more "human feelings" in addition to the profession.
"Ordinary Road" stills
Among several newcomers, Zona is a very ideal professional female image. She is highly targeted, has excellent professional quality and high emotional intelligence, she is delicate and decisive, if it were not for her hard work and not giving up, Rongke would not be able to drag important old customers back.
The character of Zuo Na also injects warmth into the cruel workplace. She would say good things for Pan Yan, who was late for the interview, and told Du Lu that she had remembered the wrong time, and when Lawyer Du was ready to replace Pan Yan with Shu Yinan, she persuaded Lawyer Du to buy time for Pan Yan to sign the contract.
Jin Chen as Zuo Na
This warm brushstroke makes newcomers who have just entered the workplace see hope, and also gives the workplace drama a touch of human feelings. The most obvious thing is that "Ordinary Road", which has been broadcast so far, does not dramatically emphasize workplace infighting for the sake of story. Whether it is the middle management of the company such as Lawyer Du and Lawyer Yi (played by Zhu Zhu), or those newcomers in the workplace, their goals are the same, it is a cooperative relationship, but also a comrade-in-arms relationship. Even though Pan Yan and Shu Yinan had conflicts at work, they quickly adjusted their emotions and did not affect their colleagues.
In addition, "Ordinary Road" pays attention to the changes in the current workplace relationship, and the collision of workplace consciousness of three generations of old, middle, and young people makes everyone think and grow. When the leader suspends the employment for no reason, Pan Yan can take the contract to defend his rights and interests, and personally rectify the workplace. In his dealings with new lawyers, Mr. Du summed up his mistakes in his work and dared to admit and correct them.
These are the highlights of Ordinary Road. It can be said that it has novelty in character relationships and workplace ecology.
Is Guo Qilin playing himself?
"Ordinary Road" has been broadcast to 18 episodes, causing a lot of discussion, and the popularity value of Tencent Video Station has exceeded 27,000, but why has it not been able to have a breaking point so far?
On the one hand, in the presentation of lawyer case stories, the play mainly focuses on online violence, divorce and other cases. However, for a lawyer's subject, only the presentation of similar cases will seem thin.
On the other hand, Guo Qilin is a double-edged sword in the play. He is funny and joyful, but he always makes people think of his identity as a comedian.
"Ordinary Road" stills
In recent years, Guo Qilin has always been in and out of major variety shows, and has also shown his side as an actor in various dramas. Smart, not landing, high emotional intelligence are his characteristics, not handsome but more likable, but also more in line with Pan Yan's personality. When he climbs out of the bunk bed and puts on his father's ill-fitting suit, he can believe that this is a workplace white who rents a house in the suburbs and squeezes the subway to work.
Pan Yan's slogan is "I went to university, studied law, and became a lawyer so that one day everyone could see that the world is fair, just, orderly, and beautiful." Guo Qilin's understanding of this role is that the young man who lives hard with the firmament above his head and stands proudly forward.
Screenshot of "Ordinary Road"
In the process of character shaping, the main creator added a lot of high-quality character to Pan Yan. Tenacious, in order to communicate with customers, it took eighteen martial arts to meet each other; There is a sense of justice, and when he sees the man secretly photographing the subway, he stands up when he sees the unevenness. He will protect his rights and interests, and when facing staying up late and working overtime on the first day of employment, and being laid off by the company in breach of contract the next day, he has no fear, dares to fight with his boss and take up the legal weapon to keep his job.
Pan Yan is good, but sometimes it makes the audience think it is too idealistic. In the Douban hot comment, there is a comment that is recognized as "the protagonist's character is too social, unlike those who have just graduated from undergraduate". Although a person's character cannot be judged because it does not match what he wants, in this field of lawyers who rely on professionalism, Pan Yan, who graduated from a third-rate university, seems to be living too smoothly.
In the first case, he used "small composition" to impress clients who were unwilling to divorce, and quickly won each other in the competition with Shu Yinan; As a newcomer and Zuo Na to meet big customers together, he smoothly added the other party who Zuo Na did not have WeChat, and also helped the other party solve the trouble encountered by his son; Because "war-damaged man" was on the hot search, he saw all the difficult clients of a big law firm, and soon decided to hand over the case to him.
Like an old man who has worked for many years, he is comfortable in a completely unfamiliar environment, unlike a newcomer who has just entered the workplace, and for a moment you will be in a trance - "This person is the Guo Qilin who is very good at dealing with people and breaking into various social circles." ”
"Ordinary Road" stills
The problem in the final analysis is that the most troublesome interpersonal problems in workplace relationships are pinched to death by him, which is still too perfect for people who are just starting their careers and are still anxious most of the time. It's not that it's absolutely untrue, but for most people, there are too few such people in real life, and he is a minority among ordinary people.
As for the problem that "Ordinary Road" focuses too little on the case, it may be related to the creative intention of the main creative team. In fact, director Liu Jin and screenwriter Chen Tong both have creative experience in legal themes, the former has filmed "Elite Lawyer", the latter participated in "Divorce Lawyer", but when it comes to "Ordinary Road", they may focus on the growth of core characters and ignore the content of the case itself.
For the show, putting a lot of scenes on the main three characters is both safe and standard. But it also puts forward new challenges for future workplace dramas, and how to meet the two lines of character growth and workplace professionalism at the same time is a more worthy of attention in the creative industry.