May 11, 2023 | Total Issue 3232
On May 10, 2023, the second season of "Qing Yu Nian" started, and 15 posters of the main characters were released in one breath, announcing the return of the original cast.
When the soul character Fan Xian, the chicken leg girl Lin Wan'er, the second prince with alpaca bangs, Fan Sizhi and Wang Qinian who love money like life, the big boss Qingdi who is addicted to archery, the eldest princess who changed her hairstyle... As soon as they appeared, the stone in the hearts of netizens finally landed: "No pigeons."
After more than three years of suspension, time on the continent of Qingguo finally began to pass again. And the long wait also made many netizens say: "Before the second season starts, review the first season again."
At the end of the first season of "Qing Yu Nian", Fan Xian was suddenly stabbed by Yan Bingyun and fell to the ground, leaving the audience with a lot of suspense and questions. Everyone knows that Fan Xian will be resurrected in the second season, but how to analyze the button left at the end is a test for the screenwriter, and it always hooks the audience's desire to chase the drama.
This kind of strong ending that writes the audience's favorite protagonist to death is the usual way of writing used by American drama seasonal dramas. For example, in the last episode of the fifth season of the pinnacle of the American drama "Game of Thrones", Jon Snow was stabbed six times by someone he trusted without warning, fell in a pool of blood, and gave fans a fatal blow, and the plot came to an abrupt end. Before the arrival of the sixth season, the whole network was like crazy to discuss "Is Snow dead or not?" And how to resurrect? ”。
Fan Xian's sudden killing is a means to stimulate the audience and promote the plot, but the TV series "Qing Yu Nian" uses this as a point, and has its own underlying logic. "Qing Yu Nian" divided the huge story into 3 seasons when adapting the original novel, and in the first season, Fan Xian found himself a pawn; In the second season, the chess pieces are to be chess players; And in the third season, the chess pieces have to lift the board.
"Qing Yu Nian 2", which is now being filmed, is the story of how Fan Xian turned over from a chess piece to a chess player. Also an IP sequel, "Qing Yu Nian" did not adopt the method of three seasons of continuous filming like "Ode to Joy", filming 3 seasons in 9 months, but shooting the second season alone. It is reported that the third season of "Qing Yu Nian" is striving to start next year.
Although the probability of three seasons in five years is difficult to achieve, the "late but arrived" of "Qing Yu Nian 2" is already a victory for season dramas that rely on IP.
First of all, it is not easy for domestic dramas to be made into seasonal dramas. In terms of external conditions, it requires the main controller and the main creative team to establish long-term and stable cooperation, and the screenwriter, director and cast are basically unchanged, so that the real original team can return in order to have "inner taste"; Secondly, most domestic dramas are holding a wait-and-see attitude, first watching market feedback before deciding whether there is a sequel, rather than planning at the beginning.
Returning to the content itself, many types of stories are not suitable for sequels, such as a small worldview structure, which will make the story finished quickly, which is especially obvious in urban dramas.
Take "Ode to Joy" and "Love is Delicious", the former is not really a sequel, the first and second seasons are the same protagonists, and the third to fifth seasons have changed to new "five beauty".
In addition, although "Love is Delicious" is the closest domestic drama to the existence of "Friends" and "Sex and the City" in terms of style and temperament, the different soil almost determines that this drama cannot be seasoned like them.
Whether the protagonist frequently changes CP, or the protagonist entangles with the same CP for five seasons, this is a matter that will cause a "three-view nuclear explosion" for domestic drama audiences, Xia Meng and Liu Jing choose between two CPs and finally choose one, which is almost the upper limit that the audience can accept.
For example, "Twenty Not Confused 2" replaced the CP Zhou Xun in the first season of the heroine Jiang Xiaoguo and turned it into Qi Song, which made many viewers chased from the first season feel very hurt, which also shows from the side that the road of changing CP for the protagonist in urban seasonal dramas is not long, and the ceiling is very low.
It is already very difficult to create original seasonal dramas, not to mention adaptations with their own IP and more variables.
The advantage of big IP is that the world view is huge and there is a narrative space for seasonal broadcasts, but copyright confusion is a common phenomenon. For example, "Ghost Blowing Lights" and "Tomb Robbery Notes", there are different film and television companies, actors remakes, movies and online drama versions are dazzling, until in recent years, due to Tencent Video main control, seven impression production, actor iron triangle fixed, the online drama "Ghost Blowing Lights" has established a sense of trust in the hearts of the audience.
Compared with the unit narrative where adventure IPs can open pictures at will, "Qing Yu Nian" is a more difficult linear narrative, and the grass snake gray line, many foreshadowing, rich group portrait characters, and the whole body is involved. It is not difficult to explain why, under the escort of Tencent Video, China Literature Group and Sunli Media, the second season still waited more than three years before starting. Prior to this, it can be said that there are almost no precedents for big IP seasonal dramas that keep the protagonists unchanged, the actors unchanged, and the linear narrative.
Looking forward to the second and third seasons of "Qing Yu Nian" to finish Fan Xian's story.
【Text/Flying Fish】