The characters are real and the plot is real, why are workplace dramas getting better and better?
In recent years, workplace dramas have become a popular genre of domestic TV dramas with their presentation of different industry ecology and description of workplace life. Some high-quality dramas provide a wider imagination for well-known but poorly understood professions such as doctors, police officers, lawyers and construction cost engineers, while also enriching the TV drama themes on the screen.
In the second quarter of this year, the hit of the urban workplace light comedy "Ordinary Road" once again triggered the industry's discussion on the expression of workplace stories. This time, we will combine several typical works that tell workplace stories to analyze the iteration of such series creation concepts, hoping to provide some ideas for the industry.
Characters "landing"
The plot is real and not suspended
Each industry has its own unique attributes that attract the curiosity of the audience, and workplace dramas can build a bridge between the audience and different professions. Eleven years ago, an inspirational TV series "Heart Technique" in the urban medical industry was broadcast, which scored 8.3 points on the Douban platform, and many people were very impressed by Huo Simiao's classic line "I have two knives, one to save the patient's life and the other to analyze my own heart".
This drama not only restores the real hospital working environment and replicates tricky medical events, but also reflects the family emotional life of surgeons Liu Chenxi, Huo Simiao and others. It can be said that the success of such a work that reflects the doctor-patient relationship and the true emotions of medical workers stems from the landing of the image of real doctors, under the concept of benevolence, benevolence and benevolence, they are like every ordinary person, experiencing the variety and clutch of life.
Relatively realistic workplace stories often start from the busyness and exhaustion of the protagonist. Broadcast in 2021, the urban workplace drama "Ideal City" that tells the growth story of cost engineer Su Xiao has also received good reviews, and the beginning of the entire drama is that the protagonist Su Xiao is dozing off in the subway seat, she has neat short hair, wears an army-green shirt, and carries a backpack on weekdays, walks at a fast pace, and is often busy using her mobile phone to communicate work details with colleagues. Different from the past workplace dramas that often blindly take the tall route, such works often pay more attention to the presentation of details such as the protagonist's life scenes and emotional conversations, so that the "elite" characters land, and the realistic style of the whole drama is established at the beginning of the story.
From the series positioning of the urban workplace light comedy "Ordinary Road", it can be seen that its narrative method is significantly younger. The opening long shot is the comparison of the different family life conditions and job search paths of Pan Yan and Shu Yinan, two trainee lawyers: Pan Yan was not only directly hired to work and forced to work overtime when he went to the new company for an interview, but also found that his colleagues resigned collectively when he first joined, and he couldn't help but worry about the company's prospects; When Shu Yinan went to the law firm for an interview, he found that 50 newcomers competed for two positions in the workplace, and the pressure suddenly doubled. This work reflects some difficult situations in the lawyer's profession outside the public's glamorous impression, such as the difficulty of small law firms to take on cases because of lack of resources, Lawyer Du has always adhered to the concept of "the client is God", and the intertwined bargaining is full of the helplessness of this middle-aged man.
It can be seen that the change of the target group that workplace dramas focus on is the first step to establish a sense of belief in the story. Compared with earlier such works focusing on "tall" industries such as fashionistas and entertainment industry stars, the current works are obviously more focused on ordinary industries close to public life. The detailed presentation of the characters in these works makes the professions of lawyers, policemen, engineers, doctors and other professions more vivid, and on the other hand, it also creates a considerable and perceptible story texture for the entire series to strengthen the appeal of watching the drama. It can be seen that grasping the "truth" of professionals can capture the hearts of the audience.
Full group portrait establishment
Create highlights with character relationships
Throughout those excellent workplace dramas, one of the important reasons for their recognition is the success of character group portrait construction, not only the protagonist image is three-dimensional and full, but the group portrait interaction is also real and natural. For example, the flexible, humorous and optimistic Pan Yan in "Ordinary Road"; Shu Yinan, who is confident and optimistic and wants to break out of a new world with his own strength; Zuo Na, who is sober and calm, does not give up on fighting for opportunities, they are the epitome of trainee lawyers in reality.
In addition to constructing the female cost engineer Su Xiao, the drama "Ideal City" also created Xia Ming, chief economist of Tianke Construction Co., Ltd., who also has excellent business capabilities, Zhao Xiankun, chairman of Winhai Group, who weighs the forces of all parties, Wang Qiong, general manager of Tiancheng Construction Co., Ltd., who is grounded and cherishes talents, Maria, the human resources director who is delicate and poisonous, and Wu Hongmei, an old and good person in the workplace who does not know how to refuse, etc., they together constitute a real and comprehensive workplace life. We noticed that the shaping of these workplace characters decisively abandoned the halo route of the protagonists, and most of them struggled from scratch, neither airborne backgrounds and relationships, nor inexplicable good luck, closer to real life.
If the establishment of workplace group portraits can make the story more authentic and credible, then relying on the relationship of characters to create the highlights of the story is quite commendable ingenuity. For example, "Police Honor", which tells the story of four trainee police officers working at the Balihe Police Station with a "high incidence of police feelings", the rivalry between new police officers and their masters has left many strong memories for the audience.
The differences between these four newcomers are very obvious, whether it is family background or personality, and the kind of master assigned is crucial for their integration into the Force and enhance their professional capabilities. Chen Xincheng took Li Dawei in the hope that the master's rigor would restrain Li Dawei's rashness; Cheng Hao paired with Xia Jie, the child of a martyr, in the hope that the newcomer female policeman would combine her own reality and shine in a position more suitable for herself; Poplar and Cao Jianjun are a trade-off between theoreticalism and practice; Zhang Zhijie, the "community hundred Xiaosheng", brought Zhao Jiwei to work in the community together, which is a concrete embodiment of "mass work is no small matter". The master-apprentice relationship of "Police Honor" is therefore frequently watched, the composure and sophistication of the old police officers are compared with the enthusiasm and straightness of the new police officers, and the dramatic effect is instantly full.
We live in a humanistic society, and these real workplace stories and struggle characters reflect reality, so that the image on the screen is no longer just a beautiful side, the plot is no longer suspended out of reality, and the plot in the play integrates workplace competition with life warmth and coldness, and can also let the audience feel that life is not easy at the same time, and capture more life wisdom.
The love line is no longer required
The story is more realistic and beautiful
As a realistic theme, the primary element of workplace drama is realism. It is conceivable that if you add too many emotional lines and deliberately create twists and turns in order to pursue contradictions and drama tension, it will lead to the collapse of the character and the entire story trend will become suspended. However, looking at the several workplace dramas mentioned above, it can be found that their love lines are actively giving way to workplace dramas, so the works are more real.
First of all, workplace elements in workplace dramas have been regarded as a core narrative element, and in recent years, with the enrichment of content, such dramas are also constantly expanding the boundaries of related theme creation, such as the integration of business war, etc., and some works are trying to extend the narrative vision to the broader social field.
Secondly, the content of the series no longer stops at discussing a certain profession itself, but pays more attention to the life and work status of people related to the workplace, such as the discussion of the emotional needs of different genders behind the divorce cases in "Ordinary Road", the resistance to online violence, and the attention to the psychological state of children behind custody cases; The public security-themed TV series "Police Honor" solves various cases through grassroots police, conveying the true feeling of grassroots work, that is, dealing with conflicts between people, it is necessary to take into account the reconciliation of reason, law and feelings, which are all value upgrades as realistic works.
It is worth noting that these excellent workplace works, the protagonists of the story often have a love for their profession, even brave idealism, to some extent, this is the process of artistic rendering of the series. So the audience saw Su Xiao in "Ideal City" still staying up in the office for a few days knowing that the art museum was a "running along" project, completing a beautiful tender and bidding successfully; "Ordinary Road" Zuo Na and Pan Yan worked overtime all night to urgently prepare customer information, and their professionalism superimposed on the spirit of hard work and not giving up became a key factor in turning the situation around the workplace.
In general, workplace drama, as an important carrier for telling workplace stories and showing real life, has obviously paid more attention to the portrayal of professionalism and emphasized broader social value care in the narrative flow, and its strengthening of the protagonist's life drama has now become a practical creative idea, and the audience has reason to believe that more high-quality works will emerge in the future and continue to write more diversified workplace stories.