How to give the emotional value that the audience wants？

Author | Weinika

Editor | Li Chunhui

How to write a year-end summary for the drama market in 2022? In a word: unexpected surprise.

At the beginning of the year, everyone predicted various industry changes, and to be honest, they were not optimistic. As we all know, 2022 is the year in which "reducing costs and increasing efficiency" is called the loudest and thoroughly implemented, and the number of drama projects and start-ups has been intuitively reduced. But surprisingly, judging from the transcripts broadcast by the final series, everything has not changed, or it is better-the number of hit dramas has continued throughout the year, and the supply and reputation of the series have even increased.

From the beginning at the beginning of the year, to the dream of China in the summer file, the brilliant moon of Xinghan rises to the sea, and then to the recent Courtyard of the County Party Committee, there is a hit drama that causes discussion all over the network every once in a while.Drama is the absolute protagonist of this year’s entertainment market, releasing the popularity of traffic and the breadth of topics that variety shows, movies, music, games, short videos and other popular entertainment content have not reached, and it is a well-deserved social currency of the year.

According to V age data, the number of new online dramas increased by 50% in 2022, and the total number reached 411. Compared with the same period in 2021, the total number of dramas including online dramas increased by 118, reaching 511.

More notably, according to the statistics of douban scoring data,The average score of Douban in 2022 is 6.24, which is much higher than last year’s 5.71 and the highest level in the past four years.. The hit dramas such as Dream of China and Beginning even reached a high score of about 8 points.

What is the unexpected change in the drama market? Hard Sugar Jun looked through the reviews of this year’s hit high-quality dramas and found that for the audience, the overall performance of this year’s dramas was gratifying because they all hit the audience’s emotional points to varying degrees.

Take Tencent’s video series as an example.Vage’s online drama broadcast index TOP10 in 2022, the average heat of online dramas TOP10 in 2022 and Yi ‘en’s broadcast index TOP10 in 2022, Tencent’s dramas all occupy half of the country. At the same time, according to Yi En’s statistics, the average broadcast index of TOP50 series in 2021-2022, the series of Tencent Video scored the highest, ranking first.

The reason is not only because Tencent video has the largest number of online dramas in the whole year, which can meet the needs of users to the greatest extent, but also because Tencent video is extremely satisfying the three "emotional values" that the current audience wants most.

The thirst for "new"

Genetic epistemology, put forward by Swedish psychologist Jean Piaget, holds that the audience’s appreciation psychology is characterized by variability. Because people’s aesthetic psychological diagram has the function of "adaptation" or adjustment, it constantly accepts new information and changes the original psychological structure and appreciation habits.

People have a strong curiosity and thirst for knowledge, which promotes the variation of aesthetic psychology, which is actually what we often call aesthetic fatigue. The existing online drama market has developed for more than ten years, and many mature paradigms have been formed for genre dramas, so it is time for the audience to pursue freshness for the product replacement.

This year’s drama market shows obvious variability, and new types and innovative dramas in the drama market have attracted more market attention. The audience’s pursuit of it makes it even surpass the drama itself and become a popular culture that cannot be ignored.

One of the most typical is the series "Beginning", which was a hit at the beginning of the year. Douban scored as high as 8.2 points, with a score of nearly 800,000. The reason why this drama can be so popular is that the setting is novel enough to tell the story of time cycle on the bus.

No matter the theme, genre or setting, The Beginning is rare in domestic dramas. Once this refreshing drama series was broadcast, it triggered the grand occasion of the whole network chasing drama. Although there are only 15 episodes, the expression of "The Beginning" has spread all over the network, creating many well-known plot stalks-such as cannon ringtones, pressure cookers and "Aunt Pot", bus ptsd and so on. Because there are too many "terminal hands" who make stalks, they even created a "terminal study" dedicated to the "Beginning" on the Internet.

In fact, there are many classic movies about "Time Cycle", such as Groundhog Day and Source Code.However, the value of The Beginning is to create a new sample of Chinese circular narrative.Yin Hong, vice chairman of the Chinese Literary Critics Association and professor of Tsinghua University, praised The Beginning for its pioneering nature, which cultivated the audience’s ability to accept the narrative of "strong hypothetical form" through a China sample.

Especially in China, the audience just want something fresh now. The audience who have been circling in love dramas and suspense dramas all the year round need the stimulation of new content. This is the timing of the series.

Of course, "new" doesn’t have to be a brand-new type, and "micro-innovation" in mature types is more easily accepted by the public and easily becomes a national explosion. This year’s summer file, "The Splendid Star, the Moon Rising to the Sea" is like this.

It is not a love drama in the traditional sense, nor is it a historical drama of power. There are not only stories about love and affection, but also topics about home and country’s righteousness. It also innovatively incorporates elements of comedy and group drama, bringing a completely different type of experience to the audience.

At the same time, the drama does not adopt the traditional pattern shooting method of costume-adding thick filters and sugar-coated shells, and its fresh texture is completely different from the popular costume drama in the market. It is precisely because of this "freshness" that "The Bright Moon of Xinghan Rising into the Sea" stands out from the summer file.

Nostalgia for classic types

The "new content" in the drama market this year is obviously sought after, revealing the audience’s eager demand for freshness. But the old genre is not abandoned, and the audience shows a nostalgia for "classic genre+representative actor".

This kind of drama emotion of being greedy for the new and nostalgic for the old seems to be "everything is told to you to write the official number." But in fact, it is very clear to understand it as fashion-Millennium things will look very fashionable in 2022, but last year’s things are too "last year", and everyone is tired of watching them.

There is no contradiction between the audience’s pursuit of novelty and nostalgia. Because people’s appreciation psychology is conservative and variable. Conservatism drives people to "assimilate" works according to their original aesthetic psychological diagrams, so as to adapt them to their own aesthetic habits and appreciation interests. Once it doesn’t conform to your own habits, it will even be regarded as "unfinished".

Therefore, when the "old face" recognized by the audience returns to the classic type, it is definitely an irresistible memory killing.This year, Liu Yifei’s costume drama Dream of China, starring in the drama market after 16 years, was sought after, which is an example.

"Meng Hua Lu" not only scored a high score of 8.3 for Douban, but even reached a rare 8.8 at the highest, and also won the TOP1 of several online drama lists. For example, V age’s 2022 online drama play index TOP1, Detawen’s whole network discussion index TOP1, cat’s eye comprehensive heat TOP1 and so on.

The audience’s obsession with this ancient costume "Bai Yueguang" triggered a wave of archaeological waves about Liu Yifei. But what really boosted the drama’s popularity to its peak was the genre texture of Dream of China.

Since the development of domestic costume drama, it has formed a set of old models that cater to online pop culture. However, "Dream of China" has returned to the original, returning to the most sincere ancient style with uncomplicated character relationships, presenting the customs and customs of the Song Dynasty, which is full of the flavor of the classic TV costume drama in the 2010s.

Andy and Sean Xiao returned to the field of modern urban drama, and the same is true of "Please Teach Me More for the Rest of My Life", which is equivalent to letting the representatives of 90-year-olds and 90-year-olds return to the field of modern urban drama with a classic formula, giving people a feeling of familiarity and strangeness.

In March of this year, once "The Rest of My Life, Please Teach Me More" was broadcast, Hunan Satellite TV won Huanwang and Kuyun, ranking first in provincial satellite TV every day, and Sophomore National Network ranked first in provincial satellite TV on average.. In the end, the drama also won the average heat TOP1 of the online drama in 2022.

The same "old man"+classic drama mode, including Yang Mi’s "28 Laws of Love" which returned to the field of modern urban drama, and Pan Yueming’s "Kunlun Temple of God" which was continuously online.

The 28 Law of Love is a classic contrast between men and women-urban elite female lawyers and Buddhist herbivorous men, but the familiar formula is a long-lost "old man"-Yang Mi and soso returned to the field of modern urban drama and produced different chemical reactions. The same is true of "Ghost Blowing Lights" series "Kunlun Temple of God". The familiar formula+soul "iron triangle"-Pan Yueming, Yuqi Zhang and Jiang Chao, satisfy the nostalgic aesthetics of this type of audience.　

Emphasis on social values

In addition to the pursuit of novelty and nostalgia, the audience has another emotional feature this year: not only staying in the superficial satisfaction of entertainment, but also having a deeper pursuit. This year’s serious literary adaptation, or drama focusing on social realistic value, won more attention before broadcasting than before, and finally won a reputation that exceeded expectations.

The ratings of "County Courtyard", which is currently being broadcasted, continue to climb. In the first week of CCTV’s golden file, the ratings broke 2, ranking first in the ratings of all-time TV dramas. The drama tells the daily work and life at the grassroots level in counties and townships. There is no dramatic story in the drama, but it is very close to people’s lives. Every character in the drama is full of fireworks and shows the most simple emotions.The realistic details of the series are full, and in many systems, the audience calls for watching the drama to go to work, and even the size and layout of the office are perfectly restored to the grassroots level in the county and township.

After getting used to watching "suspended dramas", the audience’s acceptance of realistic and socially realistic dramas has become higher and higher-even if many people say that they are as real as going to work, they still can’t help but chase the dramas.

This year, there are not a few dramas that have broken through by social realistic values, such as The Story under the Lion Mountain, which tells the life of ordinary people after the return of Hong Kong. According to Sophomore and Kuyun’s data, after The Story Under the Lion Mountain was broadcast on June 12th and 13th, the ratings were all ranked in the top three in China, and the series even got heavy promotion from news broadcast.　

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland, The Story under the Lion Mountain chose the angle closest to ordinary people under the grand background, showing the struggle life of two generations of ordinary people of the same origin in Hong Kong, which attracted the audience.

The urban dramas "Welcome" and "Ode to Joy 3" broadcast this year have also attracted attention because they are close to reality. Although "Welcome" is a typical plot of "poor boy chasing goddess", it is a kaleidoscope of the life of the bottom characters, but it incorporates many true stories of intergenerational and neighborhood relations. The Beijing Evening News’ real ambition in evaluating the play is to show the little people’s courage to pursue their dreams and the idealism of optimistic life.

The same is true of the urban IP drama Ode to Joy 3, which continues the previous work and continues to depict the plight of women’s life and workplace, and is full of multi-dimensional thinking about young people’s workplace, family and life. In the end, the drama series was ranked as top1 in prime-time TV ratings of local TV stations for two consecutive weeks in China Audio-visual Big Data.　

It seems that in the drama market in 2022, if you want to broadcast the drama effectively, you must grasp the emotional points of the audience. Freshness, nostalgia and connotation can be praised by the audience at any point. Genre dramas either integrate innovation or return to the original, and finally return to social values and significance to meet the audience’s deeper spiritual needs. The year 2022 of reducing costs and increasing efficiency has brought us many surprises, and Hard Sugar Jun can’t wait to go to the 2023 "Trial" drama. ‍