In 2023, 23 high scoring domestic dramas Apocalypse .

Visual China.

Text |Mirror Entertainment, Author丨Liang Jialie.

From "Hurricane" to "The Long Season", from "Three-Body Problem" to "Lotus Tower", from "To a Windy Place" to "Apocalypse", the head and waist will continue to be popular in 2023. The number of dramas with a Douban score of 8 or above in 2023 is far greater than in previous years, and the types are also unprecedentedly rich.

There are traces that high-scoring dramas can usher in a big victory in 2023. In the past few years, in the process of domestic dramas continuing to move towards high-quality products, the word-of-mouth effect has gradually taken shape and will be further amplified in 2023.

In 2023, behind the 23 high-scoring dramas, there are hidden changes and new trends in the entire industry.

In 2023, among the 23 domestic dramas with a Douban score of 8 or more (including Taiwanese dramas and Hong Kong dramas produced by film and television companies on the mainland's ** platform), there will be 11 domestic dramas with a score of more than 100,000 people, and in 2022, there will be only 6 of the 19 domestic dramas with a score of more than 8 with a score of more than 100,000 people. It is worth noting that in 2023, the lowest number of domestic dramas with a score of 8 and above is 160,000 people, but there are 4 films with less than 10,000 ratings in 2022, including two short dramas.

From the comparison of Douban data in the past two years, we can clearly see the progress of domestic dramas. On the one hand, the increase in the proportion of popular high-scoring dramas and the decrease in the proportion of absolutely unpopular works intuitively show that the track of high-scoring dramas in 2023 will be more volatile;Both, the overall increase in the number of high-scoring dramas in 2023 proves that there are more works that take into account both market and artistry. Under these two premises, the word-of-mouth effect of high-scoring dramas will also be further released in 2023.

Looking back, many 8For episodes with a score of 5 or above, the driving force for getting out of the circle is a word-of-mouth advantage. After the launch of "The Long Season", it was almost difficult to see it on the hot search lists of various platforms, and the number of Douban ratings for the episodes before the finale was launched was just over 50,000, but with the word-of-mouth that continued to spread on multiple platforms, the number of ratings at the end of the year of "The Long Season" surpassed that of "Hurricane". Dramas such as "The Three-Body Problem" and "Under the Prosperous City" are out of the circle in the same way, but compared with "The Long Season", their word-of-mouth explosion path is shorter.

This requires a specific analysis of the specific project, "Three-Body Problem" has the influence of the original work, after the failure of the IP animation adaptation, the early stage of the series was also a little deserted, but after the audience made a preliminary judgment on the quality of the content, the word-of-mouth effect began to be released, and the number of Douban ratings at the end of "The Three-Body Problem" was 270,000, a difference of only 100,000 from today. "Under the Prosperous City" and "The Long Season" were both broadcast in Tencent**X Theater, and after the latter opened up the popularity and brand of the theater, the road of "Under the Prosperous City" naturally went a lot smoother.

Compared with "Hurricane", which ushered in its peak soon after the broadcast, "The Long Season" and "Three-Body Problem" generally started slowly, and the word-of-mouth fermentation cycle was long, but in the end they all came to the same end. Unlike the film market, which requires "short and fast conversion between word-of-mouth and box office", the business model of the drama market can better carry the long-tail effect of content under the ultra-long cycle, and now, "The Long Season" is still in the top ten of Tencent's ** drama hot search list, while "Lotus Tower" is in the top five of iQiyi's hit list.

However, judging from the data, in 2023, when the competition for high-scoring dramas intensifies, most of the word-of-mouth advantages can be maximized by 8Works with a score of 5 and above. In 2023, Douban will score 8There are 11 domestic dramas with a score of 5 or above, of which 8 have more than 100,000 ratings and 6 have more than 200,000. And 8There are 12 dramas with a score of less than 5, of which only 3 have more than 100,000 ratings.

Take 85 points is the dividing line, and the positive correlation coefficient between content reputation and popularity has opened a large difference, which is not only due to the trend of the market's head, but also affected by many factors such as casts and subject types. For example, 8Among the dramas with a score of 5 or above, the cast of "I Have a Friend", "Broken Things Elite Season 2", and "When I Was a Teenager" with a rating of less than 100,000 are all uncompetitive, and the basic theme is also limited. "Those Young Times That Can't Go Back", which is in the same youth drama track as "When I Was a Teenager", is also not ideal.

On the whole, the biggest basic plate of high-scoring dramas in 2023 is still the suspense crime theme, and its advantage is that the strong highlights under the suspense setting can mobilize the audience's emotions more. In 2023, whether it is "Hurricane", "The Long Season", "Lotus Tower", "Under the Prosperous City", etc., which clearly play the suspenseful crime signboard, or "Bad Obsession Eliminator", "Three-Body Problem", "Ancient Acacia", etc., which incorporate suspense elements, the popularity is considerable.

Compared with 2022, the second major feature of this year's domestic dramas with a score of 8 or above is the further diversification of the subject matter and the further diversification of the genre, family dramas, suspense dramas, fantasy dramas, romantic dramas, martial arts dramas, manga dramas, etc., as well as science fiction themes, medical themes, female themes, main theme themes, comedy themes, urban themes, etc., and the proportion is relatively even, and there is no situation where the scale of a certain theme type is overwhelming.

The diversification and diversification of high-scoring dramas, on the one hand, are inseparable from the full-track and full-category layout of major ** platforms. In 2023, in addition to the normalized layout of the mainstream track, the sci-fi drama "Three-Body Problem", the sitcom "The Legend of Magpie Knife Gate", the male-oriented group portrait drama "Like a Fire Flowing Year", and the manga drama "Under the Alien" correspond to new genres in a relative sense, and it is not difficult to see that each platform attaches great importance to building differentiated competitiveness. However, judging from the popularity performance, these new types still need to continue to cultivate the basic disk.

On the other hand, diversification and diversification are also inseparable from the efforts of a number of mature film and television companies. It can be found that most of the producers behind this year's high-scoring dramas are old faces familiar to the audience, such as Linghe Culture, Huace Film and Television, Huanrui Century, Liubai Film and Television, Ningmeng Pictures, Little Sugar Man Culture, etc. Judging from the works output by these companies, most of them still stick to the long-cultivated theme field, but they have also found new ways to provide good content in the changes in the industry.

Among them, the turn of a number of old film and television companies is the most obvious. For example, Huanrui Century has gradually stepped out of the field of ancient puppets that it is good at, and this year's "Lotus Tower" points to a more serious martial arts genre;Ningmeng Pictures, which has been rooted in the urban drama track for many years, has begun to try the difficult genre of urban medical dramas;Huace, which has always focused on idol romantic dramas, also showed its understanding of new-style romantic dramas in the idyllic "To a Windy Place".

Huanrui Century, Huace Film and Television and other established companies that have experienced the ups and downs of industry capital, and were once affected by the rapid development of online dramas, are back on track, in fact, it is also one of the key factors for the increase in the number of excellent works in the industry today, and at the same time, through their turns, we can also see the genre changes in the drama market in 2023. Of course, the changes in all major types cannot be generalized, but we can also extract commonalities from a number of high-scoring dramas, such as the focus on human nature, the core closer to reality, and the grand theme through individual destiny.

Many characters in this year's drama series, such as Wang Xiang in "The Long Season", Gao Qiqiang in "Hurricane", Xu Hongdou in "Going to a Windy Place", and Li Lianhua in "Lotus Tower" are all examples of "cutting into the grand theme through individual fate", "A grain of ash of the times falls on an individual's head, it is a mountain" is a true portrayal of Wang Xiang's life. In the final analysis, these commonalities point to the satisfaction of the market demand for "glimpse the truth", and it is therefore why the major genres in 2023 are more or less realistic.

As mentioned above, the popularity of "simple and beautiful" or "painful" youth dramas represented by "When I Was a Teenager" and "Those Young Times That Can't Be Returned" is no longer as popular as before, and in 2023, the popularity of the realistic educational drama "Chasing the Light" far exceeds the first two, which weakens the love element, and instead tells about the sensitivity and confusion that prevail in adolescence in the context of the college entrance examination. Compared with the high popularity of "pure beauty" and "painful" youth dramas, "Chasing the Light" is an intuitive embodiment of the intensification of the realism of youth themes.

However, it should be noted that behind the trend of realism creation in all genres, the control of the macro tone of the drama is also quite important. In 2023, most of the 23 high-scoring dramas will be "heavy in the front and ** in the back", and finally output positive emotional value to the audience. For example, "The Long Season" directly decouples from the dark wind common in suspense dramas, and instead uses a narrative full of fireworks and bright warm colors to convey humanistic care and warm background.

One of the 23 domestic high-scoring dramas is more special, that is, the Taiwanese drama "Bad Obsession Eliminator", but its producer is iQiyi. As a drama that was not broadcast in the mainland but has more than 200,000 Douban ratings, "Bad Obsession Eliminator" is better than a new word. Carefully speaking, there is not only the novelty of the theme of life and death, but also the novelty of the fantasy world view and the protagonist's career setting, as well as the novelty of the genre style of "modern chatting".

In 2023, there will be many new winning dramas such as "Bad Obsession Eliminator". "Ancient Lovesickness", which costs only 4 million, can become the biggest dark horse in the costume romance drama track, allowing B Station to once again achieve small and broad in the field of dramas, relying on the same new word. Of course, the success of "Ancient Lovesickness" is affected by many factors, such as the top hostess, tragic fate, soundtrack, etc., but the precedent setting of "male and female protagonists reverse crossing" is undoubtedly the most critical.

In addition, observing the ** of "Lotus Tower", you will find that most of the audience's affirmation is focused on the shaping of the protagonist Li Lianhua in the series, although Li Lianhua has a strong tragic color, but as a hero who loses his position when he appears, his calmness and self-transcendence in the face of impermanent fate have wonderfully given the audience a sense of **. This kind of male protagonist with "Buddha nature" and "Buddha system" colors is also uncommon in the entire drama market.

It can be said that in 2023, the audience is paying for the quality of the content, and also for all high-quality "new ideas", which points not only to the innovation of character design and narrative, but also to the novelty of the subject matter. The Douban score of "Three-Body Problem" is from 81 all the way up to 8After 7, the score was once questioned by the outside world as slightly inflated, but the audience's feelings for the "Three-Body Problem" series are the same as their feelings for the movie "The Wandering Earth", with affirmation of quality, joy at the development of the film and television industry, and understanding and tolerance of the difficulty of starting with science fiction themes.

The novelty reflected in the content of the high-scoring dramas in 2023 is determined by the comprehensive pursuit of "newness" in the entire drama market. For example, in terms of IP selection, "Apocalypse", an IP from Douban Reading, has formed a significant distinction from most urban love IPs on the market, "Apocalypse" has the unique humanistic atmosphere of Douban Reading, and compared with Jinjiang Love IP, which has gradually aged in recent years, its focus on the love story of mature men and mature women is also more suitable for contemporary urbanites.

Another example is the selection of the main creative team, behind this year's 23 high-scoring dramas are not only Zhao Baogang, Xu Jizhou and other veteran directors, but also a lot of fresh blood, such as "Under the Prosperous City" director Wang Zheng was previously active in the field of self-**, and his original web drama "Great Click" won the "Best Original Screenplay Award" at the 2016 Asian New ** Film Festival. Zhizhu, the director of "Ancient Lovesickness", was previously active in the short drama track, and has incubated popular micro-short dramas such as "The Eldest Princess is on Top" and "Donglan Snow".

In addition, Ding Ziguang, director of "Going to a Windy Place", Bi Xinye, director of "I Have a Friend", and Peng Chen, director of "Hometown, Don't Come to Harm", although they are not like Wang Zheng and Zhizhu who are new to the drama projects of the ** platform, they all carry the labels of young directors and cutting-edge directors. Looking back, many of these talents have also been cultivated step by step by the ** platform in the past few years, Bi Xinye has been selected for the "Youku Young Director Support Program", and Li Mo, the director of "Apocalypse", is the first signed director of Mango TV.

In 2023, new and old directors such as Zhao Baogang, Xu Jizhou, Wang Zheng, and Zhizhu will all go into battle and deliver high-quality works, which is undoubtedly good news for the entire drama market, and it shows the industry's sufficient talent pool and abundant vitality. Major ** platforms, film and television companies can enable these potential stocks in the fields of self-**, short dramas, etc., as well as newcomers who graduated from major film schools, they need courage and take risks, but fortunately, judging from the results, the addition of these fresh blood has indeed brought rare novelty to the industry.