Because Jin Dong, Li Zonghan, Li Naiwen, Jiang Xin, Zuo Xiaoqing and many other big-name actors joined, and "Middle Age Crisis" is a topic that is rarely involved in the current domestic TV series, "If you can look back", it has attracted a lot of attention. However, the show has now aired to two-thirds, and the internet score has dropped to 3.9.

In the eyes of the researchers, the problems shown in the play are quite representative of the current domestic dramas, that is, "tagging" is used to replace plot promotion and character shaping.

Complaining that the TV series "If You Can Turn Back" (hereinafter referred to as "Can Turn Back") is not established, it is obviously redundant and too passionate. The plot and the characters are untenable everywhere, but unfortunately a group of actors seriously interpreted various situations that they probably didn't believe, and they also had to pinch their expressions and deal with the dialogue. Middle-aged crisis, or a narrower scope, middle-aged marriage and emotional crisis, or a narrower scope, male middle-aged marriage and emotional crisis from a male perspective-what a good theme and perspective. Regrettably, the episode "Going Back" only aimed at a good theme and good angle, and no bullet hit the target.

In the name of being accustomed to the name big data theory and target market, the play can be labeled as "urban life", "middle-age crisis" and "marriage sentiment", plus the blessings of stars such as Jin Dong, and the sale is natural. But with a good hand, why can't you get a decent minimum? The trouble may be the "label".

Only as a "tag" as a gimmick and selling point, but lacking the corresponding support

Marriage crisis is a label, so the wives may take the initiative to decisively divorce, or try the spiritual love of their siblings outside the marriage, or endure the husband's unjustified extortion, or accidentally pregnant with the boyfriend's children before marriage and unknowingly. The middle-aged crisis is a label, so shouting the slogan of "subversion", dyeing hair, playing with flashes, anxiously falling in love, and returning the already middle-aged middle-aged to the childish and stupid Secondary Two. The fertility crisis is a label, so the intellectual and intellectual divorced woman accidentally caressed the cheek of the strange little girl and insisted on having a baby with her ex-husband ...

"Tags" are all topical in nature, and they can also display interesting character relationships, complex emotional tastes, and awkward situations in life. However, in "Return", only "tags" as gimmicks and selling points, only topic and Concept, but lacking the corresponding support. It looks like a model house in a sales office. The decoration and furniture are all available. It is modern and fashionable. However, the model house itself is not a real brick and tile cover, nor does it lay a foundation. In addition to chatting together, people in the play are idle and idle, and the "golden sentences" that pop up from time to time are like cakes and fruits on the coffee table in the model room. They simulate life scenes, but they are all fake, but they are used to pretend.

No wonder the song sang from the beginning of the first episode. The MV-based editing does not require narrative, but only fills specious emotions.

From "tags" to specific plot performances, from topics to specific situation settings and character relationship changes, the play is not without space, but the director is caught in a narcissistic "old boy" complex: three middle-aged frustrated men suggest I am an "old boy" or a boy who will never be old. I hope to change my face and start all over again, and integrate into a brand-new life. They played the "Truth of Truth Truth" unscrupulously. They did radio gymnastics carefree. When they were in pain, they shouted out loudly. When they lost their marriage, they rushed to find new girlfriends. When he was born, he decided to regenerate one, and the true emotional dilemma that people encounter in middle age does not touch it. From the appearance of skin, the style of the southern city, the beauty of the Australian beach, and the gatherings from the apartment to the dining bar, the heroes and heroines do not reduce the style of the year, it is like giving a middle-aged middle-aged youth a compensation. "Middle-aged" is just a label, a little self-deprecating in the lines, but middle-aged must be young and handsome, pretend to have no life experience to deal with emotional relationships, and pull down IQ to live a life.

It's easy, the actors after the 70s have acted-Jin Dong, Li Zonghan, and Li Naiwen are all senior actors from the class, but they are not playing the current 70s, but the 18s of the 70s and the 90s of the 70s. After, after zero, it looks like the male version of SHE who sings "I don't want to grow up". It is common to please young people in the TV drama market, and it is presented as a forced young middle-aged man in this drama.

The shaping of male characters has collapsed, the female images in the play are also various "tags", and the character's behavior logic is difficult to self-consistent. For example, the unbearable marriage is becoming more and more flat, the sensitive two-person relationship has a tendency to be cold and violent, and the involuntary and young sports coaches are ambiguous. This is a label. The label is attached, there is no text below, only to see the good-looking young women want to experiment with their feminine charm, just because of moral constraints, they immediately retreated and treated the lover outside the marriage as a mouse, a play; The ex-husband relied heavily on her, unlike the state where the marriage between the two had entered the cold room. This extramarital affair has a beginning and an end, but there is no process. Jiang Xiaomei, the No. 1 girl in the play, was also a failure. The dilemma she encountered was repeated extortion by her husband. Only 3 million cash could let her get rid of this failed marriage. At the same time, she had a bad girl's past and had always treated her dead boyfriend. His parents take care of everything. The prototype of this image has a long history. In the old drama, it is a good woman. She must be kind, to modify her past behaviors that transcend social norms. To this end, she has been subjected to all kinds of grievances, and her will will never retreat; she must suffer, win sympathy in rebellion, shine in humanity, and create for her happiness. obstacle. In front of the men older than her, she is a loyal girl, a caring elder sister, a serious life guide, and a "little mother" imagined by men. A goddess that has been stained and sinking into the quagmire, this is a character without any sense of the times, it is a combination of imagination.

Middle-aged so unbearable? Is the episode labeled "middle-aged" just "pseudo-middle-aged"? The stereotype of middle-aged—greasy man with a small belly and woman with yellow face-worn thoughts—of course is undesirable. It is also conceptual to completely interpret middle-aged as suffering under various pressures. Who says middle-aged is equivalent to being vulgar as a house, car, ticket, or child's inability to resist, and is trapped under the siege inside and outside of marriage?

Being able to show middle-aged "embarrassment" is a high-level, but quite difficult. The plot of the play is not progressing quickly, the events are not intensive, and the relationship between the characters does not have too many dramatic entanglements. In addition, there are many "plug-in" characters who have been shadowed and gone, and the series has the shadow of a series of unit dramas. The more you want the "unit" to be more exciting, the more you need the wonderful situation, the accurate "embarrassment" to resonate, and the need for superior intelligence and middle-aged practice.

"Floating" has become an attitude, a way to constitute the truth of another dimension

Like the self-media tweets of the "Title Party", "tags" are not enough to believe. However, tagging, finding topics, and collecting paragraphs, the infinite connection of sketches has become the creation method of some domestic TV dramas in recent years. The same was true of the popular "Little Joy" last year. High school students from art candidates to depression, from borrowing to tutoring classes, can not fall. Female parents experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, and male parents started Didi. The fetuses must be taken care of, as if such social news spitting is equivalent to observing reality and "grounding".

The third grade and the college entrance examination are parent-child tags, and real estate agencies and public relations media are workplace tags. Like the disappointment of "Going Back", the audience is not satisfied with workplace dramas such as "Home" and "Perfect Relationship." And the result of the label is the "suspended" pseudo-workplace and pseudo-middle-aged.

In a sense, the TV series as a mass media has a higher media value than artistry. When "levitation" has recently become a high-frequency word criticizing TV dramas, it is not without reason. However, the problem has been around for a long time, but the solution seems to be far away. It is not so easy to find the root cause of the problem. Is it due to limited creative ability, which makes it difficult for creators to face the contradictions and conflicts that are worth facing, and can only stick to the label and save the paragraph? Is it that capital intervenes arbitrarily, the power of capital is strong, and data, traffic, IP, etc. abduct normal creation procedures and laws? Or, in the hustle and bustle of entertainment supreme, bad money drives out good money, and the audience is good or bad? But in front of the front and back, under the siege, what is the creator's own creative mentality? Is it possible to maintain basic integrity and ability? What we see is that many of them avoid the depth and choose the superficial, avoid the serious and choose the entertainment, avoid the content and choose the IP, avoid the acting and choose the traffic, avoid the spirit-oriented and choose the lower limit of the show than the vulgar, avoid the real social concerns and The choice has nothing to do. "Floating" has become an attitude, a way, "floating" itself constitutes the truth of another dimension.

Labels and paragraphs cannot support the creation of TV series. This is common sense, but why ignore common sense has become the norm. The new crown epidemic has put the film and television industry almost into a dormant period. Hopefully, at this price, it will be able to exchange for a round of adjustments that at least return to common sense, disperse the "levitation", and let the "pseudo-middle-aged" go fake.

Guo Chenzi

(The author is an associate professor in the drama department of Shanghai Theater Academy)