At the beginning of the year, the online drama ＂Beginning＂ ended. Is it really worth 8.2 points？
Special feature of 1905 film network The online drama "The Beginning" ended, and Douban scored 8.2 points.Are you satisfied with this ending? What is the ending in your mind?
In any case, The Beginnings has brought the audience into the "circular" world, especially after hearing Cannon, some viewers will have the same conditioned reflex as Li Shiqing (ornaments).
After three days of broadcasting, the broadcast volume has exceeded 100 million. So far, the broadcast volume has exceeded 1.2 billion, and the average number of hot searches for single episode updates has exceeded 20. Not only that, the series has been bought overseas for broadcasting rights, and there are even plans to shoot a film version through the Internet.
Undoubtedly, "The Beginning" is definitely an explosive drama series that opened in 2022.
The broadcast effect is good, and many viewers applaud it, even lamenting that the series is underestimated and should have a higher score, while digging deep into the details of the series one by one; However, some viewers have frankly praised this kind of circulating works, which is not as refined as the film, but now it makes the story drag on.
So, is the series "The Beginning" worth this score? We have invited Xiao Ke, an audience who likes the play very much, and Xiao Dou, an audience who thinks the play is overrated, to talk about the beginning.
"infinite flow"
"infinite flow" is an unavoidable topic in The Beginning.
The so-called "infinite flow" is actually that the hero and heroine keep returning to the original space and time in order to complete a certain task until the task is completed.
This concept setting is not new. Many viewers pointed out that movies such as this are all similar settings, and domestic movies and dramas also have corresponding attempts.
Although "The Beginning" does not completely conform to this setting in a strict sense, it cannot be denied that this high concept attracts the audience like a "hook" and makes some viewers immersed in it.
In Xiaoke’s view, this concept is not the focus of "Beginning". It is more like a suspense set by the creator, letting the audience find the murderer and the story behind the murderer.
Like movies with related settings, most of the previous films will be constantly circulating in a single space, strengthening the concept of infinite flow. "The Beginning" does not directly tell the audience that there is a bomb on the bus, but every time there is a new situation, from the so-called accident to the final confirmation that it was detonated for no reason when there was no accident, and it is more certain that the suspect is a passenger on the bus.
The progression of this story is to pave the way for the follow-up of the series, where Li Shiqing and Xiao Heyun (ornaments) interrogate the passengers on the bus and lead to the story behind the passengers.
Xiaodou thinks that this introduction has affected the narrative rhythm of the drama.
He agrees with the interesting spoilers of some viewers on the Internet. From the appearance of two well-known actors, Liu Dan, in the car, the murderer has been very clear. Not only that, from the very beginning, the series emphasized how the driver played by Huang Jue was appraised as advanced in the past, which was completely different from the reaction in the incident situation.
Of course, The Beginning didn’t deliberately hide who the murderer was from the audience. At the beginning of the fourth episode, when Li Shiqing shouted that there was a bomb in the car, the explosion developed immediately, and some framing processing was done in the lens picture, which showed that a pair of hands pulled the pressure cooker.
Fourthly, it integrates a turning point in the beginning, leading the so-called infinite flow to the topic of finding the murderer.
Although there are details, for the "spoiler" audience, there are fewer surprises in the following plot, and the overall rhythm becomes procrastinating. After all, the next turning point of "The Beginning" is in the eighth episode, when Liu Dan plays Tao Yinghong.
From the fourth episode to the eighth episode, and even the tenth episode behind, the protagonists are constantly circulating in the story, interrogating passengers from all walks of life, and the camera also digs their own human topics, which can be said to be a plus item, but for the main story, it seems a bit lengthy.
This view put forward by Adzuki Bean has indeed become a doubt for many viewers about the rhythm of the plot.
"Understanding" of Characters
In Xiaoke’s view, the case of "The Beginning" is not the focus, but the humanity behind it is the place where the play looks good.
Drama is different from movies, and the whole drama is single, which can involve more story content. It is precisely because "The Beginning" has a capacity of 15 episodes that it can spread more content and drive the audience to explore everyone in the car, and this kind of excavation of human nature is actually the place where the producer is best at noon sunshine.
After the discovery of the bomb and the murderer, The Beginning is to tell the story behind the humble people on the bus. This kind of narration is not single, but also serves the audience to explore the story behind the driver and Tao Yinghong.
The late development of the drama, including the quarrel between the man and the woman, actually embodies human nature. In fact, the choice of the male and female hosts in episode 8 is to "save their own lives" or "save the whole car", with the aim of highlighting this point.
Besides, in the 10th episode of the series, when the male and female hosts ask the passengers in the car for help, each character has a clearer personality display under the foreshadowing of the previous events, which makes their behavior more convincing.
But in adzuki bean’s view, this form does not seem to be the best presentation at present.
The narrative perspective of The Beginning, from the perspective of men and women, and then to passengers, tries to convey a concept, "understanding" to the audience in many ways.
Why did some people be indifferent when Li Shiqing cried for help at the beginning? For this reason, the creative team has a lot of details to deal with and explain. For example, the old farmer with watermelon was afraid to go to the police station at first, and it was not until his story line that the audience realized that his past experience would cast a shadow on him.
This understanding is also hidden in the confrontation between police officers and men and women. People in the real world naturally find it difficult to understand the concept of "cycle". The drama series relies on every telling of the story to make "understanding" itself have a soul.
The idea of the play is good, but the way of promoting it directly leads to the low narrative efficiency, and finally the story of each character can only be told in the middle of the drama in the way of approximate unit drama.
This narrative transition lacks sufficient impetus, which makes the tense atmosphere created at the beginning of the story turn sharply into a warm route, and the split style will also weaken the perception. If it can be shown by film narration, it will be far more compact than the narrative method of this traditional TV series.
This kind of rhythm is also missing in the hero and heroine as "circulators".
In the first ten episodes of the series, after more than 20 cycles, they didn’t really give enough useful information. But since the 11th episode, the whole rhythm has obviously accelerated, and this episode is also the key turning point for the third time.
But from here on, the story still leaves more than half of the problems unsolved.
Why do drivers and "Aunt Pot" bomb buses? Is there an answer to the story behind it? Can men and women get rid of the cycle? What kind of life will the passengers on the bus be after liberation?
After nearly five episodes of exploration, each character in the drama really found their value and acting position. The male and female host began to present the identity of "recycler" to the audience, and intervened in the whole incident, and began to solve these mysteries for the audience one by one.
Although "The Beginning" will have a lot to tell, and the current 15-episode series can also be seen to be striving for fine short plays, on the whole, there is still much room for refinement in the narrative mode and rhythm of the story.
In fact, both Xiao Ke and Xiao Dou think that The Beginning has many points worthy of recognition in its creative expression. Even if it still has some improvements, it does not affect that it is still a high-quality work in Chinese drama.
As for whether "The Beginning" is worth 8.2 points, every audience has its own score in mind.
Perhaps, it can provide proof for the later high-concept dramas, and how to better narrate and enter the audience’s heart. Then, it will be a good "start".