□Wang Xiaoyu (Wuhan University)
On January 25, "Flowers and Boys 5" (or "Flowers and Boys·Silk Road Season") came to a successful conclusion, a show that started with heated discussions and ended with reluctance. At the end of the show, it once again became a hot topic on major lists. In 2023, the "Acquaintance Variety Show" has rolled up, and the remaining enthusiasm continues into the new year, from "Happy Start 2" in January last year and "Farming" in February to the later "Happy Adult" and "Jump" "Journey into the Geography Book", "Happy Friends", "Flowers and Boys Silk Road Season", they are the six programs of "Douban's top 10 most watched variety shows in 2023". Their common feature is that the guests are familiar friends with each other. , building a beautiful spiritual utopia for the audience in a familiar and relaxing atmosphere.
First of all, why can the "Acquaintance Game" variety show build a spiritual garden? Variety shows have always been a vehicle for people to soothe themselves and long for emotional resonance or support. In the post-epidemic era, this sentiment is particularly obvious. People’s desire to meet and chat with friends has reached its peak. relationship becomes closer. With the homogenization of program development, audiences have also shifted from the external pursuit of entertainment, competition and visual effects to the internal pursuit of spiritual sublimation, spiritual healing and emotional resonance. At this time, variety shows are based on acquaintance relationships. Showing the relatively warm emotions between acquaintances, the friendly exchanges, jokes and mutual understanding and respect between the guests in the variety show satisfy all the audience's imagination and yearning for beautiful friendship. The "old babies" who advance and retreat hand in hand in "Happy Restart", the intimate "Yeju Family" in "Happy Adults", and the sincere and tacit understanding of the "Big Dipper" in "Flowers 5" have all become beautiful things in the hearts of the audience. The phantom and expectation of friendship, becoming one of them in the screen world mirrored by the screen, feeling the twists and turns and fun in life or journey together, become a spiritual utopia for every lonely soul.
Secondly, how does "Acquaintance Variety Show" build a spiritual utopia? From the perspective of the program producers, the guests they selected are all people who know each other to a certain extent. The early planning and setting reduced the risk of unfamiliarity and embarrassment between the guests. He served as the chief director of the first two seasons of "Flowers and Boys" When Chen Yunyu commented on the latest season of "Hua Shao 5", she said, "The core story of "Hua Shao" has changed. The previous ones were all strangers, but this year it is the story of acquaintances." The relaxed and real dialogue between acquaintances and Interaction can make the audience resonate with the same frequency. From the emotional and interactive presentation of the guests, since they are acquaintances, they can communicate with each other more boldly and openly. They do not need to pretend to be gregarious or funny in front of the camera, but can joke with each other and expose each other's background in front of friends. In "Happy Adult", Fan Shiqi's heartfelt words about "I have no friends and rarely make friends" resonated with many netizens. The knowledge of making friends and making good friends has always been with everyone, Shen Yue , Wang Jingxuan The healing and tacit understanding of friendship also moved the audience in front of the screen and the people on the show. Their happy moments created a simple and pure world of friendship for the audience.
Finally, the underlying logic of the "Acquaintance Game" variety show is the true feelings between people. There is no intrigue, no exciting competition, and no malicious editing. Sincerity is still the key to the variety show's grasp of the audience. "Flower Flower 5" was initially burdened with negative reviews and "mutual tearing" labels brought about by the previous seasons. It was discussed by netizens as soon as it was aired. However, the guests were considerate of each other, predicted hot topics, and had a strong relationship with each other. Their support and friendship made the audience admire them with admiration, and they were immersed in their experiences and mutual help during their journey. Moreover, the compatibility of personalities and the resonance in the process of getting along made every exchange of their heartfelt words extremely real and valuable. This is also The reason why "Hua Shao 5" ended and dominated the hot list. "Acquaintance Variety Show" fills and satisfies the audience's real needs for loneliness and companionship in real life, downplays the conflicts between people that can be intensified at any time, and interprets and conveys the indescribable fate and opportunities in friendship.
Slow down and enjoy life. "Acquaintance Variety Show" not only allows the audience to enter a beautiful spiritual garden to heal themselves, but also allows the audience to seriously think about the relationship between people; it not only provides the audience with spiritual companionship, Making "online" friends allows viewers to be grounded in reality, cherish the fate in life, and spend time with friends. "Acquaintance Variety Show" has broadened the expression of slow variety shows and made the audience's spiritual utopia a feasible reality. However, how variety shows can firmly capture the audience's minds may still depend on who can grasp the pulse of the times and real emotions.
