On the evening of June 29, the TV series " " was launched on iQiyi and Tencent Video, officially launching its premiere mode. This TV series stars Xin Zhilei , Huang Jingyu and other actors, and tells the story of a spy war in the context of the Anti-Japanese War. Based on the current 4-episode content, this TV series is actually more suitable for middle-aged and older audiences to follow the drama. The narrative logic is far-fetched, but there are many fights and obvious yelling, which makes it quite similar to an anti-Japanese drama.
The biggest problem in the first four episodes of "The Lost City" is the lack of a powerful suspense button, so that the audience has better motivation to follow the show. Spy dramas are TV dramas that tell stories, and the storytelling mainly comes from the conflict between the good and the bad factions or even multiple factions. Because of this, the audience needs to see an obvious main plot line in a spy drama. Only when they see the main plot line can they look forward to the development of the plot later. The problem with "The Lost City" now is that there are no buttons and no main line.
From the perspective of the audience, they will not know what the TV series wants to do next, and then they have no plot expectations for this TV series. The reason for this situation is that in the first four episodes of the show, there was no clear main line and no effective suspense button. There is no main line, and there is no need to argue. Audiences who have watched the first 4 episodes of the show will have real feelings. Of course, I estimate that the vast majority of viewers will abandon the show in the second episode and will not give it a chance to reach four episodes.
It’s a spy war drama. It doesn’t have a clear narrative main line for the time being, and that’s okay, as long as it can tie an effective suspense button at the beginning. "The Lost City" certainly wants to complete this suspense button. The character played by Huang Jingyu, after being raped, suddenly appears again, which can be regarded as a button. However, the button is not tight enough. Under the premise of keeping the overall story unchanged, the effect will be much better if the button is re-tied and the scene before Huang Jingyu's character escapes is "hardened".
What do you mean by hardening the scene before Huang Jingyu’s character escapes? The current status of the script of "The Lost City" is that the male protagonist appears as an "intruder", and the first narrative perspective of the play is from the heroine's side. Therefore, when the audience follows the heroine's perspective and sees this intruder, they are confused, rather than curious about his future trend. If the story is told from the perspective of the male protagonist and the story before the escape is hardened, the audience will be worried about the fate of the male protagonist, and this button can be tightened.
At the same time, as a spy drama, the heroine’s spy identity is revealed to the audience in the first episode, which lacks many turning points. This is one of the reasons why the drama lacks suspense. The audience all knows that Xin Zhilei's character does things for our party. The awe-inspiring righteousness of Xin Zhilei's character is also a typical state of our party. In this state, how could the reactionaries trust her? Obviously, this TV series is also weak in terms of character creation and cannot withstand scrutiny.
The identity of Huang Jingyu's character seems to be a point of suspense. However, the biggest failure of this TV series is that the identity has long been revealed to the audience in the plot summary. The plot summary of a good spy drama will let the audience know something and something they don’t know. This TV series is so good. It directly tells the audience that the character Xin Zhilei belongs to our party, the character Huang Jingyu also belongs to our party, and the characters and Ma Sichao are spies planted by the Japanese invaders on the reactionary side. If you do this, the entire TV series will be ruined. There is no suspense or espionage to speak of.
Without the atmosphere of suspense and spy war, all that is left is the plot of the anti-Japanese drama. For example, in episode 2, when escorting Huang Jingyu's character, the hero and heroine encountered an assassination attempt by Japanese invaders. This shootout and martial arts scene seems to be very enjoyable. The male and female protagonists cheat in various ways, cooperate in various ways, and the Japanese are completely tortured in various ways.However, isn’t this kind of excitement in gunfights and martial arts the stuff of anti-Japanese dramas? By the way, the Japs clearly knew the importance of this assassination and it was a sneak attack. Why were these Japs so weak in combat effectiveness? This doesn't make sense logically in a normal TV show. In the anti-Japanese drama, there is no need to criticize logic.
Huang Jingyu's performance in the drama is no different from previous film and television dramas. Huang Jingyu gives the impression that he has always wanted to play a tough guy, but with his small body, he doesn't look like a tough guy. In "Alone in the Lost City", the biggest highlight is still Xin Zhilei's side. Xin Zhilei had all her thoughts written on her face. There are really not many actresses who look so scheming. Therefore, she can easily succeed in whatever role she plays.
Moreover, Xin Zhilei is actually more suitable for some villain roles. In "The Lost City", when she played the doctor, I always felt that she wasn't going to kill these soldiers, was she? This feeling actually comes from two huge words written on Xin Zhilei's face: scheming. Xin Zhilei exposed her decent identity early in the drama, which was inappropriate. But this actor is domineering and aggressive, making people like him.
To sum up, this TV series is a work with relatively low script quality. The screenwriter wanted to create a good-looking, hard-hit anti-Japanese drama under the banner of a spy drama. However, the screenwriter's ability to control content in related fields is insufficient, and the final result is that he can only learn a lot from other anti-Japanese dramas. For example, the scenes involving the Chongqing military commanders have the look of a typical cheesy drama that would only be broadcast on terrestrial channels.
lacks a main plot and has no suspenseful elements. The plot synopsis reveals all the details of the story. Among the specific conflicts in the plot, the drama is full of content. Therefore, this "Alone in the Lost City" should suffer from both broadcast performance and audience reputation. Xin Zhilei's hard-earned popularity will also be lost.
At present, the number of short reviews of the show on Douban and other places is relatively limited, but almost all negative reviews have appeared. Based on these negative reviews, the audience is not satisfied with the quality of "The Lost City". In other words, truly high-quality TV series will definitely be broadcast exclusively on genuine video platforms instead of being distributed. Platformers are the most sophisticated, even more sophisticated than monkeys. Once a TV series is distributed, nine times out of ten, the quality is poor and there is no confidence.
It is reported online that this TV series will be broadcast on stars in the future. In terms of ratings, we can look forward to it. Because "The Lost City" has the look of an anti-Japanese drama, it will actually do very well in terms of ratings. This type of TV series is more suitable for middle-aged and older audiences, especially male audiences. (Text/Ma Qingyun)
