Just after the Spring Festival, a number of genuine video platforms such as "Youaiteng" simultaneously introduced "Friends" and launched them one after another. "Friends" currently has 10 seasons of content, and "Youaiteng" starts one season every Friday night. The series has been broadcast in 220 countries and territories around the world since 1994, and its official message says it is still watched by 25 million viewers every week. According to its official data, "Friends" has been played more than 100 billion times on various genuine video platforms. The introduction of a popular drama was originally a good thing to "feed readers", but because the "Youaiteng" version deleted the content of "sexual minorities", it caused heated discussion in China, and even a lot of negative discussion. Behind these hot discussions, there is indeed something worth thinking about.
What is the reason why "Youaiteng" has introduced "Friends"?
The reason is very simple, the growth rate of long video platforms has slowed down, and there is even a possibility of falling. At this time, the introduction of some TV drama works with a "long tail effect" can ensure that the platform can achieve a smooth broadcast level under the premise of the lowest copyright cost. The official data of "Friends" still has 25 million views per week, which is a strong attraction for the three major domestic genuine video platforms.
The slowdown in the growth rate of long video platforms is already a visible fact for the naked eye. In Q3 2021, iQIYI's net loss was 1.734 billion yuan, compared with a net loss of 1.176 billion yuan in the same period last year, an increase of about 47.4% year-on-year, and layoffs and price increases became the two key words in iQIYI in 2021. In terms of Youku and Tencent Video, although no official information has been released, the situation of the two companies is not much more optimistic than that of iQiyi.
It is worth noting that the domestic long video platform benchmarking Netflix has also experienced a more obvious slowdown. According to Netflix's Q4 financial report for fiscal 2021, Netflix added 8.28 million new paying users in the quarter, compared with 8.51 million in the same period last year, down 2.7% year-on-year. Netflix expects 2.5 million new subscribers in Q1 2022, down from 3.98 million in the same period last year and less than the 6.93 million that analysts generally expected. Because it fell short of market expectations, Netflix shares plunged 20% at one point.
On the one hand, "Youaiteng" is facing the problem that the number of paid members is not slowing down but declining. The overall number of film and television dramas launched in 2022 may also be less than in previous years. Under these premises, some American dramas with a "long tail effect" are introduced, and "Youaiteng" wants to achieve the expectation of being sent charcoal in the snow. But this expectation seems to have backfired.
Due to deletions and other reasons, "Friends" did not become a hit.
On February 11, the first day of the first season of "Friends" was launched on major genuine video platforms, and it once rushed to the popular search of some platforms because of deletion problems. Some professional fans of "Friends" found that the newly launched "Friends" deleted all the content about "sexual minorities". This deletion includes the deletion of some auxiliary line characters, and the deletion and modification of some line content. Because the online version is a deleted version, the online broadcast results of "Friends" are not ideal.
As of 10:00 a.m. on February 13, the total 24 episodes of the first season of "Friends" had only achieved a total of 5.982 million album views on Tencent Video. In terms of Youku and iQiyi, this "Friends" did not enter the front row of the TV series popularity list of the platform. In terms of Tencent Video, which shows playback data, this playback score of less than 6 million is even inferior to the trailer broadcast data of some traffic dramas. Based on the current state of data, because of deletions and other issues, the long-tail playback effect of "Friends" may be "out of the way"!
In "Friends", the narrative attitude to the "sexual minority" is a problem.
In 1994, then-US President Bill Clinton introduced a "don't ask, don't say" policy. The U.S. government does not support "sexual minorities" joining the military, but as long as the "sexual minorities" in the military do not actively indicate their sexual orientation, the commander will not try to expose and expel them, on the contrary, as long as they publicly declare their identity, they will be expelled. Like the "don't ask, don't say" policy, the State of the United States at that time was that, for the most part, it chose to be silent and tended to oppose. The TV series "Friends" was created and broadcast against such a background of the times.
Therefore, in "Friends", when two "sexual minorities" chose to get married, they did not get the blessing of their families, but they encountered the opposition of their families, but the two withstood the pressure, held a wedding, and won the blessings of their old friends. It is very noteworthy that in "Friends", this group of "sexual minorities" is not vulgarized, nor does it take "colored glasses" to narrate and spy on selfishness, but strives to make "sexual minorities" ordinary, ordinary, and life. This narrative attitude is worth learning from many domestic film and television peers.
Why should the "sexual minority" content be deleted in China.
In the creation of mainland film and television dramas, there is a bottom-line principle, that is, the value orientation of the plot cannot deviate from the law. Our judiciary does not currently support the marriage of "sexual minorities". This point, in the field of justice, has been discussed more professionally, which is beyond the scope of the author's profession and is not within the scope of the content of this article. The deletion of the "sexual minority" content in "Friends" actually makes this American drama and our domestic drama stand on the same review starting line. I am optimistic about this incident. This means that the content that can appear in the works of American dramas, British dramas, Japanese dramas, Korean dramas and other works introduced in the future can also appear in future domestic dramas. In our earliest domestic film and television dramas, kiss scenes can not appear, Zhang Yimou filmed the porter to take a bath, you have to put on pants for the porter. Look at the present moment again. This is a process of gradual quantitative change. This process also gives the ordinary audience the time and space to gradually accept.
What domestic film and television dramas should really reflect on is that some works are vulgarizing heterosexual content.
The narrative scale of film and television dramas and the narrative attitude of film and television dramas are parallel and indispensable. What attitude we use to narrate, in fact, to a large extent, determines the scope of what scale film and television dramas should be kept. In recent years, there have been some TV drama works with very healthy narrative attitudes, which are pushing the narrative scale of TV dramas, but they have won the general praise of the audience. For example, in the TV series "Young Pi", the presentation of the couple's physiological life scene. For another example, in the TV series "Xiao MinJia", Huang Lei's character explained the use of condoms to the son-in-law and so on. These are healthy attitudes that bring about a healthy scale.
Conversely, there are many examples. For example, the network movie "The Yin and Yang Realm of Luoyang" that was recently removed from the shelves. The main reason why the film was removed from the shelves was that some of the content was suspected of plagiarism. However, at the same time, in the opening part of this network movie, there is a large number of unnecessary "color" content, and the actress is not dressed neatly, but also measures the thigh, and the chest circumference is measured, which is actually a typical three-vulgar narrative attitude. To put it bluntly, we lack a basic, healthy narrative attitude even for heterosexual content, and it is obviously not the time to talk about "sexual minorities".
Therefore, I think that the narrative scale of film and television dramas must be a gradual process. In this process, it is especially important that we gradually establish a correct and healthy narrative attitude. Otherwise, it is easy to introduce the content of "sexual minorities", if we lack this "ordinary, ordinary, and life" creative attitude in "Friends", there will definitely be more vulgar works than those three vulgar online movies that "measure thighs and measure chest circumference". For the current film and television drama practitioners, we should still be committed to more "Xiao Minjia" and less "Yin and Yang Realm" work. Don't just think about it, take the three vulgar gimmicks and hook up with the audience. (Text/Ma Qingyun)