On the evening of June 29, the TV series "Lonely Battle in the City" was launched on iQiyi and Tencent Video, officially opening the premiere mode. This TV series starring Xin Zhilei, Huang Jingyu and other actors tells the story of spy warfare in the context of anti-Japanese resistance. Based on the current 4 episodes, this TV series is actually more suitable for middle-aged and elderly audiences to chase dramas, the narrative logic is far-fetched, but there are a lot of fights, and the yelling is obvious, which has some meaning of anti-Japanese drama.
The biggest problem with the current 4 episodes of "Lonely Lost City" is the lack of a suspenseful button with a sense of power, so that the audience has a better motivation to follow the drama. Spy war dramas are storytelling TV series, and the storytelling mainly comes from the conflict between the positive and negative factions or even multiple factions. Because of this, the audience needs to see the obvious plot line in a spy war drama work, and only when they see the plot line can they look forward to the later plot development. The problem with "Lone Lost City" now is that there is no button, no main line.
From the audience's point of view, they don't know what this TV series wants to do next, and then they have no expectations for this TV series. The reason for this situation is that the show did not show a clear main line in the first 4 episodes, nor did it tie an effective suspense button. There is no main line, there is no need to argue, and viewers who have watched the first 4 episodes of the show will have tangible feelings. Of course, I estimate that the vast majority of viewers will abandon the show in episode 2 and give it a chance to have 4 episodes at all.
A spy war drama, there is no clear narrative line for the time being, and it is okay, as long as you can tie an effective suspense button at the beginning. "Lone Lost City" certainly wants to complete this suspense button. And the character played by Huang Jingyu, after being hoeed and raped, suddenly appeared again, which can be regarded as a button. However, this clasp is not fastened tightly enough. On the premise of keeping the overall story unchanged, re-fastening this button and "hardening" the scene before Huang Jingyu's character escaped, the effect will be much better.
What does it mean to harden the scene before Huang Jingyu's character escaped? The current state of the script of "Lonely Lost City", the male protagonist appears as an "intruder", and the first narrative perspective of the play is the heroine. Therefore, the audience followed the heroine's perspective and when they saw this intruder, they were 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, then 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 war drama, the heroine's spy war identity was revealed to the audience in the first episode, lacking a lot of turning points, which is also one of the reasons why the suspense of the show is not enough. The audience knows that Xin Zhilei's role is to do things for my party. And the heroic righteousness of Xin Zhilei's character is also a typical state of our party. In this state, how can the reactionaries, on their part, trust her? Obviously, this TV series is also weak in terms of character building, and it can't stand scrutiny.
The identity of Huang Jingyu's character seems to be a suspense point, but what is even more unsuccessful about this TV series is that in the plot synopsis, the foundation has long been exposed to the audience. The plot synopsis of a good spy war drama will make the audience know and not know. This TV series is good, and it directly tells the audience that Xin Zhilei's role is our party, Huang Jingyu's role is also our party, and Ma Sichao's role is a spy planted by the Japanese invaders on the reactionary side. In this way, the whole TV series will be finished. There is no suspense or spy war to speak of.
Without the atmosphere of suspense and spy warfare, only the plot of the anti-Japanese drama remains. For example, in episode 2, when escorting Huang Jingyu's character, the hero and heroine suffered an assassination attempt by the Japanese invaders. This shootout and martial arts scene seems to be very enjoyable, the hero and heroine are all kinds of hanging, all kinds of fighting, all kinds of abuse on the devil's side, and so on. However, aren't all kinds of coolness in this kind of gunfight and martial arts exactly the number of roads in the anti-Japanese drama? In other words, the devils know the importance of this assassination, and they are engaged in a sneak attack, why are these devils so weak in combat? In a normal TV series, this logically doesn't make sense. When it comes to the anti-Japanese drama, there is no need to criticize the logic.
Huang Jingyu's performance in the play is no different from previous film and television dramas. Huang Jingyu gives people the feeling that he has always wanted to play a tough guy, but that small body doesn't look like a tough guy. In "Lonely Lost City", the biggest attraction is still on Xin Zhilei's side. Xin Zhilei wrote all her hundred hearts and eyes on her face. There are really not many actresses who look very scheming. Therefore, whatever she plays, it is easy to succeed.
Moreover, Xin Zhilei is actually more suitable for some villains. In "Lonely Lost City", when she played a doctor, I always felt that she wouldn't kill this group of soldiers, right? This feeling really stems from the huge two words written on Xin Zhilei's face: scheming. Xin Zhilei exposed her decent identity early in the play, which is inappropriate. But this actor has domineering, offensive power, and looks at it, which makes people like it.
To sum up, this TV series belongs to a work with a relatively low script quality. The screenwriter wants to use the banner of spy war drama to make a good-looking, hard-conflict anti-Japanese drama. However, the screenwriter's ability to control the content in related fields is insufficient, and the final result is that he can only learn a lot like other anti-Japanese dramas. For example, the scenes of the Chongqing military commanders are typical of vulgar dramas that can only be broadcast on terrestrial channels.
lacks a main line, there is no suspense button, and the plot synopsis has exposed all the story foundations, and in the specific bridge conflicts, the content of the drama continues. Therefore, this "Lonely Lost City" should have a lose-lose situation in terms of broadcast results and audience word-of-mouth. Xin Zhilei's hard-earned popularity will also lose a lot.
At present, the number of short reviews formed by the show on Douban and other places is relatively limited, but there have been almost all negative reviews. Based on these bad reviews, the audience is not satisfied with the quality of "Lonely and Lost City". In other words, the really high-quality TV series will definitely be broadcast exclusively on the genuine video platform, rather than being distributed. The platforms are the most refined, better than the monkeys. Once a TV series is distributed, nine times out of ten it is poor quality and no confidence.
According to online rumors, this TV series will be broadcast on the stars in the future. In terms of ratings, we can look forward to it. "Lonely Lost City" has the aura of an anti-Japanese drama, and in terms of ratings, it will be very good. This kind of TV series is more suitable for middle-aged and elderly audiences, especially male audiences. (Text/Ma Qingyun)