The explosion type of online drama began to turn to ＂sweet pet drama＂. Be careful that it is too sweet.

　　Our reporter Li Xiazhi

　　"Fall in love? Destroy your whole family. " If you haven’t seen the recently hit online drama "East Palace", maybe you simply can’t understand a large number of new quotations such as "finding candy in the glass slag" invented by these self-proclaimed "East Palace girls" when chasing the drama. At the same time, another online drama "Falling in Love with the Big Dipper Boyfriend" with a completely different theme has become a "sweet pet drama in online celebrity" which has attracted much attention from netizens recently, because the plot of "making sugar" between the protagonists is so sweet and greasy that it is off the charts. The trend changes rapidly, the youth idol drama turns to the collective, and young people are keen on the relaxed and happy theme of "love brain", which is "collusion" between society and industry to some extent.

　　More than a dozen movies a year, "sweet pet" has become a new trend.

　　Since last year, the types of online drama explosions have begun to turn, and suspense and thriller themes have changed lanes. In 2018 alone, more than ten "sweet pet dramas" have been launched. From "Two-time Spoiled Princess 2" and "Love the First Love of Chitose Adults" to the recently broadcast "Why BOSS wants to marry me", "East Palace" and "Love the Big Dipper Boyfriend", the sweet interaction between the male and female protagonists has become the highlight of the plot. It seems that "kissing and hugging and holding high" is very popular among Internet audiences. For example, "Two-time Spoiled Princess" with a low cost and a brand-new lineup once created a record of 3.6 billion plays, and "Why BOSS wants to marry me" also quickly attracted network traffic, and the attention was once overwhelmed by "Biography", a sequel to "Story of Yanxi Palace" in the same period.

　　This trend is not unique to domestic online dramas. "Life is hard. I eat sugar with my mouth open and stick to ‘ Sweet pet ’ The film and television works of the label are popular in China, Japan and South Korea. In terms of Korean dramas, last summer’s "Why is Secretary Jin like that" and the recent hit "Touching the Heart" have made many viewers feel full of sweetness. " Drama critic Dai Taojiang pointed out that "Touching the Heart" is still at the top of the list of recent Korean dramas, although the plot itself lacks new ideas and just "sends candy" on the protagonist’s love bridge. At present, the number of official Weibo readers of "East Palace" has exceeded 2.1 billion, ranking second in the super-topic community, and only last year’s "explosive drama" Zhen Soul of Youku can rank ahead of it.

　　Even though Li Chengyin and nine princess Xiaofeng, the protagonists in the East Palace, are in love with each other, the story of sweet pet comes to an abrupt end because of the reversal of the fate and personality of the characters in the later period. Many viewers can’t accept it, calling for the story to continue to "distribute sugar" in the barrage, and even giving the play a nickname "Hua Mei Drama" (referring to the tragedy that the hero and heroine are crazy about "spreading sugar" and the audience can’t stop).

　　Subdivide the audience and aim at "light" women

　　"Sweet pet drama is a branch of traditional romantic comedy, and its success in the market benefits from the high certainty of this type." Dai Taojiang said that compared with the traditional romantic comedy, the protagonist’s emotional evolution may go through various hardships, while the sweet pet drama is "sweet" from beginning to end. "The heroine is the first and only emotional hero, and the heroine is the absolute winner in the emotional relationship. All that is needed in the process is the romantic experience brought by the hero." In her view, this highly deterministic structure and setting satisfies the mentality of some viewers to watch easily, and the audience can get great psychological satisfaction without putting too much emotion into it.

　　For the market, this type of drama that directly hits the audience’s preferences is precisely the audience segmentation and precise positioning pursued by the current online drama. Naran, a drama critic, was shocked to notice that the audience around him who loves to watch sweet pet dramas are mainly female audiences after 1980s and 1990s. For most young women, romantic love dramas are a spiritual supplement to reality. "If the emotional needs in real life are not met, at least you can get a good mood by watching sweet pet dramas."

　　According to Tencent’s 2018 Index Report, Tencent’s video drama-chasing users account for 54% and 18% after 90 and 00, respectively. The proportion of program users under the age of 24 has increased from 51% in 2017 to 55%. The post-95 and 00 generations with diverse tastes have gradually become the main audiences in all dimensions, and the user groups tend to be younger. According to the data published by various video websites, the user base of video websites is still dominated by women. Ying Dai, vice president of Aiqiyi and general manager of the self-made drama development center, also said that taking Falling in Love with the Big Dipper Boyfriend as an example, Aiqiyi focused on "light-cooked" women in her era to launch light-cooked sweet comedies, which was an extension to more vertical subdivisions under the broad theme of youth. It is not difficult to get the favor of producers and platforms for sweet pet dramas aimed at young female audiences.

　　"Sending sugar" is illogical, so be alert to aesthetic fatigue.

　　From Yunxi Hug in Yunxi Zhuan, Wei Long CP in Story of Yanxi Palace, to gratitude in Sweet Honey as Heavy as Frost, there are more and more sources of sweet pet dramas, but the means are slightly single, which also brings "too sweet" and "too tired of sweet".

　　“‘ Sweet pet ’ It mainly relies on daily interaction and intimacy to create an atmosphere, which has extremely high requirements for the face value and romantic bridge setting of male characters in the play, and also puts forward certain requirements for the audience of actors. " Dai Taojiang has no doubt that many producers have seen the market prospects of sweet pet dramas, but failed to see the structural and plot defects that such dramas often bring to satisfy the "sweet pet". "Most of the sweet pet dramas have logical flaws in the relationship construction, the characters do not have basic action logic, and many plot settings seem blunt and abrupt. In addition, the means of sweetness and pampering in intimate relationships are nothing more than infinite tolerance and intimate contact. Over time, it is easy for the audience to breed aesthetic fatigue and produce boredom. "

　　After the Korean drama "Touching the Heart" was broadcast in the middle period, it still repeated "sprinkling sugar", which has already made many viewers choose to abandon the drama. After the popularity of domestic sweet pet dramas, there have been many similar themes on the market in the past year, but there are not many works that can reach the same flow as "Sweet honey is as heavy as frost" or "Two-time pet princess". It is worth noting that many works are "sweet for the sake of sweetness" or fabricate high-sugar plots that violate the logic of life for the sake of "sweet pets", which have actually aroused the audience’s disgust. Su Zhan, an industry critic, said that in the past, the audience hated the story of sadism just because they hated the suspension of the giant fighting drama. Nowadays, the threshold of sweet pet drama is lower, and creators can take advantage of the wind to extend the "sweet abuse" indefinitely, but don’t push them to suspension and entertain themselves. Whether it is an emotional drama focusing on sweet pets or sadomasochism, only under the correct guidance of reality can it go on for a long time in the market.