Depressive Screenwriter

Because it's an adapted drama, Su Yan cut out some of the lengthy side quests from the original game.

The female lead, Xiaomai, activates her time rewind ability, returning to the classroom.

Once again, she perfectly answers the photography teacher Xu Jie (Jefferson)'s question.

She waits in the restroom ahead of time.

Then, just like before, she waits for her former friend Xiaoyi and the wealthy second-generation Lisen to arrive.

Everything happens as Xiaomai saw it the first time.

The only difference is that this time, before Lisen can excitedly pull out his gun, Xiaomai presses the alarm button located deep within the women's restroom.

A piercing alarm rings throughout the entire school building.

Xiaoyi takes advantage of the chaos to escape from Lisen, who, in his panicked escape, sees Xiaomai pressing the alarm and realizes she saw him bringing a gun to school.

In the subsequent plot of the first episode, Lisen starts causing trouble for Xiaomai at school because of this incident, even getting into a fight with a boy who has a crush on her. At a critical moment, Xiaoyi drives her pickup truck recklessly to get Xiaomai into the car and save her.

The first episode's plot, lasting less than an hour, is full of conflict from beginning to end.

It also leaves a lot of foreshadowing for the plot.

What is the fate of the missing girl named Shen Qiu (Rachel) at the school?

Is it related to Lisen, this villain who commits all kinds of evil deeds and even brings a gun to the university?

After Xiaoyi and Xiaomai separated five years ago, why did Xiaoyi, who was a top student, drop out of school and even get involved in illegal activities?

What is Xiaoyi's relationship with the missing Shen Qiu?

Strange Life is completely different from Su Yan's previous dramas.

This drama basically has no romance elements, focusing on friendship, puzzle-solving, and exploring the criminal truth surrounding the two female leads.

After the broadcast that night,

Su Yan's fans were a little unaccustomed to it.

The change in plot style is indeed significant, but...

Speaking seriously, this drama is quite good!

"The idea of time rewind ability is really good. It's so satisfying to see Xiaomai use this cheating method to resolve troubles every time!"

"Su Yan's dramas are always slow-burners, but this drama feels quite attractive from the first episode!"

"But what is the main plot of this drama? Is it to find clues to the missing Shen Qiu through the time rewind ability?"

"I always feel that the rich second-generation Lisen is too arrogant to bring a gun to school. The disappearance of that Shen Qiu must be related to him."

"So the background of this drama is set in the last century. Those cities in Xia Country were indeed chaotic at that time, and there were even gangs. Although they have now been severely cracked down and disappeared, they were indeed scary at the time."

"Although there is no Su Yan, this drama is unexpectedly to my liking! Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan's portrayals of Xiaoyi and Xiaomai are really cool. It feels like not having a male lead is a stroke of genius!"

"That's right, dramas depicting the friendship between girls are also quite interesting to watch!"

The plot of the first episode of Strange Life mostly digs holes and sets up foreshadowing in the plot.

Strictly speaking, the plot doesn't reach the level of being very attractive.

If it were created by an unknown screenwriter, then perhaps after the first episode aired, it would only receive a viewer's evaluation of "watchable."

But the screenwriter of this drama happens to be Su Yan, and that's different.

The expectations that different screenwriters bring to the audience for film and television dramas are different.

Su Yan's previous dramas had such good reputations that it directly made Su Yan's fans use a magnifying glass to find the advantages of this drama, Strange Life.

Character makeup, plot rhythm, setting innovation, story connotation...

When you deliberately look for these things, you will definitely be able to discover the shining points of this drama.

The next day,

The viewership ratings for the first episode of Strange Life were released.

4.25%.

Ranking third in viewership ratings this season.

However, the opening score of 9.0 is still ranked first among the dramas that premiered this season.

After this result was released,

Shen Liqian and Gu Qingyuan in the Strange Life crew breathed a sigh of relief.

Especially Gu Qingyuan, because Su Yan was not involved in this drama, she was afraid that the opening viewership ratings would be a complete failure.

After all, this is an A-level drama with an investment of 40 million!

It's twice the investment of April.

But airing on Qingkong TV, and having a score of 4.25%, ranking third in the first week...

Judging from the characteristic of Su Yan's dramas of gaining momentum in the later stages...

Doesn't that mean that the viewership ratings of Strange Life will exceed April's in the later stages of the broadcast?

Not only Gu Qingyuan, Shen Liqian, Su Yan, Xiaozaki Yumi, and other main creators of the crew thought this way.

Even the film and television media in Xia Country thought this way.

Airing on Qingkong TV, the viewership ratings will definitely be low at the beginning, because Qingkong is not comparable to the Big Three at all.

Su Yan can only rely on the extremely high reputation formed after his drama has been aired for a period of time, and the increase in the number of casual viewers who make up the drama on Raccoon Net, to form an army of viewers who join the ranks of following the drama, to achieve a reversal of the viewership ratings against the works of the Big Three.

The reason why April was able to top the viewership ratings in the later stages was because of this.

And now it seems that Strange Life is also likely to embark on this path.

So although the viewership ratings of Strange Life were only ranked third in the first week of the winter season, on Monday, a pile of film critics throughout the film and television industry reported news about Strange Life.

Everyone is looking forward to Strange Life once again walking out of a viewership rating curve like April, and Su Yan achieving the feat of helping Qingkong TV to reach the top for two consecutive seasons.

But in the second week of the winter season, the plot development was not what everyone imagined.

Rain in Shanghai. The sequel's viewership ratings were 4.52%, which is a considerable increase compared to the first week.

Fiery Sun's second episode's viewership ratings were 4.31%, also increasing.

The second week's viewership ratings for Mystery of Time were 4.21%.

But Strange Life, the second week's viewership ratings were 4.22%.

The ranking of the four dramas in the second week's viewership ratings was exactly the same as in the first week, with Strange Life still ranked third in viewership ratings.

But the viewership ratings of its three competitors are all increasing, but Strange Life's viewership ratings have decreased compared to the first week.

This situation is a bit abnormal.

But the decline in viewership ratings is not because the plot has a poisonous point, because Strange Life's score has increased again.

It increased from 9.0 to 9.1.

The plot of the second episode of Strange Life focuses on the female lead Xiaomai's classmate, Qin Ling (Kate).

In this episode, Xiaomai tells Xiaoyi that she has the ability to rewind time. Through a series of experiments, she convinces Xiaoyi of this.

And Qin Ling was drugged by the big jerk rich second-generation Lisen in the first episode, and a pile of indecent videos were taken and spread around the school. The female lead Xiaomai chooses to help her, and prepares to investigate Lisen's relationship with Shen Qiu's disappearance.

In terms of plot, this episode is also extremely compact, and the friendship between the two female leads Xiaoyi and Xiaomai is also moving.

But precisely, its viewership ratings have decreased instead.

At home, Su Yan looked at a group of Strange Life fans' comments online. After a long time, he let out a long breath.

He seems to understand what the problem is.

The plot about campus bullying in this work is a bit too uncomfortable.

Although Su Yan's previous dramas were abusive, they were all abusive on the level of love.

Most of his TV drama viewers are young people, basically single. Although the experience of watching love-themed depressing dramas will feel painful, in reality, those are all imagined depression.

A group of single people, how can they have such a high sense of immersion?

But the first episode of Strange Life is the female lead shooting incident.

The second episode is campus bullying.

The theme is very good, and the plot has depth.

But what about the viewing experience?

Xia Country's fans can watch depressing, abusive content, but the vast majority of people don't want to watch such a heavy story.

And many bullying plots, the plot of rich second-generation bullying others is a bit too real, evoking many people's memories.

After figuring this out, a wry smile couldn't help but appear on Su Yan's face.

He definitely thought that Strange Life was an extremely excellent work before choosing to adapt it into a TV series in Xia Country, but he ignored these problems.

Although the popular work styles in the Xia Country market have been greatly influenced by the Sakura Island in this world because it was incorporated.

But this does not mean that all the works of the island country in the previous life will definitely be popular when brought to Xia Country.

Love themes aside, but works involving campus bullying and crime themes are definitely very sensitive.

Even if the Strange Life plot adds the superpower of time rewind, its core has not changed.

At this moment, Su Yan probably understood these things.

"Learn from a fall, grow from a pit." Su Yan smiled wryly.

But his emotions didn't fluctuate too much.

He has never been a blindly arrogant and conceited person. The confidence he had in his dramas being able to achieve good results in the past came from the excellent results of the original works in his previous life.

The Strange Life game itself sold very well in its previous life, otherwise it wouldn't have released several sequels in a row.

This is also the reason why Su Yan is willing to invest so much money in its production.

But there are inherently risks in adapting game works into TV series across worlds.

"But the situation is not particularly serious now. Let's wait and see for a few weeks."

Soon, the third week of the winter season arrived.

In this episode, the plot of Strange Life is even heavier.

In the first and second episodes, Qin Ling, the girl who was bullied on campus because of the indecent videos spread by the rich second-generation Lisen,

Committed suicide by jumping off a building because she couldn't bear the humiliation.

Of course, in the plot, the female lead Xiaomai overused her ability, not only rewinding time, but also walking in the paused time to come to Qin Ling, who was about to commit suicide by jumping off the building.

Although the result was successfully saving Qin Ling.

But the despair before she committed suicide by jumping off the building and the tragic state of falling to the ground were indeed a bit too real and uncomfortable.

This week, the viewership ratings of the four A-level dramas of this season collectively increased, but

The other three increased by a larger margin.

The viewership ratings for the third episode of Strange Life rose to 4.28%.

But its viewership ranking was only fourth.

Because "Mystery of Time", which had been ranked fourth for two consecutive weeks, had its viewership ratings rise to 4.31%.

Sakura TV's "Rain in Shanghai. The Sequel" continues to lead the viewership ratings chart, reigning supreme with a viewership rating of 4.51%.

Except.

The film critics and media in Xia Country did not mock Strange Life because its viewership ranking fell to fourth.

On the contrary, the media unanimously praised the setting of the female lead Xiaomai using her time rewind ability to save people who were shot and killed, and people who died by jumping off buildings due to campus bullying in Strange Life.

Although the audience doesn't like this heavy plot.

But the media and film critics like it!

What's so good about discussing those vulgar romance dramas?

Campus bullying, shootings, these are bold plots.

If you were given the ability to rewind time, what would you do with this ability?

Would you use it for evil, or would you use it to redeem the many regrets in the world?

Thinking carefully about the plot of Strange Life that has been broadcast so far, it is indeed far superior to other dramas in Xia Country in the same period in terms of depth.

As for viewership ratings?

What else do you want from a drama with this kind of plot if it can be ranked fourth in viewership ratings this season?

The plot is so heavy, there will definitely be a large group of viewers who like lighthearted plots who don't want to watch it!

So a situation that surprised Su Yan appeared.

The viewership ranking of Strange Life is actually not as good as he initially expected.

But this work, on the contrary, exceeded his initial expectations in terms of media reputation.

"Is this what they call, praised but not popular?"

Su Yan looked at the data of Strange Life's average of 5 million paid views per episode on Raccoon Net and the score that had risen to 9.4, and didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Because some readers commented that the work Strange Life is too unfamiliar, and the gap between the plot background, settings, and previous work styles is too large.

I also said yesterday that this drama will be finished soon.

Then let's take advantage of this to make a fuss about this drama, Strange Life.

It is impossible for the protagonist Su Yan to randomly pick any work to adapt and be welcomed, even if it is another world, it is not that simple, but because it is difficult to write a plot where the protagonist suffers setbacks in writing a novel. Everyone definitely does not come to read novels to see those, so I have not mentioned this logical flaw, and I also offend the fans of those works if I write some popular works that flop when adapted into TV series in another world.

But I let the protagonist choose an adaptation work that readers are not optimistic about, and by the way, let its results be slightly unsatisfactory in the plot of the novel, so that it also meets everyone's expectations of reading novels.

I will finish writing this plot in a day or two, and then it will be Cyberpunk and Garden of Words, and then I will do some Japanese anime adaptations.

I won't do niche ones anymore.

I saw in the comments that there are works such as FZ, White Album, and Tokyo Love Story, so let's rely on those aspects later. I won't cause trouble.