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the 2024 summer season has come to an end. the "2024 summer season drama observation report" recently released by lighthouse professional edition shows that in this year's summer tv series, the proportion of costume dramas (including costume idol dramas) has dropped from 33.3% in 2023 to 23.8%, the largest drop among all major types of tv series.

in addition to the decline in quantity, the scores of ancient puppet dramas in the summer of 2024 are also unsatisfactory. taking douban ratings as an example, the most popular "mo yu yun jian" scored 6.6, and other well-known dramas basically hovered around the passing line: "si hai chong ming" scored 6.3 points, "du hua nian" scored 6.2 points, "chang xiang si 2" scored 5.9 points, "yan xin ji" scored 5.9 points, etc. so far, the best score is "liu zhou ji" with 7.9 points - not as good as "lotus tower" with 8.5 points in 2023, nor as good as "cang lan jue" with 8.2 points in 2022. this shows that the response and audience base of ancient puppet dramas continue to be lost.

it’s no coincidence that ancient costume dramas have been unpopular.

ancient puppet dramas have always attracted audiences with big ips, big investments, big stars, and big productions. for a long time, they have been the backbone of summer dramas: "dream of splendor", "starry sky: moon rises over the sea", "cang lan jue", "longing", "lotus tower" and other popular dramas in recent years are all from the summer season. the current cold reception is due to the fact that the audience group is overly dependent on fans of the leading actors, the original party and ancient puppet enthusiasts, and it is difficult to break through the circle. there are also reasons such as forced cp, abuse of filters and special effects and other routines that make the audience less and less interested. in addition, the fictional setting of ancient puppet dramas is to blame.

the great xia dynasty in "du huanian", the nanqing kingdom in "joy of life", the xinchuan kingdom in "the daily life of a noble lady", the xi clan and the yue clan in "cang lan jue", etc. in the vast majority of ancient puppet shows, the places where the stories take place and the historical background are either fictitious countries or dynasties, or illusory fairylands. even some works with a clear historical background do not shy away from saying that they are fictional. for example, the original author of "the wind rises in longxi", which is set in the three kingdoms period, ma boyong said, "many names, such as siwen cao, junzhengsi, and the cumbersome and lengthy administrative procedures of shu han, are all made up by me without any research. these are ancient institutions created to increase the authenticity of the article."

supporters of fictional drama say that the fictional historical background tears down the wall of history between the audience and the characters in the play, allowing the audience to feel more involved.

but obviously, this is a misunderstanding. using the past to tell the present is the core feature of ancient puppet dramas. since it is "borrowing from the past", the well-documented historical background will undoubtedly increase the credibility and authenticity of the drama, making the "telling of the present" more targeted and valuable. the ancient puppet drama "dream of hualu" set in the northern song dynasty was very popular when it was broadcast last year, and the costume drama "tang dynasty strange stories: journey to the west" set in the tang dynasty scored 8.6, which also shows that the fictional setting is not the only option.

others have pointed out that the fictional background of ancient puppetry is to cover up the creators' lack of knowledge in terms of rules and regulations, costumes and props, so as to facilitate the arbitrary arrangement of the plot and the misattribution of the characters. if this is true, it is really a lazy act that is not worth mentioning.

it was previously reported that 2024 will be a big year for ancient puppet dramas, with 74 large-scale ancient puppet dramas expected to be broadcast. we are happy to see that more and more ancient puppet dramas are changing the status quo of being fictional, creating down-to-earth works, and reversing the cold reception.

source: beijing daily client

reporter: liu jianghua