"Shocking the World": Lost, the prospect of a 24-hour successor is not good

Davonte 2022-02-07 15:00:18

"Lost" had its finale, "Heroes" did not receive orders for a new season, and the menacing new drama "Future Flash" was cut after one season, and the sci-fi drama suddenly reached its lowest point in recent years. Looking forward to the appearance of the flag bearer. And the current old dramas are really difficult to take on this responsibility. The ratings of "Edge of Crisis" are sluggish, the future of "V Star Invasion" is unclear, "Smallman" is about to die, and the "Stargate: Universe" and "Warehouse 13" of the Science Fiction Channel are again It was too niche, so the new sci-fi drama "Shocking World" created by NBC in the 2010-2011 broadcast season was placed high on expectations. Before its broadcast, it ranked first on Twitter's hot new drama list. The style of both sci-fi and action is like "Lost". " and "24" hour successor.

"Shocking the World" is worthy of a large-scale work, with a grand pattern, spectacular scenes, many characters, suspenseful, first-class originality and freshness. The producer is from "4400", and the director is one of the producers of "24 Hours", so science fiction, suspense and action have become the main elements of the film. "The product after the reorganization of the advantages, because they have many similarities in the plot and character settings, and at the same time, they have made a certain degree of improvement according to the preferences of fans, and strive to promote strengths and avoid weaknesses. The ambition is really not small.

The sci-fi pattern of "Shocking the World" is undoubtedly "lost". The secret of the aliens in the play seems to be a bottomless pit. In addition, there are also undercurrents within the US government, hiding countless secrets and huge suspense space. Enough to whet the appetite of fans. A large number of flashbacks are undoubtedly imagined to expand a wider space for characters and plots like "Lost". However, in the way the suspense is presented and the plot is promoted, this drama is significantly different from "Lost". The creators have obviously absorbed the suspense mode of "only setting up mysteries, not explaining" that "Lost" has been criticized by many. A quick puzzle-solving method is adopted, where the main suspense in each episode is immediately solved within the next few episodes, and then new suspense is used to advance the plot. For example, in the first episode, a plane that was hijacked and crashed into the President of the United States disappeared out of thin air. The second episode tells you that it was done by aliens. The plane was transferred to the wilderness of Arizona, but all the people on the plane died mysteriously. At the end of the third episode, the group of people actually survived without warning. In the fourth episode, these people suddenly suffered from a strange disease and were dying. In the fifth episode, the US government got the antidote in the repeated game with the aliens, so that this The crowd turned the corner. "Shocking the World" is to maintain tension and promote the development of the plot with this "new mystery replacing the old mystery" method. In addition, the use of flashbacks in this play is not as often overwhelming as "Lost". The real main plot is dominant in each episode, and the flashback plot does not take up much time.

"Shocking World" also has many similarities with "24 Hours" in terms of character setting, action style, plot clues, and rhythm. Both dramas have a black president, and both have conspiracies to assassinate the president, government agents, and underworld killers. , Undercover traitor, computer genius, mysterious tycoon's settings are also very similar. Like "24 Hours", this drama also adopts the mode of parallel development of multiple clues at the same time. For example, in the first few episodes, the US president solves the crisis of the missing plane, the aliens plan a secret operation, and the male protagonist tracks and rescues the kidnapped girlfriend. The plot lines advance simultaneously. In addition, the real-time nature of the plot rhythm is also very similar. Although "Shocking World" will not let the electronic clock frequently display the time and minute on the screen like "24 Hours", it is obvious that the crisis is very short. It happens continuously in time, and the rhythm of the interlocking plot is very strong. In terms of action, there are also fierce shooting scenes and car chase scenes like "24 Hours", as well as big scenes such as the launch director and the instantaneous collapse of the building.

Like the new sci-fi dramas in recent years, "Shocking World" also has a good beginning of ratings, but it is difficult to avoid the fate of the ratings plummeting after the audience's novelty. Still the ratings have dropped by half, and the prospects are not optimistic. The reason is that apart from the fact that the serial drama mode adopted in this drama is more risky to viewership than the most common unit drama mode in American dramas, the key is that it is difficult for the plot to maintain the tension and fast rhythm of the previous episodes. When the male protagonist successfully rescues his girlfriend, After the President of the United States solved the crisis of the plane passenger's strange disease, and the leader of the aliens, Sophia, also escaped the control of the US government, the staged crisis came to an end. The audience could clearly feel that the rhythm had slowed down and the thrilling plot had been greatly reduced. Especially the end of the first half of the season did not create a big enough suspense. I really don't know how many people will be able to evoke the desire to watch it when the season resumes in the second half of February this year. I can only hope that American audiences can give this creative series more patience and confidence, so that it has enough time to prove its worth. The final judgement on the life and death of the show will be made in one season. (Text / Levin)

——The abridged version of the drama review was published in Beijing Youth Daily

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Extended Reading
  • Misty 2022-03-26 09:01:13

    S1E16, the more you look at it, the worse it is

  • Zion 2022-03-26 09:01:13

    I almost saw around E8 and gave up. . .