Chapter 781 - 387: Teaching the Entire Industry a Lesson

Chapter 781: Chapter 387: Teaching the Entire Industry a Lesson

Chen Jincheng didn’t disagree. Instead, he said, "Do you know why I’m so certain *All is Well* will be a hit? Because it caters to the tastes of the short-video audience."

"First, it resonates with short-video users. Specifically, it focuses on plots about dysfunctional families of origin, and topics like favoring sons over daughters, adults mooching off their parents, and caring for the elderly. On Tiao Yin, the view counts for these three topics are currently over 5 billion, 4 billion, and 7 billion, respectively."

"Do you know what that means? In the show, the irrationality of Su Daqiang and his wife, plus Su Daqiang’s own unreasonable tantrums, will easily resonate with people. Especially since the plot isn’t contrived and is close to real life. When the time comes, the people who have watched videos related to these topics—all 16 billion-plus views—will all be potential viewers."

"Besides that, there’s the cast’s acting. To be honest, they’re all pretty good. Especially Guo Jingfei. He’s a surprisingly good actor, and he’s going to be big."

"One more thing: the character archetypes in this show are very distinct. Su Mingcheng is a mama’s boy, and Su Mingyu is an independent woman. Do you know how many views these two archetypes get on Tiao Yin? ’Mama’s boy’ has 8.5 billion, and ’independent woman’ has 16.7 billion."

"Crucially, the show doesn’t have forgiveness for the sake of forgiveness. There’s no forced reconciliation at the end just to pass censorship. That’s what audiences love to see these days."

"So you tell me, under these circumstances, if we use Tiao Yin as our main promotional platform, is there any reason this show wouldn’t be a hit?"

Sun Ji heard this and immediately picked up his phone to check. He was stunned.

He’d never imagined a TV show could be analyzed like this. After looking up the view counts for those topics, the way he looked at his boss changed completely.

’Perhaps now I’m finally beginning to understand why he’s the king of Tiao Yin.’

’He hasn’t just mastered the short-video industry; he can leverage it to branch into all sorts of other sectors. It was true for gaming, for Hanfu, for developing tourist sites, and for developing public squares.’

’And now, he was even analyzing a TV series from this same perspective.’

Chen Jincheng continued, "Now, let me tell you why I’m drawing the attention of iQiyi and Penguin Film and Television to *I’m Taking My Dad to Study Abroad* and *My Biological and Stepfather*, and setting a trap for them to buy the rights."

"Let’s start with *Taking Dad to Study Abroad*. The script is pure melodrama. A car crash on the first day abroad, the female local guide getting killed off... it’s all so contrived. Then there’s watching a strip show in a casino, a school shooting... it’s all just forcefully pieced together."

"It feels like they were going for a fast pace but failed. It’s like the plots have less rhythm than some of the drama accounts on Tiao Yin. Plus, the main character is clearly an idiot, yet his luck is so ridiculously overpowered that there’s no satisfying ’cool’ factor to his character."

"Go ask those drama account creators if they’d ever write a character this infuriating. And then there’s the female lead’s sudden change of heart—it’s too abrupt. Her even more sudden decision to come back and fight for her man is just a major turn-off. It’s a plot point that completely ruins her character."

"And the worst part is, they suddenly throw in a ’you’re not my real son’ cuckold plotline for the father and son. It’s another infuriatingly dumb plot point. Social pressure is high these days, and mainstream audiences are already restless. If a show can’t make me connect with it emotionally, it should at least be satisfying to watch, right? It can’t just keep giving me a headache."

"Also, there are a lot of creators on Tiao Yin who are international students filming their real experiences. Many users have some understanding of what studying abroad is actually like. This show has completely deviated from the theme of studying abroad. It barely touches on the academic struggles, mental health, or other challenges students face, and instead gets bogged down in melodramatic relationships."

"When it airs, there will definitely be a ton of international student creators coming out to criticize it. If this show doesn’t bomb, I, Chen Jincheng, will wash my hair while doing a handstand."

Sun Ji had initially thought the show sounded pretty good, but after hearing his boss’s analysis, he couldn’t help but feel it was a pile of shit.

Chen Jincheng spoke again, "Then there’s *My Biological and Stepfather*. I don’t even have the energy to complain about this one. For the active user base on short-video platforms, its values are completely out of whack."

"A biological father abandons his wife and daughter when he’s young, then comes back years later wanting to be acknowledged. He then has the gall to demand his children take responsibility for him, and if they refuse, they’re ’unfilial.’ This kind of moral blackmail is a plot so infuriating it’s even worse than the last one."

"Do you know what young people in the short-video era are like? They’re the type to fight back if they’re not happy. What they hate most is moral blackmail. Just look at the view counts for topics about rejecting moral blackmail—it’s in the top three across the entire short-video industry."

"It would be one thing if it was just the deadbeat dad morally blackmailing the protagonist into being filial. But the deadbeat dad and his younger son repeatedly cause trouble, and the protagonist still has to clean up their messes. Isn’t that just force-feeding the audience poison?"

"Try posting a video with a scenario like that on Tiao Yin and see how the active users react. He wants to be acknowledged? With a deadbeat dad like that, you get as far away as possible. You’d pack your bags and be a thousand miles away by the next day, let alone constantly cleaning up the messes for his whole family."

"In a way, this show targets the audience born in the ’60s and ’70s. It’s just like how they were taught to be filial: whatever your elders say, goes. Your elders can reason with you, but you can’t reason with them."

"But people born in the ’80s, ’90s, and ’00s will never buy it. They’re open-minded and think for themselves. Their motto is basically: if you have a child but don’t raise them, they won’t even spare you a glance when you’re dead—unless you have a billion-dollar fortune."

"And it just so happens that the audience who won’t buy it is now the mainstream. You expect this pile of poison to be a hit?"

Sun Ji was left completely speechless.

Or rather, he was completely blown away. ’Now that he puts it that way,’ he thought, ’*My Biological and Stepfather* is in a really precarious position, too.’

He felt that he desperately needed to get up to speed on this stuff.