"Let's Reason": Reasoning variety show, it's really not easy to do

The "Star Detective", which was broadcast in 2016, opened up a domestic reasoning variety show by itself. "Star Detective" has been launched for 7 seasons in a row, and has led to the popularity of other reasoning variety shows on Mango TV, including "Escape Room", "Famous Detective Academy" and "Escape Room". In 2021, when the draft is blocked, video websites urgently need to find new growth points, and reasoning variety shows have become a new outlet. Last year, iQIYI launched the "Fantasy Season", which launched three different types of reasoning variety shows in one go, "Cute Detective", "Odd Script Shark" and "The Last Winner". Tencent, which is rich and powerful, will naturally not be absent. Not long ago, it launched the most "rich" reasoning variety show "Let's Start Reasoning", and the show has already broadcasted three cases.

"Start Reasoning" Resident Guest

One of the great features of "Let's Reason" is that it is willing to spend money on setting. Different from the simple shed set in the early reasoning variety show, or changing the background of a later case, "Let's Reason" found an abandoned winery in Yantai, renovated it directly, and turned it into a 9-story commercial and residential building. Realistic, every floor, every room has elaborate scenery and mechanism settings. Such a set amount is not much different from a suspense drama.

The setting of the show is carefully

It is a pity that due to the impact of epidemic prevention and control, the third phase of the show has been moved to Changsha for recording, and the set in Yantai can only be removed... Variety show production is not easy under the epidemic, and I also feel sorry for the show team. up.

The program team went to Changsha to re-set the scene

The guest lineup of the show is also quite gorgeous, and they are basically stars with good favorability among passers-by. Bai Sanwan (played by Bai Yu), Liu Haoxia (played by Modern Brothers Liu Yuning), Song Meimei (played by Song Zuer), Zhou Keke (played by Zhou Shen), Ke Wuku (played by INTO1 Zhou Keyu) and Guo Baoyou (played by Guo Qilin) , is the new tenant of the apartment.
From the fixed identities of the guests, it is easy to find a small difference between "Let's Reason" and other reasoning variety shows: different cases are not unrelated, and the resident guests do not play different roles in different cases; "Let's Reason" is a plot The reasoning variety show can be regarded as a complete reasoning and suspense drama. Although different cases are in different units, they all take place in the same apartment. The resident guests always play the same role and maintain a consistent personality. "Let's Reason" has a total of ten cases, one case a week, and the seventh case begins to converge in series. This kind of big case and small case is a common structure of suspense dramas. Story-based reasoning is an innovation in the mode of "Start Reasoning".

Different options, different endings

The question now is, at least let the audience stick to the seventh week. Each case of "Let's Reason" has three episodes, the middle and the second, which lasts for 4 hours. It is a great test for the audience's patience. The reasoning must be strong and the interaction of the guests is enough. So, how did the show perform?
"Let's Reason" is a variety show launched by He Chen's "Little Box Team". The previous seasons of "Star Detective" were also mainly produced by the Little Box team. After He Chen's departure, it is difficult to explain the turbulence and controversy, but it is undeniable that "Let's Reason" retains the characteristics of He Chen's original reasoning variety show in the setting of the program flow: the case happened— - People search for clues, discover suspects and motives - Concentrate reasoning, question suspects - Further discover clues - Vote for the murderer. Some elements in the show are also familiar to the audience. For example, the horror mainly relies on black lights + jump scares, which is the standard of "Escape Room".

The real culprit can lie, and the correct player can be rewarded, which is consistent with "clear investigation".

From the perspective of the current three weeks, although the tacit understanding of the resident guests is increasing and the interaction is more natural, there is still a lot of room for improvement in "Let's Reason". The first three cases in the show are weaker than He Chen's previous works, and the script is more or less flawed.
In the first case, "True and False Love", the room was set to rotate. It can be seen that the program team was willing to spend money on the setting, but it was difficult to convince the audience: Which theater would have such a layout? Where is the audience in the theater watching? Obviously, the set is set up to allow the case to exist, and it's hard to give the audience a real sense of immersion. As for the case itself, there are also many doubts. The murderer controlled the turntable to kill people, and there are too many accidents; how the murderer knew the structure of the theater, and when he knew the relationship between the sisters is unclear. In the second case, "Mysterious Tenant", is there no display screen in the elevator? The third case, "The Great Family", also relies too much on chance--if the victim did not dry his hands after washing his hands, wouldn't the entire murder not be carried out?
For reasoning variety shows, the evidence-searching link is particularly important. This is a "puzzle" process and a process of dismantling suspense. The audience follows the increase of effective information and keeps getting closer to the truth. However, the common problem in the evidence search process of "Let's Reason" is that it gives too little key evidence in each case, and the guests can hardly find it. In the end, it is possible to guess the murderer mainly by Meng. Especially in the third case, the reasoning team made a mistake in voting, the murderer escaped, and only Bai Sanwan voted correctly - but he also relied on guessing. The screenwriter's intention may be: the key information can be "killed in one move", so it is not impossible to "less but fine", but the screenwriter must logically give enough auxiliary clues, even if the reasoning team does not find the key Sexual evidence can also approach the truth through reasoning. But the show doesn't do enough here.

In the third case, the reasoning team failed to lock the "fierce".

Reasoning variety shows have high demands on the guests. The success of "Star Detective" is inseparable from the "Shuangbei" combination of He Jiong and Sa Beining, as well as the good reasoning ability of resident guests such as Wang Ou and Bai Jingting. In particular, the "Shuangbei" combination itself is a senior host, and can control the field, review and guide well. There is a lack of such people among the permanent guests of "Let's Reason", and there are currently no professional players with outstanding reasoning ability, and everyone's output is relatively limited; many times "rookies peck each other", which affects the progress of suspense. Fortunately, with the progress of the show, the guests will become more involved in the play, become more comfortable with the gameplay, and their reasoning ability will continue to improve. Guo Qilin, Zhou Keyu, Liu Yuning and others may gradually play a central role.

Reasoning may depend mainly on the three of them.

In general, the production of "Let's Reason" can not be said to be careless, but the current performance is relatively bland, and the form is greater than the content. Its dilemma is the general dilemma of the current internal entertainment reasoning variety show.
Difficulty one, "Star Detective" turned out to be a pioneer, and once it was launched, it reached its peak; the follow-up reasoning variety show had to face the high mountain of "Star Detective" and had to face the "anxiety of influence". It's not that the critics deliberately compare "Star Detective", but the core audience of domestic reasoning variety shows have basically seen "Ming Detective", and they will inevitably think of "Ming Detective" when watching a new reasoning show. "Ming Detective" basically achieves the ultimate in reasoning settings and guest matching. No matter which aspect of the follow-up program has shortcomings, the audience will feel a clear gap. Therefore, it is not that the previous "Strange Script Shark" or this time "Let's Start Reasoning" is "very bad", but that "Star Detective" has raised the audience's expectations for star reasoning variety shows.
The second difficulty is that it is really too difficult to make a good book for reasoning and suspense variety shows. A good script is not something that can be smashed by crazy money. It takes more time to scrutinize and polish it slowly, and constantly adjust and improve it according to a large number of offline practices. However, when the reasoning variety show became a new outlet, the video websites got together and the effect was doubtful-is there so many good scripts available on the market in such a short period of time? Needless to say, even after a few seasons of "Star Detective", which has a high reputation, it also faces the problem of self-repetition. Some common suspense elements (such as space replacement, soul exchange, memory tampering) will appear in different cases, In individual cases, the audience also has a sense of aesthetic fatigue.
Therefore, a lot of work to reason about suspenseful variety shows must be done in the front, especially the polishing of the script. The length of a case is often longer than a movie, and writing a case is equivalent to creating a movie. To ensure that each case is like a wonderful suspense movie - the plot must be bizarre and confusing, the suspense must be exciting and exciting, the design must be sophisticated and novel, and the hidden mystery - the degree of difficulty can be imagined.
Therefore, let alone surpassing "Star Detective", it is not easy to even reproduce it. Therefore, video websites must not follow the trend and do reasoning variety shows. Haste is not enough. The same is true. In the past two years, there have been so many reasoning variety shows, or so cold that Douban has not yet scored, and only "The Strange Script Shark" has passed the score.

The 6.5 points of "Strange Script Shark" is already a "high score".

No matter how innovative the reasoning variety show is in form, it is the "Criminal Scene" mode of "Star Detective", the script killing mode of "Strange Script Shark", the "The Prisoner is You" mode of "The Last Winner", or The "plot reasoning" mode of "Let's Reason" actually belongs to hard-core reasoning. The key to success or failure is the quality of the script, and the other is the reasoning ability of the guests.
This is also the third difficulty. Reasoning variety shows have higher requirements on guests than suspense dramas have on actors. People who don't understand reasoning can make good suspense dramas, as long as they have enough acting skills; people who can't reason enough, no matter how good their acting skills are and how strong their sense of variety show is, in hard-core reasoning variety shows, their functions are limited. For example, Shen Teng, the flying guest of the first issue of "Let's Reason", was in a state of "boring" at many times; it was not that he had no jokes, but the reasoning was the main line, and there was limited space for him to play the jokes. "Longing for Life 6" Shen Teng can make a hot search for the slaughter list with just one make-up. It is basically impossible to replicate this kind of grand occasion in reasoning variety shows.

Shen Teng's presence is not strong

The fourth difficulty is the balance between reasoning and variety show, it is difficult to achieve "both" and "also". If you focus on reasoning (70%-80%), the audience will be relatively limited, but their loyalty will be very high, and it will be a success to be the ultimate. "Star Detective" is a model. Most of the follow-up reasoning variety shows hope to balance both the reasoning (50%) and the sense of variety (50%), which can not only distinguish the "clear investigation", but also expand the audience.
Unfortunately, the ideal is beautiful and the effect is too skinny. The sense of variety is basically realized by "tasks to drive the plot", which often makes the show have a strong "running man flavor", which is not only old-fashioned, but also destroys the coherence of reasoning. At the same time, the reasoning itself is not well done, and there are few eye-catching designs. "Want and want" instead becomes "neither and neither." "The Last Winner" fell into this pit.
Unless it is simply to highlight the sense of variety show, such as "Cute Detective" - although in the eyes of many viewers, "Cute Detective" has little to do with reasoning. But in any case, "Meng Detective Detective" still provides another way of doing reasoning variety shows. "Meng Tan Tan Case" is closer to a star reality show. It focuses more on the nationality and variety show of the guests. The main feature is the "memory killing" that director Wu Tong is good at (one nostalgic film and television IP in each issue), the reasoning is basically It depends on the NPC and the director to cue over there.
The "Meng Tan Tan Tan Case 2" being broadcast is directly positioned as an "IP joyful decompression and reasoning reality show". The target audience is not the core audience of script killing players and reasoning variety shows, but ordinary audiences with decompression needs and fans with star chasing needs. them. The core audience of the reasoning variety show looks down on "Meng Tan Tan Tan Case", but they have to say that it has executed its route very well, achieved its purpose, and has good broadcast data and good investment results.

The first IP "Family with Children" used in "Meng Tan Tan Case 2".

In the context of the wave of suspense, the market prospect of reasoning variety shows is considerable; although it is more difficult to become a national hit, it is more likely to be liked by young audiences with strong purchasing power. For video sites to lead on the reasoning variety show track, it never depends on the number, but on whether the seed players can run fast. If you say a thousand words and ten thousand, you still have to work harder on the book.