Author | Xiaosi

Editor | Ding Yu

"River God" is no longer "god".

"River God 2" that the audience has been waiting for for three years "has no internal flavor." The "Little River God" Guo Deyou was replaced by another actor, but he was too greasy and not charming enough. The plot of the case within the case that should have caused suspense was directly transformed into "Into Science", challenging the audience's IQ.

"River God 2" originally had a very exciting opening. It starts with the folklore legend of "nine cows, two tigers and one chicken appear, the river god subdues the demon and suppresses the sea monster". It not only inherits the high-quality elements of the previous game, but also makes visual upgrades.

During the sacrificial ceremony, nine cows entered the sea and river monsters appeared. "Little River God" Guo Deyou turned over and stepped into the double tiger wave-breaking boat. Holding the golden rooster sea-stopping gun, he flew up to suppress the sea monsters. .

Long lenses, overhead shots and special effects stack up to create a more textured visual spectacle.

However, as the storyline progresses, this external superiority cannot cover up the shortcomings of the series itself.

After sixteen episodes, "River God 2" presents a kind of exquisite ugliness - the production and aesthetics have been upgraded, and the characters and plot have been downgraded. It has not broken the law of "sequels must die" and has become a mere sequel. This is a mediocre work with form greater than content, flat characters and a weak plot.

The reputation and popularity of the two seasons are also significantly different.

"River God" had more than 1.7 billion views at the end. Currently, more than 170,000 people have rated it on Douban, with the rating stable at 8.2 points.

So far, "River God 2" has been broadcast, with a Douban score of 7.5. Although it does not seem low, there are currently only 12,000 people participating in the score, and the sample is small, more like It’s “I’ve been lonely after waiting.”

Due to the controversy over the role change, the return of "River God 2" was full of controversy from the beginning.

Li Xian, who played the role in the previous film "Little River God", was unable to appear in the sequel due to physical reasons, so Jin Shijia took over as the male lead. For viewers who have watched the first season, it is inevitable that they will assume their previous impressions of the protagonist.

Can Jin Shijia overcome the "acclimatization" caused by changing roles? Many viewers were skeptical from the start.

After the broadcast, controversy raged, with a lot of "acceptable or unacceptable" comments accumulating on barrage and Douban.

When Guo Deyou, played by Jin Shijia, transformed from the immature young man in the previous film into a mature middle-aged man with a beard, he immediately attracted accusations of being "greasy" and "showing off".

Objectively speaking, Jin Shijia's acting skills are excellent. Although he lacks a bit of Li Xian's youthfulness, Guo Deyouhun's unrestrained energy is still there, and he is able to deal with complex emotions. The details are also slightly better. Especially in the episode where the master, the old river god, was killed, he showed the deep love between master and disciple in an extremely delicate way.

However, Jin Shijia's acting skills cannot change the fact that Guo Deyou looks very "violating". Among them, the script is the "culprit".

First of all, the character temperaments are not connected.

In fact, after experiencing Lian Huaqing, the bandit leader of the Mogu Road, detonating the source of the evil water and escaping from death by the Jinmen Tiantuan, Guo Deyou had no choice but to change from a boy to a mature person. Quite abrupt.

However, the plot did not prepare enough for this change and passed it over hastily, making the bearded Jin Shijia look out of place.

Secondly, Guo Deyou's role has been greatly reduced, and he has been reduced from the backbone to Ding Mao's helper.

In the first season, Guo Deyou was still an extraordinary person. In the second season, his "aura has dissipated", his charm is no longer, and his IQ has dropped frequently.

"River God" suddenly changed from a flesh-and-blood male protagonist to a tool-like paper man. Some netizens complained: The plot seems to have changed from "River God" to "The Legend of Ding Mao".

Although "River God" does not have a male protagonist configuration, the plot is developed through the twin twins composed of Guo Deyou, Ding Mao, Gu Ying, and Xiao Lanlan. However, the collision between the several protagonists who serve as the control group produced a lot of new ideas.

Guo Deyou is from the corpse recovery team and uses the mysterious "lighting a cigarette to argue the case" to reason out the case; Ding Mao is a young man who has returned from studying abroad and believes in forensic anatomy. Scientific approach.

One is a wild man, the other is an academic; one is full of quackery, and the other is a spokesperson for science.

Starting from their own ideas, the two investigate the case separately. There is a sense of conflict, but they can also work together to unlock a more complete plot.

In the second season, the collision between "jianghu" and "science" has changed. "Little River God" is more like a foil to Ding Mao.

The background of the second season is that the Mogu Dao conspiracy succeeded, poisonous water spread, and the sea and rivers were polluted. Therefore, the narrative of the second season revolves around pollution control, and the officialdom drama is greatly Increasingly, these dramas naturally fell on Ding Mao, who became the secretary-general.

However, Guo Deyou, who was born in the city, had nowhere to display his wisdom in the world. His identity as the captain of the corpse recovery team was reduced to a decoration because the Haihe River was polluted and could not enter the water.

Even his best skill, "Lighting up a cigarette to argue an injustice", was blocked after encountering Rong Aoshuang's "Silver Bell Seal", and his skills were almost zero. His IQ also seemed to be "stolen" by Ding Mao, which greatly ruined his goodwill. Fans who originally watched "River God 2" with some emotion were exhausted by the short-circuiting behavior of Xiao River God from time to time.

Audiences who have watched "River God" know that the advantage of this web drama is that the supporting characters also have character arcs. It seems to be idle, but inadvertently Promote the development of the main plot.

For example, the old goddess "Zha Za Hu Hu" was a foodie character in the first season. When solving crimes, this character came in handy.

She could smell the cooking wine on the wrapping paper that Guo Deyou picked up, and relied on her knowledge of Tianjin cuisine to point out which hotel would use this kind of cooking wine, thus leading Guo Deyou into smuggling opium. of hotels.

But in the second part, the supporting characters lost their role of "assist" and became dispensable. The main plot of the old goddess has become a crazy urge to get married, and most of the cuteness in the first season has been reduced. If it weren't for her overly unique look, she could have walked directly into the set of a domestic mother-in-law and daughter-in-law drama and played a Chinese-style mother who talks nonsense and loves to push for marriage.

The old characters are no longer charming, and the newly added characters have fallen into the same rut and are quite stereotyped.

On the surface, the boss, the Governor, has cunning and insidiousness written all over his face. He doesn’t speak well every time he appears, and the whole drama is designed to be quite pretentious. Although the songs he sings all correspond to the development of the plot, the way he hums the songs every time he opens his mouth is that the form is greater than the content, and it feels very artificial.

The increased role of Ding Mao in "River God 2" has been criticized even more.

The screenwriter not only arranged for him to start several sets of side plots with the new top governor, physical therapist Rong Aoshuang and other characters, but also made him "the domineering president" after becoming Secretary-General Ding. "Upper body.

When Guo Deyou disagreed with the demolition of the Dragon King Temple where he and the old river god lived, Ding Mao even said in an official voice: "How does it involve cutting corners and making straight lines to benefit the people? When it comes to personal interests, you are so petty-minded."

It is really difficult for the audience to feel passionate about such a bureaucratic protagonist. Doubts also arise. Although Ding Mao was still naive and silly in the first season, even if he becomes the secretary-general, is this personality change still too much?

No wonder netizens complained: "This episode should be called "The River God: The Domineering Water Transport Master"."

Ding Mao became the centerpiece of the show, stealing Guo Deyou’s original role as the protagonist, making the whole story feel like the guest taking over the lead.

The character is already quite unlikable, but the negative news off-screen about the actor Zhang Mingen who plays Ding Mao has even more implicated the character itself.

Just before the premiere of "River God 2", Zhang Mingen's entangled relationship with Xu Lu and Hu Bingqing was exposed and became a hot search.

In reality, the image of a warm-hearted man who was originally emotionally devoted suddenly collapsed and turned into the "Aquaman" and "Master of Friends Circle Management" in the eyes of netizens.

When the atmosphere between his character Ding Mao and Rong Aoshuang was ambiguous during the treatment process, and Ding Mao also lied to his girlfriend Xiao Lanlan about going to see Rong Aoshuang, it made the audience even more confused. The disgust towards Zhang Ming'en was projected onto Ding Mao, and he even unconsciously put himself into the role: "Looking at this, are you ready to cheat on the second male lead?"

The characters in "River God 2" cannot stand up, the plot of the investigation seems thin, and the reasoning process is even more mysterious, making the audience feel like they are watching the web drama version of "Into Science".

For example, in the opening chapter of "Crazy Cui's Dismemberment Case", the series of solving the case are incredible.

Madman Cui, the boss of Yishengmen, took his wife to the theater to celebrate his birthday, but died tragically in the toilet. His body was split into two, and his death was strange. Ding Mao made a life-and-death declaration and vowed to find out the murderer within three days, and the first case began.

Guo Deyou and Ding Mao rushed to the scene of the crime. Guo Deyou "lighted a cigarette to plead guilty." The private room was filled with smoke. He entered an alien space through an illusion and saw the deceased before his death. scene. In theory, he should start reasoning through the various details of this scene; in fact, his behavior this time seems quite tasteless.

After Guo Deyou tried the meals on the birthday banquet one by one, he found that Mrs. Cui’s bowls and chopsticks had not been moved at all, and the workmanship and texture of the two soup bowls on the table were obviously the same. The other tableware was not a set, so I came to the conclusion: there was nothing wrong with the food, but the problem was the throat-moistening ginseng soup in the soup bowl.

The process of him trying the dishes one by one was like a mukbang inserted into the drama. In addition to taking a long time, it had no effect on the case.

"It's too late if there is a problem." Ding Mao's line expresses the audience's inner thoughts: You have tasted the food before saying there is no problem, then light a cigarette Isn't it unnecessary? After showing off his skills for only half an episode, the conclusion was obvious from the beginning.

After that, Ding Mao tried his best to sneak into the Cui Mansion and came to the conclusion that Mrs. Cui and Madman Cui were at odds. Guo Deyou, under the advice of the Old River God, learned that Madman Cui should have died from Guanyin Lotus poisoning, so he went to the ghost market to investigate the person who bought the poison, and locked Mrs. Cui with a jade ring finger.

Just as Mrs. Cui took the initiative to confess her crime, Guo Deyou and Ding Mao pointed the real culprit to the famous theater actress Nie Xiaoqiu through a play line engraved on the ring finger, thus laying out the story. A sadomasochistic relationship between Mrs. Cui and Nie Xiaoqiu.

The typical reasoning is not enough and the emotional drama is patchy. The love-hate relationship between Mrs. Cui and Nie Xiaoqiu is very cliche. The plot of the two confessing to each other takes up a lot of space, and the lengthy and sensational scenes directly slow down the rhythm.

The protagonist’s emotional drama also dilutes the suspense and reasoning elements. The old goddess kept urging the marriage, Guo Deyou and Gu Ying kept arguing about the marriage, and plots about the parents' quarrels were interspersed with the murder mystery. The originally restrained emotions suddenly became bloody and clichéd in the sequel.

The narrative of "River God 2" is not a unit drama, but uses the folklore of "nine cows, two tigers and one chicken" to connect a series of major cases. Therefore, every time Every minor murder will leave a tail related to this legend.

For example: Crazy Cui’s death state of being broken into two pieces coincided with his family’s bronze bull bookend, and the fate of diplomat Gu Weiliang who spontaneously burned to death also coincided with the " "Fire Ox Picture" is consistent.

From Crazy Cui, Gu Weiliang to Chen Siru, a female student from Qizhi College, the one thing these people had in common before their deaths was that they could not feel pain... Various clues All implying that there is a larger conspiracy hidden behind it.

However, the layout and stalls are large enough, but overall they cannot justify themselves, and every step of the layout is not down-to-earth enough.

Although the minor murders all point to the ultimate mystery, the weak plot and sloppy reasoning on a single case make the story loose and loose, and there is a lack of reasonable transitions between cases. .

After leaving a bunch of messy clues, the protagonists no longer cared about their past relationships as if they were turning over a new chapter, and hurriedly entered the next case, giving people a sense of mystery. There is a sense of mystery in order to create the so-called ultimate suspense.

Producer Chang Ben said in an interview with "Entertainment Manager" that "River God 2" is a drama that becomes more exciting as it goes on. "Our production is upgrading. I hope the audience can accompany us to upgrade together."

Perhaps, the death of Lao Heshen, Manager Hu, and Secretary-General Xiao in the explosion on the same night can indeed trigger the collective sentiment of the audience. ***Affection. But I'm afraid many people have already given up on the show before they see it because of the procrastinating plot.

In 2017, three major suspense dramas: "River God", "White Night Chaser" and "Undocumented Crime" successively relied on word-of-mouth to make their way out of the entertainment industry. It is known as the three "pinnacle works" of domestic suspense dramas.

Why was "River God" able to break out of the entertainment industry back then? It does not rely on suspense or reasoning, but relies on its world view - compared with the realism-themed "White Night" and "Undocumented Crime", "River God" constructs a mysterious fantasy world of the Republic of China.

This is due to the original author Tian Xia Ba Chang's imagination and ability to control folklore.

"Nine rivers are at the bottom of Tianjin Wei, with three floating bridges and two passes.

"River God" is based on the story of ghosts, water and monsters, and creates a unique way by mixing the legend of ghosts and monsters with the world of dock gangs. Tian Xia Ba Chang himself is from Tianjin, and he has restored all the old style of the old Tianjin Wei period, forming a unique "River God" world.

The green-haired dead baby, the case of the sunken corpse in the Sancha River, the case of the floating corpse in the Haihe River, the source of evil water... almost every case in "River God" is related to water . Retrieving corpses, funerals, calling souls, dancing with gods, ghost markets to stabilize women, evil soldiers taking advantage of the road, lighting cigarettes to argue injustices, all kinds of strange elements show the legends and folk culture of the East.

Catch a turtle to become a disciple; you cannot eat in front of the Kitchen God; in business in the water, eating fish and turning it over is a taboo; red does not enter the river, yellow does not enter the sea; silence is Steal, rob if you make a sound... Various details and lines outline the rules of Tianjin Wei during the Republic of China.

However, in the second part, the focus of the narrative shifted from the urban world to the political intrigues of the officialdom. The newly added characters such as the governor, mayor, commander, Fan Junyao, etc. are all powerful and famous people.

To a certain extent, this setting lacks the underlying color of the world itself, making the story deviate from its original simplicity.

Water ghosts, goddesses and even river gods have all been reduced to symbol-like existences. The river god no longer goes into the water, and there is little room for the magic of rivers and lakes to be used. In this way, people no longer have a sense of mysterious awe towards the strange things of the old society.

The little goddess seems to have no job this season. She does not call out her soul or do anything. Instead, she disguises herself as a celebrity at a cocktail party. She is beautiful, but she is disguised as a wealthy person. Is the story about the daughter of a family too cliche?

The layout of "River God 2" seems to have become larger, but the "spectacles" of ghosts, water and monsters have actually been reduced. It is more like a mediocre detective drama of the Republic of China, and will never return to its peak three years ago.

When the rivers and lakes have shrunk, the "River God" has lost its soul.