At the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit, the TV series The Knockout became the first hit drama: the peak ratings of CCTV 8 broke 3, and the heat value of iQiyi station broke 11,000 for the first time, and related topics frequently appeared on hot searches, achieving a double harvest of heat and word of mouth. Many people’s greeting changed from "Happy New Year" to "Have you seen The Knockout?". Why does this TV series with the background of eliminating evils and normalizing the education and rectification of the political and legal team have such charm?
The Knockout described the contest between good and evil between the political and legal workers represented by An Xin and the evil forces represented by Gao Qiqiang and their umbrellas, which showed the complexity and arduousness of eliminating evil, showed the firm determination of the CPC Central Committee to "break the net with an umbrella", and paid tribute to the heroic heroes of eliminating evil. In addition to the ups and downs of the plot, the superb acting skills of many powerful actors and well-made civilized costumes, The Knockout also provided new ideas for the creation of criminal investigation dramas in terms of narrative structure, characterization and depth of conception.
The play unfolds the plot in the 20-year-old broad social change, and uses the double-line cross narrative technique. A guiding group that tells the story of the provincial education rectification station in a positive way sank in Jinghai City to carry out supervision and thoroughly investigate the local "umbrella"; One uses flashback technique to review the development process of the largest powerful gang of black and evil forces in Jinghai and the feud between him and Gao Qiqiang from an Xin’s perspective. The master selected three time points, 2000, 2006 and 2021, to form a three-act structure, focusing on the core events such as murder, land acquisition disputes and the handling of cases by the steering group, which not only reflected the social changes, but also constructed three stages of the development of characters’ destiny.
It is not uncommon for the police An Xin and the local evil force Gao Qiqiang to set up the dual protagonists in similar movies and TV dramas in the past, but The Knockout depicts "the unknowability and contingency of fate" and complex human nature through their inseparable feud. They met when they were young, then drifted apart and finally parted ways. An Xin, an idealist who maintains a society ruled by law, has been repeatedly beaten by the harsh reality, injured many times, lost his master, comrades-in-arms and lovers, and was excluded and marginalized. He has changed from a passionate young man to a cautious white-haired middle-aged, but he has never changed his mind and endured alone until the clouds come out. Gao Qiqiang, who knows well the rules of human society, was originally a hardworking, law-abiding and oppressed bottom fishmonger, but he made a wrong step and slipped into the abyss of sin and became a gangster. Starting from the background of the times and the logic of human nature, the play outlines the fate curve of two opposing little people in the torrent of the times. In addition to the two protagonists, The Knockout’s portrayal of "gray" figures of criminal police such as Cao Chuang and Li Xiang, as well as many roles such as gangster Xu Jiang and eldest sister-in-law Chen Shuting is also remarkable. Their distinctive personalities and three-dimensional faces have left a deep impression on people.
As the theme of eliminating evils, The Knockout’s conception did not stop at telling a thrilling black-and-white contest, but went deeper into the excavation of human nature and the reflection on reality. Not only praised justice, but also objectively and deeply analyzed evil. The play tells a lot about how Gao Qiqiang, who was born in poverty, hardworking and simple, gradually degenerated into a black boss who dominated the world in Jinghai City. The works did not stop at the level of the cool drama of the little people blackening their fortunes and revenge, nor did they simply attribute Gao Qiqiang’s degeneration to personal choice, but carried out a deeper excavation. By the monologue of Xu Zhong, the supervisor of the anti-gang campaign, he pointed out that if the market administrators who dominate the party like Tang Xiaolong and Tang Xiaohu are the fuse, it is better to say that there are still some unfair distribution in our society, which leads the grassroots people to think that they can’t get rich without illegal means, so there are some desperate people. The evil forces and their umbrellas were not formed in one day. Facing the heavy shady scenes, Do not forget your initiative mind, a political and legal policeman represented by An Xin, stuck to the bottom line and even paid the price of his life after long and arduous efforts, and finally justice was done. Gao Qiqiang, Zhao Lidong and others were sentenced to death, and the biggest evil forces and umbrellas in Jinghai were uprooted, which protected the peace and happiness of the people, and made the audience deeply realize the complexity and hardships of the work of eliminating evil, and also saw the light and hope, thus realizing the two-way direction of realism and mainstream values.
Of course, The Knockout also has some problems. For example, compared with the villain, the positive role can be more plump and three-dimensional; Compared with the first half, the second half of the story should be more realistic and logical. However, the defects do not hide Yu’s faults. The creator tells stories with breadth, temperature, depth and strength, revealing the root of the formation of evil forces, depicting the process of weaving the "black net", reflecting on the structural and institutional problems existing in social development, and further answering the question of how to completely eradicate evil forces and defend social fairness and justice, which is a useful attempt for the creation of criminal investigation themes. (Author: Wen Weihua, Associate Professor, School of Language and Communication, Beijing Jiaotong University)
Guangming Daily (15th edition, February 8, 2023)
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