#esp bc everyone in this fucking series is doomed

[pandelacreme]

hmm what if lukatill round 7 murder suicide….hmm

idk guys i just can’t imagine till realistically overcoming the fact he just witnessed his childhood friend both confessing his feelings and sacrificing himself for him + not knowing where mizi is. like i can imagine maybe the closest is him doing a twisted version of what he did in round 3 where he just goes completely off script but like. its not planned. hes just spiraling. but mehh idk dude is probably more crushed than he already was

and narratively speaking i don’t think it makes sense for luka to just straight up win the round. like that’s kind of an anticlimatic way to end the last round

what feels to be the most in character, at least based off my idea that luka is going to somehow be unnerved by till’s similarity with hyuna, would be a murder suicide situation but man. anything goes

[redxblueihateloveyou]

1/2 "Explore the fuck was that" Xiaoge is not Xiaoge and talking is not the problem here. It's literally everything thats the problem. Also like you I've also read all the books, but failed to put into words why Xiao Yu Liang's and Huang Jun Jie's Qilings didn't give me any divergence from the original character despite the changes, while others did and pretty drastically. I thought it was a bit irrational on my part, but you just sorted it all out so effortlessly I'm a bit jealous

Lol I said the exact same thing, the talking and the phone was not a problem as some say, he has a phone in the book too at some point and talks more than you'd actually think, it's just that literally nothing about him is Zhang Qiling. Literally not one vibe or even tiny feeling. I don't know how that happened honestly.

AAAAAAAAA I saw the smile comments too lmao. I was like who's gonna tell them. Not only he smiles, he's full on laughing in the 2nd book already, when Wu Xie is using his spit as a lotion lmao. And Wu Xie was so happy about, he was like "I saw him smile before, but it was always so bitter and cold, this was the first time he smiled genuinely, he just needs to spend more time with him, we'll get him there" T_T Before that his smiling was legit a bit scary tho, sometimes brash, like when he told him about the stairs and he went "oh really?" haha

I thought about it and I honestly have no idea about the reference point for some people. I think maybe they go from that first adaptation? Maybe they think it's how he is in the book? Idk. It just weirds me out that I feel like some created some their own picture in their head and then judge everything from there throwing "thats ooc" left and right. Like this "Xiao Ge doesn't smile thing". Maybe it's because of the "Poker-face" thing, but do they know that "Men You Ping" doesn't actually mean that, it was just the closest thing you could come up with with english alternative to keep the nickname short (like I doubt it would read well if he kept calling him a bottle xD). Like according to Wu Xie since the very first book, his hubby can't even lie, so he's definitely not a poker face at all. He also gets pissed pretty easily and he likes to fool around sometimes too (like troll Wu Xie and Fatty obviously).

He's also not emo and not the "mysterious hero from some romance", not a stone and not a zooty. I don't know where this all came from tbh.

I can really debate 24/7 about this, but they're 100% Qilings, just slightly changed and softened accordingly to what they'd be like at this point of their relationship, if he did write it in (and I'm like pretty sure I'm right about this). It's the way they behave, how they act in certain situations, how they're with Wu Xie, how they're with other people, the right amount of sass and being done with everything, just the overall picture, the "you're an idiot, but you're my whole world". But also you know, that strange feeling that Wu Xie describes, like "when he's there, everything is suddenly alright" lol (just the magical safety vibe esp in SOP). I literally don't know how ppl who read the whole thing watched them and thought "thats not right". It's the fucking overall feeling of.. yes, i'm watching Zhang Qiling.

Just change the book's impending doom of tragical "you're my whole world, but I can't stay and there's no way for this to work" to "we actually have a future and I want to stay in our home with you" and that's basically Yuliang's and Junjie's versions (one on the way, one fully there by the end). But even if for some reason you can't accept this, I still don't get how some could hate it, cause overall they still have basically everything they need. Unlike others who are way off in my opinion, bc of the weird templates they are.

And about "Explore the fuck was that" (lol I'm gonna use this title from now on) seriously, no offense to this creation and everyone who liked it (no judging here for real, everyone likes what they like), I'm not gonna heavily diss anyone or anything, I don't really care for the thing, just telling the truth. No one who's participated in this thing have a fucking idea about the characters they're playing or writing about.

I mean, as a fan many things that were adapted from books, I already do not care for minor divergence or even bigger once, if it makes sense and you see the care and understanding of the characters, but sadly here it felt like no one cared. Like for example honestly if someone asked me what would you choose "watching wu xie and xiao ge but not 100% sticking to the plot" or "loosely watching the plot, but it's not wu xie and xiao ge", I'm gonna pick the first option.

And some will say that's it's only the writers/directors mistakes for not explaining or guiding actors etc, but to be honest it's not completely true, bc as we know many actors if they really care before taking on the role actually try to do a research about the character and read the material to understand what they're playing. Especially if it's such iconic characters of a franchise Сhina's been going crazy over for like a decade.

Like how the hell happened that Zhu Yilong for example while playing embodied all the Wu Xie's traits througout the whole book series from behaving exactly like young Wu Xie did in certain needed parts to going to the cold, strategic and rational old self in others, I mean, they could've just go with the "Restart" one, where not much happens and he could've played just that. But literally each time he did something, I was like "yeah, that's my boo". And that wasn't the part of this exact book, it was part of Wu Xie. Like the way he behaved, acted in some previous situations that you know its him. That's happening only when the actor knows who he's portraying.

Or Yuliang knowing and loving and feeling the character he plays, because he wanted to know and cared.

It's just strange to me, bc if they're not making it for the fans, then for whom do they even make it? For themselves? It's really stupid no matter how you look at it. Like your success depends on it, so what's the point in sinking your own ship I will never get.

I also do not get how could they just fail literally everything. Like casting was a miss already, but good acting and chemistry and putting character's soul in it could've make it great still, but they have literally none of anything, it's just fascinating to me. I just don't think I ever seen something like that, it's kinda funny.

But this is like once again just my opinion. Like everyone is free to think what they think, but maybe just stop yelling "OOC" without knowing the original character, cause maybe it's not really OOC. Like book Xiao Ge is not exactly what many ppl claim him to be really.

[caatws]

how to understand tv ratings (so you’ll be prepared for cancellation/renewal announcements)

as most of you know, i had an internship last semester where one of my duties for the company was tracking and analyzing tv ratings. while i’m no expert on this yet, i worked with way more knowledgeable ppl than me on this and learned a couple things about ratings that i definitely didn’t know before, so i thought i’d share some of it now that b99 is back on and we def don’t want a repeat of last year’s debacle.

(also, i’ll be tracking and analyzing b99′s ratings over on @b99bythenumbers this season, so if you’re at all interested in any of this stuff pls check it out! that blog is still under construction and stuff but as this season gets the ball rolling, that blog will come to life heheh)

ok, so i’m gonna break this up into sections to keep it as organized/straightforward as possible, so we gonna cover:

what are nielsen ratings & how do they work? (aka what do numbers like 1.2/5 mean)

b99′s ratings & viewership

nbc’s ratings & viewership

ratings as the be-all end-all for shows? (other ways to support b99) (esp if you can’t access american cable)

what are nielsen ratings & how do they work?

so nielsen media research is a company that’s been measuring data for entertainment for just over 70 years now. tho they got a start in radio, they’re arguably most known in the modern day for their measurement of american television programming, as the data they gather from these measurements (the infamous “nielsen ratings”) strongly influence broadcast networks (abc, nbc, cbs, fox, & the cw) and channels in their decisions to renew or cancel certain programs.

the way nielsen measures this data is through selecting various households with tv’s across the u.s. to monitor what they watch, who’s watching, how often they watch, etc. so it’s not something everyone in the u.s. gets to do, like they might just randomly hit you up and ask if they can use your data. if you say yes, they have to install a bunch of stuff to monitor all tv’s in your household. (if you find this at all kinda interesting, i’d recommend reading this interview with a nielsen family bc it’s kinda wild)

so, now onto the numbers. i’ll use b99′s initial ratings for 6x01 last night as an example

the rating is the 1.2/5 number. the first number, 1.2, means that 1.2% of the 119.6 million households nielsen estimates to have television watched b99 (1.2% of households, not individual people). the second number, 5, is referred to as the “share”, and means that 5% of households watching tv at that time watched b99.

these numbers are “live + same day”, meaning they only include households that actually watched b99 live as it was on tv last night and people who watched it from their DVR the day it was aired live. (for example, i got home after the ep started last night but had set it to record, so i watched my recording as the ep was ending so if i was in a nielsen family, me watching b99 on my DVR the same night it aired would still count for their measurement of an L+SD rating.)

additionally, tho nielsen records a lot of data about different demographics and people of what age are watching what shows, the standard demographic used for these ratings is people aged 18-49, all genders.

the 3.56 is the total viewership in millions (aka the actual individual viewers).

my source for ratings: tv by the numbers (specifically above, their initial thursday 1/10 ratings)

b99′s ratings & viewership

back on fox, b99 had a pretty solid run for the first two or three seasons, until the ratings started taking a pretty steep nosedive in recent years that (unfortunately) kinda predicted and ultimately led to their cancellation. it’s important to look back on their past ratings as a show, because stability & improvement are major factors at play when networks are deciding to renew or cancel shows.

season 1 (2013-2014) ratings

b99 had a rly solid series premiere, tho it pretty quickly couldn’t retain its rating, as the difference between 1x01 and 1x02′s ratings is pretty major. it got its big 6.89 rating (!!!) in february 2014 bc it aired after the super bowl. this season ended with way less viewers than it started out with, which isn’t Great.

season 2 (2014-2015) ratings

overall, pretty similar numbers to s1, especially in the total season average. it had a few ratings above 2.0 which is Good, but those numbers didn’t hold steady. again, the season ended with way less viewers than it began.

season 3 (2015-2016) ratings

b99 dipped under 1.0 for a large portion of this season. that’s Big Yikes. cancellation becomes Very Real Possibility.

season 4 (2016-2017) ratings

this season’s average was less than 1.0.....cancellation is Very, Very Real Possibility.

season 5 (2017-2018) ratings

nothing above 1.0 for an entire season....this show is Doomed, and i honestly can’t blame fox for canceling it from a numbers and business standpoint, considering this was just a continuation of the trend established in s4 with the consistently lower ratings. it’s....kind of totally rational that fox did what they did, especially when you see how b99 compared (in ratings) to other fox shows in the 2017-2018 season:

as you can see fox just kinda took like the bottom half of its shows by rating and cancelled all of them...anything averaging under a 1.0 on fox just isn’t safe!!!

comparing to other shows (esp other sitcoms) on its network is another big factor in renewing/cancelling. tho there aren’t any other sitcoms suuuper similar to b99 on fox, enough comedies did better that b99 got the axe. which means we should probably look at

nbc’s ratings & viewership

and here’s their 2017-2018 season (in which they had the most viewers out of all the broadcast networks for the first time since like 2001 actually!!):

already, b99 is off to a good start, its 1.2 initial rating pretty high for nbc, but what’ll rly matter is if they can hold this rating for the rest of season 6. like i said, stability and improvement are everything in tv world! if b99 can continue like this for the rest of this season, i think we’ll be in pretty good shape.

and, honestly, nbc rly is a good network fit for b99, with its history of popular and acclaimed sitcoms (seinfeld, friends, will & grace, etc.) and its long-running and popular crime procedurals (aka any law & order series ever), and b99 is basically a combination of the two.

ratings as the be-all end-all for shows? (other ways to support b99)

while ratings are of the utmost importance to networks and channels, it’s not the sole deciding factor.

another thing networks and channels look at, as we live in the digital age, is BUZZ. this basically is industry-speak for how much people are talking about and movies! the most visible example of this is getting a show trending on social media when it airs.

a good example of a show like this is the good place. tgp hasn’t gotten stellar ratings this season, but has already been renewed...because a lot of people talk about it on social media! it’s usually trending on twitter when a new episode airs, and its objectively high quality writing has won over a lot of industry folks’ hearts, so it gets a lot of buzz in hollywood as well (hint hint similar to how the “guardians of the nine-nine” contributed to the fight to save b99 last year).

so, here are some tips on how to maximize b99′s ratings & overall potential for renewal:

WATCH. IT. LIVE. or DVR it and watch it ASAP, as final ratings come out within 24 hours after new episodes air. obvi this only applies to amercans with access to cable/tv but clearly these are the people not showing up for b99 since the ratings were so low while the fandom was so big and loud

forgot to record it but still live in the u.s.? watch it on your cable provider’s “on demand” services (if they offer it), hulu, or nbc.com as soon as the new episode comes out the next day!!! while these numbers won’t be reflected in the actual ratings, it’ll still tell the network you care.

are you a young adult who attends college away from home aka your family’s cable? look into your family’s cable provider’s online services! my family’s cable allows me to access our DVR away from home and even watch some things on demand, which has been a lifesaver while i’ve been away at college the past couple years. if you can access your DVR remotely through your cable provider’s website, use it to record b99 and watch it ASAP!

TWEET ABOUT IT. tumblr is cool and valid and all, but let’s be real - everyone’s looking at twitter, because most industry professionals don’t know how the fuck to use tumblr. twitter is straightforward and straight to the point; they want to see it trending there. so pls tweet using #brooklyn99 when the episode is on live!!! you have 3 major chances to do this: 9 pm est (u.s. east coast), 9 pm mountain time (2 hours after east coast), and 9 pm pst (3 hours after east coast) every thursday night.

talk about it in real life! get friends to watch it! again, may not contribute to the actual ratings, but it’s still nice to get more and more people into the show to watch it in other ways and talk about it with other people they know.

i know a lot of these methods are mostly applicable to people in the u.s. and/or americans with cable, but it’s rly important that those of us who fall into those categories do our parts!! fellow americans, let’s yeet this wheat!!!! all b99 fans from all over the world, i believe in all of us!!!!!!