The first half of the review briefly introduced the story outline, allowing readers to understand what kind of story it was without revealing too many spoilers.

This also indicated that Mr. Qian hadn’t just watched the first three episodes—he had also read the original novel of “The Successor.”

This meant the situation was even worse.

Because if he had only focused on the first three episodes, there would still be nine more episodes to come, and many viewers would find his perspective somewhat one-sided and would reserve judgment, continuing to watch the rest.

But now Mr. Qian was criticizing the original novel of “The Successor” as well.

If readers agreed with his viewpoint, then they wouldn’t bother watching the remaining nine episodes.

Cui Geng scanned through it and found that Mr. Qian’s summary of the entire “The Successor” story was quite accurate and hadn’t been distorted.

“The Successor” was indeed an anti-superhero genre, meaning that through this story, it aimed to satirize the concept of “superheroes” itself, or to deconstruct the ideological foundation of “superhero movies” and criticize traditional superhero concepts.

And Mr. Qian believed this satire and criticism was a form of “self-importance.”

“‘The Successor’ is nothing more than a story about superheroes committing evil deeds, the public being deceived, public opinion being manipulated, good systems existing in name only, and those who use any means necessary succeeding in rising to power.”

“In the story, we simply cannot find a single good person.”

“Let’s not even get into the protagonist Phil. He constantly abuses the people around him, so his desire to become a superhero is naturally not to save the world or make the citizens of Hope City live more safely and happily, but rather for his own personal gain. It could be said that he is the worst person in this already terrible society, which is why he becomes the strongest superhero.”

“What about the other superheroes besides Phil? Clearly, they are just like Phil—bright and shiny on the surface, but actually wallowing in sordid pursuits and committing all kinds of evil. They put on performances for the public while being highly tied to big financial groups behind the scenes, completely unworthy of the four characters that spell ‘superhero.'”

“As for those large financial groups that control the media and superhero talent shows, they increase their control over Hope City by supporting superheroes, greedily enjoying the wealth extracted from ordinary citizens.”

“The so-called superhero talent shows and superhero elections are nothing more than these malicious financial groups and superheroes deliberately distorting and exploiting the rules left by Captain World, transforming the model of ‘citizens electing superheroes to indirectly hold power’ into ‘superheroes being manipulated by financial groups and transforming into performance artists to deceive the public and gain power.'”

“The ultimate winners are the superheroes and the financial groups. The public thinks they have rights, but in reality, they have nothing because these rights have been manipulated and stolen.”

“At this point, many might say, ‘Isn’t this just a normal anti-superhero genre film? Why would it be considered self-important?'”

“Because although the premise of this story seems reasonable and the logic appears clear, it actually doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.”

“In other words, it’s full of holes.”

“First, the story portrays ordinary people with such low intelligence that it makes one feel that even a group of monkeys wouldn’t be fooled by these financial groups and superheroes for so long.”

“The superhero talent show has always been a scam. One batch after another of superheroes show off their personas on stage, harvest public support to gain power, and then one after another, their personas collapse and scandals emerge.”

“This cycle has continued for decades, and the public still hasn’t discovered they’re being deceived? They haven’t become suspicious of these superheroes? They haven’t tried to find ways to change the status quo?”

“Indeed, they did change—and the result of that change was electing an oddball like Phil.”

“All I can say is that there’s obvious dumbing down here. After all, the public needs to be foolish enough for Phil’s rise to power to seem reasonable. But this kind of dumbing down itself greatly diminishes the plausibility of the entire story.”

“If a story’s model cannot be realized among a group of normal people, but can only work among a group of monkeys or even pigs, what meaning does this model have for us?”

“Secondly, the financial groups and other superheroes in this story are also far too stupid, showing serious signs of dumbing down.”

“First, the superheroes mock and humiliate Phil without mercy, completely unafraid of retaliation; then, some financial groups are easily persuaded by Phil to create a variety show called ‘The Successor’ with him.”

“Couldn’t they see that Phil had ulterior motives? Weren’t they even slightly vigilant?”

“The later counterattacks against Phil are even more ridiculous. Logically, any stronger superhero could have crushed Phil, yet these financial groups and superheroes insisted on fighting separately and holding each other back, allowing Phil to defeat them one by one.”

“Such a person could actually become the strongest superhero through superhero elections? It’s as absurd as a circus clown becoming president!”

“In summary, the entire story of ‘The Successor’ is built on a massive dumbing-down aura. Not only does it dumb down all ordinary citizens, but also all the financial groups and all the superheroes.”

“It’s only with this indiscriminate dumbing-down aura that Phil, this unscrupulous rich second-generation, could reach the pinnacle of superheroes, and the entire story could be established.”

“But let’s think about what values superhero genre movies typically convey? They’re positive, uplifting, emphasizing responsibility.”

“It’s not that anti-superhero films shouldn’t exist—the key is that they need to be reasonable, profound, truly analyzing problems, and developing the story on the basis that all characters have normal intelligence, rather than just having a sudden inspiration, coming up with some plot twists, creating gimmicks, ‘opposing for the sake of opposing,’ thinking they’ve discovered the secret formula for success.”

“Let’s not even talk about superhero powers that are beyond ordinary human understanding. Even when electing a building manager in a residential complex, there are often various complex relationships, most people maintain their intelligence, and the final result comes after a game between several households. Those who are elected are usually people with relatively high moral standing and genuine ability.”

“Yet in this massive Hope City, with such an impressive group of superheroes, the level displayed is even lower than that of an ordinary residential building. This is truly laughable.”

“Therefore, while this series ‘The Successor’ has excellent cinematography and production, the key issue is that the entire story has gone off track from its root, completely skewed. No matter how excellent the production, it’s ultimately useless.”

“From this perspective, the failure of this series is reasonable because it’s neither entertaining nor profound.”

…

After reading this review, Cui Geng frowned, his expression grave.

Just from the title, he had felt the reviewer came prepared, and after reading the content, he was even more certain.

The key was that the situation was difficult to handle!

Was this review reasonable? It couldn’t be said to be entirely unreasonable.

On the surface, it covered a lot of ground, but in reality, it was seizing on one point to attack fiercely: dumbing down!

Mr. Qian felt that the entire story of “The Successor” was about dumbing down—superheroes, financial groups, and ordinary citizens were all dumbed down, and to a ridiculous extent. That’s why Phil’s scheme could succeed, and that’s how the anti-superhero story could be established.

But Cui Geng himself naturally didn’t see it that way. He believed that these people’s normal intelligence was just like that.

On this point, neither could convince the other, and neither could prove themselves right.

It would depend on whether the audience found the former or the latter more acceptable.

If viewers didn’t think this was dumbing down, then Mr. Qian’s review certainly wouldn’t have much effect. But if viewers thought this was indeed dumbing down, then this review would have an enormous impact on “The Successor,” causing ratings to drop further and its reputation to worsen!

From the current situation, it was clear that quite a few viewers agreed with Mr. Qian’s point of view. Many were even citing real-world examples, explaining how various elections were fair, just, and with full participation. Even if there were some problems, they absolutely couldn’t be as childish and stupid as portrayed in “The Successor.”

After thinking for a long time, Cui Geng called Huang Sibo back.

“Brother Huang, I’ve thought about it, and I have no solution…”

“This is an issue that can’t be argued clearly. No matter how much we explain the story’s inherent logic, those who think it’s illogical won’t change their minds.”

“We’re proposing a hypothesis, while others are criticizing from a higher ground. How can we win this debate? And this matter itself is meaningless.”

Huang Sibo sighed softly: “Ah, I feel the same way.”

He hadn’t held much hope when calling Cui Geng, but thought that as the original author, he might come up with a good solution.

But now it seemed there really was no good solution.

Cui Geng suggested: “Brother Huang, why don’t you go talk to the advertising and marketing department? They’re responsible for ‘The Successor’s’ promotional campaign, maybe they can think of something.”

Huang Sibo realized suddenly: “Oh, that’s right.”

“Okay, I’ll give them a call.”

“The Successor’s” promotional campaign was designed by Meng Chang. Although it seemed to be failing at the moment, the entire series hadn’t finished airing yet, so it was too early to make a final judgment.

Meng Chang was clever, and many of his previous promotional campaigns had been successful. Finding him might really provide a solution.

Logically, Fei Huang Studio shouldn’t be so tense just because of one review, but the problem was that “The Successor” had indeed gotten off to a somewhat rocky start, with ratings and reputation well below expectations.

Even without Mr. Qian’s post, they would need to find a way to turn around this reputation.

Otherwise, with the first three episodes already receiving such a cold reception, even if the later episodes provided viewers with some major scenes, it wouldn’t be enough to change the current situation.