novellhall Chapter 362 The Kill Line
Chapter 362 The Kill Line
Chapter 361 The Kill Line
No wonder this show was on the verge of being canceled.
The screenwriting team is trapped by established creative patterns, afraid to break out of their comfort zone and unable to escape years of fixed mindsets. Even if the direction is presented to them, they will only keep going in circles within the old framework.
It's impossible to expect them to make sweeping changes.
Chen Xun picked up the tablet and decided to revise the script from beginning to end himself.
What he wants is not to give a dying show a shot in the arm, or to prolong its life on nostalgia and popularity.
What he wanted was not to give a dying show a shot in the arm, to prolong its life on nostalgia and popularity, but to completely infuse the show with a new soul and break the established formula of American sitcoms.
He wanted to transform Han Li from a supporting character into one of the core protagonists of the series.
For the first time, Chinese characters occupied a central position in the narrative of a top-tier sitcom in the United States.
For the next two days, Chen Xun spent almost all his time in the lounge, except for chatting with Kate and Beth about their feelings about the characters. He devoted the rest of his time to revising the script.
His revisions can be described as a radical reconstruction.
It completely overturned the original framework of the writing team.
He completely shattered the death trap of single-episode closed loops and failed cycles.
In the original script, each episode's entrepreneurial storyline was independent, starting with great enthusiasm but ending in a mess, forever going around in circles.
Chen Xun completely redesigned the main narrative of the entire season.
Han Lee, Max, and Caroline form the restaurant's iron triangle. From transforming the restaurant itself to expanding the cake business, they take one step at a time, experiencing successes and minor setbacks, but always moving forward instead of falling back to square one.
In the very first episode, he directly pointed out the core pain point of the entire series.
The "cutoff line" for the American underclass.
In the revised script, Max and Caroline are once again dejected after their business fails, complaining that "no matter how hard we try, we can never make money and we're always being chased by rent and bills."
Instead of joining in the complaints as usual, Han Li sat at the bar, wiping glasses, and bluntly exposed the truth: "You always fall into the same traps that Americans are most likely to fall into. If you want to start a business, you first rent the most expensive storefront, do the most fancy decorations, and spend all your start-up capital on appearances. In the end, all the money you earn goes to the landlord and suppliers, and you don't get a penny for yourself."
"That's the rule here. It keeps you looking hopeful, but you can never escape this cycle. You're stuck on the poverty line for the rest of your life. That's the cutoff line."
This line perfectly captures the core conflict of the first six seasons!
Max and Caroline's six years of entrepreneurial failures were never due to a lack of effort, but rather because they were trapped in the snare of American business thinking and the cutoff line of the underlying rules of consumerism, forever unable to escape the vicious cycle of "making money - spending it all - making money again".
Han Li's role is that of the game-changer.
Chen Xun infused this character with a completely new core.
He is no longer the Asian boss who was criticized for being stingy; his stinginess stems from a clear understanding of American business rules.
He added a background monologue by Han Li to the script.
He casually recounted the past while drinking and chatting with Max and Caroline.
His father immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and opened a Chinese restaurant. He worked diligently all his life, but due to a pandemic and soaring rents, he lost all his savings overnight. Before he left, he left him only this small restaurant and a piece of advice: "In doing business in America, survive first, then think about getting rich. Don't believe in those myths of getting rich overnight."
In just one short scene, the character of Han Li was instantly brought to life.
All his actions now have a logical basis, and he is no longer a flat comedic symbol.
More importantly, Chen Xun truly grounded Chinese business thinking into the core of the plot, rather than just making it an empty slogan.
He incorporated well-established domestic business logic with the local conditions in the United States into his script, completely breaking away from the old routines of American entrepreneurship.
For example, regarding the cake business, he changed the old script of renting a storefront to open a cake shop, and had Han Lee come up with a complete plan for Max and Caroline.
No need to rent a storefront; use the restaurant's unused kitchen for production, reducing rental costs to zero.
Instead of engaging in scattered retail, they focus on Chinese supermarkets, international student communities, and corporate catering services in office buildings around Brooklyn, offering pre-sales and customized orders. They produce only after receiving orders, completely avoiding the risk of inventory loss.
Even for online operations, they wrote about community operations and private domain traffic strategies, instead of the dead end of high commission rates typical of American food delivery platforms.
He also completely changed the restaurant's business strategy.
No longer a stagnant, run-down restaurant, Han Li spearheaded the renovation, adding Chinese-style light meals, late-night snacks, and weekend morning tea, transforming the restaurant from a mere background setting into the core scene of the story and the foundation for the trio's business ventures.
This content has never appeared before in the history of American sitcoms.
In the past, Chinese characters in American TV series were either stereotypical restaurant owners or bookworms. No Chinese character has ever been able to use their own cultural logic and business thinking to dominate the main narrative of the series, lead the protagonist to break out of the predicament, or even directly expose the underlying rules of American society.
This is not just about rewriting the script for "2 Broke Girls," but also about breaking Hollywood's century-old prejudice against Asian characters.
In two days, Chen Xun rewrote the script for the first six episodes from beginning to end.
Even the characters' dialogue logic and comedic rhythm have been revamped.
It retains the witty banter and off-color jokes that audiences love, but ensures that all the humor serves the characters and plot, rather than being funny for the sake of being funny.
On the afternoon the script was revised, Chen Xun convened a script reading session with the screenwriting team, Kate, Beth, and the producer.
In the conference room, everyone held the script that Chen Xun had reprinted. At first, they were somewhat polite and expectant, but the more they read, the more shocked they became, from surprise to admiration, and then to complete admiration.
For a full hour, the only sound in the conference room was the turning of pages.
After everyone had finished reading the script for the first three episodes, the head writer was the first to look up at Chen Xun, his eyes filled with admiration and even a touch of shame: "Teacher Chen Xun, to be honest, we always thought that we had written six seasons and knew this show too well. But after reading the script you revised, we realized that we had been trapped in our own box for too long."
"You didn't just change the plot, you changed the very soul of the show."
Another core screenwriter chimed in, his voice brimming with excitement: "So this is how stories can be told! The character Han Li has such great charisma! What we wrote before was really too superficial."
Kate and Beth were incredibly excited.
Beth held the script, her fingers trembling slightly, her eyes shining: "Chen Xun, thank you. I've played the role of Caroline for six years, and I always felt that she was stuck in the same place. The audience was tired of seeing her, and I was almost tired of playing the role myself. But in the script you revised, she is really growing, learning, and breaking out of her previous self. I can't wait to play this version of Caroline."
Kate slammed her hand on the table and exclaimed, "I knew it! Your skills are absolutely different!"
"Max's lines used to be the same old sarcastic remarks over and over again. But now, her scenes with Han Lee are great. They're back and forth, not only funny but also full of character clashes. It's so cool! Especially that line about the killing line, it really hit the nail on the head. I got goosebumps when I was reading the script."
The producer was all smiles, flipping through the script over and over again, finally feeling relieved.
He was initially worried that Chen Xun's return was just a nostalgia tactic, and that the ratings would only rise briefly before dropping again.
But now that he has seen the revised script, he is absolutely certain that the show will not only not be canceled, but may even return to its peak.
It's even more explosive than the first three seasons at their peak!
"Chen Xun, I'm not saying anything more."
The producer gave Chen Xun a thumbs up: "Your changes have given this show a new lease on life, no, they've given it a new life. I'll send the script to CBS right now. The higher-ups will be ecstatic when they see it."
as predicted!
That evening, CBS executives reviewed the revised script and held an internal meeting that night. They unanimously approved Chen Xun's revised script and even directly told the production team: "The creation of the sixth season is entirely up to Chen Xun. He can change it however he wants. We will fully cooperate with him on the budget and publicity."
When the news reached the film set, the morale of the entire crew was completely ignited.
Originally, everyone thought this was the last season, and that the group would disband after filming!
But now everyone sees a whole new possibility for this drama.
Even the set design and props teams are working feverishly to renovate the restaurant's set according to the new script, preparing for a brand new story.
The lights were on in the recording studio in Brooklyn, New York.
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The 200-seat audience seats were completely full.
Even the aisle was filled with CBS staff.
Everyone's eyes were fixed on the restaurant setting in front of them.
As the announcement sounded, the director, microphone in hand, smiled and called out to the audience, "The first episode of '2 Broke Girls' Season 6 is officially being recorded! Don't hold back your applause and cheers!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the familiar opening intro started playing, and the audience erupted in cheers!
The deafening applause and cheers nearly lifted the roof off the stadium.
Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, "Ma! Caroline!"
More than half the people were shouting, "HanLee!"
The wave of cheers grew louder and louder.
In the booth, Kate and Beth were already in character, performing their opening scene together, fully immersed in the emotions from the script.
Caroline, holding a "For Rent" sign for a popular online shop, excitedly planned her new cake shop business with Max, calculating the start-up capital. Her eyes shone like stars, but as she talked, her voice grew softer and softer, and finally, she slumped into the booth, her face drooping, utterly defeated.
"Never mind, never mind."
Caroline crumpled the bill into a ball and threw it on the table, her face full of despair: "Even if we take out all the money we've saved in the last six months, we can't even afford three months' rent, let alone renovations, licenses, and raw materials. For so many years, we've been saving money, starting businesses, and failing. I've almost forgotten what success tastes like."
Max, with a straw in her mouth, took a sip of her iced cola, rolled her eyes, and said with a sarcastic yet somewhat helpless tone: "Welcome to my world, rich heiress. I've been stuck in this dead end since birth. The money I earn from my job is barely enough to pay for rent and drinks. If I try to earn more, I either get taxed or get scammed by all sorts of lousy things. In the end, I'm still working as a waiter in this lousy restaurant."
The two were looking dejected when they heard the soft clatter of a glass being placed on the bar counter.
The camera slowly pans over to Han Li, played by Chen Xun, who is wearing a well-fitting dark suit, holding a cup-wiping cloth, leaning against the bar, looking at the two men. His face is expressionless, but he no longer has the flustered and easily angered demeanor he displayed in previous seasons. Instead, he exudes a sense of composure that comes from seeing through things.
Suppressed cheers and applause erupted from the audience.
Many people were so excited when they saw Chen Xun appear that they slapped their thighs.
After two seasons, Han Li is finally back!