Hollywood: The Greatest Showman

Chapter 51: Coming to the fore

The three-minute video ended quickly. William sat in his chair, but his thoughts seemed to slowly settle down. The excitement, restlessness, confusion, and anxiety from just now seemed to dissipate.

A strange emotion surged in his chest – a mix of loss, loneliness, and regret. "But I was late for this, late for that; Late for the love of my life; And when I die alone, when I die alone; Die I'll be on time, I." Those words, like poetry, gently tapped on his heart but turned into booming drums echoing in the depths of his soul, spreading a bitter sweetness in the midst of suffocation.

Each of us is a Cleopatra, wearing costumes in the script written by God, playing roles in the eyes of others, becoming supporting characters in other people's stories, but gradually losing ourselves, forgetting the original appearance of our souls. So, we miss out on dreams, miss out on freedom, miss out on lifelong love, and stand still in despair, allowing regret and remorse to gnaw at our souls. We miss out on our own lives, but when death approaches, we will not miss out anymore.

Suddenly, his eyes became moist, but a faint smile appeared on his lips. The awkward mix of crying and smiling seemed absurd but so real.

Before his brain could react, William clicked the play button again. Then he quietly leaned back in his chair, quietly watching the computer screen, quietly enjoying this performance. His fingertips seemed to touch the fleeting light of time flowing, grand and majestic, yet delicate and graceful. The dancing musical notes fluttered, landing lightly on his shoulders, afraid to disturb the hint of loneliness in his thoughts.

The video ended again, but William remained sitting quietly. On the screen, Renly held the guitar, a serene smile on his lips, his fingertips resting on the strings. The lazy orange light seemed incredibly warm and gentle, even time felt real.

"Do you think..." Graham's voice interrupted, hesitating for a moment. "Do you think this sounds like that wealthy young man expressing his inner thoughts?"

William hesitated for a moment, then suddenly smiled with joy, feeling that Graham had accurately captured that mood. But it was fleeting. He shook his head firmly. "Not quite. It's more like... Renly can capture the shadow of that young man, but it's much more than that. His demeanor..." William tried to find the right words to describe it but found language so pale, that words could only go this far, "It's different."

Initially, William only wanted to check Renly's information, but unexpectedly, he made a discovery. Now he couldn't distinguish whether he liked the song from Renly or if he liked Renly more because of the song. But he was sure that tonight's "The Pacific" had brought a real discovery, an exciting one.

"I wonder who sang that song just now?" William asked curiously. The song from just now had a powerful charm, making people unable to help but immerse themselves, savoring every note and word.

Graham shrugged, "Isn't there a name? Try searching for it." Seeing William open Google to search, Graham stopped him, "Cleopatra is the name of the Egyptian queen. You won't find it directly by searching. Try searching on Amazon or iTunes."

As William began to search, Graham thought of something else, "No wonder the video just now didn't have many views, turns out it's folk music."

In 2010, even the market for country music was shrinking further, let alone genres like jazz, soul, folk, or blues. Looking at the Billboard singles chart, country music still dominated, with fifteen to twenty country songs in the top hundred. But maybe the highest rank would be around twenty, winning was almost impossible.

So, folk music had no market at all. Renly put this video on YouTube, and it was quickly engulfed by the video stream. How could anyone discover it?

"Found it!" William exclaimed with surprise. "It's actually an original song by Renly himself!" William pointed to the single on iTunes, the information was very clear, "Lyrics, Renly Hall; Composition, Renly Hall; Arrangement, vacant." This was obviously a single recorded by an independent musician himself, without the arrangement of a recording engineer.

Without any hesitation, William directly paid ninety-nine cents and purchased the download. He was so excited that he couldn't help but rub his palms, but even so, he couldn't express the excitement in his heart. "I want to share it, share it with everyone in the post."

Quickly returning to the post in the Yahoo community, the number of comments in the post was still over eight hundred, but in a blink of an eye, it had surpassed two thousand, the speed of increase was indeed frightening, which also showed the discussion heat caused by the first broadcast of "The Pacific" tonight.

William first opened a separate post, "'The Pacific' Young Master: Renly Hall," and then briefly mentioned his discovery in the post, and attached the YouTube video link. After posting the thread, he then returned to the previous post, copied and pasted the message, and finally felt satisfied.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the post was published, people began to join the discussion.

"I was just searching for information about this wealthy young man, and I didn't expect to find it here!"

"So this is the young master who couldn't join the army because of his heart murmur? His eyes are really beautiful, every glance, every smile is like a play, so rare!"

"Oh my god, finally found the organization!"

"He can actually sing? What the heck? Is he a singer or an actor?"

"There's no information about this newcomer on the internet at all. Where did he come from?"

"Does he have any background? Yesterday at the premiere, both Hanks and Spielberg praised him. Is he a relative of some celebrity?"

"Who? Who are you talking about? Which wealthy young man? Why do I have no impression at all? Are you talking about John Basilone?"

...

The discussion quickly began to spread. On this night of "The Pacific," it had just begun to ferment.

After the first episode of "The Pacific" aired, it undoubtedly became the hottest topic of discussion for the next seventy-two hours. The popular posts in the Yahoo community received over one hundred thousand replies during this time, and Yahoo had to block the threads to avoid affecting the opening speed of the post and then opened a second discussion post.

Even the discussion about Renly in that post received over ten thousand comments within three days, showing a sustained high level of heat.

However, viewers had a more reserved attitude towards the start of "The Pacific," with criticisms of its slow pace, fragmented plot, and vague themes being heard constantly, especially considering the reputation of "Band of Brothers," people's scrutiny reached its peak after the first episode aired.

The immediate ratings on IMDB were the best reflection of this, with nearly six thousand ratings giving "The Pacific" a temporary rating of 7.7, not to mention comparing it to the 9.5 of "Band of Brothers," it didn't even reach 8, which was definitely considered a failure. This also indicated that the audience's high expectations were not satisfied.

Of course, this was only the perception of the first episode, especially the premiere, many impulsive reviews tended to be lower than expected, as the series progressed, this score would inevitably change.

Contrary to the audience's word-of-mouth, however, was the praise from professional critics. The comprehensive rating from thirty-two media outlets was as high as 86, not only matching the 86 score of "Band of Brothers" back then but also slightly leading in the segmented rating—twenty-seven media outlets gave positive reviews, five media outlets gave mixed reviews, and there were no negative reviews, two fewer than "Band of Brothers."

Time magazine gave a perfect score of 100, "This work is brutal enough and delicate enough, the series shows an incredible depth in character development, differing from 'Band of Brothers' in its insight into the fate of individuals and the cruelty of war. 'The Pacific' will deeply immerse the audience in the fate of each soldier: what should they do after coming back from the battlefield? Assuming that they can come back."

The New York Times gave a score of 90, "This is not a perfect work, but it is ambitious, tense, and intricately displays the blueprint of war: this war is not only about life and death but also about the torment of every soul. Spielberg and Hanks's collaboration once again reveals their different levels of thinking about war."

It's worth mentioning that Entertainment Weekly focused on the actors.

"Obviously, this is a work about soldiers, and the selection of the three main actors has been carefully considered. The psychological shock presented by Robert Leckie in the first episode makes people curious about where he will go next. What will John Basilone and Eugene Sledge experience? Among the debut performances of the three actors, Renly Hall, who has no acting experience, brings an amazing performance, raising higher expectations for the future."

Correspondingly, Entertainment Weekly gave a score of 86.

It can be seen that there was a subtle difference in opinions between the audience and the media, which attracted more attention to "The Pacific," and people couldn't help but wonder how the future development of this work would be. Would the viewpoints of the audience and the media change? Would the three main actors bring surprises?

Among them, the name of Renly Hall benefited from the emphasis of Tom and Steven at the premiere night and stood out, although his role in the first episode was very limited, his initial influence was not obvious; but as time went on, the frequency of this name being mentioned became higher and higher. Things were deviating from the original track, even Tom, who insisted on using Renly, didn't anticipate it.

The impact had arrived!

...

A/N:

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