The Best Director

Chapter 491: 491

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“Just like that, stretch out your little feet, one step, two steps…”

The autumn in New York was in full swing in October, and the morning sunshine brought extra warmth to the garden, where fallen leaves drifted and the grass was bursting with life.

Keke, dressed in a pink long-sleeve T-shirt and blue overalls, felt only warmth due to her cold tolerance practice since infancy. At that moment, her face was brimming with a naive, happy smile as she took one unsteady step after another with her bare feet, embracing the novelty and excitement. Wang Yang squatted meters ahead, with arms wide open to attract her, while Jessica gently supported Keke’s armpits to maintain her balance, softly speaking words to guide the walking process.

In fact, no baiting was needed, as Sweetheart was too enthusiastic about learning to walk. She would try to stand up while crawling, and having always emphasized physical training, she’d played the stepping game countless times. Now formally learning to walk, she performed very well.

“Keep it up, keep it up, you’re doing great.” Jessica quietly and slowly released her hands, and Keke’s wobbly steps made her little body start to shake; the whole world seemed to spin, and with a plop! She fell forward onto the lawn, a close encounter with the grass that made her cry out “Aaah—” in surprise; her palms and knees hurt a bit, and she looked around in confusion, calling out, “Mommy, Daddy!” What had happened?

Up to this point, the two parents still hadn’t figured out who should be the good cop or the bad cop. Sometimes Wang Yang would want to indulge the baby, but Jessica would disagree; other times when she would want to indulge her, he would say no. Perhaps they were both, and when combined, Keke didn’t get to take advantage of either, growing up strong and happy every day. This time, due to Wang Yang’s “martial spirit,” they were implementing a tough-love walking plan for the baby. Falling wasn’t scary; the most important thing was to stand up on one’s own. This was the true meaning of learning to walk! Thus, he forbade buying walkers or harnesses and other such aids.

“Stand up!” Wang Yang clapped his hands, feeling a bit nervous as he shouted, “Keke, stand up!” Watching his daughter face-down on the lawn, Jessica firmly resisted the urge to go help her and started clapping as well, “Go on, you can do it, you’re the best! You’re a super baby!” Regardless of whether she understood or not, Wang Yang, facing her gaze, sternly and encouragingly said, “You must stand up by yourself! Every time from now on, don’t cry, don’t wait, just stand up!” Danny, tied to a distant tree to prevent mischief, watched quietly.

“Aaah, ouch!” Keke seemed to half understand, but regardless, she had to stand up and keep walking! She didn’t disappoint everyone; the little one sat up without crying or fussing, hands pushing on the ground, her little bottom in the air, and after some wobbly efforts, she stood up!

The tense expressions on Wang Yang and Jessica’s faces instantly bloomed into proud and relieved smiles. The encouraging and praising voices continued in the garden, until “Wow!” cheers broke out, followed by laughter all around. Danny happily wagged his tail, watching Keke stumble into Yang’s embrace, overjoyed!

As time moved into the middle of October, on Thursday night, October 12th, at 9:00 PM, the biggest show of the 06-07 fall season, NBC’s long-promoted and fan-anticipated Firefly TV series edition hit the screens!

Created by Wang Yang and Joss Whedon, with a premiere episode budget of $15 million, the exciting trailer showcased the world of interstellar cowboys of Firefly! That night, the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory featured a funny dispute among Sheldon and the gang about watching the premiere of Firefly, pushing expectations even higher and drawing in a large audience.

Millions of Americans waited in front of their televisions, while online, a global audience of hundreds of millions awaited the resources. And they were not let down—it was a perfect premiere episode. Despite the pressure it faced along the way, from the perspective of TV drama, every aspect was impeccable.

“Perfect, smart, witty, amazing performances, gorgeous special effects, beautiful action sequences, rich plot content—it was such a surprising, delightful premiere! I will treasure it because, in my opinion, it will be the best TV series episode,” Jsous rated it 10 out of 10; “Real brilliance! ‘Firefly’ offers ingenious stories, witty dialogue, wonderful humor… everything is absolutely top-notch. A perfect display of talent by two of the most talented people in the television industry,” Ravenous rated it 10 out of 10; Ducky8 rated it 10 out of 10: “The best science fiction TV series ever, with an amazing script, perfect cast, and detailed special effects that are all movie-level—there would never be a second series like ‘Firefly’ that integrates them so well.” …

As the most expensive sci-fi series in history, its special effects may not compare to movies but are indeed deeply satisfying to the fans. As for the plot, the most critical component, it is just as engaging. Unlike tense and suspenseful series like ‘Prison Break’ and ‘Lost,’ ‘Firefly’ consists of standalone stories in each episode that contribute to a larger overarching narrative. Its greatness lies in its characters, dialogue, and various details. It presents a fresh, interesting future world that combines multicultural elements. “The whole thing is just a ton of fun.”

NBC can breathe a sigh of relief, Flame Family Entertainment can cheer to their heart’s content, and FOX must be regretting deeply now—’Firefly’ has unsurprisingly garnered spectacular ratings!

The premiere episode opened with an average of 26.8 million viewers and a stunning 16/25 ratings score! It set a record for both NBC and the entire television screen in recent years for the best series premiere, beating PM8:00-8:30’s ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and other dramas like CBS’s ‘CSI,’ becoming the new king of Thursday night prime time!

Last season, ‘CSI’ averaged 25.2 million viewers per episode, and before this season, it was maintaining 24.3 million. However, once ‘Firefly’ aired, it plummeted to 20.1 million, dropping by 17.2%, nearly breaking below the twenty million viewership it had held onto for years! Over on the CW, ‘Supernatural’ was squeezed from 3.1 million down to a mere 2.3 million, plummeting by 25.8%, almost losing its ground to survive. ABC, FOX, MNT, and other channels faced similar fates.

But they seemed to have no strategy to counter it, even the Late Night Talk Shows found it hard to joke about ‘Firefly,’ because compared to the ratings, the acclaim for ‘Firefly’ was frighteningly high. With an average score of 98 from Metacritic critics and 9.8 from users; IMDb opened with a score of 9.9! Firmly in first place with overwhelming superiority. It seemed everyone went crazy, not willing to let anyone speak ill of Joss Whedon and Wang Yang’s masterpiece.

“One of the best television programs ever,”—100 points, Adam Buckman, New York Post; “If you only have one hour of TV time per week, spend it on ‘Firefly,’”—100 points, Maureen Ryan, Chicago Tribune; “‘Firefly’s’ flavor and ambition are unmatched, it delivers too much fun, with all elements like characters, dialogue, performances being top-notch. The best moments of Whedon and Wang,”—100 points, San Francisco Chronicle, Tim Goodman; “‘Firefly’ is establishing a new kind of pop culture, surpassing any other science fiction genre, so captivating,”—100 points, Virginia Heffernan, The New York Times …

However, no one really criticized it, just as if last year’s release of ‘Firefly’ repeated itself, the critical community was unanimous in its praise!

With 98 points, ‘Firefly’ ranked first on Metacritic’s list of TV show ratings since 2006, tied with HBO’s fourth season of ‘The Wire’ (98/9.7), except the latter had very poor viewership. In third place, HBO’s sixth season of ‘The Sopranos’ with 96 points/8.2, and fourth, SYFY’s third season of ‘Battlestar Galactica’ with 94 points/9.0. These are the shows this year with scores above 90.

Apart from ‘Firefly,’ the other three were all premium channel shows. A broadcast channel show means it has to appeal to a broader audience of all ages, and while targeting the “young people” and “science fiction” demographics with an 18-49 rating is very vague and not as precisely targeted as premium shows. However, ‘Firefly’ showed the world that broadcast shows can be as exquisite as cable shows, with grandeur, appeal to all ages, earning more thumbs up from critics and audiences alike.

Although viewership slipped a bit on October 19 for the second episode, this was normal. It still attracted an average of 25.5 million viewers; the third episode on October 26 reported 25.1 million, reigning as the Thursday champion for three weeks in a row! And in the weekly rankings, it was only second to the national hot variety show ‘American Idol,’ as stated by the likes of Heffernan, the culture of interstellar cowboys is being established!

If the movie “Firefly” was the construction of a skyscraper from the ground up, the task now was to reinforce and decorate that skyscraper. With the success of the TV series, the “Firefly” brand had further expanded, and at the same time, a continuous flow of related products such as comics, setting collections, art books, novels, and toys had begun to be launched. Its impact on global culture and youth was just beginning.

Not all effects were positive, for instance, the earlier “teen pregnancy trend.” Years later, the “Juno victims association” seemed to have gained another member—Keisha Castle-Hughes, the 16-year-old girl (born on March 24, 1990) who had earned an Oscar nomination for Best Actress at the age of 13 with “Whale Rider” was pregnant! Recently, Hughes’s agent confirmed the news. She would welcome her first child in the spring of the next year, with the father being 19-year-old Bradley Hull.

Since Hughes portrayed the Virgin Mary in the New Line drama “The Nativity Story,” set to release on December 1, her out-of-wedlock pregnancy was no small matter and had been leaked early by the media, who then followed it with keen interest.

“I really like Natalie Portman, although I don’t know why, I just enjoy watching her act, her Juno was amazing. And Julia Roberts, Halle Berry.” “Paikea (‘Whale Rider’ protagonist) has a very unique character, just like Juno. She’s only 11, but she knows who she is and is filled with confidence. There are very few 11-year-old girls like her, and she’s a role model for young girls. I really hope I can become someone like that.”…

She didn’t become Paikea, she became Juno. Gossip media dug up some of her past comments for mention. It is worth noting that she made a cameo appearance in “Star Wars: Episode III” as the Naboo queen Apailana, the successor to Amidala, and Apailana was named after the character Paikea from “Whale Rider.”

Although the media wanted to interview Wang Yang and Natalie to get their views and expectations on this matter, neither of them accepted any interviews. In fact, “Juno” had been over for almost 6 years; it really wasn’t their business. Aside from sensational headlines from some less reputable media like “Magical Yang causes the youngest Oscar nominee to get pregnant?”… no one dared to say “Magical Yang gets the Virgin Mary pregnant?”

“That jerk, she did at 16 what I didn’t dare to! It’s just not fair, now if anyone gets knocked up young they’ll say it was us,” Natalie complained in a phone call to Wang Yang about the matter. Without the shock of a collective pregnancy, Wang Yang wasn’t much affected. It wasn’t possible that all teenage pregnancies were related to him. “I’ve met Hughes, she’s a very mature little girl,” he said. Natalie agreed, “Yes, we met her on set.” Wang Yang said helplessly, “Anyway, we don’t have to worry about her financial ability to take care of the baby, but I think we should warn Chloe Moretz.”

Since “500 Days of Summer,” Moritz really liked Natalie and was also very fond of “Juno.” She shouldn’t suddenly end up pregnant at 16, too.

Natalie agreed again, but it was clearly not for now. They would wait until Moritz was older. She asked with great concern, “How’s little Juno doing lately?” Wang Yang replied with a happy laugh, “She’s doing great! She’s learning to walk, looks just the part. I know her, she doesn’t want to be outdone by Mathilda.” Mathilda and Juno again, Natalie laughed, “How could she be? Mathilda doesn’t even have an Oscar nomination.” Then, she sighed with great emotion, “I think I’m addicted, I really want to snatch you and the baby.” Wang Yang said earnestly, “Maybe you’ve been cursed. Go check it out in Thailand.”

Little Juno was indeed doing well, but Wang Yang didn’t tell Natalie that he had fallen ill. He didn’t know if it was a curse, but it certainly wasn’t pregnancy, even if he had been experiencing occasional dry heaves.

The truth was, he was suffering from overexhaustion. After all, he wasn’t completely invincible. When “The Deceased” wrapped up, he experienced a slight easing of the mental strain; coupled with the nightly shooting of “I Am Legend” causing a lack of sleep; and during the day, he was either furiously editing in front of the computer screen with Margaret or running to the scoring studio overseen by Hans Jimo, while also checking on color grading and other work…

These past few days, Wang Yang had a splitting headache and could hardly think straight, so much so that he even turned down Heath Ledger’s invitation to a boxing match. He didn’t want to get knocked out in the ring, feeling as if he was paying off a debt, especially since he hadn’t truly rested for ages apart from a few short holidays. Upon hearing about his situation, Nancy commented indifferently, “Welcome to my world.”

Jessica, who was deeply concerned, naturally urged him not to overexert himself, but Wang Yang truly couldn’t relax. The deadline for sending “The Deceased” DVDs to MPAA, to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and for making copies was not far away. October 27th had passed and Saturday came when he could finally sleep in, trying to catch up on some much-needed rest, yet he had a strange dream where he collapsed on the set, and no one around him tried to help him up. Fiest, Will, Heath, Michael, Natalie and others all clapped and shouted, “Get up, get up!”

This weekend no longer belonged to “The Illusionist,” which was in its 7th week, nor to “Flags of Our Fathers,” which received praise but modest box office returns in its 2nd week. There were only two major releases this weekend, the thriller “Grind,” showing in 1,305 theaters, and the R-rated horror film “Saw IV,” in 3,175 theaters.

After the first ever-classic, perfect trilogy, it was impossible for the film critics, who felt like smashing tomatoes, to change their attitudes. Without blood, violence, and perversion, would it still be SAW? Firefly Films never had such an expectation; getting the audience to applaud and cheer was the key!

Devoted SAW fans were both critical and forgiving towards “Saw IV.” A SAW film every year had become a Halloween staple, and naturally, they didn’t want a SAW without James Wan and Leigh Whannell to become boring. But if Darren Lynn Bousman wanted them cheering and to later buy the DVD for their collections, he had to bring some game. No audience is unselective.

16%/0% rotten rating! 15 mainstream media unanimously gave it an average of 2 out of 10! It set a new low for the series’ freshness rating, a significant drop from “Saw III”‘s 29%/25%.

Apart from the usual rotten tomatoes like “incomprehensible,” “meaningless,” “stupidly brutal,” those critics who once gave passing grades to the SAW series threw fresh rotten tomatoes instead. Stephen Cole from “The Globe and Mail” said, “Originally SAW was thoughtful and meticulously produced, SAW IV is a bloodbath.” John Monaghan from “Detroit Free Press” stated, “The dullest SAW in the series.”

Wesley Morris from “The Boston Globe” remarked, “Saw IV has specialized in a new kind of panic, losing the complex and twisted story and focusing on the development of torture ideas and execution, but it falls far short of the first three. With box office success, Firefly doesn’t care.” Elizabeth Weisman from “New York Daily News” commented, “This death trap may rust, but as long as it continues to generate fresh blood, it’s not closing anytime soon.”…

This is precisely the change of face for “Saw IV.” Compared to the previous trilogy, under the direction and script of Darren Lynn Bousman, it became even more maniacal, focusing on various murder games and the creation of brutal scenes! Having had discussions, Wang Yang knew that regardless of how “Saw IV” fared, Firefly would likely not continue with him as director for “Saw V” in order to keep things fresh, so Bousman unleashed all his madness into “Saw IV,” making it arguably the most sick and bloody one in the series.

Continuing down this path might be a dead end, but for the fourth installment, this stimulating change had quite a solid effect. With a steady 79% audience approval rating, only a 7% drop from “Saw III”‘s 86%, despite some fans expressing disappointment, it had managed to retain the audience’s heart.

“Really scary, I had to close my eyes a few times.” Amy L gave it four stars; “This will be one of Firefly’s dumbest films ever released, the worst SAW.” Three-star rated Zack C preferred the previous style; “Almost the most amazing movie ever. My favorite SAW, in fact, as I watched this film, I kept wiping tears from my eyes, really sad and disturbed.” Brittany S awarded a full five stars; “It lacks the intriguing quality of the previous films, brutal, not fun.” Jenny B gave it a zero star; Jimmy F gave it four stars: “Not bad, memorable traps, quite remarkable torture scenes.”…(To be continued. If you like this work, you’re welcome to vote for it on qidian.com with recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)