The atmosphere became a bit weird and everyone could notice it. Florence's face was frozen. She had not expected a question like this to appear from Aiden.
Thinking a bit and composing herself, she replied.
"There are other underlying meanings in the whole conversation and she was angry, so she retaliated like that."
"But that doesn't change the hypocrisy." Aiden pushed on. "And I don't have a problem with a hypocritical protagonist. The whole industry is like that but by the way, you talked about her character, it's almost like she's a glorified personality, the heroine that people need to like."
Each word made Florence's face more blank. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she was trying to decipher Aiden's words but failing to do so.
Besides her, Ava just watched this with a smile, having no intentions to interfere in the conversation. Wade was the same.
He even looked to be enjoying himself, probably thinking that Florence looked funny.
"Well, she's the soul of the movie. So people are going to like her either way."
"That doesn't always work. It's really how you are showing things. I don't think people would like hypocrisy if the character isn't shown to be that. Actions make characters what they are, words are just that — words."
Aiden tried to explain it as best as he could.
Though, he kinda wished that he had a script to go through it first. What he was speaking was mostly what he had gotten from Florence's words and by the look of her face, he wasn't wrong either.
His intention was not to go against the director who had worked hard on the script but give his thoughts about the story.
"You are—"
"Let's end it here, shall we." Ava interfered as Florence again began to speak. "I think you should take Aiden's advice. They might help you in setting off the rough edges."
Her words were a bit cold but they were precise. Wade almost wanted to whistle seeing this.
'Producer backing is really something.'
He thought in his mind, trying hard to not show any expressions.
Florence hesitated to speak hearing that, contemplating a few things in her mind but she ultimately nodded her head.
"I think we should get back to talking about Aiden's character."
Like that, the topic moved to that and it was mostly smooth sailing from there on. Florence was a bit bitter but she knew that she needed to be professional.
She wanted to leave a good impression on Ava, being only the first time they were working together.
The small argument in the middle aside, it was a good first talk for Aiden on the movie that could become his next venture.
***
Days quickly went by as Aiden promoted [Sherlock of the Shadows] in various events and even went on an online talk show for it.
In the middle of it, the second issue of <Morpheus> was released and it again got a great response. At the same time, the female readership kept being high.
Vikings publishing was very happy about it and they felt like they have gotten lucky here. They were planning to increase the promotion for <Morpheus> from the third issue and see the reactions.
As the genre of the comic being dark fantasy meant that it still had a niche audience, they needed to take cautious steps to keep the good response going.
Though, their biggest worry was still Aiden who has a completely different career rather than being just a writer.
There was no way that he could solely work on <Morpheus> for at least a year, so there was a sense of restlessness because they knew that they would need to prepare for the time when Aiden would leave.
When Marshall discussed it with Aiden, he told him that he wasn't going to let another author write his world.
Even with him giving the pointers for the upcoming arc, it would be extremely hard to write something that you didn't originally make with the same quality.
Aiden had no intention of damaging <Morpheus> with that and he assured Marshall that he would not leave the project in the middle.
Though, he knew that he won't be able to give every bit of his time to it and hence, the release rate of the issues would probably become one every two months but it was still better than lowering the quality of the project.
Aiden was creating the graphic novel as a way of getting better, so he wasn't going to give it up just like that. It was a nice side project for him.
After the discussions on <Morpheus>, his much-awaited series [Sherlock of the Shadows] was finally released on 13 November.
Just on the first day, a lot of viewers tuned in.
***
In an online blog community about movie discussions and reviews, the admins created a thread about [Sherlock of Shadows] as soon as it was released and just two hours after it, it had more than 268 comments.
With Zetflix promoting the series a lot and the release date being Saturday night, a lot of people tuned it just to know if the hype was worth it.
[Harry's saliva: I just finished the first episode of it and I have to say it was pretty good. Felt like it could have been tighter but I don't think it stayed off from what the critics' review said about the first episode.]
[Wilde Screams: Is the episode scary? I'm scared to watch it because horror is listed as one of the themes.]
[Sherlock in a frock: Only the last bits of the episode were scary and if I'm honest, it was a pretty great twist. I feel like the show is following more of a superhero origin story plotline mixed with mystery and an overall serious and gritty tone.]
[Deep with the Deep: I loved it. I wish superhero movies were like this instead of characters making a joke about seeing their friend dying. Though, the playboy trait of Finn felt cliche and something the show should have avoided.]
[That's what he said: I just finished the second episode and till now, the show had been above average to brilliant in a few scenes. Like how Aiden's character is trying to check his powers and get mastery over them.]
[I have 69 wives: Didn't like the first episode. Not because of the plot or something but these types of shows don't appeal to me. I'm so sick of a gritty life that I don't want to watch it in a series. Zetflix, give me 30-year-olds playing as teenage dudes.]
[What colour is your Bugatti: I think this will surely become a huge hit. I loved the first three episodes.]
***
With [Sherlock of the Shadows] having a lot of hype, it opened up at number 7 on the Top 10 series list on Zetflix but just in two hours, it was at number 5.
People were rapidly binge-watching the whole series, loving every minute of it. It was the same for the critics who have only watched the first episode of the premier.
They also started watching from the second episode, having the job to write a fully detailed article on it.
They also have a lot of questions and doubts in their minds.
The first episode was undoubtedly great but will it continue? Or was it going to fizzle out? It could also be that only some episodes were good and the others won't be of the same quality.
There were various thoughts in the mind of critics but after they had completed the series, they only had praises left to say.
One of them wrote in his Sparrow handle, "[Sherlock of the Shadows] is a rebranding of a detective genre that shows how it could become much more. With most things already tried in the world, it feels like a breath of fresh air with solid characters."
Like that, there were more detailed reviews on the great aspects of the show. Particularly, Aiden's acting, especially in the scenes involving heavy VFX, was praised a lot.
Jeremy Hill was the actor who got the most applause after him. Though, at this point, it was no big deal for him to give out a great performance as everyone knew how good of an actor he was.
Other aspects like the pacing, setting, atmosphere and soundtrack were also praised.
With these things some negatives were bound to come as no project is perfect.
One of the critics mentioned them in her review of the series, "The show mainly walks a thin line between above average and spectacular depending on different people. It's in no way a bad show but it does suffer from the mystery plotlines being predictable and the reveal of the villain looking lacklustre, probably to keep interested in the next season of the series but it does hamper the quality as it leaves an ending that leaves much to be desired. A few characters are also needed and they just appear to fill in the world but could easily seem unnecessary."
Although what she said was mostly true, it didn't affect the show in any way because the good reviews were way more than the bad ones.
Either way, a lot of the audience didn't even seem to care about reviews.
They just wanted a good series and [Sherlock of the Shadows] was just that.
It was what it promised and in this age, that was rare.
Because of that, the next day, it was at the top position in the Top 10 series in America as well as trending in over 50 countries all over the world.
