Deep Conversations

Swagger published a new article about Bradley James. It notes that the interview was done via Zoom, but obviously a team was used to get these gorgeous photographs. The set and the styling are just top tier!!! so I'm honestly not going to overthink this. ETA the shoot was in LA in March, before the COVID lockdown.



He also appeared as a guest on the fan podcast Destiny and Chicken. I always have such mixed reactions to fan interviews. On the one hand, I'm so thrilled that an actor is humble enough to interact with "normal" people. On the other hand, it feels like I'm a bad fan somehow? Like I didn't put myself out there enough? These two podcasters have been fans for a long time, but the show started in August of 2019. How did they get so famous so quickly? Or at least famous enough to get to talk with Bradley James for two hours?

But then I feel guilty about thinking that, because I obviously want to be supportive of fan products and people who create that type of content - because fandom is absolutely an escape for me. I'm still of the mind that fandom should stay secret, to an extent? Not that I feel guilty about being a fan, but fandom is something too personal to be shared with someone who doesn't get it. And I'm weirded out by people who get famous because of the fan products they make - because I feel like those people are creating very bland, very "mainstream" works that garner a lot of attention without delving into the reasons I like fandom in the first place: i.e. the way we can freely talk about sexuality and gender issues in fanworks.

In other news, I finished season three of Schitt's Creek ♥ I like every single one of these characters, which is so rare for a TV show. Also, the found/actual family feels get to me. This is my feel-good show of COVID 20. So thankful it's on Netflix.

I'm having an emotional day, and it's definitely because I just finished episode 2.08 of Looking. My OTP Kevin and Patrick got back together! And they are currently happy and having great sex! I am SHOOK. There are still two more episodes left, so I'm on pins and needles waiting for something bad to happen...

Thanks to singedsun for introducing me to Angel of the Get Through. I read the words and I loved the poem, but listening to it spoken put it on a whole new level. The words feel so appropriate for how I feel about the pandemic.

I got to participate in Bradley James' trivia night, a benefit for Redemption Paws. All the knights showed up on zoom with the exception of Lancelot. Kat McNamara also made a surprise appearance to announce the total dollar amount raised and at first I was like OMG I know her!! But I also thought it was a little weird. How did this charity get so many celebrity endorsements?

At any rate, Bradley seemed so genuine and fun while he was talking to different fans through zoom. Adetomiwa Edun kept changing his zoom background to make it Merlin themed, and Rupert Young, Bradley, and Eoin Macken changed outfits several times without saying anything about it, which was pretty funny. Eoin seemed drunk? and they all made fun of him for not speaking clearly enough: apparently he was told to speak more clearly a lot on set. He definitely ran with that when he was reading trivia questions. Tom Hopper's wife made an appearance to say hi, and he was teasing her for being intoxicated on her own zoom call with friends. She kissed him all off kilter and it was really cute. Tom Hopper also made a joke about Bradley getting out of the closet, and they all laughed and said only Brits would get it. So someone care to explain?

As for the trivia, there were some obvious questions and some tough ones. I got 19 out of 26 correct. The winner only missed one! He was a dude with a Dutch name who got to appear on Zoom, but he seemed very shy. I learned that Bradley's go to song to get amped up before fight scenes was Run Boy Run, Adetomiwa Edun loved working with his horse on set (the actors called him a horse whisperer), Rupert had a weird incident where he fell off a horse but they didn't want to talk about it, there was a guy that had to get stitches before they switched to rubber swords, and Eoin Macken thinks Kat McNamara is hot.

Bradley didn't bring up Colin at all, but there were a few Merlin focused questions. At the beginning, Bradley congratulated Rupert for his nomination, and Rupert was like "And Colin too!" and Bradley was like "yeah...". Of course I'm over here like, oooo drama.

Conclusion: glad to see that these blokes are all still friends and have fond memories of shooting Merlin. It was all really fun and light hearted, which was a great set up to my day.

↠iZombie is finally on netflix and 5x03 was absolutely a delight! Now I understand why that episode got such high reviews. I love a good dance montage, but all the teamwork was excellent as well. Now I need to know why the murder wasn't solved! Also I'm really loving Peyton as defacto mayor. And Major is back to being soft and conflicted, which is what I always liked about him.

↠It's September and you know what that means? I'm in the mood for some good horror! I watched Insidious and it was not as good as the Conjuring, but there was one jump scare that totally got me. The plot left a bunch to be desired but there were plenty of beautiful/creepy vibes. Any recommendations for films on Netflix?

↠I'm caught up on Are You Having a Draft and Gameweek 6 had this little gem.

Bradley: And Kane...
Marcus: Your boyfriend?
Bradley: haha Lucky me.

Must be an inside joke. I promise I'm not reading too much into that...

↠We've been binging Lucifer like crazy. Very stereotypical plotlines but Tom Ellis is absolutely brilliant at being wicked. I love his accent and the show has made me laugh out loud a bunch of times already. It's good to have a feel-good low-stakes show.

↠I'm on 3x06 of 13 Reasons Why. ( spoilers under here )