I think around the last season of Game of Thrones (stay with me)- I started listening to a few podcasts…
This was of course a BOOMING time for pop culture- what with Thrones wrapping in 2019 after 8 seasons- the same year the new-new Star Wars trilogy concluded with The Rise of Skywalker AND Avengers: Endgame came out. Chapter 1 of The Mandalorian pretty much closed out the year and my god there was so much yet to come and so much to talk about.
I became a regular listener to several of the podcasts from The Ringer network- mostly Bingemode (RIP), The Watch, and The Rewatchables. I still texted and talked on the phone pretty regularly with my brother and certain friends about the “state” of these different franchises (and our lives in general) and podcast references crept into most of these conversations. On a side note it is pretty weird to think back on exactly how much the topics of Star Wars and Thrones permeated everything for me, for awhile. A particularly memorable exchange occurred during a time when my mother was in hospice care and after a detailed downer of an exchange with my brother, my father paused for a good long while and emerged from the silence to ask, “Who is Bo Katan?”
In the long shadow of the pandemic, Chris, Andy, Mallory, Jason, and Sean took up somewhat hefty real estate in regular conversation. In conversations with my husband (who doesn’t listen and thinks Jason Concepcion yells too much), I found myself saying often, “Chris from The Watch was talking about…” or simply, “Mallory said…” I noted this with a few glancing moments of self-reflection. Was it good? Was it bad? Is there anything to make of a cohort of podcasters essentially becoming your “friend group” during a time when you are physically restricted from commiserating in person? All in all, I’ve concluded there’s no harm in the familiarity I’ve come to feel. I’ve stopped short of attempting any sort of truly parasocial engagement (I think? Does this blog count?). I’ve mostly just noted repeatedly the good fortune of finding a media outlet that produces content so thoroughly in my wheelhouse. As an ex-new yorker of a certain age who came up adjacent to the entertainment industry, and a consistent follower of several fandoms and sports teams- there’s a good chance that if Chris Ryan mentions a club he used to go to- I was also there. If Andy read a piece on Vulture- I also read it. If Mallory and Bill want to talk about the shoddy management of Dotty Hanson in the final game of the Peaches v. Belles series- I am 100% on board.
I am wary of one thing though: how often I adopt their opinions as my own. When I find myself answering questions (either posed by others or by myself) with those same refrains of “Chris says” or “Mallory says”- that’s the place I get a little uncomfortable. Because it’s fun to be in lock-step with my digital faux-friend group, but when I’m not, I can’t engage them in a passionate back-and-forth.
So to this end- I want to make sure I’m still maintaining my own opinions. Guess what? I kind of liked Elemental. And I have my own THOUGHTS on the latest season of True D. So I’m TAKING TO THE BLOG to write them out. To shake the cobwebs off the old keys and the old brainbucket while I have the bandwidth to do it.
But I did also just want to say “thank you” to my friends at The Ringer. Happy 5 year anniversary I guess?