#briggon

I loved the ending, in the sense that it genuinely made me feel good and hopeful about the characters and their future. But it was also very bittersweet to see the characters go, even though I know there will be spin-offs and side projects and this isn't really the end. So I was filled with a lot of emotions, and I had to go and tell someone—who, in this case, happened to be my grandmother.

Now, my grandmother is seventy-one years old, and she grew up as the youngest of eight kids in post-WWII India. So when I told her that one of my favorite podcasts ended and I was feeling really emotional about it, she didn't really understand what podcasts were at first. But when I explained it to her—that they were kind of like TV shows, but the action/dialogue/characters couldn't be seen, only heard—she immediately got it.

"Oh! Like the radio shows I used to listen to with my family!"

I told her that yes, podcasts were kind of a revival of radio drama, and she told me all about her fond memories of listening to stories on the radio every Friday from 7 to 9 pm with her brothers and sisters, falling in love with the characters' voices, tuning in to the serial installments to see what happened next in the ongoing stories. She understood.

When I told her that she could find a lot of fictional podcasts on her phone, and described the basic plot of The Bright Sessions to her, she got so excited. My grandmother loves to consume stories, and reads voraciously on her phone. Now she's been introduced to a new form of media—one that, in reality, she was familiar with all along.

And this helped me realize that podcasts, audio dramas, radio serials, whatever you may call them—they have the power to connect all of us. Really, we as humans have been listening to stories since the dawn of time, since we sat around fireplaces in our caves and listened to our family tell stories of the world. Podcasts are just the newest iteration in this form of storytelling, but one thing is for certain—it will never go away.

Thank you, @thebrightsessions, for telling a wonderful story that we can all connect with. Thank you for being such an exemplary form of this type of media.

Holy smokes that’s cool!! …Can I give you some advice, maybe? :)

In my acting class, sometimes…oh god, often times…it’s so hard to let go of what the actor who originated the work did. Let’s say I’m doing a scene from ‘The Newsroom’…it’s so hard to get John Gallagher Jr.’s performance of Jim Harper out of my head…because he’s perfection. I mean…he’s total perfection. He’s John effing Gallagher effing Jr.

But…if you try and hit the beats the actor did in their performance…or are influenced by their inflections…choices…or whatever…just forcing it so you can “do it right” (there’s no “doing it right” btw)…often times your performance will come up flat, contrived and stale af. Trust me…I’ve fallen on my face plenty of times trying to “get it right”.

So…trust that Caleb is in you somewhere…and let that come out as you. There’s no wrong way to play him if you know where he lives in you. Your take on Caleb will be just as valid as mine. All you gotta be is truthful to who you/he is.

I don’t know! What do they look like to you? …and I honestly mean that.

I know what they all look like to me…and from the incredible and diverse fanart we receive on the regular (never stop my amazing friends), I know what they all look like to a lot of you…and that’s one of my favorite parts of this medium; everyone has a different and equally valid headcanon for these characters…because…we said so…and we’re inviting you to play in the sandbox! Come play!

Take Caleb for instance…We know he’s probably a big guy just from the fact that he’s a football player…but aside from that…Caleb, a character that is voiced by a white male (me), is seen by a lot of our listeners as Latino, African American or Asian American….and I’ll tell you that every headcanon of Caleb is 100% correct because you guys “get” who he truly is…underneath the surface of ethnicity, hair color, body type…all that. You all get WHO. HE. IS. and that’s a testament to Lauren’s brilliant writing. 

My pal Alex Gallner is a white male and the voice of Adam…and I see an incredibly diverse and beautiful range of how people see that character. …Now remember, Adam was a character that was created and cast way before Wadsworth was even remotely put together, cast and added to the show…and she’s now voiced by powerhouse actress and all-around awesome human being, Alex Marshall-Brown…who is African American. So…Does that make her character automatically a Person of Color? And by extension, make Adam a Person of Color as well? …Does that rule apply to Caleb? And so, Caleb has to be Caucasian because I myself am Caucasian? 

Dr. Bright is portrayed by Julia Morizawa (the secret sauce of the whole show), and she is an Asian American actress. But…Andrew Nowak, who plays her brother, Mark, is a white male…and I see a wide variety of headcanons for him; all monumentally and irrefutably accurate and valid….because…you as the listener live with that character…you know who he is…and whatever color you attribute to him…whatever you decide his or any other TBS character’s outsides look like, you still “get” and capture in your imaginations and art, the important inside parts that make them who they are.

I guess what I’m saying is…I know we all like to know what is OFFICIAL and CANON (it’s easier right? Just tell us!!)…but what we’re here to do is to tell a human story that we think resonates with a lot of people, and invite them…and challenge them even…to participate and decide who these people are to them. 

Long answer long…because I know these characters…and I know these actors…To me, The Bright Sessions has become this sort of Brandy/Whitney Houston ‘Cinderella’ where we’ve got a lot of different colors mixed in there in a lot of different ways….and that’s awesome…and makes total sense…and Paolo Montalbán is still the finest. 

I love that you asked this question!

So, first off...I’m going to answer this for Caleb. I’ll leave Lauren and/or Anna to answer on Chloe’s behalf...but I have thoughts on this. I’m going to mention a little story here...

A month or so ago I was out to dinner with my boyfriend. After our evening of IKEA meatballs and Lingonberry drinks, we decided we wanted to grab dessert somewhere. So we decided to go to a bakery in Burbank that I had never been to before...

After jamming out to some classic Cartel in the car, we arrived and walked into the bakery; I froze immediately. I froze immediately and in about five seconds I was crying. I’m not even kidding...I was full on crying. I was crying because the inside of that bakery smelled like my Great Gram’s house (she passed away 10 years ago and we were incredibly close). 

In that moment, when I stepped inside that bakery, I smelled a smell that I never thought I’d experience again; a smell that I didn’t know I missed. It all just hit me and I started crying. I was so grateful for that moment because in the span of a minute I was hit by this flow of happiness and sadness as I reflected on memories of me, my brother and my Great Gram.

So...the reason I bring this story up is because I don’t think “nostalgia” is necessarily an “emotion”...but I think it can be “a vessel that carries us down a river of emotions” (cheesy wording...but true AF).

...and therefore, my answer: While I don’t think nostalgia can necessarily be felt by Caleb as an emotion/color all by itself...Caleb, as he matures, has been able to begin to identify combinations of emotions and what those combinations might mean. Think of it like each color is a word in a sentence and the full sentence describes the complexity of a thought or experience (like nostalgia). Actually! Even better...anybody here see ‘Inside Out’? As the character Riley gets older...the colored globes in her head evolve from single colors (blue for sadness, yellow for happiness) to mixtures of them. I think Caleb in all of his fits and starts of emotional maturity (he’s a teenage boy...so...lots of fits guys) he is learning to translate combinations of emotions into more intangible concepts like “nostalgia”.

In The Bright Sessions, Caleb has said things like “Orange and smothering” I believe, to describe emotions like pride or protectiveness...and I think that’s a result of the emotions that make up that intention mixing together to produce a color that can be perceived and communicated to describe that concept.

So...there ya go! My thoughts on that. I Hope it made sense!