#sam the bright sessions

[laughable-umbrella]

sometimes a family is

-an art nerd who can read minds

-an introvert who can time travel

-a jock who can feel your emotions

-his emo boyfriend

-their collective therapist/ mom

[xylospongium]

SAM CANONICALLY LISTENS TO ALICE ISN'T DEAD, IT FITS SO WELL WITH HER AND MARK I LITERALLY CAN'T

[indigo-greer-collins]

dude why didnt it click for me sooner thats LITERALLY why bright eyes is gone

everyone seemed to forget that the characters' portrayal of events isnt always going to be 100% correct, they are fueled by emotion, they have their own biases, their experiences are shaping how they view other characters

bright eyes isnt just some dumb reckless villain and in the heat of sam's anger and panic he forgot that they were probably terrified and confused themselves. bright isnt right, but sam's response was also inappropriate because they didnt have any malicious intent.

in fact as far as they were concerned, it would be crazy to think that the danger they were in was THAT serious because they have been raised their entire life magic isnt real.

but sam didnt have that nuance cuz hes not got all the context us as the audience have, nor any of the objectivity. and so bright got crucified.

like i knew, this was the case for bright BUT IT DIDNT HIT ME THAT DARLIN IS A VICTIM OF THIS UNRELIABLE NARRATION, and so some people (possibly because of their attachment to other characters? idk who knows) arent seeing their whole character, but seeing them through the eyes of other people chat i CANNOT

some of the fandom see them as darlin, sam's mate, some see tank, david's pack mate/subordinate, some see precious, quinn's ex, i personally think that they're all parts of a whole person and they are so much more complicated than their relationship to other canon characters.

im tweaking @lookitseddie i hope you know i am like bouncing off the walls because of you /lh/pos

[castingpods]

Representation is so important bc im sitting here crying again to foolish from the bright sessions musical episode. I never DID dream I never DID hope I never did have the time!!!! I never dared I never tried to yearn for something that never could be mine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[phoet]

finally started listening to the bright sessions one million years late and 1. obviously it's incredible, Lauren Shippen is a genius and can do no wrong but 2. Doctor Bright was so suspicious from the get go and to have Chloe put her so on edge (episode 9) is SO GOOD.

[thelaurenshippen]

So sorry if this has been asked before, but I’m curious on your reasoning for casting yourself as Sam. Do you think you’re a lot like her? Do you think that no one could portray her exactly the way you wanted to? Thanks!

thank you so much for asking! I love that the show has been around long enough and made its own way in the world enough that folks may not know the origin story!

I actually started The Bright Sessions because I wanted a role to play. I was an actress before I was a writer and really wanted to give myself an interesting and fun role to play. so, from the start, I knew that I would be playing someone major in the show - I flirted very briefly with the idea of playing Dr. Bright, but ultimately, Sam was the character that started it all and she is me. I mean, not really, there are a lot of differences between us, but she was very much inspired by my own experiences.

I was 23 when I wrote the pilot script and very, very lonely. I'd also been having regular panic attacks since I was a kid that I never really told anyone about (extremely ironically, writing TBS was what finally got me to go to therapy). Sam was the first time I tried to externalize that experience and, while there are certainly plenty of actors out there who could do better/more interesting things with Sam, she was so close to my heart and intertwined with the heart of the show that I couldn't imagine anyone inherently understanding her in the way that I did.

I hope that answers your question! if TBS ever does make its way to an onscreen adaptation, I'd be so interested to see another actor take a crack at her.

[jellywizard01]

redraw of this post

i am re obsessed with tbs and the old line up was bothering me.......

[podcast-official]

guess who finished the juno steel finale and isn't sad because he immediately started the bright sessions and is now obsessed and binged ten episodes in one sitting

[npdclaraoswald]

Constantly rotating this line in my head. The fact that Mark actually talked to Oliver about Damien when he couldn't do that with Sam or Joan

[0-sunstranger-0]

Drew this a while ago for a friend and was reminded of it because I'm trying to draw them again but drawing ladies is so much easier and nicer

also I wanted to draw some of that toxic yuri I keep hearing about

[ineedyoutheretokeepmegreen]

Having the Adam and Caleb playlists on my phone is the BEST (I’m an Apple Music user). Listening to them really makes you feel all of the emotions in the best way (even the sadder songs). I highly recommend checking them out!!!💚😇

I have also attached links from The Bright Sessions website that lists all of the songs from each playlist if you want to listen to them too (including all of the other characters too!)

@thelaurenshippen @thebrightsessions @briggonsnow

[fandomscraziness22]

3X09

4X13

the bright sessions parallels and callbacks 2/?

[thegaycousin-upgrade]

What was the point if listening to Safehouse II for the 40th time still makes me cry? WHAT WAS THE POINT?!?

Man, the voice actors really did NOT pull their punches for this episode, huh? (Pun not intended)

[thebrightsessions]

Hi !

I just finished the brights sessions and in one of the episode D. Bright said that the atypical represented 4% of the world's population, and that let me wondering, considering that almost every atypical that we encounter in the serie is queer, what percent of the queer community is atypical ?

Apart from that, i love your show and all of the amazing character! I hope you have a great day !

Oooh GREAT question! Lemme do some quick math here...

Okay, according to my universe bible (which is pretty accurate, if not fully comprehensive, I'm sure there's stuff I forgot to write down), there are 29 known and named atypicals across the 7 seasons of the podcasts, excluding the Bright Sides (Season 5, the bonus episodes) and the three books (though there is some overlap) but including Frank Sawyer and Sadie Greenwood, who are, like...atypical-adjacent.

Of those 30 atypicals (presuming I counted correctly (does this post have enough parentheticals yet?)), 14 are definitely canonically queer in one way or another. So, by that logic, nearly half of the atypical population is queer! I have a feeling that number would go up if I were to go through and pull out all the folks from the books and the bonus episodes (which perhaps I will do someday but I don't know the orientation of all the bonus ep characters (bc they were created by other people) and pulling out characters from the books is always a mess because, uh, I do not outline lol) but I also don't know that I can say our little atypical population is fully representative of the global population's queerness? Like flocks to like, so perhaps this a somewhat self-selecting bunch, or maybe there really is just a very high correlation between being atypical and being queer. Dealer's (fanfic writer and headcanon-er's) choice!

Counts under the cut:

Known Atypicals:

characters who are canonically queer are bolded - these are characters who either have queer relationships or talk specifically about their identity. some folks on this list are straight (Frank, Sadie, Marley, Jackson, Blackwell, (though tbf, Sadie is the only person in the whole series who ever says they're straight I'm pretty sure, so who knows)), but there are plenty who we never say one way or another, so anything is possible!

Sam Barnes Caleb Michaels Chloe Turner Frank Sawyer Robert "Damien" Gorham Mark Bryant Rose Atkinson Franklin "Frankie" Meeks Sadie Greenwood Ben Bernard Oliver Ritz Margaret "Mags" Densmore Jackson Crawford Jason "Marley" Beck Seamus Blackwell Michal Sharon Helen Sidney Alice Michaels Alice Rufie Jordan Tobias Sitzer Alexis Neal Cat Cam Vanessa Turner Ira Alex "Blaze" Chen Maguerite Sarai

[lyfthemuffinmoth]

everything going on with code purple has me thinking about my best friend and morally grey queen samantha barnes again like. especially this line from mark in episode 35

like. god the way sam and sparrow are holding hands like 'would absolutely doom an entire world to save the people they love most'

[thelaurenshippen]

Hi there! I started relistening to the bright sessions (as one does) and had a random question come up. When did you know that Mark/Sam wasn't going to be endgame (romantically)? I know in s4 they both fall apart separately and together, but even in Safehouse pt 2 (my absolute beloved) they argue about their coping mechanisms. Did you know then that they weren't going to end up together? How did you come to that conclusion?

hey!! this is a great question - I definitely did start the show thinking they were endgame and that's mostly what I was thinking at the time of safehouse too, despite their issues. I think it was really in writing Season 4 actually, when I realized that I was no longer telling a story about two people in love working through their issues, but was instead telling a story about two people who were in love but realized they shouldn't be together in that way. I started to feel those tension points in Season 3 (I would say the safehouse episodes were a true attempt for them to learn to work through their issues), but it wasn't until planning S4 that I really made the decision.

there are a lot of things that led to this that I'll try to articulate, because the honest, simplest answer as to why the plans changed was "because it felt like they should". but if I were think back and pinpoint a few reasons for that...

there was never supposed to be a love triangle. Mark was always bisexual but he and Damien were never supposed to develop feelings for one another. but the first time we got Andrew and Charlie into a room and read through their first episode together it was like "oh, OH-kay" (which, sidebar: clearly I was writing something between them subtextually because it wasn't like Andrew and Charlie were strangers to each other - I'd watched them act ALL sorts of scenes together in acting class but the romantic chemistry popped OUT with Mark/Damien. pretty much from the second motel episode on, I was writing leaning into that dynamic). that threw a lot of spanners into the works because while I never had plans to put Mark and Damien together, I hadn't anticipated Mark grappling with feelings for someone else.

similarly, I'd underestimated just how flawed Sam was. Sam is not a bad person, but she sometimes doesn't really know how to be a person who cares about other people. when you add that to the dynamics of Damien and Joan kind of, like, hovering over Mark in various unproductive ways (for Damien, it's destructive and invasive; for Joan, she's just a too-involved older sister sometimes), Sam becomes another person who is kind of, like...controlling Mark, or trying to, because she loves him and doesn't know how to (I mean, I'm pretty sure I'm just regurgitating actual lines I wrote lol). this is not to say that her flaws make her unable to be in a relationship (Mark is also deeply flawed!) but just that their flaws clashed against each other in ways I hadn't planned.

finally: Joan and found family. in my mind, there was something grand and romantic about Sam meeting Dr. Bright so that she could be led to Mark - like they were somehow always fated to meet. in actuality, it's not that at all - instead, the bond that Sam and Joan have is just as important as the one she has with Mark, albeit different. I don't believe in soulmates personally, but I've always liked the idea that you have people out there. soulmates in a more general sense - people you click with, have a connection with. it can be romantic, familial, friendship, work or creative partnerships, whatever. I think the Bryant siblings and Sam have that. I think Sam and Mark are meant for each other but in a non-exclusive way and in a...maybe not non-romantic way, but a way that doesn't have romance at the forefront. they love each other deeply and they fit, but a romantic partnership might not be the best way forward for them. and Joan and Sam are the whole heart of the show to me in some senses. as I was writing the finale, I very intentionally ended with the two of them - both because the final appearance of every character is in order of when they first appeared, but in reverse and also because the show starts with both of them in dark, destructive places and while there's broken trust between them throughout, they ultimately help each other get better. I thought Sam's story was about finding love and it was, but that love looked differently than I had planned.

okay, god, this has gotten waaaaaay too long and rambly. I hope this answers your question? one of my favorite things/the thing I miss most about making a show like TBS is being able to shift things based on chemistry/what the actors bring/etc. so often now, I'm writing entire seasons of things and then handing them off to production, in which anything can happen! the flexibility of recording episode by episode in TBS is something I took full advantage of.

thanks for listening and relistening!!