“The future is headed for the past, full of sparks that couldn’t last”
And I thought I would use today’s video as a way to chat through where i’m at with my identity. But I didn’t want to do it by myself, so I’ve invited a special guest.
hello I haven’t been on tumblr in literally years but maybe I’ll start going on it again??? who know, let’s see
john mulaney and linda from bobs burgers have the same aura
Linda, drunk off her head: my husband is a bitch i like him SO MUCH
LIW Review: Nothing Like the Sun
I only managed to watch the last three episodes of this in real time, because that was when I finished binging Call Me Katie and got caught up, but I still feel very attached to these characters.
Premise:
Katie and Bianca’s mother from CMK is getting married, and George Bates has been asked to make a video about love for the wedding reception. So he takes up vlogging again to document the process. Katie is fulfilling her dream of becoming a cop, and she returns to town but not to vlogging. Instead, Annie picks up vlogging. Bianca also makes a triumphant return. The story isn’t based on any specific Shakespeare play, but there are elements of many Shakespearean plots, characters, and even sonnets.
Format:
Almost all of the videos were posted on Bates’s vlogging channel, though there was also one video on the Call Me Katie channel and several others on the George Squared channel. The series updated three times a week, so its run was pretty short. Several characters were also active on social media, mostly twitter. The videos themselves are a mix of Bates’s vlogs, Annie/Bianca’s vlogs, interviews about love (all sorts!) for the wedding video, and the occasional random other thing.
Realism:
These people are really prone to the “I was filming a boring video and then someone came in and crazy plot things happened and I just decided to put it on the internet like that” trope. Seriously. Everything is filmed by the characters. They also all start vlogging simultaneously and then stop simultaneously in a less believable way than how that usually goes down.
However, the characters themselves are amazingly believable, as is the transmedia, and the video descriptions are utilized really well – they’re not necessary not understanding the plot (except in one case), but all of them are in character.
Representation/diversity:
Discordia Productions is so good at this. Peter and Katie are now the healthy, functional couple, which in itself is a miracle in media, and basically no one else is straight.
Will and Annie are both interested in women, and their sexualities are never defined but are probably both on the bi/pan spectrum somewhere. Ditto for the Chris Marlowe character, who makes a few appearances early on. Bianca is officially bi now. The mysterious Tom, when he shows up, is also bi. Ben and Mark, the background gay couple from CMK, are allowed actual lines and personalities this time. The two endgame relationships are both queer, and someone (no spoilers) comes out as asexual, and the discussions surrounding that are so amazingly groundbreaking and beautiful.
In NLTS, we’ve finally made it to the point where the queer couples get exactly the same treatment as the straight ones. Bisexual characters are equally likely to end up with either gender. Queer characters cheat and break up left and right, but they also get happy endings. More of this, please.
Also, although people are on the whole very white, Annie is Jewish, and people actually talk about religious holiday observances, which definitely doesn’t happen enough. And Gleeson is as much a double-leg amputee as ever.
Film quality:
Could be better, could be a lot worse. The segments filmed for the wedding video are all very high quality, and they actually show the lights and tripods required to make that a thing. Not quite as fun in the editing department as Call Me Katie was, but that’s because this series is more mature and sophisticated in general.
My three favorite things about NLTS:
1) The realistic relationships. People break up! People get together! People mend their broken friendships! Like I mentioned earlier, the queer couples also get the same treatment as the straight ones, and it’s about time.
2) George Bates. Steven Christie is such a good actor, and I love me my bisexual men in literary-inspired webseries (mostly Bates and Peter/Pedro Donaldson)
3) The little nods to other webseries. The series of videos from Gleeson on the night of a certain party gave me massive nostalgia for NMTD, and the aesthetic at that party was very BSN-ish, though that might just be shared party aesthetics between Australia and New Zealand.
Difficult things about NLTS:
Really just the realism issue. There is no real explanation for why anything whatsoever of this series is on the internet, but it’s okay because it’s so well done. I also wish there had been more episodes and maybe a little more development of certain relationships, and I was seriously displeased with the way one of my ships got back together, but I doubt other viewers will feel the same way.
Verdict: While I have issues with the realism that prevent me from giving this series a top rating, I seriously loved it and think it deserves a lot of attention. I give NLTS 3.5/5 stars.
Awards!
NLTS is up for the Literary-Inspired Webseries Awards! Go nominate them by April 15 in the following categories, and then vote for them afterwards (full cast list follows). List in submission form order. Thanks to @discordiaproductions for the official list. Everyone else should make those too. Please.
Best Actress in a Leading Role: Chelsea Taylor as Bianca Minola Zoe Landis as Annie James
Best Actor in a Leading Role: Steven Christie as George Bates
Best Transmedia Experience
Best Script
Best Literary Inspired Webseries
Best Chemistry On Screen: Steven Christie and Adam Bowes Chelsea Taylor and Zoe Landis Briony Burnes and Lachlan Stafford Blake Hedley and Louis Regan Steven Christie and Myra Holani
Best Ensemble Cast
Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Adam Bowes as George Gleeson Alex Chalwell as Tom Carlisle Lachlan Stafford as Peter Glover
Best Set and Costume Design
Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Myra Holani as Milly Baptista Briony Burnes as Katie Minola
Created by Discordia Productions @discordiaproductions
Runtime:
Somewhere between three and four hours, I believe. 42 episodes.
Watch the whole thing here:
You can also find all of the transmedia on Discordia Productions Tumblr.
The Literary-Inspired Baking Video
This trope doesn’t really need explaining at this point, because it’s in literally EVERYTHING now, but why is that? Why has such a random thing become the most iconic aspect of the literary-inspired webseries genre?
The first LIW to include a baking video was Welcome to Sanditon, but the first one to follow the format that would later become more characteristic – in which baking happens but the focus is on the characters (or occasionally the plot) – was The Autobiography of Jane Eyre. This completely fabricated baking episode contained important character development for Johanna and was also extremely entertaining. The recipe was in the description, but the recipe wasn’t followed in the actual video, and unlike Clara’s Welcome to Sanditon episodes, it wasn’t meant to teach anyone how to bake anything.
The next LIW baking episode was in Green Gables Fables and is (I think) unique on this list in that it was adapting an actual plot point from the source material. So, while it counts as an LIW baking episode, it’s not quite as much of one as some of the others.
Next, of course, was the baking episode of Nothing Much To Do. As with most of NMTD, it wasn’t really revolutionary at all, but it cemented the mechanism for how these sorts of videos are done. In it, Beatrice and Hero actually do bake while also bantering around quite a bit and preparing us for Hero’s birthday, an important plot point coming up next. It’s a completely unnecessary video. It doesn’t teach us anything new about the characters. It has nothing to do with the source material. And yet what would we have done without it? It’s one of Beatrice’s and Hero’s most delightful vlogs (and the last one before everything becomes horrible), and therefore completely necessary.
The next LIW baking episode is also the most famous one: George Squared’s “A Baking Video” from Call Me Katie. If you’ve seen it, there’s no need for me to explain how amazing and iconic this episode is, and it was the first time an LIW used a baking video as a framework for a bit of actual plot (that was either original or had nothing to do with baking in the source material).
After this best of all baking episodes, everyone in the community has regarded the baking episode as a mandatory part of every LIW. Almost all of them are very emotional. Some actually manage to create a baked good. Others are actually plot. A few do both.
After going through all of this, I have decided that there are two main types of LIW baking episodes:
1) The video where something actually gets baked and nothing much else happens, but it’s ridiculously adorable and/or angsty the entire time.
2) The video where baking may or may not get accomplished but the video is actually part of the plot.
The first type is more common, but the second type is becoming increasingly popular in a lot of series (including the two most recent baking episodes, in The Emma Agenda and Middlemarch: The Series). The George Squared video also fits into the second category.
So what is it about baking videos that this community loves so much? Is it that they help contribute to the realism of these fictional characters’ YouTube channels? Is it that it’s just immensely satisfying to watch people bake? I mean, I care hugely about realism, as you can probably tell from my reviews. I also love watching videos of people cooking/baking things that I am never going to actually make, so…
Honestly, I think it’s a bit of both. Whatever form they take, LIW baking videos bring us closer to the characters. They make us feel good. They’re sweet, quite literally. And isn’t baking an emotional experience for all of us?
The absolutely lovely @greatestvoyagehistoryofplastic made a playlist of all the LIW baking episodes, and you can watch that here:
web series + mlm
[middlemarch: the series, lovely little losers, the emma agenda, call me katie, the new adventures of peter and wendy, the better strangers, words from wilde, nothing like the sun]
made possible by @frankieprices‘ list of lgbt+ web series characters [x]
We’re excited to announce that Nothing Like the Sun has been nominated for every category in the Literary-Inspired Webseries Award! Thank you so much to the cast and crew who made it possible and the fans who voted for us. Huge congratulations to the other nominees; we’re in great company.
If you’d like to vote for us please use the link below. Voting closes 15th May.
Only three more days until voting closes! Please don’t forget to vote for Nothing Like The Sun
It’s the last day to vote everyone! Please vote for Nothing Like the Sun and our amazing cast members (including me)!
Literary Inspired Webseries Awards - Best Literary Inspired Webseries
Edgar Allen Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party, The Adventures of Serena Berg, Away From it All, Nothing Like the Sun, Twelfth Grade (or Whatever)
This entire series is so extremely polished, honest, truthful, and so so very special to me and so many people. The characters and stories in this entire webseries has shown so much evolution and heart, all thanks to everyone involved. I could go on and on for days talking about this series, but all I’ll say now is that Nothing Like the Sun definitely deserves your vote for Best Webseries!
Josh Elliott Pickel (Or so the Story Goes), Julian Hermano (Twelfth Grade or Whatever), Sean Persaud (Poe Party), Steve Christie (Nothing Like the Sun), and Edward Gist (Away From it All)
Hey that’s me! I shouldn’t toot my own horn, but playing George Bates for the last two years has been an incredible experience. I’ve had the opportunity to play such a nuanced and deep character that I’m so very proud of! It would mean the absolute world if any of you would vote for me for Best Leading Actor!
Literary Inspired Webseries Awards - Best Chemistry on Screen
Aubrey Carey and Blake Peeples (The Better Strangers), Deborah Marie and Edward Gist (Away From it All), Anna Lloyd and Muirenn Brady(Away From it All), Madeline Thatcher and Dele Opeifa (The Cate Morland Chronicles), Adam Bowes and Steven Christie (Nothing Like the Sun)
Hey that’s me and Adam! For two years, seeing our on-screen relationship bloom from best friends, to questioning sexuality, and getting together at the end of CMK, and then suffering through the heartbreak that only strengthened the relationship of George Squared in the end was something that was truly so special and loved by all the fans! It’s a performance that couldn’t have happened if Adam and I didn’t truly meld together so naturally on and off screen, so please vote for us! This was chemistry two years in the making <3
Literary Inspired Webseries Awards - Best Costume and Set Design
The Cate Morland Chronicles, Bright Summer Night, Edgar Allen Poe’s Murder Mystery Dinner Party, Nothing Like the Sun, Away From it All
One of the biggest take aways that people told me when they watched NLTS is how much our outfits had matured, and the how incredible the lighting and set design had evolved from CMK, so I think we are definitely worth your vote in this category too!
Literary Inspired Webseries Awards - Best Actress in a Leading Role
Sarah Taylor (Twelfth Grade or Whatever), Laura Eklund Nhaga (Project Green Gables), Deborah Marie (Away From it All), Madeline Thatcher (The Cate Morland Chronicles), Chelsea Taylor (Nothing Like the Sun)
It’s been amazing to work beside this talented, caring, ray of sunshine for the last two years! Seeing how consistently dedicated she has been from Call Me Katie to Nothing Like the Sun is more than enough reason to vote for her!!