If you haven't seen Con's episode of Midsomer Murders (or you just love watching cheeseboi Jim), I compiled his scenes. Please enjoy one of the most absurd roles he's played.
ETA: Oops, meant to say the full episode is available to watch here on Tubi right now.
Okay but on a serious note Con O'Neill ate in these first few episodes and left no fucking crumbs. Last season we ended on deranged Izzy; now we have an Izzy realizing how toxic things can really get and WISHING he could go back to the days when he was the only proper pirate among muppets. And he's TRYING so damn hard and it would be so easy to play that in a cheesy or insincere manner, but we have Con O'Neill swinging for the fences, crying, begging for death, disheveled, trying to undo everything he did to get us all in this mess and failing and looking both miserable and delighted in his misery because he's getting what he thinks he deserves.
And YET we also get the subtle tear in the eye when Stede finds out what they really did to Ed. Like. You can feel how utterly heartbroken the man is just from a glimmer in the corner of his eye.
Love Izzy, hate Izzy, it really doesn't matter, not when he's played so magnificently by Con, and I salute him for everything he's doing in this campy gay pirate show.
Spare a thought for Con O'Neill who, for months, went to comic cons and had to listen to people telling him how important Izzy is to them, how they see themselves in him and how, if something bad happened to Izzy, they would be absolutely devastated. Man deserves an award.
Con O’Neill, MCM Comic Con panel with Nathan Foad and Kristian Nairn, London May 27, 2023
Q: As someone who was a teenager for Section 28 Part 1, I just want to [...] say a massive thank you for speaking up about Section 28 Part 2. What's it been like at the moment, working on a show that has got such cool and interesting things to say about gender broadly and masculinity more specifically?