thebrightsessions

[thebrightsessions]

Hi @thelaurenshippen and @thebrightsessions !!

I first started listening to "The Bright Sessions" in 2020. During lockdown I got really into audio dramas and after it's been sitting on my list for some time I decided to finally start it. And I haven't stopped listening to it since. "The Bright Sessions" became my favorite podcast ever and I couldn't even tell how many times I listened to it all. It got a special part in my heart.

I didn't like Oliver at first. Didn't pay much attention to him in "The Am Archives" and honestly I was kinda annoyed when he showed up in "The College Tapes". That was until episode 714. When I heard him say "Can you stay?" I couldn't stop thinking about it for the whole next day. In the following week I had this episode on loop. Right now, I can basically quote it all the way through. These three words completely changed my view on Oliver and from that point on he became one of my favorite characters ever, in all kinds of media. Him and Mark got me back into reading, as well, as writing fanfiction which I am so utterly grateful because since lockdown I struggled a lot with reading and writing. I've got absolutely obsessed with Mark and Oliver to the point everyone around me knows who they are. It's been years since I got so attached to a character or a ship and I'm so happy it happened to be them.

It's my birthday this week. Last year I decided that I'm going to get my next tattoo as a gift to myself and when I was talking with my sister about my future tattoo plans I said I really want to get something related to TBS but I don't really have any idea. So when she suggested a quote I knew exactly what I'm gonna get. So I did. I got three words that had such a impact on my life even though they aren't something you'd expect to do so. This quote means so much to me and I'm so incredibly happy and proud of this tattoo. This podcast means so much to me and I'll forever be grateful that it exists. So thank you Lauren and thank you to the whole cast and crew for creating something so incredible 💜

#this is incredible!!! #tattoos

[thebrightsessions]

Just in case anyone has been hearing ads like this, know that they are not supposed to be served on our shows! We're working to correct this error and we're sorry for anyone who has already heard these ads.

relistening to the bright sessions and. when did they. hey when did they sneak ads for concealed carry at the end of some episodes.

[thebrightsessions]

We are honored!!

SHOWS OUR CHARACTERS WOULD LISTEN TO 2. CHARLIE KING

@loveandluckpodcast It's going to become pretty obvious with this list that Charlie's a hopeless romantic so I thought I'd start off with the well loved classic - it explains itself. @thebrightsessions specifically an avid relistener of the college tapes, and has soul mate theories about adam and caleb. @mabelpodcast because nobodies podcast range is complete without morally grey lesbians

#other podcasts #audio drama

[thebrightsessions]

ID: a bracket with the title: "Pick your favorite Atypical show" and the pairings are The Bright Sessions vs. In Strange Woods, Breaker Whiskey vs. New Year’s Day, Look Up vs. Greenhouse, Life With LEO(h) vs. Dashboard Diaries. At the bottom, there is text that reads "What show are you going to recommend to a friend next"? END ID

I love all of Atypical's shows equally but I also love chaos.

[thebrightsessions]

Just your monthly reminder that you can buy a set of pocket notebooks that have little notes from Dr. Bright, Dr. Sharpe, and Agent Green, and also Agent Green had his in his pocket when he was-*I am yanked off stage by a comically large hook*

[thebrightsessions]

A few tbs characters because i realised I have free will and can just do that

Characters from left to right: sam, joan, damien, chloe, mark, adam, caleb, rose

#these are so so delightful!!!!!! #the bright sessions #fan art

[thebrightsessions]

Finally getting around to posting one of my pieces from the damiark zine! With a prompt like Drowning, you KNOW i had to do a siren damien little mermaid type au

#this is INCREDIBLE! #fanart #the bright sessions #damien/mark #mark/damien #damiark

[thebrightsessions]

#the agent green one...#the gasp I gasped when I opened it on That Page#I use these to write down TBS thoughts I have <3 via@bi-biscuit

The perfect purpose for them!! And a gasp is exactly what we were going for...

Just your monthly reminder that you can buy a set of pocket notebooks that have little notes from Dr. Bright, Dr. Sharpe, and Agent Green, and also Agent Green had his in his pocket when he was-*I am yanked off stage by a comically large hook*

#the bright sessions

[thebrightsessions]

Hey, I've been relistening, and I don't know if this is just a problem with Podcast Addict specifically or a wider issue, but I thought I'd let you several episodes have issues with skipping audio. I unfortunately haven't been keeping a list of which episodes it happens in, and it's mostly fine, just a few seconds skipping forward or back, but s4e11 Wadsworth and s4e14 Sam both skip back like five whole minutes.

I let it just keep playing with Wadsworth and it finished out the episode like normal, it just kept going past the time count that it should've. But with Sam I tried to fast forward to where I was and it just went to the next episode in my playlist before I even got there.

Again, idk if it's an issue with Podcast Addict or if it's something you can even affect, but I thought I'd let you know

Thank you SO much for telling me this! I haven't heard of this particular glitch and, unfortunately, it's probably something we can't fix on our end, but I'm curious - are other people, either Podcast Addict users or not, experiencing this kind of error?

I'll look into it and hopefully it just resolves itself soon! I've found that podcast glitches often do.

#answered

[thebrightsessions]

Just your monthly reminder that you can buy a set of pocket notebooks that have little notes from Dr. Bright, Dr. Sharpe, and Agent Green, and also Agent Green had his in his pocket when he was-*I am yanked off stage by a comically large hook*

#the bright sessions #the am archives #merch #the notebooks are mostly blank so that #you know #you can use them as notebooks #but they each have front and back pages of character content :)

[thebrightsessions]

It was announced a couple years ago that there was going to be a TV adaptation, right? Are there still plans to do that?

This was announced, many years ago now! Since that time, The Bright Sessions has been optioned and developed by several different studios and showrunners, and pitched out to networks to no avail. I'm currently in talks with another studio/showrunner combo to take a different approach on the show and pitch to networks that haven't heard the show pitch yet, but that is moving pretty glacially especially because, from what I've heard from friends more actively in the TV side of things, no one is buying right now.

I would love to see TBS on screen one day! I think all the pitches we've had have been amazing, and it bums me out that networks don't want to take a swing at it. But TV development is very, very, very slow and very difficult, so it could certainly happen in the future! I've chosen to look at it as a "this probably won't ever happen but it would be a nice surprise if it did" kind of thing, if that makes sense. Sorry I don't have more concrete info!

#answered #the bright sessions #tv development

[thebrightsessions]

FINALLY GOT THEMMMMM

I'M SO HAPPY RN

When I saw that @thebrightsessions had side books about the characters AND I could still buy it, I immedietly bought it LMAO

I've been so hype abt getting these books and they finally arrived

Caleb and Adam my otps, 100% reading the infinite noise first XD

CAN'T WAIT TO READ EM

100% recommend the podcast to yall if you haven't seen it btw. This is coming from someone who never liked podcasts but gave the bright sessions a try 👀

(hope you don't mind the tag ><)

[thebrightsessions]

The Bright Sessions: Mark's Arc and Powers

In the podcast, @thebrightsessions and subsequent TBS media, Mark's arc is reflective of the people around him, just like his powers.

Warning: spoilers for The Bright Sessions, The AM Archives, The College Tapes

Mark is a mimic, his ability is to use the powers of those in his proximity, and that ability is reflected in how his mental state and character progression reflects the characters around him.

Sam: The Time-traveller

Mark meets Sam when he is literally stuck in time. They bond in the past and in this "safe past" too, where they don't affect anything except each other. Sam keeps Mark sane, keeps him together when he is ready to fall apart. Sam is the bridge between Mark's present and past, literally and emotionally.

When they are in the early stages of their relationship, this is what is needed, establishing a constant and safety, but because of this neither of them cam grow beyond their trauma while entagled with each other.

Ultimately, Sam cannot help Mark move forward, they love each other but keep each other stuck in their traumas, just as Sam cannot move forward in time, only see the past without affecting it.

Joan: The Therapist

Joan has no powers. This doesn't make her powerless and she is perhaps the most influential figure in the story. Still, she has no atypical powers and when Mark is around Joan, his big sister, he is reminded of how powerless he has been. From being trapped in the AM, to their parents wanting to "fix" Mark, to the ability supressant serum in The AM Archives, Joan is representative of the times Mark is powerless and acting out of trauma and helplessness. Further, when Mark and Joan's storyline collide, there are themes of humanity, dehumanisation, and how we reclaim humanity for ourselves and others. Joan and Mark reflect each other in their contrast but also at the painful intersections of where they've been used and dehumanised.

Damien: The Manipulator

Damien took Mark apart, deconstructed him. Damien is someone who breaks apart groups and people through his personality and powers. Due to the nature of his ability, he cannot have an honest relationship with others and Damien enters Mark's story at a point where Mark is extremely vulnerable. Damien's force of will continually retraumatises Mark in the same was Wandsworth did, keeping Mark stuck in that headspace. Damien and Mark change each other, they get inside each other's head and when Mark suddenly has the reversal of the power dynamic, literally having Damien's powers thrust upon him, Mark is forced to reckon with what it means to care for someone like Damien

While Damien's powers bring out the worst in Damien, they highlight some of the best in Mark. He doesn't abandon Damien, he tries to help him and doesn't get vindictive with it. Damien's powers respond to his wants, sometimes beyond his own control, and when Mark gains Damien's powers, he also regains his agency, however at the cost of someone else which Mark says doesn't feel good. The power to push wants into someone else draws out the aspects of Mark that allowed him to survive the AM (as showcased with Helen's experience), but also demonstrates how those sides of him are tempered with Mark's heart.

Caleb: The Empath

Through his brotherly relationship with Caleb, Mark reclaims his own connection to others. Mark's story is inherently queer, with his parents wishing to have a "normal" son, and the way he is continually treated as an oddity and "delangerous" for simply existing. Mark's story captures queer pain but through his dynamic with Caleb, Mark's story also gets to be of queer community and joy. Mark gives Caleb advice in asking Adam to prom and the two bond over their emotions and their feedback loops. Mark and Caleb give each other permission to be and feel normal in their queerness (here, both definitions of queer as "strange and unusual" and "not cishet" apply). Caleb and Mark are parallels in so many ways but in regards to how the atypical abilities reflect Mark's arc, Caleb's empathy allows Mark to feel once more.

Oliver: The Alchemist

In Oliver, the Alchemist, Mark finds the tools to put oneself back together, to make something new. When people try to "fix" Mark it never works, but the messy alchemy of Mark and Oliver unpacking their shared and separate traumas and putting themselves back together in imperfect ways is a powerful narrative. Oliver is forced to use his abilities to break beautiful things down and Mark has been forced to break himself into tiny pieces to fit other people. The College Tapes shows the beginnings of a long journey for them in learning how to put themselves back together on their own terms. Alchemy isn't about repairing what is broken, but transformation. Mark's arc with Oliver reflects that. Neither of them knew each other before, neither of them hold each other to an ideal "fixed" version. It is only in the synthesis of something new, can Mark heal.

So that was a quick analysis. Feel free to disagree and reblog with your opinions!

#this is so awesome!!!! #(hope this is okay to reblog given we're tagged but if you'd prefer we didn't #just shoot us a message and we'll delete our reblog!) #but this is great analysis #love how you put into such good focus how important *when* mark meets these people is #context and timing is everything! #mark bryant #the bright sessions

[thebrightsessions]

HIII i hope you're still active on here but i have a question!! at the end of ep 408 Mark (episode 48), there's a great piano piece that plays into the credits/main theme... im about 98% sure its not the full main theme since it has a longer intro. it's so beautiful and very haunting and i'd really like to be able to listen to it w/ out the credits :) is this available anywhere online 😭 pls im so desperate <3 thank u

Hello! We are still active on here, though not as much as we used to be! All the music in our show is composed by the brilliant Evan Cunningham, including all the credits music.

And yes, you can get it! Currently, the only way to download all of The Bright Sessions credits music is by becoming a plus pal. For $10/month you get all that music, the entire scores for The AM Archives and The College Tapes, and tons of other stuff that's exclusive to the pals! (and pssst, all plus pals get downloads of those things that they keep forever, so if you wanted to join for a month and pay 10 bucks for all that and then dip out, you totally could! I think it's a pretty fun community to be a part of though, so I hope you stick around if you do join!)

#the bright sessions #answered #music #the college tapes #the am archives #atypipals

[thebrightsessions]

We don’t always have to love ourselves in order to receive love from others. Sometimes that’s how we learn to love ourselves.

Lauren Shippen, The Infinite Noise

#the infinite noise #the bright sessions

[thebrightsessions]

Now I'm shattered in pieces With missing bits A shell of who I was A jigsaw puzzle where nothing fits

aka i love this song (as heartbreaking as it is) and made some art! thanks @thebrightsessions for giving me a beautiful musical episode and inspiring a new experiment for me!

#fan art #the bright sessions

[thebrightsessions]

two questions: is there a full version of the college tapes theme song out there? it is SO catchy and i love it. also: is the bright sessions over forever? or is there the slim possibility of more in-universe content at some point in the future?

Great questions! The College Tapes theme is out there! There are two ways you can get that theme (and more!) - we sell a pack of a bunch of themes in our merch store and you also get them as a download if you become a plus pal for Atypical Artists!

The Bright Sessions is over. If you haven't read the books yet, that's a whole other part of the universe to explore - you can see the complete list of TBS content here. I (@thelaurenshippen) never like saying never, so who knows if I'd revisit the universe again at some point. There's always the possibility of a TV version floating around though that would, of course, not be an extension of the universe as much as an adaptation (and who knows where it would go! I would most likely not run it).

I feel pretty happy with the stories we told in the podcast and books. It's certainly possible that ten years from now, a story will pop into my head that I simply have to tell, but for now, I'm having fun diving into other universes like @maxinemilespod @chambersandfogg and @breakerwhiskey!

#answered #the college tapes #the bright sessions #bright universe #music