#what even is there to root for in the mary/matthew romance. they had a few flirty conversations

[sportygothic]

s1e7

[andromedacrawley]

why do you ship brary?

Hi, thank you so much for asking this! this response ended up being much longer than I anticipated upon, so the full, way too long answer is below the cut! But, in case you’re curious and don’t feel like reading my essay, then:

TL;DR: Unlike Mary’s canon love interests post-Matthew, Tom is a firmly established character who the audience was already invested in, they understand the pain of losing a spouse far too soon, I love a good friends-to-lovers trope, you can see in canon how much they genuinely care for one another, Michelle Dockery and Allen Leech have great onscreen chemistry which initially led me to believe the relationship would eventually lead to romance, and up until S6E8, I was fully convinced that they would be a couple by the end of the series because of the ways in which the scenes were written.

So to answer this question, I kind of had to think about how I first came to ship Brary because when I was watching the show as it aired, I was 100% anti-Brary! In fact, it wasn’t until I was a few chapters into writing Come Alive that I actually started shipping them, because that mostly just started off as an experiment! Mary and Matthew were my favorite couple (and still are!) but I did have a soft spot for Sybil and Tom as well, and I absolutely devastated by Sybil and Matthew’s deaths.

And when S4 rolled around and I watched it for the first time, I hated the thought of Mary moving on— I wasn’t thrilled about Tom potentially moving on, either, but he had more time to grieve and while I did like him, I wasn’t as invested in his plot lines as I was Mary’s. My biggest fear was that, because they were both single now, that Julian Fellowes would pair them together which just felt wrong to me. I was 100% actively rooting against it. In my mind at the time, the best ending of show would have had Mary remaining unmarried.

But much to my dismay, it seemed like that was going to happen. Sure, there Mary’s romances with Tony and Charles, but even though she had that love triangle scenario going on with them and Tom had his romance with Sarah Bunting, there were all these moments where it felt like they were deliberately being pushed together— from Violet inviting them to her house to encourage Tom to educate Mary on the running of the estate so she could have an active role in it to playing with their children in the nursery. I hated the idea of them together but there seemed to be all these hints in the narrative that suggested to me that they’d eventually end up together— like some of their deeper conversations in S5 where Mary said that his leaving would be a dagger in her heart and those seemingly longing looks they would give one another, so it definitely felt like Julian Fellowes was giving us a slow burn romance.

And I think some of that was (completely inadvertently) due to Michelle Dockery and Allen Leech’s real life friendship. I’m by no means a professional, but I’ve been acting since I was six years old and I was once cast opposite one of my closest male friends. There was never at any point anything romantic between us and he was the closest thing I had to a brother, and we were both very, very uncomfortable with having to play romantic partners— but because we were such good friends, our real life familiarity manifested itself in onstage chemistry that lent itself well to portraying a romantic relationship. And I definitely think that’s what happened in a lot of these scenes with Tom and Mary, because so many of those scenes managed to seem to have this undercurrent of deeper, romantic feelings to them… which I am 100% was a complete accident, but combined with the dialogue, it just really gave off that vibe of two people who were secretly in love but too afraid to actually vocalize it yet.

Furthermore, I find the way Julian Fellowes writes romance to be incredibly obvious. Even though the characters might not necessarily professing their love for one another straight away, it was always easy to pick up on who had feelings for who almost immediately, especially in the first seasons— like Anna and Bates in their very first scene, Sybil and Tom talking enthusiastically about their political interests the first time they’re alone together, Carson’s worries about Mrs. Hughes accepting Joe Burns’s proposal, etc. So since it seemed like he was building up this relationship between Tom and Mary, so while I was very unhappy about it, I was resigned to the fact that it was going to happen.

There were so moments where I was watching the show and preparing myself for them to get together. I thought Mary might suddenly reveal she had deeper feelings for Tom near the end of S5 to prevent him from moving away to America. But then he did leave, S6 was announced, and Henry Talbot was introduced as a love interest for Mary. Since I knew there was no way Tom was gone for good, my prediction was revised to Henry Talbot being the final obstacle standing between them, and the series would eventually conclude with them together in some capacity. And this idea seemed to be more and more reinforced by Tom returning, some of their conversations (like Tom asking if she regretted getting rid of her suitors and her coyly replying “No”, and then their conversation about how love and marriage need to be a relationship between two equally matched partners as they were literally acting as partners as co-agents on the estate, Mary telling Tom that she wasn’t serious about Henry), and Henry not reentering Mary’s life until after Tom’s return and thus setting him up as a rival for Tom… it just felt like Julian Fellowes was beating us over the head with hint after hint after hint that Tom and Mary was going to happen, whether I liked it or not. Then there was the car accident at Brooklands and that seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for Mary and Henry’s relationship, so after Mary broke it off with him, I braced myself for Tom/Mary endgame within the last two episodes.

So… needless to say, I was stunned by the end of S6E8. I could elaborate much, much further on my interpretation of the episode at that time (I definitely can elaborate on that in case anyone is interested, I just don’t want to derail this further than I already have!), but there was just so much that suggested this episode was going to be the one where I’d have to face my fear and watch Tom and Mary profess their undying love for one another— every single scene with them just seemed to suggest that was the direction it was going, especially since Tom literally told Mary in the midst of an argument that the reason he was interfering because he loved her and wanted her to be happy (and to which Mary told him that he had “a bloody odd way of showing it” and sounded exactly like a woman who was growing increasingly bitter with the fact the man she loved was continuing to insist she be with another man). And after watching Henry tell Mary that he was going to make throwing him over be as “hard and horrible as possible” and yelling at her in that commanding tone as she ran up the stairs after her accused her of being a gold digger, I figured it was an attempt to villainize Henry and further solidify Tom as her love interest. When Violet made her return and said, "Tom says that he is in love with you and that you are in love with him,” I sincerely thought the he and him in question were Tom, not Henry. The fact that she married Henry at the end of the episode genuinely felt like a plot twist to me at the time and while I wasn’t exactly enthralled by their marriage, I do remember being relieved my suspicions regarding a Tom and Mary romance were proven incorrect.

But then a few years went by and while I was doing a rewatch of Downton Abbey ahead of the first movie, I kept seeing all those hints again and now that the sting of losing Matthew didn’t cut so deep anymore… honestly, I felt like I’d been made a fool of because I really had been convinced that they were going to be together. I noticed even more cues the more I rewatched it, and by that point Mary had become my favorite character of the show (before then, it was Thomas, and I’d say he comes in a very close second place) and I was just completely unsatisfied in her ending. I will maintain my initial wish of her remaining single would have probably been the most narratively satisfying ending possible for her (and I can delve into that in a different post if anyone is interested!) but at the same time, I don’t want her to be alone for the rest of her life, especially since she has so much ahead of her, and she did say that she wanted to marry again… but by this rewatch, I really wasn’t into Henry.

And it was just around this time that I began thinking about how having Tom as her love interest would have worked so much better; firstly, he is an established, fully fleshed out character who we’ve had a chance to know since S1. He does undergo a lot of change later in the series, but we see how it develops. The audience is invested in him and his storylines, and had he and Mary been together, we would have cared about him for who he was rather than his relationship to Mary. He has ties to nearly every character on the show, both upstairs and downstairs— perhaps even more so than other characters, if only because he was a part of the downstairs until he married Sybil. He has complexity and relationships separate from Mary that are unique to his own character— and he was incredibly underutilized in S6 because essentially his entire storyline was tied to Mary and her love life— which would have made more sense if he was her love interest but instead he’s playing matchmaker.

Secondly, he, of all people, would understand the kind of grief and loss she has endured because he has gone through exactly the same thing. Another critical part of this for me is that he knew Matthew and he loved him as a part of his family— and vice versa when it comes to Mary with Sybil. They also had the challenges of raising children without their deceased spouses and scenes like the one in the nursery in S4 just how much that bond alone means to them… and they obviously adore one another’s children, too.

I also happen to really love friends-to-lovers as a trope, so since they are best friends, it makes sense that I would eventually come to appreciate them as a romantic pairing as well. I definitely don’t think this works for every pairing of best friends and I don’t believe every male-female friendship needs to turn into something romantic, but with the factors I already listed (as well as the fact it really seemed like there was more than just friendship being hinted), I really loved the idea of it evolving something beyond being platonic, especially after they’d both endured the same sort of hardships.

That being said, as such close friends, I love how they’re always thinking of the other and they are each other’s biggest supporters. Even though Mary wasn’t exactly thrilled by his and Sybil’s relationship, it’s clear that by the time he returns to Downton for her and Matthew’s wedding that any resentments she might have had are gone completely and she’s one of the first people to welcome him and do it without unintentionally alienating him. She’s one of his biggest defenders in S3, along with Matthew, continually reminding her grandmother to call him “Tom” instead of “Branson”, she was beyond pleased when Matthew decided to make him the best man at their wedding, and though she greatly sympathized with her father, she was firmly on Tom’s side when it came to the christening… and of course we can’t forget how she enlisted Thomas to humiliate the butler at Brancaster who kept snubbing Tom. Furthermore, he’s always concerned about her and her best interests as well. He’s the one who recognizes that letting her wallow in her grief won’t help her in the long run and, despite their fraught relationship, goes to Carson because he knows that he can get through to her. He also encourages Mary to be active in the running of the estate and once he returns, he doesn’t want to step on her toes… and I could list just so many other moments as well. Of course, all of these things are also evidence of their platonic friendship, but it’s still a part of why I love their dynamic with one another.

Overall, I just think they’re compatible in so many ways, and the fact that I could see the potential they had even when I didn’t want them to be together just speaks to how wonderful a couple they would have made!

[tabloidtoc]

OK, June 8

Cover: Cher Turns 74 -- in hiding and in love 

Page 1: Big Pic -- Kristin Chenoweth in a Winnie the Pooh onesie with boyfriend Josh Bryant and her dog Thunder 

Page 2: Contents 

Page 3: Contents 

Page 4: Kristin Cavallari dating again -- she’s ready for romance just one month after her split from husband Jay Cutler 

Page 6: Meghan Markle chronicled her time in the U.K. in a secret diary and the revelation has sent The Firm into a tailspin -- it’s confirmed everyone’s worst fears that Meghan has them over a barrel and could bring them down with the click of a finger 

Page 7: After Jennifer Lopez’s daughter Emme wowed the crowd with a surprise appearance during the Super Bowl halftime show J.Lo’s ready to take on the full-time role of stage mom as the 12-year-old preps to release a bilingual children’s book of prayers, three years after her split from music producer Jack Antonoff it seems Lena Dunham is still nursing a broken heart so much so that’s it’s affecting her day-to-day life, after more than 15 years of friendship Ashton Kutcher and Dax Shepard are still thick as thieves 

Page 8: Though it’s been two years since Tom Hardy wrapped up filming as the titular character in Capone which has just recently been released but the renowned Method actor still can’t get out of the notorious gangster’s mindset so much so that even his wife Charlotte Riley who is used to Tom’s extreme behavior during a film shoot is rattled by his demeanor and she’s telling him not to take any more weirdo roles because it affects their personal life, Jon Hamm is desperate to work intimately with January Jones again and the quickest path to that is through a Mad Men reunion -- Jon still feels deeply connected to January and in a lot of ways she’s the closest he’s had to a real-life spouse after the years they spent as an onscreen couple, The Bachelorette Hannah Brown is feeling the consequences of her actions after blurting out the N-word while singing along to DaBaby’s track Rockstar in an Instagram Live video and she apologized immediately but the backlash has been pretty brutal 

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- silver gowns -- Diane Kruger, Reese Witherspoon, Janelle Monae 

Page 11: Nina Kiri, Catherine Zeta-Jones 

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Betty Gilpin vs. Nina Dobrev ✅, Chiara Ferragni vs. Dakota Fanning ✅

Page 13: Kaia Gerber vs. Nicky Hilton Rothschild ✅

Page 14: News in Photos -- during her televised City of Lover Concert Taylor Swift unveiled a few personal photos from her trip to France last September 

Page 15: Pierce Brosnan congratulated son Dylan for graduating from the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Vanessa Hudgens, Adriana Lima relaxing in Florida, Ariana Grande shows off her new butterfly tattoo in an Instagram selfie 

Page 16: Lance Bass pointed out his platinum locks before dyeing them blue, Gwyneth Paltrow shared a snap of her and Chris Martin’s daughter Apple 

Page 17: Adam Sandler on a bike, Kate Beckinsale brushes her cat Clive, Elizabeth Hurley and her dog Ava, Britney Spears 

Page 18: Dean McDermott and son Beau playing golf, Sara Gilbert and estranged wife Linda Perry with son Rhodes at an L.A. park, Melissa Gorga played basketball with kids Antonia and Gino and Joey 

Page 19: Drew Barrymore read to her Instagram followers to take part in the Save With Stories fund, Shawn Johnson East and daughter Drew, Pink and kids Jameson and Willow

Page 20: Color Theory -- these ladies brightened up their looks at home -- Elle Fanning, Lottie Moss 

Page 21: Taraji P. Henson, Jennifer Love Hewitt 

Page 22: Arnold Schwarzenegger on a bike, Brooke Burke filmed a new exercise routine for her fitness app, Devon Windsor is having way too much fun doing physical couples challenges with husband Jonathan Barbara

Page 23: Josh Hutcherson on a bike ride around the neighborhood, Nicole Scherzinger and her boyfriend Thom Evans demonstrated easy workouts you can do at home, Venus Williams on the tennis court in Palm Beach Gardens 

Page 24: Inside My Home -- Kelly Clarkson’s modern mansion in L.A.’s ritzy Encino community is for sale for $9.9 million 

Page 26: What went wrong between Brian Austin Green and Megan Fox 

Page 27: Blake Shelton is worried history will repeat itself now that he and girlfriend Gwen Stefani have splashed out $13 million for a mansion in L.A. which is their first home together but Blake thought things were going great with ex-wife Miranda Lambert until they really started pooling their money and putting down roots then they started to fall apart with arguments and bad feelings, just weeks after Ashley Benson and Cara Delevingne ended their two-year relationship Ashley was spotted locking lips with rapper G-Eazy but an insider claims it’s more of a rebound than a full-fledged romance, Ariel Winter and her boyfriend Luke Benward are talking marriage just six months into their romance

Page 28: Scott Disick and his girlfriend of two years Sofia Richie are taking some time apart and the official line is that Sofia’s giving him space to work on his personal issues but everyone knows they were hanging by a thread before his rehab stint, Ryan Reynolds has kicked up his workout regimen while at home in Bedford during the quarantine and it’s all about maintaining his physique and being able to fit into his tight Deadpool gear at a moment’s notice and she’s trying to get wife Blake Lively to join him in his three-times-a-day workouts but she’s become much more relaxed about staying in shape since becoming a mom, Love Bites -- Jaime King and husband Kyle Newman split, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix expecting, Jamie Otis and Doug Hehner welcomed a son 

Page 30: Cover Story -- Inside Cher’s Private World -- from ongoing health issues to her secret new romance sources tell all about Cher’s wild life 

Page 34: Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s unbreakable bond -- inside the Olsen twins special relationship and how Ashley is helping Mary-Kate move past her messy divorce 

Page 36: Matthew Perry on the mend -- after a rough few weeks Matthew has started to get his life back in order 

Page 38: Exes tackling quarantine together -- these former celeb couples have chosen to hunker down with each other. What could go wrong? -- Khloe Kardashian and Tristan Thompson, Naomi Watts and Liev Schreiber, Mario and Ramona Singer 

Page 39: Tyler Cameron and Hannah Brown, Jesse Metcalfe and Cara Santana, Getting Some Space -- these still-coupled duos have socially distanced from each other -- Julianne Hough and Brooks Laich, Johnny McDaid and Courteney Cox, Emma Heming and Bruce Willis 

Page 40: Interview -- Dua Lipa opens up about her new album and her life off stage 

Page 42: Summer Stunners -- swimsuit models spill fitness and diet secrets that will have you beach-ready in no time -- Nina Agdal, Irina Shayk 

Page 43: Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Culpo 

Page 46: Style Week -- Gabrielle Union recently unveiled her Spring/Summer 2020 NY&Co collection with a sizzling campaign shot in Miami’s Little Haiti 

Page 48: Summersalt X Tanya Taylor swim collection, Katy Perry’s favorite headband 

Page 50: Warm-weather must haves -- Emily Ratajkowski 

Page 52: Beauty -- fast and east beauty boosters -- Kristen Bell, Ashley Graham 

Page 54: Entertainment 

Page 58: Buzz -- Sarah Jessica Parker commemorated her and Matthew Broderick’s 23rd wedding anniversary with an IG tribute 

Page 60: Hollywood Heat Meter -- Ellie Goulding occasionally fasts for 40 hours, Jonah Hill is the actor who swears the most in his films, Ryan Seacrest’s droopy eye and slurred speech during the American Idol finale was from exhaustion, Mindy Kaling will be cowriting the Legally Blonde 3 script, Brad Pitt recorded a surprise message for Missouri State University grads, Kanye West’s former bodyguard Steve Stanulis revealed his time working for the rapper 

Page 61: Sound Bites -- Chris Evans on why he caved and joined Instagram, Catherine Zeta-Jones on why her husband Michael Douglas doesn’t use TikTok, Ellie Kemper on shooting the Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt special with Daniel Radcliffe, Ryan Reynolds on quarantining with his three daughters 

Page 62: Horoscope -- Gemini Heidi Klum 

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Denise Richards 

[oscopelabs]

Unbroken Windows: How New York Gentrified Itself On Screen by Jason Bailey

It was 1972, and Lewis Rudin had a problem—specifically, a Johnny Carson problem. Rudin, a real estate developer and committed New Yorker, had founded the Association for a Better New York (ABNY), an organization dedicated to cleaning up the city’s image (and thus, its attractiveness to corporate clients) via aggressive campaigning and spit-shine marketing; the organization was, for example, instrumental in the development of the iconic I ❤ NY campaign.

But all the good work ABNY was doing, Rudin fumed to the organization’s executive director Mary Holloway, felt like pushing Sisyphus’ boulder when he switched on NBC late at night: “How can we change the image of New York when Johnny Carson's opening monologue every night is about people getting mugged in Central Park?”

As reported by Miriam Greenberg in her book Branding New York: How a City in Crisis Was Sold to the World, Rudin went to the trouble of meeting with network heads, imploring them to pressure personalities like Carson to lighten up on the “New York City is a crime-ridden cesspool” jokes. In 1973, Mayor John Lindsay himself called network executives and even some comedians to a City Hall meeting where he made a similar plea. This was in stark contrast to the usual modus operandi of the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting, which prided itself on avoiding censorship or editorial interference in the making of motion pictures in the city—indeed, several of the grimmest, grimiest portraits of life in New York (Death Wish, Panic in Needle Park, Little Murders, The French Connection) were borne of this period. But people had to go out to see those. Johnny Carson came into their living room every night to tell them what a shithole New York was.

Rudin and Lindsay’s efforts were ultimately unsuccessful. Johnny Carson continued to roast the city—especially after escaping it when The Tonight Show relocated to Burbank, California in 1972—and prime-time comedies like All in the Family, Taxi, and Welcome Back, Kotter mined similar veins of urban unrest. Meanwhile, gritty crime series from Kojak to Cagney & Lacey to The Equalizer presented a similar picture of the city—dirty, grimy, and dangerous—to that of films like Taxi Driver, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, The Warriors, and Fort Apache, The Bronx.

But in the 1990s, that all changed. And there’s a compelling case to be made that the change began with Jerry Seinfeld.

*

If we talk about Jerry Seinfeld, of course, we have to talk about Woody Allen, and not just their obvious similarities (roots in stand-up comedy, neurotic Jewish New Yorker persona, tabloid mainstay). In the 1970s and 1980s, while most New York movies were dwelling in the horrors and shortcomings of the city, Allen insulated himself in his upper-class Upper East Side neighborhood and made movies about people who were mostly untouched by crime, homelessness, and graffiti. In films like Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Crimes and Misdemeanors, Allen’s characters sip wine and trade hard truths and pointed witticisms at the city’s finest restaurants, parties, and apartments as the city burns around them; in Manhattan (which, by its own opening monologue admission, romances the city “all out of proportion”) he even edited out a joke about muggings from a Central Park carriage ride sequence, so as not to spoil the delicate mood. Allen’s New York was “not another world,” Martin Scorsese once said. “It’s another planet.”

That vision of New York—upper-crust, erudite, sophisticated—wasn’t entirely absent from the big and small screen in the ‘70s and ‘80s, thanks to films like An Unmarried Woman and Kramer Vs. Kramer, and such TV shows as Diff’rent Strokes and The Cosby Show. But Allen’s films, and even more so Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron’s Allen-esque When Harry Met Sally (a far bigger commercial success than any of Woody’s work), created a vision of comfortable, upscale, wise-cracking New York living that would reach a mass audience via Seinfeld, which debuted in 1989.

The first two brief seasons of Seinfeld (or, as it was originally titled, The Seinfeld Chronicles) struggled in the ratings, but it slowly built an audience and climbed in the Nielsens, and by season five (1993-1994) it was one of the top five shows on the air, anchoring NBC’s “Must See TV” line-up of Thursday night sitcoms. In September 1994, it was joined on Thursdays by another comedy, in which urbane New York pals joked, dated, and shared the horrors of city living. Friends, however, was a rating smash right away, and not only because of its killer schedule placement. It sanded away the rougher edges of Seinfeld; its characters were more likable (or, at least, intended to be), and its humor was less spiky. It ran even longer than Seinfeld, ten seasons, every one of them in the top ten, all but one in the top five.

*

Even as these New York comedies—and others that followed, like Mad About You, Caroline in the City, and The Single Guy—were topping the ratings, the face of the city was changing. “Don’t forget to in the late ’80s, you came off of a couple of financial crises, some bad times,” explains agent Chris Fry, of Elegran Real Estate. ”It was a little bit more affordable, things were dropping. And I think the shows that you’re talking about definitely had a positive effect on what people perceived New York City to be.”

Crime was on the decline across the country, but especially in New York City, a drop that began under Mayor David Dinkins and continued under Rudy Giuliani. The latter, in coordination with NYPD commissioner William Bratton, instituted an aggressive policy of enforcing so-called “quality of life” crimes like graffiti, turnstile-jumping, and panhandling; this philosophy, modeled on James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling’s controversial “broken windows” theory, held that if these comparatively minor yet highly visible crimes were eradicated, the city would look clean and controlled, and thus psychologically discourage a lawlessness that would result in fewer serious offenses like murder, rape, and theft.

This vision of the city was certainly reflected in NBC’s Thursday night lineup. The early ‘90s comedies found fodder in the minor inconveniences of city life, but rarely trod into the seediness and crime that defined such earlier sitcoms as Night Court and Barney Miller. Paul and Jamie Buchman’s apartment wasn’t burglarized; none of the Friends were mugged in Central Park. When a blackout hit New York City in the summer of 1977, there were over one thousand fires, over 1500 damaged and/or looted stores, and nearly four thousand arrests. When a blackout hit NBC’s Thursday night New York City in the fall of 1994, Chandler Bing got trapped in an ATM vestibule with a supermodel.

If these sitcoms were the television reflection of the “broken windows” theory, their creators had a much easier time cleaning up New York City—in part because they weren’t shooting in it. Much like the films set in New York City before Mayor Lindsay established the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre, and Broadcasting, all of these series were shot on soundstages and backlots in California, with the exception of the occasional second-unit exterior establishing shot. So they took place in New York City, but the version of New York City they presented was highly fictionalized. Just as Paul and Jamie, Jerry and the gang, and the Central Perk crew were funnier and sharper than real New Yorkers (and lived in apartments far beyond their means), the New York they lived in was squeakier and clearer.

“I love Friends,” says Sire Leo Lamar-Becker, who was inspired by the shows of the ‘90s to leave California and move to New York, where he currently works in the fashion industry. “But Friends was so sterile. It didn’t feel real. And what Sex and the City offered was, I felt, a more nuanced portrayal of the city.”

Like the New York movies from the late 1960s onward, Sex and the City had the advantage of authenticity: It was shot entirely in New York, the exteriors and the sets (constructed and filmed at Silvercup Studios) and everything in between. “If you’re familiar with this series, and the movies, the city is integral to it,” explains tour guide Lou Matthews. “They've called it, like the fifth girl is the city. It's really crucial.” As a guide for the “Sex and the City Hotspots Tour,” which On Location Tours has conducted since 2001, Matthews has seen, firsthand, the psychological effect of that particular show.

“I've definitely met girls in their twenties, or maybe they’re still in college, on the tour who are saying, ‘Yeah, I fell in love with Sex in the City and New York City because of Sex in the City. And like, I’m already trying to figure out how I can get a job here.’ And then I’ve definitely met a few where the reason they moved here was because of Sex in the City, like they wanted the life that Carrie has. And here they are.”

The life they found was, in most cases, not exactly what these shows promised. “As someone who has lived here for 10 years,” laughs Lamar-Becker, “sure, there are some things that are unrealistic—like, Carrie being able to afford all her shoes. That’s unrealistic. But the feeling of the city is always captured well.”

And that indefinable but unmistakable quality, that feeling of the city, is what’s shifted most over the past quarter-century or so – through Seinfeld and Friends and Sex and the City into 30 Rock and Gossip Girl and Girls, through When Harry Met Sally and You’ve Got Mail to The Devil Wears Prada, Trainwreck, and even The Avengers. Some of that shift in public perception is merely a reflection of reality, of filmmakers and show-runners pointing their cameras at the city and capturing the gentrified, yuppified, Disney-fied mutation it’s become.

But some of that is also life imitating art. Every day, Lou Matthews’s tour bus is filled with people like Sire Leo Lamar-Becker, members of a generation of viewers whose impressions of New York were formed not by Taxi Driver and Kojak, but by the Sex and the City films and Netflix binges of Friends. They watched those shows and memorized those movies, and then migrated to New York City like so many immigrants before them. Their predecessors flocked to Ellis Island, lured by promises of a new world. These settlers came to the Magnolia Bakery, seeking not so much a new world as a better one, full of enviable careers, witty friends, and all the cosmos they could drink.

Lewis Rudin would have been proud.

[cluelessrebel1988]

Shipping questions

Saw that @hpfangirl13​ had done this and it looked like fun so I thought I’d give it a shot

Talk about the first ship you ever had.

One of the first pairs that I remember wanting to get together was Harry/Hermione as I was reading the Harry Potter series. I didn’t know what shipping was at the time (I’m not even sure there was a term for it yet), but I really thought they made a better couple than Ron/Hermione for the longest time. I eventually came around to Ron/Hermione (Book 7 was the game changer), but Harry/Hermione was the one I was rooting for for about half the series.

Talk about three of the most important ships throughout your life.

I mean, the first one is pretty important, right? The one that gets you started on wanting to see where a relationship or friendship goes. So yeah, Harry/Hermione would probably be an important one. Outside of that, the top three are Cartinelli (Peggy Carter/Angie Martinelli) on the show Agent Carter was a big one for me because that kickstarted by deep and resounding love for f/f pairings;FitzSimmons from Agents of SHIELD. If for no other reason than that’s the one thing that kept me watching through some pretty dismal story arcs; And Riley Matthews/Maya Hart (Rilaya) from Girl Meets World, due to them being one of the few pairs I’ve shipped since day one.

What’s your current OTP?

Not gonna lie, I fell pretty hard for the budding romance between Jane Banks and Jack the lamplighter in Mary Poppins returns. It’s just so sweet and pure and just starting out and it’s damn near perfect.

What’s your current NOTP?

I don’t really have one at the moment. The most recent was probably Kara/Mon-El on Supergirl, but mostly because I thought the relationship was poorly written and that the arc that they gave Mon-El would have worked just fine if they weren’t in a relationship.

Do you have any poly ships?

No. I’ve never been able to get into that. No judgement against people that are, though!

How do you feel about love triangles?

I have yet to see one that didn’t get old fast and drag a story down hard. 

How do you feel about RPF?

Not really my thing. Feels too weird.

Have you ever shipped yourself with a character?

I actually have. Generally when I’m testing out OCs in my head or in the canon of the story, I don’t have them mess with canon pairings, but I’ve got a Lord of the Rings OC that I ship with Eowyn and yes, it’s pretty much a self-insert situation. 

Do you have many ships that never got together at all?

Well, Cartinelli never became an actual couple, but I was never expecting them to. That’s probably the only one.

Do you ship any characters that have never met?

No, there’s gotta be some kind of meeting

Talk about your favorite first kiss.

Gotta go with FitzSimmons on this one. After a little over two seasons of slow burn, and just about every bad thing you can think of getting thrown their way (including one of them getting sucked into a portal to an alien planet), they’re back together, dealing with the long months apart, the fact that one of them is convinced they’re cursed as a couple and conflicting emotions abound, and the confrontation scene they’re having reaches a tipping point and Fitz kisses Simmons as passionately as he can. She kisses him a moment later, but more gently and for just a moment, nothing else matters. No one else matters. It’s just them. Still love that scene.

Have you ever been disappointed when your ship finally got together?

Not really. Not that I can think of.

Has a ship ever broken your heart?

I had my heart broken about a dozen times over with FitzSimmons, largely due to a combination of amazing writing and an inexplicable desire by said writers to keep them from getting together.

How do you feel about will they/won’t they?

Oh, if it’s done well, it’s about as perfect as it gets. But you gotta do it right. 

Have you ever “shipped at first sight”?

I think most, if not all, of my ships started at first sight

Talk about a ship you initially disliked.

I was never on the Reylo train, and I’m still not even after ‘The Last Jedi’ (though I get why a lot more people started shipping them after that movie). I’d be lying if I said I hated it, but it’s just one that I never got on board with.

Talk about a pairing you’ve stopped shipping romantically.

I really can’t think of any.

Talk about a moment which made you question an entire ship.

I really had a hard time understanding the SkyeWard (Agents of SHIELD) ship after it was revealed that Ward was Hydra. Pretty much everything about him after that was just...ugh. I’ve maintained for a while that his character deserved a redemption arc and that said arc would have been a more interesting story than just straight up making him the bad guy, but the two of them together never made sense to me after that reveal.

Have you ever shipped something despite yourself?

Not really. I know what I like and what I don’t and my ships tend to fall in line with that.

Talk about a ship you feel alone in shipping?

Probably just about any pairing from ‘The Great Escape’ but that’s largely because it’s a movie from 1963 and I’m not sure how many people in the shipping culture of today have even heard of it.

Is there a ship you just don’t get, but have nothing against?

Not really. Most of the ships I don’t get I have problems with, and the ones I don’t ship, but don’t have a problem with I at least understand 

Which of your ships have the best chemistry?

FitzSimmons has always had amazing chemistry and just continues to get better

Which of your ships deserve better writing?

FitzSimmons deserves writers that will just let them be happy for five fucking minutes, okay?

Do you mostly ship canon pairings?

There’s a bit of balance, I think, maybe leaning toward canon pairings.

Have you ever shipped a pairing before you even started watching the show/movie simply because of gifs and graphics or similar?

Not that I can think of.

Have you noticed a pattern in your shipping? Is there a romantic dynamic you’re more drawn to?

It’s what I (and a lot of Tumblr users) call the Slytherin/Hufflepuff dynamic. You’ve got the tough character who would set world on fire to protect their less world-weary counterpart, and the eternal optimist who will forever see the best in their significant other, perhaps most especially when they can't see it in themselves.

Is there a ship you’ve shipped for most of your life?

I guess my longest, most consistent ship has been FitzSimmons which I’ve been shipping since 2013. Cartinelli is a close second, that one’s since 2015

Does shipping come easily to you?

Oh yeah. It takes very little for me to start shipping something, even if its casually.

Do you need to ship something to really enjoy a movie/book/tv show/comic?

I don’t know if I NEED to ship something to enjoy the source material, but I’d be hard pressed to think of a situation where it doesn’t improve it at least a little.

Name a couple of fandoms in which you have no ships.

I’m not currently shipping anyone on the show Manifest, so there’s that.

Talk about one of your favorite headcanons for a ship you love.

It’s not one that I came up with, but I did see a FitzSimmons headcanon a few years back that he didn’t know how to tie a tie (despite wearing them all the time) and she tied them for him but no one knew about that. I really liked that and it’s kind of the epitome of their relationship in season 1

Name your favorite fan artist(s).

I don’t really have any favorites, not that I could list.

Share your favorite fanmix for your OTP.

I did come across a Cartinelli fanmix a while back that I liked. I don’t remember all the songs in it, but I do remember it included ‘La Vie En Rose’ and “Someone to Watch Over Me’ which are songs a lot of people associate with the ship

Do you create fanmixes/gif sets/fanart/fic/fanvids and so on for your ships?

I’ve made a few fanvids for a couple of my ships, and I’ve written a fair share of fics for others.

Do you have a favorite trope and/or AU for your OTP?

My favorite FitzSimmons AU is one where they get a happy ending (I’m a bit bitter about this, can you tell?)

Do you like and use ship names?

Dear God, yes. The more creative the better.

Is there a fictional relationship you’d really want for yourself?

I mean, apart from one where I’m a rider of Rohan and am able to romance Lady Eowyn, no

If you could change one thing about your OTP, what would that be?

Angie Martinelli plays a bigger role in season 2 of Agent Carter and there’s no forced love triangle BS with Peggy.in Los Angeles. Cartinelli happiness (romantic or otherwise) ensues