Well, well, well, it seems everything around here is still in working order after nearly TWO YEARS!! How can that even be?! I didn’t have any kind of major mood shift that made me step back from the fandom – more like just a series of life altering events that diverted my attention to different things in the short term and ultimately changed the make up of my days so that blogging became something I could no longer accomplish during my normal “computer time,” and my normal “computer time” became so encompassing that logging onto a computer outside of that time became less than appealing.
If I’m truthful, I’ll also cop to the fact that the major Armitage project at the time, Berlin Station, left me pretty cold about half way through the first season. I like a good convoluted spy thriller as much as the next fangirl, especially if there’s a regular chance of OOA sightings, but Berlin Station just did not do it for me. Right around the same time, my kids and I moved out of our house for a few months as my marriage hit it’s terminal stage.
Now happily divorced for just over a year and back in my castle, professional life on relatively established path, I’ve noticed that I’ve been veering back to the Armitage oeuvre more and more. First, I really, really enjoy the animated romp that is Castlelvania – the third season of Trevor Belmont and crew was particularly fantastic! I have become pretty reliant on what I can easily access from one of my streaming platforms (or even add to my Amazon prime channels with one click) so I was delighted to find (thanks for the tip Servetus!) The Stranger on Netflix.
I settled down on a Saturday afternoon where by some strange planetary alignment, nobody but a particularly insistent lapsitting cat interrupted me as I binge watched the first half of the series. I do like a complicated mystery, and I thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns of this Harlan Coben story. I guess that I must have mentioned having watched a new RA work to my oldest child (formerly Showbiz Kid who I shall now refer to as Drop Dead Diva), because a few weeks later, my world’s collided again like they had something like 8 years ago!
A little bit of context: My Drop Dead Diva began transitioning to her true female self right around the time that my ex and I separated (in retrospect, surely NOT a coincidence), and one of the things that she had always been interested in and is now far more open about sharing is the world of drag performers. (there are a lot more layers to this world than I ever knew) I’ve never not been aware of drag – after all, it is a huge element of classical drama, but until recently, I wasn’t really aware of the wide ranging appeal of contemporary drag performers, especially in the wake of the popularity of the RuPaul’s Drag Race series.
This would be the obvious place to wonder how these dots connect…
While it is probably quite likely that Richard Armitage has worked in some form of drag in some theatrical production at some point in his career (I could probably look this up, but, LAZY.), it’s certainly not the first association that comes to mind. However, one of the things DDD has introduced to our YouTube watching is a little Netflix sponsored YouTube series called, “I Like to Watch,” featuring American drag superstars Trixie Mattel and Katya. Hilarious. Definitely moments that are NSFW, but nevertheless, Hilarious.
Here’s where my day to day world and the RA world collide – it turns out that there is also a UK version of I Like to Watch featuring British drag queens The Vivienne and Baga Chipz, and guess what they like to watch?!?
You got it – The Stranger! The video above is FULL of spoilers, so if you haven’t watched The Stranger, consider yourself warned. As I laughed out loud all the way through this video, I realized that there do seem to be persistent hints that my worlds are indeed still connected. Things may evolve into something that looks a little bit different around here, but I think (I know that I’ve said this before but…) I think that I may still have some things to say from time to time since it still seems that, “I Like to Watch,” too Richard Armitage!
Cheers!
Ancient Armitage 