A Lifetime of Happiness: Movies, TV, and Video Games

Big Heartstopper Down Under

• Steve Bennet-Martin, Stephen Martin-Bennet • Season 1 • Episode 182

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The Steves discuss what's making them happy in pop culture today, focusing on Netflix's Heartstopper, Big Brother 25, and Drag Race: Down Under Season 3!

Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.

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Steve:

Hello, returning Happys and new listeners. This is Steve Bennett Martin, and

Stephen:

this is Steven Martin Bennett, and welcome to a

Steve:

Lifetime of Happiness, the podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy, while hopefully bring a smile to your face along the way. And

Stephen:

today it's all about. Summer shows as we discussed the New Seasons of Big Brother Drag Race down on and along with Netflix's

Steve:

heart stopper. Yes. But before we get into all of that, my love, what's been making you happy?

Stephen:

So last week was the full moon and I held one of my full moon ceremonies as I'm known to do, and it just felt really special this past time. The community that was there, the laughter, the sharing, there was just so much peace and love and I don't know, I just, I felt so good by the time we were leaving. Excellent.

Steve:

It is definitely something magical you give to the community. And

Stephen:

what about you, darling? Did anything special? I don't know what happened for you last week.

Steve:

Well, in addition to this podcast, I also do another podcast called Gay a, a queer sober podcast that just hit us a hundred and 50th episode. Congratulations. It just passed 25,000 downloads. Oh my goodness. And I just passed 800 days of sobriety along with

Stephen:

it. Oh my goodness. Yay. It's kind of a trifecta

Steve:

of good timing in my sober verse.

Stephen:

Yes, very much so. Yes.

Steve:

It was also a good time though because there's not really much new on TV right now with the writer strike and actor strike and Yep.

Stephen:

It's bad. We're guaranteed to have a lot of reality shows.

Steve:

Exactly. And one reality show that is always good in our book is Big

Stephen:

Brother. Oh my goodness. We love Big Brother. And it just started back.

Steve:

Yes, it started last Thursday, August 3rd, and it's our favorite summer show that promises to expect the unexpected. So

Stephen:

for anybody that hasn't seen Big Brother What? Yeah. At this

Steve:

point, I think most people have heard of it or know of it at least.

Stephen:

Yeah. Usually you've got about 12 to 16 strangers that are locked in a house together. For roughly between 70 and 90 days this year it's gonna be a hundred. Yeah. And you have no contact with the outside world. The only person that you talk to is Julie Chin once or twice a week. You compet. Yes. There

Steve:

are worse people you could be stuck talking to. Yes.

Stephen:

Julie Chen Moonves is amazing. You compete in challenges. Unfortunately, they also have a lot of downtime where nothing happens like. From what I understand, they're in two days in a row of nothing going on. Yeah. And that's when the drama happens. The drama will end up happening because people get bored and that's when they show their asses. You compete in challenges to become the head of household, which is the leader of the group for the week, and you have to nominate people. If you're nominated, you can compete in a. Golden power of veto ceremony to take yourself off the block or maybe you in and you take somebody else off the block and then come the end of the week, it's time for the live show with Julie Chin and that's when everybody votes and that's when somebody goes home and it's time to start the process all over again. Yes. And what do you think of

Steve:

the season's cast?

Stephen:

So maybe they went out of their way to do it, but we have more age diverse body, diverse, racially diverse sexual Diverse. Like it's the most diverse cast I think I've seen on a reality competition show.

Steve:

Yes. And you know, us, we loathe diversity. Oh gosh, it's, yeah. It's so bad. No, it, it is great seeing a cast that reflects what a general group of strangers might look like. Right. Rather than people who are picking Instagram influencers off of a like hashtag hot BOD feed.

Stephen:

Yeah. And so we've already got some people that we like. Who are some of the ones you like?

Steve:

I am Team Blue. The, the young Asian girl. Yes. I love Bowie Jane, our Aussie gal. Yeah. She reminds me of a friend from my home group. Elsa Izzy Hassam. Just'cause I always wanna root for the gay guys until they gimme a reason not to. Even though his laugh has me a little nervous because it's really, it's really that, and oddly Matt, who like seems like the biggest douche bro in the world. But then he mentions that he's deaf and somehow is still like this Olympic me medalist. Swimmer. Swimmer. Yeah. And I don't know, I just like him more'cause he is deaf, even though normally I would like dislike him for everything else. What about

Stephen:

you? So definitely Blue Bowie, Jane, Izzy, potentially yes. Like I love her queerness. I love her positivity. But the way she handled twists so far is way. Yeah. I'm best. Yeah. I'm not so sure. Hi. Some, yes. Also America. Yeah. And Jared?

Steve:

Yes. And the twist, speaking of twists, one is the multiverse. Which team would you wanna be on and how do you think it'll switch up? The gameplay? So, yeah.

Stephen:

So they're doing a humil verse, a comic verse. A scary verse and a twisted verse. Mm-hmm. And I would usually say comic verse, but I think I'm gonna go with the scary verse. Yeah. I think I

Steve:

would do better with challenges that like that they call scary challenges.

Stephen:

Yeah. And honestly, I'm not sure how it's gonna switch up gameplay because Big Brother unfortunately has a habit of introducing twists that they think and or we think are gonna last all season. They start. Happening and get feedback. They're going three things in. Yeah, and they're like, oh, nevermind. Now it's just a regular season of Big Brother. Congratulations everybody.

Steve:

Yes. Well, one thing that they did promise to make a different, rather than just this one twist, is another twist, which is that additional house guests may be entering the game.

Stephen:

Oh, well, one already has. So we went from 16 to 17. And do you think that's it? No, I don't. And just because it's an odd number, reality shows usually don't do odd numbers. Do you know the way we'll be able to figure it out is because when everybody is in the house, Julie will always say something along the lines of one of you. Will win one mil, like one of you sitting there will win seven$50,000. She hasn't said that. There you go. She hasn't said one of you. Which means I love that idea. That's not everybody

Steve:

we're all kind of primed for it'cause they've never done it in Big Brother before. But it's something that we're used to with other shows now, like especially the dating ones like Love Island, where you do constantly get this new fresh Yep. Cast. And while they rarely have the same equal opportunity to win the game, it certainly is a great way to stir things up and maybe shift things. When especially the house gets cliquey or divided, throws someone else in it might bring them together or some people together.

Stephen:

So they almost did that in season one. Yeah. I don't know if you remember back

Steve:

vaguely, but I know that season one did a lot of things differently where it's hard to call that a season of Big

Stephen:

Brother. Right? Because chicken George had convinced everyone to quit. Yeah. And they said that if they, that they were going to quit and Julie said, fine, we need to know and we will bring in a whole new cast. And then it was only down to one person quitting, and then if that one person quit, they were bringing in this girl that was sure to shake things up. But then that person didn't quit either. So they've attempted it in the past. But the ba the main important thing in this one is that, Also is a Big Brother first because it's a survivor contestant that has come into the house.

Steve:

Yes. You have Siri, who you know from Survivor and you love, right? Yes.

Stephen:

Siri is amazing. She's been on Four Seasons of Big Brother and she did a stint on Peacocks, the Traitors. So I'm a big Siri fan. There is nobody that I have ever seen in a reality show that is as good of a social game player as Sarie

Steve:

is. Awesome. I'm looking forward to it.

Stephen:

Next up, we got season two. Heart stopper.

Steve:

Yes. And we love a good feel good show. And I would say this is one of the mussies most kind of cotton candy shows you could think of for queer person. So what is Heart Stopper? Heart Stopper is the show that I wish I had as a teenager. Yes, it is about like a teen boy discovering his sexuality and having a crush and. Navigating that. And as we get to see their, you know, circle of friends and their adventures expand, it just, it was based off of a visual novel or a, like, comic book series. Yeah. And I think that they do a really good job of including some, like, the whimsy and special effects and things from that. But it's just really cute. Why do you

Stephen:

love it? I, so I also wished that I had it as a teenager. And in college instead, I had the unrealistic expectations of queer as folk. Yes. But at least queer as folk showed a group of gays that created a tight-knit, found family like these kids are doing.

Steve:

Yes. And why did we enjoy, or have we enjoyed season two, which we have now binged in. Its entirely

Stephen:

so spoiler alert, for anyone listening that has not seen. Season two, yet we're about to talk about some things that happen. So if you have not seen season two of Heart Stopper, fast forward through this SEC section. All

Steve:

right. Well, we'll try not to get into the specific specifics. I know you hit your spoilers, but Right. I do love that the first season was all about Charlie and Nick getting together and seeing them navigate what a young. New, innocent relationship looks like was very cute. Where like their biggest problems are, you know, things like hickeys and overbearing parents who just don't want you to hang out with your, your boyfriend because you have homework overdue.

Stephen:

Yeah. Because you're ignoring your homework. So you can go make out with your boyfriend and. The like neither of them are ready for it to go past kissing, which I think is so

Steve:

adorable. Yeah, I think it's really great and I've enjoyed that. What about, I know that you were big on seeing what happens with tau and l ugh.

Stephen:

That has been absolutely lovely. Tao is that friend character that everybody needs. A friend like Tao. Yes. Like he loves his friends. Unquestionably, it's so amazing. And then it always answers that like it brings up. That question is, you know, you have this person that's one of your best friends, but you also find yourself attracted to them. Do you worry about hurting the friendship by trying to do something romantic? Or do you just say, go for it, or do you ignore it? Like, and so it really

Steve:

deals with that in like a very cute, like realistic kind of way where it's not overly dramatic No. Or scandalous. And I also just love someone who was more of a background character in the first season. Seeing more of Isaac and their journey developed was just really interesting. And I, I won't leave any spoilers there, but just seeing what happens when you are the person who. Isn't always the constant center of attention with all the romantic drama and what that might mean or how that might make you

Stephen:

feel. Do you know what the most unrealistic part of the show was? Why? Whenever the kids were able to put up a pride table, I. In their school library.

Steve:

Yeah. That would not happen. But I would love if it did

Stephen:

happen. It can't happen in Florida because that's how we groomers get

your

Steve:

kids. Oh no. Well, speaking of a whole bunch of groomers, we also have a whole new cast of drag queens ready to turn your children gay by reading to them. Reading

Stephen:

is what? Fundamental. Fundamental until you stupid bitches, because it's drag race down under season three, which.

Steve:

It feels like season two was just yesterday after there was the biggest break in between seasons one and two. But I'm not gonna complain for more drag queens ever. No. And with Australia, RU is involved in Australia. Yep. What any standouts this season? So,

Stephen:

ISIS, Avis, Lauren. Yes. Big, big fan. Hollywood Star. Yeah. I'm undecided on some of the others. I enjoy the kookiness of Gabriela Ucci. Yes. I

also

Steve:

love Bumpa love for that same kind of kooky

Stephen:

reason. Yeah. And I, I don't think Gabriela should be written off just for being weird. I think that there's some real talent there. Yes. And I'm

Steve:

still trying to figure out whether Ashley Madison is a villain or just an egotistical young entitled kind.

Stephen:

I don't even know if it's that I just, maybe it's more of a, doesn't know how to deal with her emotions. Like, because there are some parts of the episodes where I'm like, oh, you can see that these girls are good friends and Well, there is one person that doesn't like Ashley and she doesn't like them. Yeah. But. I'm not sure if Ashley's a villain, like it's gonna take another episode or two to be sure of

Steve:

that. We will find out. Yeah. And who do you think is nice and fun to be there, but you're also not rooting for them'cause you know that they have no chance of winning. Read a

Stephen:

menu. Yes. I'm sorry. Like Rita just isn't ready. And Ivana has talent, but not at this level. Like if, and this is. This is not a knock to local queens because I love local queens with every fiber of my being, but there is a special type of personality to be able to lay it all bare on national television. Yes, it's, it has nothing to do with your lip sync ability or how to turn a look or anything like that. Some people are just meant to be able to be on TV like that. Ivana's not one of'em. Yes.

Steve:

But so far we've had two competitions. What were your thoughts on the Mardi Gras pride?

Stephen:

So I am 100% overseeing men's nipples on drag race. Welcome

Steve:

to my side. Yes. I cover'em up. I have always been like, I don't wanna see flat nipples. If I wanted to see flat nipples, I'd watch male burlesque. If I'm watching a drag queen, I wanna see boobies of some sort. I.

Stephen:

I would even be okay if they were pasties. Yeah. But just do something to cover up. I don't wanna see the flat nipples because if, if it were a a fab queen, they wouldn't be allowed to show their nipples. Like, yes, a amab. Queens should not be able to show their nipples either use double-sided tape to hold your garment to your skin. Something. As soon as I see it, that person goes down to the bottom that week for me, and the US queens are actually more guilty of it than most. Yes, but it became an. Issue during this first season episode of season three of Down Under, and I'm glad

Steve:

it was addressed. Yes. And speaking of dressed, what do you think of Muriel's betting episode where they got to make wedding attire?

Stephen:

So bravo to ISIS for helping all the queens and still having enough time to create a winning look. Also Bravo to all the queens for acknowledging Toru that ISIS helped. Yes, that was a big deal for me. And I also wanna take a moment to say that Reese Nicholson is the best third judge on any RuPaul hosted season. Truly amazing. He can keep up with the other two and is usually funnier than ruin Michelle, he is

Steve:

hysterical. When I watched his standup special, I cackled so much. The FBO was thinking our dog was barking.

Stephen:

That's one of my favorite things. Whenever the FBO thinks that you're the dog barking when you laugh, it does

Steve:

all his special long because he is hysterical that I cackle. So yes, anyone looking for a fun standup? Reese Nicholson's is on

Stephen:

Netflix. Oh, and. You know, I, I love the drag race seasons. We're big fans of Canada, uk. We've watched the first two seasons of Spain, which were amazing. And, you know, if the, if the writer strike and the actor strike continue, we may be getting into many more of the foreign. Drag race seasons. Yes.

Steve:

And maybe eventually then Ru will take our advice and combine two of these topics of combining big brother and drag race into big mother's house. Oh,

Stephen:

that would be so amazing. You have all

Steve:

like, drag queens doing competitions that are drag

Stephen:

related. Yep. And like, you know, they'll have downtime in the house where to have drama, to have drama where they can be out of drag and everything like that. You know, Force them to be able to cook and things like that. Competitions in the backyard. I want some of them to be like some of the big brother, like endurance, like competitions, like endurance in your dress and heels. Yeah. Yeah. And ot e type of thing. Yeah. In your dress and heels. Like, I want the, so it's a mixture and Like, and whenever it comes down to time to vote somebody out for out of the house, I don't want to hear a speech of why you wanna stay in the house. I think you need to lip sync for your life and not just based on the lip sync, because people can still vote you out. Yeah. Because they wanna vote you out. But I think that instead of a. Keep me speech. It's a watch me lip sync speech. Yeah, we could do

Steve:

something like that. Call us mother ru. Yeah, we've got

Stephen:

ideas. Yes. So many.

Steve:

Yes. And I would say in my own adventures, if listeners wanna reach out, we're not gonna do a full spiel on it, but I've been enjoying go Go for the gold season too. And you've been enjoying something on your own as well, right?

Stephen:

And just like

Steve:

that. Exactly. So if you wanna reach out to us about those or any of the other things that we've talked about today, you can always do that by emailing us at Happy Life pod@gmail.com. Yes.

Stephen:

You can also get in touch with us on the socials, whether that is Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter at Happy Life Pod. And until next time,

Steve:

everybody stay, stay happy.