Literally will never recover from the character Jon Sims. Cursed by spiders from age 8. Acted skeptical of horrific entities while fighting said entities. Tried to cut off his own finger repeatedly. Partook in an enemies-to-lovers romance in which only he believed them to be enemies. Short. Kidnapped at least 3 times. Surrounded by queer women who are constantly threatening to kick his ass. No understanding of pop culture. Possessed by a purveyor of apocalyptic beat poetry. Said the first “I love you” in the show, directed at a cat that was biting him. Called a merry-go-round “thrilling.” Metaphysically disassembled anyone who was mean to his boyfriend. Said “good lord” unironically. Asked a murderous Russian clown why she didn’t sound Russian. He was even bi
And ace! And he was neglected as a child, and he found the idea that his grandmother thought he might like to read picture books when he was eight years old insulting, and he was bullied, and he could never read more than one book from the same author, and he eats rum raisin ice cream, and he knows what a meme is, and he start going grey before he hit 40, and and and…
He’s such a plethora of things. We spent 200 episodes with him so we know a great deal about him, but we’ll never know it all. He’s one of the most fleshed-out, well-developed characters I’ve ever encountered in any piece of media or literature. Most novels I’ve read don’t contain quite so many personal details about the protagonist.
The culminating effect of all the minutiae we learn about Jon, and all the experiences we as the audience endure alongside him, is that TMA evokes in its audience an unmatched feeling of verisimilitude. Jon seems more authentically human, more real, to the audience (or to me at least) than most characters I’ve encountered in literature, television, or even other audio dramas. Because our focus character is Jon, and Jon is such a convincing facsimile of a real person, the whole fictional world he occupies is more easy to immerse oneself in than it would be otherwise.
Of course, that phenomenon can’t be solely attributed to the authenticity of Jon’s character, both in terms of writing and performance. But I would argue that it’s a major factor.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. All this to say I too will literally never recover from the character Jon Sims