I made a post on tumblr earlier today that I am basically just gonna paste here, because tumblr is very transitory and the forum is very searchable and I think this is something I want to be able to find again in the coming months/years just to have a definite sign of when it felt like Phil's shift from reserved with Dan/within himself to - well, to the Phil we saw playing golf today.
I think in part [Phil seeming more laid back lately] is humor and general relaxation and in part he’s testing a lot of boundaries with Dan on camera, which is interesting because I don’t think Dan actually knows how to respond to Phil being sweet or cute with him in a way that there’s no immediate punchline back for. Like the card game part of the liveshow; Phil volunteering that he’d pick Dan as his sidekick, Phil volunteering what Dan does first thing in the morning (which is pick out clothes, which presumes that Phil is in there before Dan is wearing clothes in order to know that it’s what Dan does first). Plus: Phil shaking Dan and leaving his hands on Dan while he’s talking, Phil petting Dan’s shoulder saying his sweater feels like a teddy bear, Phil telling Dan to get cozy with the inflatable costume while Phil is basically snuggling it.
(Honorable mention examples: Phil talking about how much he paid for snacks at the movie and including that he paid for Dan’s, Phil talking about how they always get burgers for the Walking Dead premiere. Both of those seem like things he might have shared, but it would have been the isolated moment, the one bit of domestic cuteness we got the entire liveshow, with all other detail on lockdown. In this show, in this exchange between them, it felt like just things being shared with no consideration for how obvious it makes it that they do literally everything in their life together. Hence: not groundbreaking, but comfort.)
And in addition, things that don’t relate specifically to Dan but still seems like Dan floundered with and wasn’t sure how to react to: Phil denying that Sarah Michelle Gellar made teen!Phil quiver (Phil’s response to Dan saying that was: “Buffy. Just the show, in general.”) and Phil saying that Blade Runner was gonna give him more Ryan Gosling dreams.
None of these things are, imo, things that two years ago or even a year ago (as we come upon the cusp of the anniversary of our holy day, Halloween baking) Phil would have actually felt remotely comfortable doing or expressing on camera. So yeah, his humor itself is definitely ramping up to a new level of comfort but I think it’s far more interested all the other ways in which he’s become more laid back.
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my original post)