I am loving every second of CCoD and as someone who grew up in Medford, OR can someone explain how Manhattan-born Los Angeles resident Brennan Lee Mulligan knows so much about the Rogue Valley?
Like its eerie. How many I-5 road trips north have you done man. Are the Douglases and/or the Whittakers (can't keep track of who owns what) envious of the two giant hilltop castles on Medford's skyline that are mega-sized retirement homes? The IRL businesses that are absolutely notorious for requiring residents to sign over their remaining life savings and property in advance to secure admittance?
(Medford is also very full of retirement homes; when we moved there in the 90s the Rogue Valley was sometimes called by locals "Where California Comes to Die". But Medford is not dying because it turned out to be pretty good wine country and theyve been starting up a bunch of vineyards for way cheaper than Napa.)
Also the two italian restaurants were*, in fact, Olive Garden and Vinny's, the latter of which was right in the middle in my parents' bougie half-gated suburban retirement neighborhood and we were pretty convinced it was a mafia front.
Also the dig about the Rogue river** not being a real river like the Hudson or the Mississippi, man come on lol.
Yeah that sure as hell ain't the Mississippi.
(And if you're curious, the closest IRL equivalent to Purpee is maaaaybe Ashland?(tho Ashland is viewed as a hippy liberal college town by So. OR standards).
✅️ First town on the I-5 over the CA border
✅️ Medford is 15 miles up the freeway.
✅️ Has the only University for hundreds of miles (SOU).
✅️ Has an annual festival that draws a lot of tourist traffic (Shakespeare Festival).
✅️ Sleepy retirement/college town vibes hiding a dark history (was a big Klan base in the Jim Crow days. Siobhan was not exaggerating at all; the PNW states were absolutely founded by butthurt post-Civil War white supremacists. Rogue Valley had sundown towns until 1969.)
✅️ I feel like Ashland would absolutely elect a dog for mayor if they could.
*I havent been back since my dad passed so idk what the pandemic changed but the wine money was definitely improving the restaurant scene. There was actual good sushi. Maybe there are 3 or 4 italian restaurants now. MEDFORD HAS AN IN-N-OUT FOR CHRISSAKES WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT GUYS.
**Unless that was supposed to be Bear Creek but that's probably too narrow and shallow to crawl along the bottom of for miles lmao.
