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The gesture of Anthony taking Kate to her homeland was beautiful but after the trauma with Violet giving birth to Hyacinth I can't see him undertaking such a long journey with his heavily pregnant wife. Even without that traumatic backstory it makes no sense.
A better plot point would be to take her to Aubrey Hall or another property they own and bring Mary, Edwina and an Indian midwife to be with her and teach him the culture.
They can also use this to explain away their absence in S4 if that's what they were aiming for.
It seems like they’ve just been throwing that away because “oh Benedict can do it” as if Anthony’s whole character arc hasn’t revolved around his commitment to his duty and responsibilities.
Yep as soon as he said let’s go to India I knew for season 4 it be
“Where’s Anthony and Kate?” “Oh they’re in India”
“Where’s Simon and Daphne?” “They fell off the face of the Earth”
If someone said “oh they went to Paris for vacation” or “oh she’s bedridden because of a pregnancy and he wants to be with her” or even “they got abducted by aliens they should be back by Christmas” I’d be fine with it
OMG right? The new showrunner had to explain that it would have been awkward to address why Daphne and Simon were missing. She literally has no idea what she's doing. The whole point of her job is to make sure that no one has questions about the story. 😭
Did Phoebe not want to come back or did they just write her out because Rege wasn't there? I would prefer to have a Simon-less Daphne than no Daphne at all. She added a lot to S2!
Oh my God, yes. Not a single peep from Daphne at all in S3. Once Simon's actor left, her character was going to go downhill from that point. S2's excuse was that he was busy at their estate and they now have a baby, and that's why she was hardly seen. But saying that same thing for S3 would've gotten annoying real fast.
Feels like a weird plot point to explain their absence at Francesca’s wedding. I think maybe they thought it would make less sense for him to leave to go to the country when there’s a family wedding coming up, but if they want to get to India in time they have to leave ASAP? Either way, it’s fully a forced plot point because Jonathan Bailey was working on Wicked and couldn’t film as much for Bridgerton.
It makes no sense other than to explain JB has other commitments. It is dumb that they left right before Francesca's wedding. He is the VIscount Bridgerton! He should be there for Francesca's wedding
We need to go RIGHT NOW. There won't ever be another chance!!!
Like dude, really?? I rolled my eyes so hard at this, he's like simping just to get some kudos from her. It's no simple trip by carriage, it's not like a plane which doesn't exist yet Boy Bridgerton!
She's pregnant and it would take weeks or months to get there. It's very dangerous and it's a big part of why they wouldn't let women travel as much during those times. I didn't even know about Violet and Hyacinth and it still struck me as stupid.
Not to mention, isn't be the estate manager for his family? Honestly I felt supremely annoying by him because he just seems like a lazy rich adult baby who's only goal in life is to get between Edwinas legs. He's utterly shallow and cringe, and basically spews out anything he thinks will get him sex again. It feels a lot like he just wants to get her as far away from any possible distracts so he can bang her again.
On the flip side, Kate is early in her pregnancy, and she’d be able to give birth with *her* mother and *her* sister nearby, which might give Kate a lot more comfort.
They have to sail all the way around Africa. She’s already showing so she is pretty far along. Once she gets there she will be about to give birth. And then traveling back with a baby? An absolutely ridiculous notion.
I don’t have the energy to break this down but also, if the baby is a boy, it’s the heir to the Bridgerton estate. IMO, that alone makes going to India that much more unrealistic.
From what we saw she's at least a couple months along. That trip would take about 6 months, and could be subject to truly terrible weather conditions. I don't think it's very feasible that they'd make it in time unless Bridgerton also moved up the building of the Suez Canal.
I think there's no need to keep discussing this, the showrunner literally said that it was a plot device to get them off screen in a semi-permanent way and bring them back if they could. It's really not deeper than that.
Even with that, they didn't need to make Kate pregnant yet. That was a choice. They could have waited for her to catch until right before their trip. That's what makes it poor writing, not that they had to write a couple off the show.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
https://preview.redd.it/lnibijhskj7d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92f2255d46cb21d69a53a5023e07d07d14e17944
Jess Brownell has said several times she didn't know what to do with K/A and she also said that they were almost done with S4 scripts, so it's obvious they won't be included. Maybe appearing in a wedding with the baby they decided to not show in S3 for some reason. So there's that.
ETA: Brownell also said when S3 started shooting that we were going to see Daphne again, so her "no" answer here has very little weight.
Ah. She’s going to single handedly tank this series. I’m very glad Kate and Anthony’s season was done before she came on board.
How do you not know what to do with the head of the family? Lol lunacy
When I saw that I wondered for a second if they forgot they don’t have planes to fly to India with. They would never make it and it would be an insane journey. And then he’s the man of the house and he’s gone for maybe a whole year at least. And then his mom won’t be able to see the grandbaby.
None of that made sense to me.
Eloise spending every season complaining about the injustices women face and how badly she wants to change things but as soon as a close friend asks for her help to escape marital r*pe, her response is ‘if I could scream at your parents, i would’? And then she CUTS HER OFF?? It’s even worse when you remember Eloise told Penelope that Cressida was the only person who would speak to her after LW damned her. And that’s how she repayed her??
Complete character assassination right there.
I hated that **so much**!!!
Eloise is constantly being hailed as such a good, true, and loyal friend. Then she was absolutely horrible to Cressida in her greatest time of need.
This season really made me feel for Cressida and her rather dire situation. She was a desperate young woman with a cruel father, and a mother who was willing to abandon her in a heartbeat t to save herself. She's about to be sold off to a disgusting old man, or shipped out of the country to be abused by a distant relative. All of her options were absolutely ***terrible***, and yet any time she tried to confide in Eloise about any of it, Eloise's mind was elsewhere.
"Sorry, my mind was elsewhere"
"Why don't you just let Pen have Debbling? You're gonna ruin *her* chance at ~~happines~~ settling for someone who isn't absolutely repulsive"
"Sorry, I just can't do this today"
"If I could scream at them, I would. Sowwy"
"How dare you take credit for Pen's accomplishments!! You have no right to save both her and yourself like this! Just go suffer!"
I swear I was ***screaming*** at Eloise in those moments. Her treatment of her "good friend" was absolutely horrible!
I think this is another part of why I just couldn't be happy for Penn. Everyone acted like her character suffered all the greatest injustices and woe is me bs. They almost turned into one dimensional goobs either obsessed with their partner or trying to prop pen up in some way.
They ruined Eloise's character. They made Penn savior and gave her all the best happy everything even after the horrible crap she said and put everyone through. And Penn all but ditches Eloise anyway and Eloise was 100% on point that Penn was using her for Colin.
I've known girls like this who act like their whole life is a travesty, meanwhile they live in wealth, talk sht about everyone and routinely use their friends for information and ditch them for any guy that pays them attention.
Everyone forgot all the stunts Penn pulled as Whisledown apparently. She all but ruined ppls lives. I expect she would leave Colin and move away in the end to choose her career even tho I know the book didn't end that way.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but really Pen going on and on about how it was not just gossip but made her feel seen. Like there were enough and more female authors at that time period doing amaazing things and getting published and having s career wihtout hurting so many people in the process. She's like oh LW is me, it's my voice, well in that case Pen you're just a nasty little b....
That is why I don't get why she didn't want to write novels. They could have made that into a segueway - she didn't feel confident in herself to do anything else, so she started writing gossip/something low effort (vs the effort of plotting and writing a novel).
Otherwise it just seems like they had her interested in writing because Colin and because she likes to tear people down. Her speech at the end was ridiculous. She acts as though she didn't know what she was doing, but the point was that SHE DID.
I’d like to see Eloise’s season - this same season and how distracted she is. She’s losing her brother. She has a weird friendship with C. She is sad about not being an old maid with Pen even though she’s not friends with Pen. She is secretly writing to her cousin’s widow and is planning an escape to *maybe* marry him. She’s got a lot going on internally while season 3 is happening.
The *only* thing they have in common is difficult families. Why would they become friends when Cressida spent years bullying Penelope? We can certainly sympathize with Cressida's situation, but that doesn't erase the way she treated Penelope for years. I do agree that Eloise was a terrible, flaky friend to Cressida in part 2, and it was frustrating to watch after the show developed an interesting dynamic between them in part 1. It just seemed like a lazy way for the show to push Cressida back into the villain role and have Eloise and Pen be best friends again.
This! Yes, THANK YOU! People are "simping" over Cressida, they seem to have forgotten how atrociously she has *always* treated Pen. Always. Still treated her awfully even after she married Colin. As someone who has been bullied, I take that personally, so sod Cressida, hope she marries a Mr Collins type of man in Wales lmao
It's funny how people went from "how dare Eloise be friends with Cressida after the way she bullied Penelope?" to "how dare Eloise abandon Cressida for Penelope?" I get that our perspective of Cressida changed, but there's such a lack of nuance in the way people view characters. Eloise in particular can't do anything right, and she's a bad, fake feminist because she's not up to date with 21st century feminist sensibilities. It's not like her reputation was ruined when she actually tried to venture out of her bubble and learn more.
Does Eloise actually know what sex (and by extension, rape) is? Sure, she gets that it's a horrid fate to be married to a much older man (which is normalised for older members of the ton), and that alone is enough to warrant your comment.
Eloise and Penelope’s unawareness of sex is also a plot hole in itself.
Penelope can create an entire empire from her bedroom without anyone knowing and she didn’t read one steamy book? Eloise SMOKES with Benedict yet never once asked him how babies are made when her sisters and brothers have children?
Imagine if the ton knew that LW, the ‘powerful’ columnist who could shift the entire tons’ opinions of each other in seconds, thought babies came from cake💀
Eloise asks in S1 when she finds out Marina (though she thinks it is a servant at that point) is pregnant out of wedlock. She specifically says she thought it was impossible without marriage.
Colin cheekily asks her if she’s ever been to a farm. Benedict immediately leaves the room with him because Violet gets upset. Regency era women were purposefully not taught about sex hence the “inserts himself? Inserts himself WHERE?” Comments from Portia’s other daughters. In the books, Francesca and Eloise try to get more info out of Daphne but considering Daphne was missing this season there was no one to ask.
I completely understand the mindset of that era but like I said, the plot hole is that Penelope and Eloise are both regarded as intelligent beyond their age AND bookworms AND rebellious? Surely they would’ve stumbled upon the meaning of sex at some point?
Whereas Daphne was written to be naive/sheltered and Portia was written to be stupid so it makes sense for them ahaha
Not with books. There was no similarly easy access to books that were not proper for girls. But I am pretty sure that at least Pen should have figured out there is something more. It is unlikely she missed scandals of pregnancy out of wedlock with her ability to hear and see gossip. Not necessarily how conception or sex specifically worked but that there is something more to it than cake.
To me that felt somewhat in line with what Eloise was being set up to be? Which IMO was a foil for the stereotypical feminist character who the writers unintentionally make uphold the very same principles and ideas that oppress women. She spends a lot of time complaining about the injustices that only will really affect her, but some of them tend to be commentary on injustices women face as a whole. But whenever she has an opportunity to truly befriend and listen to women, she in turn shames their interests and displays a self centered sort of appearance, especially when it won't benefit her in any way. She's never really shown supporting women, just going against things that affect *her* personally that *she* doesn't want to do. (As Penelope said, she always talks about these great things but never acts on them.)
What I think (and hope,) is going to happen is that in her season, or a season that's more about her, she will probably realize this and in turn grow as a person and as a feminist to be more - I don't want to say intersectional because it's not that, but I guess more 'actually feminist'? So she will expand her feminism to be more about women, instead of just about her.
She is absolutely not a girl’s girl and she was getting on my nerves this season! And I say that as someone who loves the idea of Eloise. She was such a bad friend to Cressida, she didn’t explain to Colin that she’s the one who told Penn not to tell him about LW after her illness, and I personally cringed so hard when she was hating on the embroidery ladies. 0/10
They did Eloise so dirty this season. Every character turned annoying and insipid to make Pen look better I guess.
I feel like Eloise whose biggest fear is being married let alone it not be someone of her choice would feel sympathy for Cressida.
Also, at one point she says she's being ignored all season. Like....?? Since when does she care about romance and getting attention? At least she was right in the showrunner ignoring her.
You are so right! They totally undermined other characters to make Penelope look better. They made characters inconsistent and bent things in unbelievable ways to reconcile the audience with Penelope.
My biggest complaint about the show is how surface level the feminism is. The only person who had to marry someone they didn’t like was Cressida and everyone else married someone they fell in love with. They gloss over a lot of the issues women faced back then. Not to mention them not even discussing intersectionality in any way, shape or form.
The Mondrich plot.
The entire thing could’ve been resolved by the husband simply hiring people to run the establishment. End of story.
No need for him to sell the place. Wealthy people sometimes have businesses that they themselves aren’t actually working in or managing on a daily basis.
Every time the Mondriches mentioned that club, I was like “why?”. Why is this even a storyline?
Especially because I thought a key point of their plot was to find a solution where he kept his business where he worked and put hard work, blood and sweat into it, mirroring Penelope’s struggle to give up LW and then he just gives it up and great everyone’s happy?
I think we were meant to draw some parallels between Pen, the Mondrichs, and Debling in that these are all people who don’t quite fit into the conventional society of the Ton. And throughout the season we should’ve seen how these individuals balance their own personal desires with the duties that come from being part of the nobility.
The problem is the writing wasn’t very good, so none of these characters got a satisfactory resolution at the end.
Debling isn’t even featured in part 2. Mondrich sells the club. And we get whatever that was with Colin/Pen.
My husband’s take on this is that the Mondrich storyline would be really interesting if explored in depth as a separate show altogether, but as is it’s just half-assedly shoehorning a few scenes into a much larger overall plot, and as a result it falls flat.
Seems like the Mondriches are the solution to the Simon and Daphne are missing problem. They fill a gap and give the bridgerton brothers someone to confide in. They were at Francesca’s family-only wedding! That shows you that the writers have given them very high status with the bridgertons - even though they only met Will a few years ago.
For a split second I thought maybe lady whistledown was going to somehow buy the club so she could have a place to hear everyone’s secrets 😂😂😂 lmao I was desperately trying to figure out WHY it was all included! Where are we going with this?!? 😂
Now that’s interesting! Imagine having a female own the men’s club, but in secrecy of course. So much tension and drama could come for that. That’s the kind of scandal that could result in the Mondrich’s losing all their fortune and status if found out. And for LW, all the gossip would be coming from the men, so we’d get interesting viewpoints. Oh man I wish you were a writer that would have been such a cool idea.
Oh my God, thank you. This was such a non-problem. All he had to do was literally not BE SERVING HIS PEERS ALCOHOL EVERY NIGHT BEHIND THE BAR! Infuriating.
Just…. The whole season. Lazy writing throughout the entire thing.
Specifically, I did not appreciate or enjoy Lady Tilly’s “pro gay” speech. I loved the sexual exploration plot (I personally think it was poorly executed, but I like that they included it for Benedict FINALLY), but her weird virtue signaling “love between two people, even of the same sex, is always beautiful” (paraphrasing) was just regurgitated and vapid lines we’ve heard before.
If we are going to include something like this in a regency era show, can we make it…. Poetic, dynamic, and layered? It just felt so empty and like a print on targets pride month line.
I think you’re the first person I see writing that they also thought the Benedict being bi storyline was poorly done. I didn’t even really see it as him exploring his sexuality. He was more so talked into a threesome. Surely there were better ways to make him realise he’s bisexual.
And to be very clear, I don’t at all mind Benedict being bi. It’s been hinted at since season 1. Just think they could have done a much better job instead of reducing his bisexuality to being horny.
That was exactly how I felt. I was excited to see them get into this story line, but once we were there I actually felt kind of uncomfortable because I didn’t see any attraction between him and this guy until Tilly made it known that a threesome would make her happy.
It just felt like he was doing something to please his partner- which is fine if everyone is consenting, but it wasn’t at all an empowered discovering-your-sexuality-moment for me.
Not to mention there was barely any interaction between him and the guy or anything to hint at something deeper than horniness. No tender moments, no nervousness from Ben even though he's literally just realised his attraction to men, no queer joy, nothing. Just kissing. It's pure lip service (pardon the pun) to queer relationships and I hope they deal with Fran and Michaela far better.
I personally would’ve loved for Benedict to go back to art school and meet a guy there maybe a fellow student or a model and you know they become friends and hang out and he slowly realises that he’s starting to develop feelings for him and then him coming to terms with that and like you know there’s the expectation of him being the second son still marrying and having kids carrying out his duties as “the spare” as it were and the struggle of that I think it could’ve been a really beautiful storyline about self acceptance and putting your happiness before the expectations of others and stuff
I didn’t like how it was built up as the most important thing in Benedict’s life. They just completely dropped his artistic pursuits. He wasn’t even in love, it was just a sexy time. And yeah, it was sexy, but did not need to be his entire plot line.
I agree. I think if you're going to introduce queer storylines, it behooves you to make sure you've done the best writing possible, as a safeguard. But the writing was pretty beginner for most of the season so maybe the showrunner isn't capable of more or doesn't think very highly of her audience.
Why did they make us empathize with Cressida in Part 1 only to make her the villain in part 2 (why didn't she marry Debling??) and then after Pen revealed herself, they didn't even follow up. Did she get exiled off to the country?! Who knows.
Also Colin's big plan to stop the blackmail was to... Go over there and ask nicely??
but i find it actually realistic though. colin is the most carefree brother (outside gregory, but gregory is not a grown up) with little to no responsibility in his life and with family support
They did him so dirty to show him overcoming his "hero complex" in the most OOC way possible and to find his role as "the man behind" Pen like you are telling me the man who is the most valued by his sister's, listens to Eloise rant about women's role in society 24/7 and bought her a feminist book in the 1800's would not have a clue?
I liked Cressida this season, even her ‘villain’ arc which made me feel sorry for her. She was so desperate not to marry a 75 year old and who wouldn’t do what they could to avoid that?
If I could have my way - I wish Pen, having found love with Colin, would be convinced by Eloise that Cressida wasn’t so bad, just insecure and scared, an outsider etc - some things which Pen would empathise with. She would then share some kind and wise words and encourage Cressida to ‘be herself’ as she knew Lord Debling wanted someone to have a conversation with about different topics and not someone like him. Let’s face it, Cressida certainly has a unique perspective. Lord Debling would appreciate this new side, and they would have one of those agreeable marriages, not necessarily love but safe. He could go on his trips and she could still be a part of society. Like imagine her style being influenced by her husband - ‘oh the feathers? They’re from an exotic bird. He sent them home with his last letter’. Like that would be their love language. It would work so well.
Instead we got an MIA Lord Debling and an abandoned Cressida. It made me so mad that these two could have found a mutually beneficial ending.
Colin's speech was so tone deaf. The girl needed the money, it's that simple, she wasn't doing it out of the sheer joy of ruining someone's life. And then revealing the secret had no consequence anyway. She would have been better off going to the queen directly and collecting that check. Just say "I pretended to be Lady Whistledown as a trick to lure her out, and it worked".
Cressida asking for 10k but then doubling the sum because Colin was that annoying ! such a terrible plot point, it's like they need to fill the episodes with air.
I simply don't understand how Penelope is still going to write gossip letters. The entire reason she was able to gather gossip was because no one knew she was gathering gossip. Now that everyone knows she gathers gossip, she is a literal walking red flag. If I was having a conversation that included secret info and I knew she was around, I would have my eye on her the whole time. It just makes no sense. I thought that it would show, while LW was her way of using her power, writing was her true passion, and she was going to reveal a more mature venture into novel writing or journalism.
I think they would have to do this and somewhat reckon the epilogue, because it would not make sense for her to be able to keep Whistledown. I honestly thought she was going to have a private confrontation with the Queen, with the Queen recognising that she is entertained by Whistledown and it will not be a problem to her for the moment at least.
I think that would have made more sense that it was only revealed to the Queen and not the whole ton, except they tried to do something with Cressida, whose character was also assassinated.
right?? They made her such a sympathetic villain just to ship her with her horrible aunt at the end, I felt so bad. My only hope it's that they are not done with her
Agreed. She loves romance novels, which was a format in its infancy at the time. Let her be a famous romance novelist. She and Colin can be each other's editors.
Benedicts threesome seemed like a way to show sexy times without having to show Polin's sexy times. Like they thought people wanted to see that instead.
I actually watched a really interesting TikTok yesterday where someone was analysing that Michaela scene. They interpreted it as: Michaela arrives to the conversation and assumes Eloise is John's wife, giving her a polite respectful glance. So she then directs all her flirty energy at Francesca, who she thinks must be John's wife's sister. When Francesca reveals herself to be John's wife, Michaela's facial expression subtly changes as she realises that this beautiful woman is off limits. It's subtle but I really like this interpretation! It would mean that John might have greeted Michaela in the hallway or something and not yet had a chance to point Fran out in the crowd.
I’m surprised this wasn’t recognized by most of the audience without needing a tiktok breakdown. I thought it was pretty obvious, but maybe people being upset that it’s Michaela and not Michael distracted them?
I think the public reveal of Lady Whistledown is one that bothers me a lot as a point in the plot.
When the ton finds out, everyone is like ‘nice 👍’ and apparently do not find Penelope to need to face any consequences. This show has tried to give this specific plot point 3 seasons to marinate and build up the stakes of the reveal and at the end paints her to be a hero of the people by writing gossip that has ruined reputations of many. When the show also highlighted that LW always reports ‘the truth’ hence she could not accept Cressida’s impersonation, I had to laugh. Because the gossip LW reported was often skewed and not rooted in truth.
It also makes it seem that the reactions of Eloise and Colin to initial LW reveal were unjustified because hey, everyone else including the Queen see her as a girlboss who knows how to write well.
I could go on but I find the entire LW plot to have ended by equipping Penelope with too much of plot armour.
About everyone being 'nice'. Well, there were butterflies lol. It was so genuinely funny to me that grown adults became distracted by this very important news by butterflies!? As if they were toddlers who just needed a different stimuli.
I loved colin's reaction to the LW reveal in the book, he wasn't angry like this but just worried about her safety and what would happen to her if everyone came to know. They should've stuck to that instead of wasting 2 episodes worth of polin content by colin being mad with pen.
And we've once again got our Queen Ex Machina at the end. Don't be mad at Pen, everyone! The Queen likes her, so everything she did was OK. No consequences today!
This season should have only been about Colin finding out and Lady Danbury getting the Queen to realize that an anonymous LW is more entertaining than no LW.
The Queen should tone down on her LW hunt and instead work on her match-making skills. Cause they suck.
What was the weird flower opening monstrosity at the mondrich's ball? Related, but I wanted to throw something everytime I saw the mondriches come on screen
The only thing I can think of is some metaphor for Pen not being a wallflower anymore. Now the flower is front and center and taking up the whole room? But even with that, the contraption was ridiculous and the metaphor had nothing to do with the scene itself…
The notion that the Queen would have been impressed by that was simply too much. The woman that had a wig with mechanical swans would be impressed by THAT. It took up most of the ballroom floor ffs. It was uninspired and tacky. I guess if you wanna give a sense of nouveau riche thats one way to do it.
It could have have been worse... could have opened and released doves to shit all over the place.
Despite all the terrible moments season 3 has, what's possibly my least favorite moment is how long we spent on Benedicts threesome. Pissed me off, soo bad. its kind of hard to like, enjoy this season for Penelope when it feels like she and Colin are a supporting character in their OWN SEASON!!!!!! Benedict has been fucking off and doing nothing ALL THREE SEASONS TOO!!!!
Someone commented once about how his storyline is about constantly finding freedom to do as he wants. And it’s like, how can you get any free-er at this point? You’ve been to art school, you can travel, are wealthy, you have no pressure to marry, there’s already an heir. Especially compared to the other characters who are actually pressured into lifestyles and relationships. Benedict has been doing whatever he wants this entire time this is not new or exciting or interesting.
They did the same thing to Colin in speech to Cressida. Regardless of Cressida’s personality or actions in her life thus far, was Colin really trying to say he knew exactly what she was going through? Their situations were NOTHING alike!
its super annoying because i absolutely love his actor & was excited for what they were setting benedict up to be but its so annoying to see him take up so much screentime while doing essentially what he always did but this time a little gayer
Yes.
The smallest thing annoys me the most.. Having the gossip paper continue with Peneleope writing it.
The book had her stop writing which is WHY she allowed the reveal (which Colin did, not a girlpower moment).
The Whistledown thing wasn't meant to continue, damn it, and it makes no sense for it to
And they didn’t *need* to continue LW! All they had to do to create a new, ongoing source of conflict in the ton was marry Cressida off to Debling. He’ll be gone all the time, and she’ll be there alone — rich, bored, and mean as ever — stirring up all kinds of trouble. I understand the writers wanting to make better use of Cressida now that her backstory has given her more depth and Jessica Madsen because she’s fantastic, but her arc in S3 did Bridgerton no favors in the long run. So much wasted potential.
The entire Kanthony plotline of them trying to conceive an heir, being sent off multiple times, only for the show to never show their baby on screen. We know Jonathan Bailey is a busy man but film their scenes first. Bridgerton was still his first priority amongst his other projects. Also, Kate does not need to he in every frame with Anthony. Let her do her own thing. She is an independent woman as we saw in S2. They should have used Simone more on her own with the Bridgerton siblings.
The LW reveal - no consequences at all? After scabdalizing the entire Ton for years and everyone is fine with it as the queen waves her hand and all is forgiven? She could have ruined women's lives. Men not so much. They always seem to recover.
Stop with the unnecessary love triangles. Two people can fall for each other without interference. If I see another love triangle for the sake of drama in the next seasons I'll riot.
Eloise and Cressida - storyline was going so well then it fell flat and hard. Eloise also abandoned that friendship way too fast to run back to Penelope.
Penelope and Colin - he fell too fast for her. One kiss and he was gone? How? Why? Show me in flashbacks. Bring us back to scenes from S1&2. Give us new scenes when they were kids.
What the heck was with that line from Colin, "you are Penelope Featherington, do not forget that"? Yaaaa... And? What's so special about being Penelope in this point of the season? It's not like he's saying she's Whistledown.
I'd like to see a male lead who's not a rake.
The fact that it took Cressida all of 2 seconds to find out who LW was, despite the Queen spending months (years?) and unlimited resources. Literally all she had to do was ask the printers haha
Okay so I maybe one of the only people who is not against Francesca being bi because tbh bridgerton show has changed the plotline from the books alot of times to show diversity and inclusivity. What I absolutely did not like though was how Francesca and John's whole storyline in the show is supposed to be about how love does not always have to be mindnumbingly passionate and fireworks and stuff. On the contrary, it can be peaceful and sweet and still be called a great love. Francesca literally fights her mother on this because their love doesn't fit Violet's previously known notions about love. And I loved it. But then the moment she sees John's cousin, Francesca turns into everything her mother said she would feel if she was in love. She is flustered and stuttering and everything. Which,for me, essentially negated all the speeches about peaceful love made by Francesca throughout the show and sort of demeaned her love for John. I did not like the double standards in her storyline at all.
Francesca’s excitement to see John on the way to the modiste and her genuine disappointment when he abruptly walks away. The sheet of music. All the things that show that actions without very many words are also a great way of showing someone how much you care. All thrown out the window for what???? Also Fran’s fight with Violet now literally means nothing.
I feel the same way! I loved how Francesca and John's relationship was portrayed in the first half of the season because I thought they were so sweet and just "got" each other, you know? I guess it's the nature of the show to lean into the dramatic aspects of the relationships, but the underlying tone of "John isn't right for Francesca because she isn't falling over herself like an idiot" throughout the second half of the season kind of ruined their storyline for me. I think it could've been a great moment of understanding between Violet and Francesca as they both readjust their notions of what true love feels like, but of course the writing would never do that.
Yes! Cressida, or Eloise, either could have been changed (from books) and written as really multidimensional queer characters. Fran was, for most of the season, telling a love story that wasn’t ‘screaming, fighting, and kissing in the rain. It was different and sweet, then they flipped it at the end of the season sacrificing the consistency of her story arc. It was sad because a more believable story arc could have been written for a queer character.
I’ve only watched the second part once, but I really didn’t enjoy Benedict’s arc at all. Season 1 did a much better job with his development. The free spirited people around him are like-minded and have similar passions. I really miss his artist friend (Granville?). That could’ve been a much better confidant for him to talk to about any emerging feelings and I’m sure people would’ve been happy to see him back. Tilly just felt forced to me. Benedict only seemed interested in her partner because he wanted to know if he too wanted to be with Tilly. And he wasn’t comfortable around him at first, “I occasionally dance at parties” I think is what he said about himself. Knowing Paul also loved the arts, they could’ve played into that more but it felt flat. The second they broached the idea of all being together he ran. We see him fiddle with the card and that’s pretty much all we get in terms of him contemplating, aside from Tilly’s speech. It didn’t feel genuine in Benedict really having these feelings, it felt more like people talking him into it and the Benedict deciding hey this is fun and me now! So many people inferred a bi/pan aspect of Benedict, and instead of incorporating it in a realistic way, it just felt cheapened and forced. I couldn’t believe there were serious moments of an episode that would just cut to his threesome. I would’ve loved moments of him grappling with losing art too, to show that still meant something to him and that he’s struggling giving it up, but alas, we just got silly Benedict drinking. Luke Thompson just wasn’t given good material this season.
Runner-ups for me include:
- Anthony’s heart warming intentions about learning Kate’s culture fall flat when you think about how he’s no longer affected by Violet’s traumatic birth with Hyacinth and he truly thinks taking his pregnant wife on a months-long voyage at sea is the best course of action
- Francesca’s aversion to her husband after they kiss. The whole lead up of them being like-minded and having this special bond just feels tossed aside. And instead of Michaela having the love at first sight reaction it’s Francesca, when she’s supposed to be very in love with John.
- Pen’s sisters just so HAPPEN to have girls and the babies all look the same age despite them being pregnant before her, and we don’t even get Polin’s baby name!
- Don’t even get me started on the fact that they sacrificed Lady Danbury and Pen’s friendship to bring in Marcus Anderson
- Polin just generally being sidelined in favor for the ensemble (I’m pretty neutral towards the Mondrich family, but I do find it odd that they introduced them to be Simon’s friends but he hasn’t appeared since Season 1. Like I understand they still live in the town and would continue to have lives but for them to be at the Kilmartin wedding and not Kathony? Come on)
Another thing is Lady Danbury and her brother's strained relationship. The way they built it up from their first scene I thought he had done something very nefarious and then it turned out be that her brother had ratted her out when he was 10 YEARS OLD. He did not force her to marry or anything. He probably was not even aware of her situation at that age.
For her to hold a grudge over that for so long was just unrealistic. I actually laughed when she communicates the reason for her disdain. Even Marcus was surprised. It felt like cheap writing.
You can really tell that Penelope is the favorite character in the writers' room in the way that they're willing to assassinate Eloise's character development by having her end her friendship with Cressida in a nonsensical way just so she can reconcile with Penelope. And then there's the fact that Penelope literally had no consequences after admitting she's LWD. Aside from taking a few hits to her self-esteem, girlie's plot armor thick as hell.
Edit: added a word
She literally gets EVERYTHING she’s wanted wrapped up in a neat bow at the end of the season. Without any repercussions whatsoever. The Featherington title drama also settled so neatly and a mother daughter relationship that’s been shit for most of Pen’s life if not all immediately fixed. FFS
I can't totally explain it but I just did not buy that Colin loved Penelope. I did not see it in his actions at all. Was he sexually attracted to her this season? Yes. Did he love her? I didnt really see it. And i felt bad for Penelope, because she so deserves someone who actually truly loves her and doesn't just tolerate her in his life.
Same. By the end it felt like he married her out of duty and loyalty, not love. Like he felt responsible for her fate and realized it was better to marry a friend he knows and has history with than take a risk on some rando. It all felt so forced to me. The sex scenes honestly gave me the ick.
Exactly. First of all they have Pen forgive him in half a second for his comments at the end of the previous season. And they’ve barely shown the foundation for their friendship or even how much he regrets his earlier comments and now we’re supposed to believe he can’t live without her.
His whole dialogue to Eloise stating she’s lucky to not have been in love. My dude, are you???
Season 3 had already wrapped filming by the time the strike started, which means actual humans were writing the crap we all watched last weekend. I think that’s even worse. :/
Colin confronting Cressida gave me so much embarrassment 😭 like it was a bad idea from the start but when he did the speech about family is love I just 🥹 that really turned me off from the whole series unfortunately.
If I had to guess, I'd say the script got a lot of rewrites because "marketing/producers/audience tests/feedback analysis/let's take more risks this time" and it turned into this combination of approaches that resulted in the piece losing its central idea and all the key elements that hold the plot together. Mine is everything Colin-related: how he ran ahead of Penelope from the carriage to the house, leaving her alone, how he announced the engagement to his family also all alone with Penelope by the door, and he only said one sentence there; when he caught Penelope, his monologue was meh and he just left her there? It was a good opportunity for an angry hookup. Overall Penelope-Colin relationship was sidelined and the story was told from Penelope's point of view pretty much and Colin was an afterthought there, she didn't seem too heartbroken that the relationship was falling apart, same for Colin. Instead of the LW business being the central conflict of a romantic relationship it turned into the central conflict for a long list of people, of which Colin was like 5th or 6th at best. If I wanted to watch a social or political drama, I'd go elsewhere, thankyouverymuch. We were promised a lighthearted romantic story with completely overcome-able obstacles and that's not what we got.
Rare case of Bridgerton being historically accurate; Scottish nobles were often raised and educated to speak with English accents. The Stirlings in the book actually spent much of their time in London.
I didn’t like Anthony taking Kate home to India while she’s pregnant and then presumably coming back to England with an infant. I understand JB was and probably will be busy filming other projects but it seems very strange that he’s willing to risk his pregnant wife and their unborn/newborn child that way.
The Mondrich plot went precisely nowhere. I love them but I truly do not get what they were trying to do with them, or why (if there was some sort of point to it) their nobility plot couldn’t have been in s4.
I also don’t understand why Marcus and Violet’s story started in this season when they were also already diving into Frannie and John and exploring Ben’s bisexuality.
Also, I really didn’t like that we ended the season by hopping forward to Polin’s baby. It happened too fast and there was such a short period of reconciliation that it just gave me whiplash. That was another thing I think could have been saved as a small side plot in a future season.
Anthony and Kate’s decision to go to India while Kate is pregnant is probably the one that felt really immersion breaking to me, but I think most of the issues I had with this season could have been solved by pushing some of these plots to next season or later and giving Pen and Colin just a few more romantic moments, or even just longer versions of some of the scenes we got.
For me it just wasn’t enough Colin and Pen (not fighting). They did so great in the press tour and I feel they cut out some very important scenes and I was so disappointed. Like I couldn’t have given less of a shit about Benedict’s 3 some, I could have guessed in season one that he was out sleeping with anything with a pulse man/women or otherwise, it wasn’t important. Give me more of the love story we have been waiting for for THREE seasons.
Honestly the costumes going from “stylized 1820s” to some weird retro futuristic steam punk thing.
Pen waffles between looking like she’d be singing in a jazz club and looking like Jessica rabbit. Eloise went from “proto-suffragette” to dressing like she actually teleported to 1890 and is one. Cressida…..well she looks like she’s going to announce the lottery in district 12.
The whole mechanical flower box opening up in the middle of the floor at the ball didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t get how everyone was suddenly so wowed…being wowed by zebras in 2nd season made more sense than that scene
Not a plot point or dialogue, but I absolutely dislike the makeup. Especially Penelope and Francesca's. They both have beautiful profiles and their makeup is so modern and layered thick on like an IG makeup influencer. I particularly disliked Pen's makeup on her wedding. What's up with that thick blush that looked like the artist forgot to blend it.
I think the asking for he name was a plot device used to show the parallels between Francesca stumbling over saying her own name and Violet earlier telling her that meeting Edmund made her forget her own name (or something like that, don't quote me on that)
Oh definitely why it went that way but GOD not only did it completely undermine her marriage to John (and her reaction to the kiss too) but it also just played off as rude.
It also undermines Violet finally understanding that there are different kinds of love and reactions to love.
Bothers me so much. I guess they didn’t anticipate the articles and widespread appreciation for a TV show finally showing a different kind of love than fireworks-and-drama. That’s the thing, they actually did a good job making Francesca and John’s story very sweet and unique and then instantly sullied their own work! Bizarre.
Anthony and Violet, previously having had a very intense mother son relationship due to the trauma they shared, and then the whole viscount/man of household but still son to his loving mother push and pull, barely interacted this season ESPECIALLY WHEN ANTHONY DID REACT TO LORD MARCUS “he oversteps” but Kate soothed him over with some cringy fluff and that was that. No meaningful Bridgerton conversation between the mother and son on a show called Bridgerton. I get that it was Colin’s season and he got a mom talk, but Anthony and Violet’s relationship had been a focal point since season one and deserved a bit more especially now that Violet was entering into a new phase of her life.
The lack of traditional romance novel themes and ambiance created in the writing. Previous seasons embodied this. The cinematography was an afterthought completely. I felt like I was watching a Thursday night prime time show, and not immersed into a world of romance and period pierce flare that most paperback romance novel readers look for. Another example of how the genre isn’t seen and appreciated on screen in the same way we appreciate it as readers. I wish that stayed on the screen this season.
I'm not a prude but how did we go from Anthony almost dueling Simon because Simon kissed Daphne to Colin Fingerton and Penetration Featherington finger banging and boning before marriage? With them being best friends, I cannot believe he would ever disrespect Pen like that by putting her into those situations. 😭
The new show runner ruined Bridgerton :-/
One of the things that I didn’t like was not exactly a dialogue, but Penelope running towards the direction of where the hot air balloon is going, instead of going sideways. Like guuurl??
The line that bugs in the most is Anthony's: what am I chopped liver?
That is such an American (East Coast-jewish) slang and to hear it in regency era takes me out every time.
The Michela was so random. I didn't read the books so I don't know the back story so they're weird gazing back and forth made no sense to me and I didn't understand. It was only until I was on Reddit that I understood about the cousin Michael and how now it's Michaela. It was just so random and weird and made no sense. Piss poor writing.
COLIN ACTING OUT OF CHARACTER like I understand him being mad but at least give me his POV so people would know why he is acting like that, but the one scene that got me was his conversation with Cressida, he basically explained everything that should’ve been explained in part 1.
In that conversation he explains why he come back, how much he missed Penelope, why he changed his personality which also explains how much it would’ve hurt him the fact that Penelope was LW. they put his most deep dive POV in a moment where People somehow know more about Cressida than him in the last Episode of the show.
So they simultaneously developed and underdeveloped his character in one conversation. Am I supposed to believe that Colin is the same guy who literally made a whole detailed plan to discover a jewelry scheme successfully in s2, the same guy that is actually the logic one from the ABC? Is that the same Colin who failed at protecting his wife by bringing his privilege to the convo?
Worst thing is people didn’t even pay attention to what he was explaining because in that same dialogue they also got him acting like he was so privileged, people end up sidings with Cressida 💀 like Colin is not Dumb. This is just Bad writing and bad storytelling
https://preview.redd.it/l00lv70cak7d1.jpeg?width=1068&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d854b2f771309215f3edb8d6892d689a1065025
I thought this whole scenario was stupid 💀
the tropey threesome with benedict now the fandom saying he is the one more prone to cheat, thank you for bringing back the stigma to bi people, jess. thankfully we can show we are faithful with sophie, hopefully, next season. a big f u to the showrunner.
Tilly and Benedict couch scene.
That makes sense and fits in a show set in this decade and only in a more romantic or coming of age show like Sex Education. They can pull that off. A regency show where homosexual acts can have you executed can't carry an "It's the most natural thing in the world." It can carry a "You don't harm anyone by doing it" or "I'm not going to inform the Gendarmerie"
That and the Whistledown reveal. Two seasons of drama revolving around her identity and why it must stay secret and then literally nothing happens.
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The gesture of Anthony taking Kate to her homeland was beautiful but after the trauma with Violet giving birth to Hyacinth I can't see him undertaking such a long journey with his heavily pregnant wife. Even without that traumatic backstory it makes no sense. A better plot point would be to take her to Aubrey Hall or another property they own and bring Mary, Edwina and an Indian midwife to be with her and teach him the culture. They can also use this to explain away their absence in S4 if that's what they were aiming for.
It made no sense in any way. His trauma, the dangers of child birth at the time, travelling ehile pregnant etc.
And he has a job. As a viscount he's in the parliament.
It seems like they’ve just been throwing that away because “oh Benedict can do it” as if Anthony’s whole character arc hasn’t revolved around his commitment to his duty and responsibilities.
And not to mention… looks like Benny’s busy with other activities to even have time to do Anthony’s job 😂😂
Yes the same thing Violet (and some fans from what I’ve seen) clowned Anthony for doing with Siena in season 1.
Good point - I’m not that well versed in the peerage and what it actually means so this is good information!
Yep as soon as he said let’s go to India I knew for season 4 it be “Where’s Anthony and Kate?” “Oh they’re in India” “Where’s Simon and Daphne?” “They fell off the face of the Earth”
I can't believe they didn't even write an excuse for why Daphne is missing.
If someone said “oh they went to Paris for vacation” or “oh she’s bedridden because of a pregnancy and he wants to be with her” or even “they got abducted by aliens they should be back by Christmas” I’d be fine with it
OMG right? The new showrunner had to explain that it would have been awkward to address why Daphne and Simon were missing. She literally has no idea what she's doing. The whole point of her job is to make sure that no one has questions about the story. 😭
Did Phoebe not want to come back or did they just write her out because Rege wasn't there? I would prefer to have a Simon-less Daphne than no Daphne at all. She added a lot to S2!
That really surprised me too. Especially since she missed the weddings of two of her siblings.
And especially when they even mentioned Edwina getting married.
Oh my God, yes. Not a single peep from Daphne at all in S3. Once Simon's actor left, her character was going to go downhill from that point. S2's excuse was that he was busy at their estate and they now have a baby, and that's why she was hardly seen. But saying that same thing for S3 would've gotten annoying real fast.
When I heard them talking about it (the 2nd time) I was like what a perfect setup to be lost at sea.
Blue Lagoon ~~2~~ 3: Bridgerton Edition Edit: til there's already a Blue Lagoon 2
The prequel to Tarzan
Blue Lagoon 3, in fact. There’s already a Blue Lagoon 2 lol.
They really can't because we are shown pen has a child at the end of the season. This means that Kate would have also delivered.
Right? So why isn’t that baby mentioned?
Feels like a weird plot point to explain their absence at Francesca’s wedding. I think maybe they thought it would make less sense for him to leave to go to the country when there’s a family wedding coming up, but if they want to get to India in time they have to leave ASAP? Either way, it’s fully a forced plot point because Jonathan Bailey was working on Wicked and couldn’t film as much for Bridgerton.
It makes no sense other than to explain JB has other commitments. It is dumb that they left right before Francesca's wedding. He is the VIscount Bridgerton! He should be there for Francesca's wedding
Yep. I would love to see some sort of episode with them in India though (understand it most likely won’t happen)
Actually I think it’s a setup to give them an excuse when IB can’t film as he’s quite busy for the beat year and a half.
We need to go RIGHT NOW. There won't ever be another chance!!! Like dude, really?? I rolled my eyes so hard at this, he's like simping just to get some kudos from her. It's no simple trip by carriage, it's not like a plane which doesn't exist yet Boy Bridgerton! She's pregnant and it would take weeks or months to get there. It's very dangerous and it's a big part of why they wouldn't let women travel as much during those times. I didn't even know about Violet and Hyacinth and it still struck me as stupid. Not to mention, isn't be the estate manager for his family? Honestly I felt supremely annoying by him because he just seems like a lazy rich adult baby who's only goal in life is to get between Edwinas legs. He's utterly shallow and cringe, and basically spews out anything he thinks will get him sex again. It feels a lot like he just wants to get her as far away from any possible distracts so he can bang her again.
Months. There’s no canal to take a shortcut.
Between Edwinas legs?
On the flip side, Kate is early in her pregnancy, and she’d be able to give birth with *her* mother and *her* sister nearby, which might give Kate a lot more comfort.
They have to sail all the way around Africa. She’s already showing so she is pretty far along. Once she gets there she will be about to give birth. And then traveling back with a baby? An absolutely ridiculous notion.
I don’t have the energy to break this down but also, if the baby is a boy, it’s the heir to the Bridgerton estate. IMO, that alone makes going to India that much more unrealistic.
It was a 6-month journey each way before the Suez Canal. Kate is having that baby on the boat.
From what we saw she's at least a couple months along. That trip would take about 6 months, and could be subject to truly terrible weather conditions. I don't think it's very feasible that they'd make it in time unless Bridgerton also moved up the building of the Suez Canal.
I think there's no need to keep discussing this, the showrunner literally said that it was a plot device to get them off screen in a semi-permanent way and bring them back if they could. It's really not deeper than that.
Even with that, they didn't need to make Kate pregnant yet. That was a choice. They could have waited for her to catch until right before their trip. That's what makes it poor writing, not that they had to write a couple off the show.
Oh shoot they said that? RIP season 3 Anthony was the best Anthony
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly. https://preview.redd.it/lnibijhskj7d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=92f2255d46cb21d69a53a5023e07d07d14e17944 Jess Brownell has said several times she didn't know what to do with K/A and she also said that they were almost done with S4 scripts, so it's obvious they won't be included. Maybe appearing in a wedding with the baby they decided to not show in S3 for some reason. So there's that. ETA: Brownell also said when S3 started shooting that we were going to see Daphne again, so her "no" answer here has very little weight.
Ah. She’s going to single handedly tank this series. I’m very glad Kate and Anthony’s season was done before she came on board. How do you not know what to do with the head of the family? Lol lunacy
When I saw that I wondered for a second if they forgot they don’t have planes to fly to India with. They would never make it and it would be an insane journey. And then he’s the man of the house and he’s gone for maybe a whole year at least. And then his mom won’t be able to see the grandbaby. None of that made sense to me.
Eloise spending every season complaining about the injustices women face and how badly she wants to change things but as soon as a close friend asks for her help to escape marital r*pe, her response is ‘if I could scream at your parents, i would’? And then she CUTS HER OFF?? It’s even worse when you remember Eloise told Penelope that Cressida was the only person who would speak to her after LW damned her. And that’s how she repayed her?? Complete character assassination right there.
I hated that **so much**!!! Eloise is constantly being hailed as such a good, true, and loyal friend. Then she was absolutely horrible to Cressida in her greatest time of need. This season really made me feel for Cressida and her rather dire situation. She was a desperate young woman with a cruel father, and a mother who was willing to abandon her in a heartbeat t to save herself. She's about to be sold off to a disgusting old man, or shipped out of the country to be abused by a distant relative. All of her options were absolutely ***terrible***, and yet any time she tried to confide in Eloise about any of it, Eloise's mind was elsewhere. "Sorry, my mind was elsewhere" "Why don't you just let Pen have Debbling? You're gonna ruin *her* chance at ~~happines~~ settling for someone who isn't absolutely repulsive" "Sorry, I just can't do this today" "If I could scream at them, I would. Sowwy" "How dare you take credit for Pen's accomplishments!! You have no right to save both her and yourself like this! Just go suffer!" I swear I was ***screaming*** at Eloise in those moments. Her treatment of her "good friend" was absolutely horrible!
I think this is another part of why I just couldn't be happy for Penn. Everyone acted like her character suffered all the greatest injustices and woe is me bs. They almost turned into one dimensional goobs either obsessed with their partner or trying to prop pen up in some way. They ruined Eloise's character. They made Penn savior and gave her all the best happy everything even after the horrible crap she said and put everyone through. And Penn all but ditches Eloise anyway and Eloise was 100% on point that Penn was using her for Colin. I've known girls like this who act like their whole life is a travesty, meanwhile they live in wealth, talk sht about everyone and routinely use their friends for information and ditch them for any guy that pays them attention. Everyone forgot all the stunts Penn pulled as Whisledown apparently. She all but ruined ppls lives. I expect she would leave Colin and move away in the end to choose her career even tho I know the book didn't end that way.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but really Pen going on and on about how it was not just gossip but made her feel seen. Like there were enough and more female authors at that time period doing amaazing things and getting published and having s career wihtout hurting so many people in the process. She's like oh LW is me, it's my voice, well in that case Pen you're just a nasty little b....
That is why I don't get why she didn't want to write novels. They could have made that into a segueway - she didn't feel confident in herself to do anything else, so she started writing gossip/something low effort (vs the effort of plotting and writing a novel). Otherwise it just seems like they had her interested in writing because Colin and because she likes to tear people down. Her speech at the end was ridiculous. She acts as though she didn't know what she was doing, but the point was that SHE DID.
I’d like to see Eloise’s season - this same season and how distracted she is. She’s losing her brother. She has a weird friendship with C. She is sad about not being an old maid with Pen even though she’s not friends with Pen. She is secretly writing to her cousin’s widow and is planning an escape to *maybe* marry him. She’s got a lot going on internally while season 3 is happening.
Yep, that was ridiculous It would have been better for Penelope and Cressida to become friends, as they both have more in common/difficult families
The *only* thing they have in common is difficult families. Why would they become friends when Cressida spent years bullying Penelope? We can certainly sympathize with Cressida's situation, but that doesn't erase the way she treated Penelope for years. I do agree that Eloise was a terrible, flaky friend to Cressida in part 2, and it was frustrating to watch after the show developed an interesting dynamic between them in part 1. It just seemed like a lazy way for the show to push Cressida back into the villain role and have Eloise and Pen be best friends again.
This! Yes, THANK YOU! People are "simping" over Cressida, they seem to have forgotten how atrociously she has *always* treated Pen. Always. Still treated her awfully even after she married Colin. As someone who has been bullied, I take that personally, so sod Cressida, hope she marries a Mr Collins type of man in Wales lmao
It's funny how people went from "how dare Eloise be friends with Cressida after the way she bullied Penelope?" to "how dare Eloise abandon Cressida for Penelope?" I get that our perspective of Cressida changed, but there's such a lack of nuance in the way people view characters. Eloise in particular can't do anything right, and she's a bad, fake feminist because she's not up to date with 21st century feminist sensibilities. It's not like her reputation was ruined when she actually tried to venture out of her bubble and learn more.
Does Eloise actually know what sex (and by extension, rape) is? Sure, she gets that it's a horrid fate to be married to a much older man (which is normalised for older members of the ton), and that alone is enough to warrant your comment.
Eloise and Penelope’s unawareness of sex is also a plot hole in itself. Penelope can create an entire empire from her bedroom without anyone knowing and she didn’t read one steamy book? Eloise SMOKES with Benedict yet never once asked him how babies are made when her sisters and brothers have children? Imagine if the ton knew that LW, the ‘powerful’ columnist who could shift the entire tons’ opinions of each other in seconds, thought babies came from cake💀
Eloise asks in S1 when she finds out Marina (though she thinks it is a servant at that point) is pregnant out of wedlock. She specifically says she thought it was impossible without marriage. Colin cheekily asks her if she’s ever been to a farm. Benedict immediately leaves the room with him because Violet gets upset. Regency era women were purposefully not taught about sex hence the “inserts himself? Inserts himself WHERE?” Comments from Portia’s other daughters. In the books, Francesca and Eloise try to get more info out of Daphne but considering Daphne was missing this season there was no one to ask.
I completely understand the mindset of that era but like I said, the plot hole is that Penelope and Eloise are both regarded as intelligent beyond their age AND bookworms AND rebellious? Surely they would’ve stumbled upon the meaning of sex at some point? Whereas Daphne was written to be naive/sheltered and Portia was written to be stupid so it makes sense for them ahaha
Not with books. There was no similarly easy access to books that were not proper for girls. But I am pretty sure that at least Pen should have figured out there is something more. It is unlikely she missed scandals of pregnancy out of wedlock with her ability to hear and see gossip. Not necessarily how conception or sex specifically worked but that there is something more to it than cake.
Actually, there were several ladies magazines intended to be gifted to the bride before her wedding. They were surprisingly frank, for the most part.
I think it’s safe to say that the Bridgerton and Featherington household did not have them in circulation.
To me that felt somewhat in line with what Eloise was being set up to be? Which IMO was a foil for the stereotypical feminist character who the writers unintentionally make uphold the very same principles and ideas that oppress women. She spends a lot of time complaining about the injustices that only will really affect her, but some of them tend to be commentary on injustices women face as a whole. But whenever she has an opportunity to truly befriend and listen to women, she in turn shames their interests and displays a self centered sort of appearance, especially when it won't benefit her in any way. She's never really shown supporting women, just going against things that affect *her* personally that *she* doesn't want to do. (As Penelope said, she always talks about these great things but never acts on them.) What I think (and hope,) is going to happen is that in her season, or a season that's more about her, she will probably realize this and in turn grow as a person and as a feminist to be more - I don't want to say intersectional because it's not that, but I guess more 'actually feminist'? So she will expand her feminism to be more about women, instead of just about her.
She is absolutely not a girl’s girl and she was getting on my nerves this season! And I say that as someone who loves the idea of Eloise. She was such a bad friend to Cressida, she didn’t explain to Colin that she’s the one who told Penn not to tell him about LW after her illness, and I personally cringed so hard when she was hating on the embroidery ladies. 0/10
They did Eloise so dirty this season. Every character turned annoying and insipid to make Pen look better I guess. I feel like Eloise whose biggest fear is being married let alone it not be someone of her choice would feel sympathy for Cressida. Also, at one point she says she's being ignored all season. Like....?? Since when does she care about romance and getting attention? At least she was right in the showrunner ignoring her.
You are so right! They totally undermined other characters to make Penelope look better. They made characters inconsistent and bent things in unbelievable ways to reconcile the audience with Penelope.
This. But then after reflection on the season it makes sense. The writer/showrunner is just doing surface level feminism.
My biggest complaint about the show is how surface level the feminism is. The only person who had to marry someone they didn’t like was Cressida and everyone else married someone they fell in love with. They gloss over a lot of the issues women faced back then. Not to mention them not even discussing intersectionality in any way, shape or form.
The Mondrich plot. The entire thing could’ve been resolved by the husband simply hiring people to run the establishment. End of story. No need for him to sell the place. Wealthy people sometimes have businesses that they themselves aren’t actually working in or managing on a daily basis. Every time the Mondriches mentioned that club, I was like “why?”. Why is this even a storyline?
Especially because I thought a key point of their plot was to find a solution where he kept his business where he worked and put hard work, blood and sweat into it, mirroring Penelope’s struggle to give up LW and then he just gives it up and great everyone’s happy?
I think we were meant to draw some parallels between Pen, the Mondrichs, and Debling in that these are all people who don’t quite fit into the conventional society of the Ton. And throughout the season we should’ve seen how these individuals balance their own personal desires with the duties that come from being part of the nobility. The problem is the writing wasn’t very good, so none of these characters got a satisfactory resolution at the end. Debling isn’t even featured in part 2. Mondrich sells the club. And we get whatever that was with Colin/Pen.
My husband’s take on this is that the Mondrich storyline would be really interesting if explored in depth as a separate show altogether, but as is it’s just half-assedly shoehorning a few scenes into a much larger overall plot, and as a result it falls flat.
Seems like the Mondriches are the solution to the Simon and Daphne are missing problem. They fill a gap and give the bridgerton brothers someone to confide in. They were at Francesca’s family-only wedding! That shows you that the writers have given them very high status with the bridgertons - even though they only met Will a few years ago.
I would’ve rather gotten more Colin and Pen content than the Mondriches and seeing Benedict screw around with that Tilly woman every episode.
For a split second I thought maybe lady whistledown was going to somehow buy the club so she could have a place to hear everyone’s secrets 😂😂😂 lmao I was desperately trying to figure out WHY it was all included! Where are we going with this?!? 😂
Now that’s interesting! Imagine having a female own the men’s club, but in secrecy of course. So much tension and drama could come for that. That’s the kind of scandal that could result in the Mondrich’s losing all their fortune and status if found out. And for LW, all the gossip would be coming from the men, so we’d get interesting viewpoints. Oh man I wish you were a writer that would have been such a cool idea.
Oh my God, thank you. This was such a non-problem. All he had to do was literally not BE SERVING HIS PEERS ALCOHOL EVERY NIGHT BEHIND THE BAR! Infuriating.
I hated that they added the mondrich side story, it really didn’t add anything of value
I found it really sad that he had to sell the club when he clearly didn’t want to.
Just…. The whole season. Lazy writing throughout the entire thing. Specifically, I did not appreciate or enjoy Lady Tilly’s “pro gay” speech. I loved the sexual exploration plot (I personally think it was poorly executed, but I like that they included it for Benedict FINALLY), but her weird virtue signaling “love between two people, even of the same sex, is always beautiful” (paraphrasing) was just regurgitated and vapid lines we’ve heard before. If we are going to include something like this in a regency era show, can we make it…. Poetic, dynamic, and layered? It just felt so empty and like a print on targets pride month line.
I think you’re the first person I see writing that they also thought the Benedict being bi storyline was poorly done. I didn’t even really see it as him exploring his sexuality. He was more so talked into a threesome. Surely there were better ways to make him realise he’s bisexual. And to be very clear, I don’t at all mind Benedict being bi. It’s been hinted at since season 1. Just think they could have done a much better job instead of reducing his bisexuality to being horny.
That was exactly how I felt. I was excited to see them get into this story line, but once we were there I actually felt kind of uncomfortable because I didn’t see any attraction between him and this guy until Tilly made it known that a threesome would make her happy. It just felt like he was doing something to please his partner- which is fine if everyone is consenting, but it wasn’t at all an empowered discovering-your-sexuality-moment for me.
Not to mention there was barely any interaction between him and the guy or anything to hint at something deeper than horniness. No tender moments, no nervousness from Ben even though he's literally just realised his attraction to men, no queer joy, nothing. Just kissing. It's pure lip service (pardon the pun) to queer relationships and I hope they deal with Fran and Michaela far better.
Benedict went to ART SCHOOL there was so much potential for bonding over something they have in common!
I personally would’ve loved for Benedict to go back to art school and meet a guy there maybe a fellow student or a model and you know they become friends and hang out and he slowly realises that he’s starting to develop feelings for him and then him coming to terms with that and like you know there’s the expectation of him being the second son still marrying and having kids carrying out his duties as “the spare” as it were and the struggle of that I think it could’ve been a really beautiful storyline about self acceptance and putting your happiness before the expectations of others and stuff
Almost all of the dialogue in Part 2 was just so bad, as trite as a Hallmark card and as chaotic as if it had been written by ChatGPT.
I didn’t like how it was built up as the most important thing in Benedict’s life. They just completely dropped his artistic pursuits. He wasn’t even in love, it was just a sexy time. And yeah, it was sexy, but did not need to be his entire plot line.
It was also such a contrast to how touching the Granville story was in s1.
I agree. I think if you're going to introduce queer storylines, it behooves you to make sure you've done the best writing possible, as a safeguard. But the writing was pretty beginner for most of the season so maybe the showrunner isn't capable of more or doesn't think very highly of her audience.
i hated the threesome bringing back old tropes about us being only into threesomes and cheating. can't wait for sophie to stop that bs.
Why did they make us empathize with Cressida in Part 1 only to make her the villain in part 2 (why didn't she marry Debling??) and then after Pen revealed herself, they didn't even follow up. Did she get exiled off to the country?! Who knows. Also Colin's big plan to stop the blackmail was to... Go over there and ask nicely??
Lol. He thought he could mansplain loneliness to Cressida … 🤦🏽♀️
i wanted to smack him so hard during his speech
He was so condescending to her... :/ i felt bad for her and he was just an idiot...
but i find it actually realistic though. colin is the most carefree brother (outside gregory, but gregory is not a grown up) with little to no responsibility in his life and with family support
They did him so dirty to show him overcoming his "hero complex" in the most OOC way possible and to find his role as "the man behind" Pen like you are telling me the man who is the most valued by his sister's, listens to Eloise rant about women's role in society 24/7 and bought her a feminist book in the 1800's would not have a clue?
This seemed to me to be an adaptation of his book speech to Pen, in which she called him out on his privilege and mansplaining.
I liked Cressida this season, even her ‘villain’ arc which made me feel sorry for her. She was so desperate not to marry a 75 year old and who wouldn’t do what they could to avoid that? If I could have my way - I wish Pen, having found love with Colin, would be convinced by Eloise that Cressida wasn’t so bad, just insecure and scared, an outsider etc - some things which Pen would empathise with. She would then share some kind and wise words and encourage Cressida to ‘be herself’ as she knew Lord Debling wanted someone to have a conversation with about different topics and not someone like him. Let’s face it, Cressida certainly has a unique perspective. Lord Debling would appreciate this new side, and they would have one of those agreeable marriages, not necessarily love but safe. He could go on his trips and she could still be a part of society. Like imagine her style being influenced by her husband - ‘oh the feathers? They’re from an exotic bird. He sent them home with his last letter’. Like that would be their love language. It would work so well. Instead we got an MIA Lord Debling and an abandoned Cressida. It made me so mad that these two could have found a mutually beneficial ending.
I didn’t understand why Lord Debling just disappeared. He seemed interested in Cressida. I agree this would have been great.
Colin's speech was so tone deaf. The girl needed the money, it's that simple, she wasn't doing it out of the sheer joy of ruining someone's life. And then revealing the secret had no consequence anyway. She would have been better off going to the queen directly and collecting that check. Just say "I pretended to be Lady Whistledown as a trick to lure her out, and it worked".
Cressida asking for 10k but then doubling the sum because Colin was that annoying ! such a terrible plot point, it's like they need to fill the episodes with air.
Was valid though. He was that fucking annoying
They purposely punched Colin down for Pen's growth, I stand by it
Just, sacrificing characters for the sake of making Penelope look better.
They show her being sent away in the carriage so yes, she got sent off.
When Lady Danbury says “don’t come for my cane” Seriously! It’s such a modern turn of phrase, there’s no way she would have said that!
Yep, that was silly. I can forgive the chopped liver comment from Anthony but not this!
No chopped liver was the worst!!!
Chopped liver was the wurst?
Tilly telling Kate she throws a “helluva party” had a similar vibe. She’s a cool widow. She’s not like other widows.
I laughed so hard the first time I heard her say this, I had to rewind and make sure I heard correctly lol
I simply don't understand how Penelope is still going to write gossip letters. The entire reason she was able to gather gossip was because no one knew she was gathering gossip. Now that everyone knows she gathers gossip, she is a literal walking red flag. If I was having a conversation that included secret info and I knew she was around, I would have my eye on her the whole time. It just makes no sense. I thought that it would show, while LW was her way of using her power, writing was her true passion, and she was going to reveal a more mature venture into novel writing or journalism.
I think they would have to do this and somewhat reckon the epilogue, because it would not make sense for her to be able to keep Whistledown. I honestly thought she was going to have a private confrontation with the Queen, with the Queen recognising that she is entertained by Whistledown and it will not be a problem to her for the moment at least.
I think that would have made more sense that it was only revealed to the Queen and not the whole ton, except they tried to do something with Cressida, whose character was also assassinated.
right?? They made her such a sympathetic villain just to ship her with her horrible aunt at the end, I felt so bad. My only hope it's that they are not done with her
Agreed. She loves romance novels, which was a format in its infancy at the time. Let her be a famous romance novelist. She and Colin can be each other's editors.
Francesca introducing herself as Francesca Kilmartin. Like be fr 💀
pretty sure that was because she was really flustered
Why is that weird?
Because she's Francesca Stirling, Countess Kilmartin, her last name isn't Kilmartin it's her title.
Because her name would be Francesca Stirling, Countess of Kilmartin, not Francesca Kilmartin.
Benedicts threesome seemed like a way to show sexy times without having to show Polin's sexy times. Like they thought people wanted to see that instead.
AND WE DID NOT
Also, why were Nic and Luke’s sexy times so awkward? I feel like her acting is there but his wasn’t and the scenes were too long, the dialogue clunky
Polins sex scenes were beyond cringe. Weird for two people who have chemistry irl.
I actually watched a really interesting TikTok yesterday where someone was analysing that Michaela scene. They interpreted it as: Michaela arrives to the conversation and assumes Eloise is John's wife, giving her a polite respectful glance. So she then directs all her flirty energy at Francesca, who she thinks must be John's wife's sister. When Francesca reveals herself to be John's wife, Michaela's facial expression subtly changes as she realises that this beautiful woman is off limits. It's subtle but I really like this interpretation! It would mean that John might have greeted Michaela in the hallway or something and not yet had a chance to point Fran out in the crowd.
Yep that’s a good point
I’m surprised this wasn’t recognized by most of the audience without needing a tiktok breakdown. I thought it was pretty obvious, but maybe people being upset that it’s Michaela and not Michael distracted them?
I think the public reveal of Lady Whistledown is one that bothers me a lot as a point in the plot. When the ton finds out, everyone is like ‘nice 👍’ and apparently do not find Penelope to need to face any consequences. This show has tried to give this specific plot point 3 seasons to marinate and build up the stakes of the reveal and at the end paints her to be a hero of the people by writing gossip that has ruined reputations of many. When the show also highlighted that LW always reports ‘the truth’ hence she could not accept Cressida’s impersonation, I had to laugh. Because the gossip LW reported was often skewed and not rooted in truth. It also makes it seem that the reactions of Eloise and Colin to initial LW reveal were unjustified because hey, everyone else including the Queen see her as a girlboss who knows how to write well. I could go on but I find the entire LW plot to have ended by equipping Penelope with too much of plot armour.
About everyone being 'nice'. Well, there were butterflies lol. It was so genuinely funny to me that grown adults became distracted by this very important news by butterflies!? As if they were toddlers who just needed a different stimuli. I loved colin's reaction to the LW reveal in the book, he wasn't angry like this but just worried about her safety and what would happen to her if everyone came to know. They should've stuck to that instead of wasting 2 episodes worth of polin content by colin being mad with pen.
Tbf they were mesmerized by the lame ass contraption that takes up 30% of the floor at Mondrich's
And we've once again got our Queen Ex Machina at the end. Don't be mad at Pen, everyone! The Queen likes her, so everything she did was OK. No consequences today!
This season should have only been about Colin finding out and Lady Danbury getting the Queen to realize that an anonymous LW is more entertaining than no LW. The Queen should tone down on her LW hunt and instead work on her match-making skills. Cause they suck.
Okay thank you for thinking it was ugly because all I've seen for it is praise. It opened up and I couldn't stop laughing at how bad it looked.
What was the weird flower opening monstrosity at the mondrich's ball? Related, but I wanted to throw something everytime I saw the mondriches come on screen
The only thing I can think of is some metaphor for Pen not being a wallflower anymore. Now the flower is front and center and taking up the whole room? But even with that, the contraption was ridiculous and the metaphor had nothing to do with the scene itself…
At the very least I expected real flowers to come out of thay contraption, I'm not even sure if that was the plan and they ran out budget 😅
The notion that the Queen would have been impressed by that was simply too much. The woman that had a wig with mechanical swans would be impressed by THAT. It took up most of the ballroom floor ffs. It was uninspired and tacky. I guess if you wanna give a sense of nouveau riche thats one way to do it. It could have have been worse... could have opened and released doves to shit all over the place.
Benedict's pointless threesome.
Despite all the terrible moments season 3 has, what's possibly my least favorite moment is how long we spent on Benedicts threesome. Pissed me off, soo bad. its kind of hard to like, enjoy this season for Penelope when it feels like she and Colin are a supporting character in their OWN SEASON!!!!!! Benedict has been fucking off and doing nothing ALL THREE SEASONS TOO!!!!
Someone commented once about how his storyline is about constantly finding freedom to do as he wants. And it’s like, how can you get any free-er at this point? You’ve been to art school, you can travel, are wealthy, you have no pressure to marry, there’s already an heir. Especially compared to the other characters who are actually pressured into lifestyles and relationships. Benedict has been doing whatever he wants this entire time this is not new or exciting or interesting.
They did the same thing to Colin in speech to Cressida. Regardless of Cressida’s personality or actions in her life thus far, was Colin really trying to say he knew exactly what she was going through? Their situations were NOTHING alike!
its super annoying because i absolutely love his actor & was excited for what they were setting benedict up to be but its so annoying to see him take up so much screentime while doing essentially what he always did but this time a little gayer
Yes. The smallest thing annoys me the most.. Having the gossip paper continue with Peneleope writing it. The book had her stop writing which is WHY she allowed the reveal (which Colin did, not a girlpower moment). The Whistledown thing wasn't meant to continue, damn it, and it makes no sense for it to
And they didn’t *need* to continue LW! All they had to do to create a new, ongoing source of conflict in the ton was marry Cressida off to Debling. He’ll be gone all the time, and she’ll be there alone — rich, bored, and mean as ever — stirring up all kinds of trouble. I understand the writers wanting to make better use of Cressida now that her backstory has given her more depth and Jessica Madsen because she’s fantastic, but her arc in S3 did Bridgerton no favors in the long run. So much wasted potential.
The entire Kanthony plotline of them trying to conceive an heir, being sent off multiple times, only for the show to never show their baby on screen. We know Jonathan Bailey is a busy man but film their scenes first. Bridgerton was still his first priority amongst his other projects. Also, Kate does not need to he in every frame with Anthony. Let her do her own thing. She is an independent woman as we saw in S2. They should have used Simone more on her own with the Bridgerton siblings. The LW reveal - no consequences at all? After scabdalizing the entire Ton for years and everyone is fine with it as the queen waves her hand and all is forgiven? She could have ruined women's lives. Men not so much. They always seem to recover. Stop with the unnecessary love triangles. Two people can fall for each other without interference. If I see another love triangle for the sake of drama in the next seasons I'll riot. Eloise and Cressida - storyline was going so well then it fell flat and hard. Eloise also abandoned that friendship way too fast to run back to Penelope. Penelope and Colin - he fell too fast for her. One kiss and he was gone? How? Why? Show me in flashbacks. Bring us back to scenes from S1&2. Give us new scenes when they were kids. What the heck was with that line from Colin, "you are Penelope Featherington, do not forget that"? Yaaaa... And? What's so special about being Penelope in this point of the season? It's not like he's saying she's Whistledown. I'd like to see a male lead who's not a rake.
Yes!! And it wasn't flirty. It was rude! Without knowing where the books go, I just thought she was being rude
Thank you!!! It didn’t seem flirty to me at all!
The fact that it took Cressida all of 2 seconds to find out who LW was, despite the Queen spending months (years?) and unlimited resources. Literally all she had to do was ask the printers haha
The queen just has to put one guard near every printer shop. How many printer shops can there actually be?
Okay so I maybe one of the only people who is not against Francesca being bi because tbh bridgerton show has changed the plotline from the books alot of times to show diversity and inclusivity. What I absolutely did not like though was how Francesca and John's whole storyline in the show is supposed to be about how love does not always have to be mindnumbingly passionate and fireworks and stuff. On the contrary, it can be peaceful and sweet and still be called a great love. Francesca literally fights her mother on this because their love doesn't fit Violet's previously known notions about love. And I loved it. But then the moment she sees John's cousin, Francesca turns into everything her mother said she would feel if she was in love. She is flustered and stuttering and everything. Which,for me, essentially negated all the speeches about peaceful love made by Francesca throughout the show and sort of demeaned her love for John. I did not like the double standards in her storyline at all.
Francesca’s excitement to see John on the way to the modiste and her genuine disappointment when he abruptly walks away. The sheet of music. All the things that show that actions without very many words are also a great way of showing someone how much you care. All thrown out the window for what???? Also Fran’s fight with Violet now literally means nothing.
I feel the same way! I loved how Francesca and John's relationship was portrayed in the first half of the season because I thought they were so sweet and just "got" each other, you know? I guess it's the nature of the show to lean into the dramatic aspects of the relationships, but the underlying tone of "John isn't right for Francesca because she isn't falling over herself like an idiot" throughout the second half of the season kind of ruined their storyline for me. I think it could've been a great moment of understanding between Violet and Francesca as they both readjust their notions of what true love feels like, but of course the writing would never do that.
Yes! Cressida, or Eloise, either could have been changed (from books) and written as really multidimensional queer characters. Fran was, for most of the season, telling a love story that wasn’t ‘screaming, fighting, and kissing in the rain. It was different and sweet, then they flipped it at the end of the season sacrificing the consistency of her story arc. It was sad because a more believable story arc could have been written for a queer character.
I’ve only watched the second part once, but I really didn’t enjoy Benedict’s arc at all. Season 1 did a much better job with his development. The free spirited people around him are like-minded and have similar passions. I really miss his artist friend (Granville?). That could’ve been a much better confidant for him to talk to about any emerging feelings and I’m sure people would’ve been happy to see him back. Tilly just felt forced to me. Benedict only seemed interested in her partner because he wanted to know if he too wanted to be with Tilly. And he wasn’t comfortable around him at first, “I occasionally dance at parties” I think is what he said about himself. Knowing Paul also loved the arts, they could’ve played into that more but it felt flat. The second they broached the idea of all being together he ran. We see him fiddle with the card and that’s pretty much all we get in terms of him contemplating, aside from Tilly’s speech. It didn’t feel genuine in Benedict really having these feelings, it felt more like people talking him into it and the Benedict deciding hey this is fun and me now! So many people inferred a bi/pan aspect of Benedict, and instead of incorporating it in a realistic way, it just felt cheapened and forced. I couldn’t believe there were serious moments of an episode that would just cut to his threesome. I would’ve loved moments of him grappling with losing art too, to show that still meant something to him and that he’s struggling giving it up, but alas, we just got silly Benedict drinking. Luke Thompson just wasn’t given good material this season. Runner-ups for me include: - Anthony’s heart warming intentions about learning Kate’s culture fall flat when you think about how he’s no longer affected by Violet’s traumatic birth with Hyacinth and he truly thinks taking his pregnant wife on a months-long voyage at sea is the best course of action - Francesca’s aversion to her husband after they kiss. The whole lead up of them being like-minded and having this special bond just feels tossed aside. And instead of Michaela having the love at first sight reaction it’s Francesca, when she’s supposed to be very in love with John. - Pen’s sisters just so HAPPEN to have girls and the babies all look the same age despite them being pregnant before her, and we don’t even get Polin’s baby name! - Don’t even get me started on the fact that they sacrificed Lady Danbury and Pen’s friendship to bring in Marcus Anderson - Polin just generally being sidelined in favor for the ensemble (I’m pretty neutral towards the Mondrich family, but I do find it odd that they introduced them to be Simon’s friends but he hasn’t appeared since Season 1. Like I understand they still live in the town and would continue to have lives but for them to be at the Kilmartin wedding and not Kathony? Come on)
Another thing is Lady Danbury and her brother's strained relationship. The way they built it up from their first scene I thought he had done something very nefarious and then it turned out be that her brother had ratted her out when he was 10 YEARS OLD. He did not force her to marry or anything. He probably was not even aware of her situation at that age. For her to hold a grudge over that for so long was just unrealistic. I actually laughed when she communicates the reason for her disdain. Even Marcus was surprised. It felt like cheap writing.
"don't come for my cane" "What am I? Chopper liver?" "We're expecting" Excuse me but what's with the 20th and 21st century lingo smh
Benedict in a sex scene for the entire time between Colin’s wedding and Francesca’s wedding.
You can really tell that Penelope is the favorite character in the writers' room in the way that they're willing to assassinate Eloise's character development by having her end her friendship with Cressida in a nonsensical way just so she can reconcile with Penelope. And then there's the fact that Penelope literally had no consequences after admitting she's LWD. Aside from taking a few hits to her self-esteem, girlie's plot armor thick as hell. Edit: added a word
She literally gets EVERYTHING she’s wanted wrapped up in a neat bow at the end of the season. Without any repercussions whatsoever. The Featherington title drama also settled so neatly and a mother daughter relationship that’s been shit for most of Pen’s life if not all immediately fixed. FFS
“I am going to sleep on the couch” 😂 that totally broke the spell for me. What happened to different sleeping quarters?
Also isn’t couch modern vernacular??
I can't totally explain it but I just did not buy that Colin loved Penelope. I did not see it in his actions at all. Was he sexually attracted to her this season? Yes. Did he love her? I didnt really see it. And i felt bad for Penelope, because she so deserves someone who actually truly loves her and doesn't just tolerate her in his life.
Same. By the end it felt like he married her out of duty and loyalty, not love. Like he felt responsible for her fate and realized it was better to marry a friend he knows and has history with than take a risk on some rando. It all felt so forced to me. The sex scenes honestly gave me the ick.
Exactly. First of all they have Pen forgive him in half a second for his comments at the end of the previous season. And they’ve barely shown the foundation for their friendship or even how much he regrets his earlier comments and now we’re supposed to believe he can’t live without her. His whole dialogue to Eloise stating she’s lucky to not have been in love. My dude, are you???
Probably written by AI or worse, Scabs, during the Writers’ Strike. Proof that writing is an art in itself.
Season 3 had already wrapped filming by the time the strike started, which means actual humans were writing the crap we all watched last weekend. I think that’s even worse. :/
"Release the bugs!"
This was the best part tbh 🤣
Second only to “inserts himself where?”
She was the best this season!
Colin confronting Cressida gave me so much embarrassment 😭 like it was a bad idea from the start but when he did the speech about family is love I just 🥹 that really turned me off from the whole series unfortunately.
If I had to guess, I'd say the script got a lot of rewrites because "marketing/producers/audience tests/feedback analysis/let's take more risks this time" and it turned into this combination of approaches that resulted in the piece losing its central idea and all the key elements that hold the plot together. Mine is everything Colin-related: how he ran ahead of Penelope from the carriage to the house, leaving her alone, how he announced the engagement to his family also all alone with Penelope by the door, and he only said one sentence there; when he caught Penelope, his monologue was meh and he just left her there? It was a good opportunity for an angry hookup. Overall Penelope-Colin relationship was sidelined and the story was told from Penelope's point of view pretty much and Colin was an afterthought there, she didn't seem too heartbroken that the relationship was falling apart, same for Colin. Instead of the LW business being the central conflict of a romantic relationship it turned into the central conflict for a long list of people, of which Colin was like 5th or 6th at best. If I wanted to watch a social or political drama, I'd go elsewhere, thankyouverymuch. We were promised a lighthearted romantic story with completely overcome-able obstacles and that's not what we got.
Where were the Scottish accents for John and Michaela?!
Rare case of Bridgerton being historically accurate; Scottish nobles were often raised and educated to speak with English accents. The Stirlings in the book actually spent much of their time in London.
Lady Tilly telling Kate that she organized 'hell of a party'. Like WHAT?! It thrown me off so bad that I couldn't go back into the story.
I didn’t like Anthony taking Kate home to India while she’s pregnant and then presumably coming back to England with an infant. I understand JB was and probably will be busy filming other projects but it seems very strange that he’s willing to risk his pregnant wife and their unborn/newborn child that way. The Mondrich plot went precisely nowhere. I love them but I truly do not get what they were trying to do with them, or why (if there was some sort of point to it) their nobility plot couldn’t have been in s4. I also don’t understand why Marcus and Violet’s story started in this season when they were also already diving into Frannie and John and exploring Ben’s bisexuality. Also, I really didn’t like that we ended the season by hopping forward to Polin’s baby. It happened too fast and there was such a short period of reconciliation that it just gave me whiplash. That was another thing I think could have been saved as a small side plot in a future season. Anthony and Kate’s decision to go to India while Kate is pregnant is probably the one that felt really immersion breaking to me, but I think most of the issues I had with this season could have been solved by pushing some of these plots to next season or later and giving Pen and Colin just a few more romantic moments, or even just longer versions of some of the scenes we got.
“We are expecting!” The laziest period writing that sticks out like a sore thumb because it was SO EASY to just say “We are with child!”
For me it just wasn’t enough Colin and Pen (not fighting). They did so great in the press tour and I feel they cut out some very important scenes and I was so disappointed. Like I couldn’t have given less of a shit about Benedict’s 3 some, I could have guessed in season one that he was out sleeping with anything with a pulse man/women or otherwise, it wasn’t important. Give me more of the love story we have been waiting for for THREE seasons.
“What am I chopped liver” - said by Anthony Bridgerton. Like WTF????
The fact they tried to mash 8 fricken plots into one goddamn season
Honestly the costumes going from “stylized 1820s” to some weird retro futuristic steam punk thing. Pen waffles between looking like she’d be singing in a jazz club and looking like Jessica rabbit. Eloise went from “proto-suffragette” to dressing like she actually teleported to 1890 and is one. Cressida…..well she looks like she’s going to announce the lottery in district 12.
The whole mechanical flower box opening up in the middle of the floor at the ball didn’t make any sense to me. I didn’t get how everyone was suddenly so wowed…being wowed by zebras in 2nd season made more sense than that scene
Not a plot point or dialogue, but I absolutely dislike the makeup. Especially Penelope and Francesca's. They both have beautiful profiles and their makeup is so modern and layered thick on like an IG makeup influencer. I particularly disliked Pen's makeup on her wedding. What's up with that thick blush that looked like the artist forgot to blend it.
I think the asking for he name was a plot device used to show the parallels between Francesca stumbling over saying her own name and Violet earlier telling her that meeting Edmund made her forget her own name (or something like that, don't quote me on that)
Oh definitely why it went that way but GOD not only did it completely undermine her marriage to John (and her reaction to the kiss too) but it also just played off as rude. It also undermines Violet finally understanding that there are different kinds of love and reactions to love.
Bothers me so much. I guess they didn’t anticipate the articles and widespread appreciation for a TV show finally showing a different kind of love than fireworks-and-drama. That’s the thing, they actually did a good job making Francesca and John’s story very sweet and unique and then instantly sullied their own work! Bizarre.
Yes it was definitely that. But poorly executed.
Anthony and Violet, previously having had a very intense mother son relationship due to the trauma they shared, and then the whole viscount/man of household but still son to his loving mother push and pull, barely interacted this season ESPECIALLY WHEN ANTHONY DID REACT TO LORD MARCUS “he oversteps” but Kate soothed him over with some cringy fluff and that was that. No meaningful Bridgerton conversation between the mother and son on a show called Bridgerton. I get that it was Colin’s season and he got a mom talk, but Anthony and Violet’s relationship had been a focal point since season one and deserved a bit more especially now that Violet was entering into a new phase of her life.
We just need to throw the whole season away at this point, a collective fever dream
The lack of traditional romance novel themes and ambiance created in the writing. Previous seasons embodied this. The cinematography was an afterthought completely. I felt like I was watching a Thursday night prime time show, and not immersed into a world of romance and period pierce flare that most paperback romance novel readers look for. Another example of how the genre isn’t seen and appreciated on screen in the same way we appreciate it as readers. I wish that stayed on the screen this season.
I'm not a prude but how did we go from Anthony almost dueling Simon because Simon kissed Daphne to Colin Fingerton and Penetration Featherington finger banging and boning before marriage? With them being best friends, I cannot believe he would ever disrespect Pen like that by putting her into those situations. 😭
I was infuriated that when Penelope made her grand speech Colin didn't immediately dash up to support her. He was so lame in this season.
The new show runner ruined Bridgerton :-/ One of the things that I didn’t like was not exactly a dialogue, but Penelope running towards the direction of where the hot air balloon is going, instead of going sideways. Like guuurl??
The line that bugs in the most is Anthony's: what am I chopped liver? That is such an American (East Coast-jewish) slang and to hear it in regency era takes me out every time.
The Michela was so random. I didn't read the books so I don't know the back story so they're weird gazing back and forth made no sense to me and I didn't understand. It was only until I was on Reddit that I understood about the cousin Michael and how now it's Michaela. It was just so random and weird and made no sense. Piss poor writing.
COLIN ACTING OUT OF CHARACTER like I understand him being mad but at least give me his POV so people would know why he is acting like that, but the one scene that got me was his conversation with Cressida, he basically explained everything that should’ve been explained in part 1. In that conversation he explains why he come back, how much he missed Penelope, why he changed his personality which also explains how much it would’ve hurt him the fact that Penelope was LW. they put his most deep dive POV in a moment where People somehow know more about Cressida than him in the last Episode of the show. So they simultaneously developed and underdeveloped his character in one conversation. Am I supposed to believe that Colin is the same guy who literally made a whole detailed plan to discover a jewelry scheme successfully in s2, the same guy that is actually the logic one from the ABC? Is that the same Colin who failed at protecting his wife by bringing his privilege to the convo? Worst thing is people didn’t even pay attention to what he was explaining because in that same dialogue they also got him acting like he was so privileged, people end up sidings with Cressida 💀 like Colin is not Dumb. This is just Bad writing and bad storytelling
https://preview.redd.it/l00lv70cak7d1.jpeg?width=1068&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0d854b2f771309215f3edb8d6892d689a1065025 I thought this whole scenario was stupid 💀
It made me think Francesca was mad she didn’t know who she was. I never thought she was attracted to her
the tropey threesome with benedict now the fandom saying he is the one more prone to cheat, thank you for bringing back the stigma to bi people, jess. thankfully we can show we are faithful with sophie, hopefully, next season. a big f u to the showrunner.
Tilly and Benedict couch scene. That makes sense and fits in a show set in this decade and only in a more romantic or coming of age show like Sex Education. They can pull that off. A regency show where homosexual acts can have you executed can't carry an "It's the most natural thing in the world." It can carry a "You don't harm anyone by doing it" or "I'm not going to inform the Gendarmerie" That and the Whistledown reveal. Two seasons of drama revolving around her identity and why it must stay secret and then literally nothing happens.
When Benedict's gf (I can't be arsed to remember her name) tells Kate that she throws 'a hell of a party'. It just completely took me out
There was no reason why Daphne couldn't have appeared for a couple scenes. She wouldn't have missed either of her siblings weddings.