The last few hours have been interesting. I want to thank those who in good faith reached out to me and took the time to explain what has been going on within the Bridgerton fandom because I genuinely did not know. I did not realize that there was a segment of the Bridgerton fanbase that dismisses the racism that Simone Ashley faces or acts like she doesn’t experience any at all. When I made the comment about Simone’s face card, it was seen by fans as contributing to the erasure of her experiences as a woman of color, especially a darker skinned one, in a fandom that has been racist and antagonistic towards her. That was not my intent. For me, when I made that comment it was not to erase her experiences, but to share how in my experiences of being somewhat in the fandom-people have loved her. But “fairing better” does not mean-you don’t experience any. And mentioning her face card was in jest because I think racism is stupid and only being that ridiculous could you find something to complain about when it came to someone that beautiful. I take accountability that I could have been clearer in my words and that I could have explored what Simone and Charithra went through. The ways in which Kate could have deserved more in her season and Simone as an actress deserves as much as her white counterparts. I didn’t because I was focused more on season three, and because I myself am not Indian-I didn’t want to speak too much out of turn. Simone has chosen to not talk much about her negative experience and I, as someone who wants to be sane, has not gotten deep into Bridgerton fandom. As a result I lacked the proper resources of those experiences. That is on me. I understand and have empathy for those who have to deal with their favorite actress character dealing with racism (raises hand in Tara, Bonnie, Iris West, and many others). But I am also a person. I make mistakes. And a few people crossed a line into being very antagonistic towards me and saying you are upset at me because of the actions of Shondaland or because you hate a character-that is not a reasonable reason to attack someone. We need to normalize conversations that don’t dissolve into people behaving aggressively. Anyway-thank you for taking the time to read, thank you to those who informed me of the bullshit that Simone has been dealing with-she deserves better-and I plan to never talk about Bridgerton publicly again.
dont think anything in your video was dismissive of the racism Simone receives, especially when you said she does not get the same opportunities as Nicola.
I'm glad people let you know about Simone (I put a little comment in myself that I hope was not offensive), but I'm very sorry that people have attacked you and that you plan not to talk about the show again publicly. I hope you're doing okay. I always love your videos and this one had a lot of great stuff to say.
I guess, maybe because I'm not very current on all the latest slang or memes or such, I didn't even have any idea what you meant or not by a face card at all-but I interpreted the overall heart and intent of everything you were saying about her to be that you think she is beautiful and that anyone who would judge her negatively probably isn't someone whose opinion is even worth weighing in or giving any positively-valued regard at all. 🤔🤔🤷🤷♀️🤷🏻♂️ Either way, it sucks the way discourse too often devolves these days, and that discrimination and prejudice is even a thing anyone ever has to deal with at all-and I'm sure that's putting it all entirely too mildly. 😿
Keep talking about Bridgerton. Your thoughts are very enlightening and you give thoughtful takes. I look forward to your analysis of this show. This video was spot on. Don't let a misunderstanding stop you from discussing Bridgerton. And to the fans that know you, we know that you have no malice or dismissiveness in your heart. You know how stans can be, if you don't include their fav in every discussion they get pissed. You can't please every one, and we know you didn't mean any harm.
People really think there was zero joy in Black and queer life prior to the civil rights movement. People build spaces of joy no matter how bleak the circumstances. The show could lean into those historical spaces, which did exist and are documented.
yes!! black and queer spaces always existed, the reason we do t hear of most of these spaces is because one- most were undoubtedly destroyed by homophobes and racists and two, they were illegal and people knew, and those in the al rs didn’t walk around telling everyone about it !!!
Hearing that anyone was complaining about John Stirling's actor being too dark is just... wtf? Are y'all done yet? Franscesca and John were adorable together, probably my favorite couple of Bridgerton so far. And I have to ask bc I've not seen anyone talking about it - am I the only one getting ND vibes from Franscesca and John? Like is that not part of why they click so well??? Also haven't read the books but I completely missed the whole Michael/Michaela budding queer polyamory thing... I'll have to look out for that when I re-watch bc it sounds awesome! Many more thoughts re: DEI in this context but I think Princess covered it fairly well. I def thought the fantasy was somewhat ruined in S1 when Lady Danbury (🙌🏽) revealed that there was history to the racial diversity of the ton and it wasn't just a world where race isn't really a thing. Feels like they made telling a cohesive, introspective adaptation far more difficult for themselves by doing that. And at least they are trying but def missing the mark in several places, especially with Daphne r**ing Simon.
@@caspenbeeof women - there is a series called Gentleman Jack, based on a real life story of a lesbian landowner (White and privileged, yes), Anne Lister, and a little later, Selma Lagerlöf (white and educated, born to privilege but still, working woman, first female Nobel prize in literature) managed to live a life with her two lovers in almost open. The whole "spinsters having deep friendships" trope served many people well, and it wasnt completely unavailable for men. We are just two jolly bachelors who enjoy each others company... etc. There also were successful black or mixed race people in Europe before 20th century, Alexander Dumas most famously, also a few classical musicians rose to success like Vittoria Tesi Tramontini, or Joseph Bologne. It would be hard to write about them without including some hints of the racism they experienced, but still you could emphasise the positive aspects of their lives without being totally ahistorical.
Every time I think about the fact that the writers robbed Kate of a Regency Indian wedding for a contrived love triangle I lose my sanity a little bit.
Really? That would’ve been so cool to see! Initially, I thought Kate would give birth in the season three finale without Edwina and Mary. I’m glad she’ll spend the early days of motherhood with her family in her homeland 😊
And then we hear, well, there was a wedding. There was a non-wedding that didn't happen, and that wasn't Kate's, and then we didn't get to see the real wedding.
@@BellesView Going to India by ship -- an arduous journey for a pregnant woman during an era where medical wasn't the best, a four-month journey, if not longer -- just is bizarre, though. The baby isn't going to remember India if they come back, and if they don't (since they are the heads of the family), it will be annoying. And it's just impossible to buy that Anthony would suggest that when he was there when Violet and Hyacinth almost died. Although your thought is sweet, and I'm sorry to rain on it with my bad attitude. :/
I never cared that Michael was a woman, as long as she has rizz we will be just fine. What I cared about is that they gave Michael's love at first sight to Fran the DAY AFTER HER WEDDING! I'm sorry...what was the point of showing such a beautifully quiet love between John and Fran only to burn it on their wedding day & when she meets someone else.
That's why I'm so hoping they just make her gay, because otherwise the disrespect to John is tenfold. And because if they make her bi, it's definitely going to come across as 'bi people are cheaters' and no one needs that
@@spacebar9733 Eloise is feminine but not doesn't behave feminine like Daphne. She performs Feminism because she wants to be one of the "boys", not because she cares about equality. Eloise wants to do stuff like travel, not be pressured to marry so soon, be independent like her brothers... hence why it bothered her that Penelope is basically living out her fantasies as Lady Whistledown. She AND Benedict get along the most because they are most similar this way because they want more to life than just to settle down and conform. Benedict has no restrictions as a man, too much time, no responsibility, thus has the freedom Eloise always wanted. This video explains it better: ua-cam.com/video/4FPIz77wcJg/v-deo.htmlsi=GOCCJwjpb4RShIqE
Yes, that. And we're haters because we called it out the showrunner for the deliberate disrespect. She's not stupid. When she saw the final edits, she knew what it looked like. If she didn't someone else did. No hate to the actors. Plus the direction of the characters in the end was bizarre.
I remembered how funny it was when they were talking about "oh, let's just hop over to India", like they could get on a plane and be there tomorrow. It took 6 months on a ship to get there! She would probably give birth on the ship! Not to mention how dangerous such voyages were. Epidemics, death, weather,... It wasn't that uncommon for people to never make it to the end. I doubt many pregnant women made such a voyage without a good cause.
That made me kind of crazy, especially after Anthony had already been traumatized by Hyacinth's birth. I would expect him to be oversolicitous for Kate's health, if anything.
Bridgerton is very unrealistic in most physical reality aspects, the classism annoys me too, historical novels of the time also concentrate on the upper classes, but they do sometimes acknowledge other people at least exist. Enormous amounts of labour went into manufacturing all those luxury goods, food, houses, horse maintenance, armies of servants were needed to put on all those balls. And yes, travel was hard, slow and dangerous, people got sick and with little effective medicine, even rich people could just drop dead from infectious disease. Childbirth was super dangerous. Accidents were dangerous, again with lack of medical science you could easily get an infection and die after what now would be a minor boo-boo. It all starts to irk me after a while, as escapism goes, this is pure fantasy. I guess that is fine too, just seems pointless to then start whining about what is not "historically accurate" in other ways.
I was like, if you want them out of the picture so that the actors can go off and pursue other projects without having to worry about scheduling conflicts appearing because they're needed for a cameo, just say they are off to the countryside to take care of business and next season they're too busy with their newborn to be bothered to show up in London for society events. Travelling such a long distance was, as you've said, dangerous and unpredictable, and Anthony still needs to be viscount, gallivanting around the world was an activity for younger sons for a reason, ffs, the head, the heir and the spare were needed to be kept alive to keep the show running.
@@phelanii4444 Yeah, it was ridiculous. The actors have expressed a desire to continue to appear on the show, something that is a gift to the production. But if there is a conflict, it's easy enough for them to just be offscreen some of the time. No need to send them to India so their child will know its mother's heritage (how long are they going to be in India that the child would even remember this?).
You really encapsulated what I felt about Francesca’s relationship. I think it would have worked better if she had no reaction to meeting Micaela. I thought her quiet romance was so cute and with that ending they just threw it away like it didn’t matter and I wish she could have both loves.
They could have done enough to have Michaela be utterly stuttering and stumbling over her words obsessed and Francesca being politely unbothered but no. Undermines the season instead
@@mollybusch1281 I'd watch the hell out of Francesca and John having their cozy love life, followed by Francesca and Michaela. It wouldn't be the punchy viral-ness of the rest of the series, but it would be basically everyone's comfort series.
I absolutely agree with all of this. I don’t think they needed to play into clearly neurodivergent representation then be like psych this is actually queer representation because this character thinks this is what love is but they haven’t figured out they’re gay. Like why can’t we have both. We don’t have to make a competition of what types of love matter most. She can have her real love with John who understands her and she feels comfortable with and she can have a passionate later love with Michaela which is true in its own special way. Julia wrote that and it’s one of the few things she did right. Let Fran be a lover girl who has two beautiful great loves.
I get irrationally angry every time I think about what they did to Benedict’s character this season. They didn’t know what to do with him so they made his whole story sleeping with some random lady who feels like she time traveled from the 1940s. Then, they made him discovering his bisexuality into fanservice.
Colin’s energy this season was very travel as a hobby on his dating profile. I felt like I didn’t know anything else about him. Traveling is not a personality.
I cackled at it is illegal to sell bound fan fiction The fact some one thought of the idea and attempted it😂 The fact that After and 50 shades of grey beg to differ Twilight as well However they had to change names and such from the IP they were inspired by
Colin was horrible this season, I felt like he had no care for Penelope's reputation. He didn't even hesitate to literally have sex with her prior to marriage, which could push her into absolute ruin, if anyone found out. He was boring, indecisive, childish and just overall super annoying.
The Bridgerton writers/showrunners needed to either set the show in an ideal alternate reality where racism and LGBTQ discrimination didn't ever exist; or, they needed to address the reality in some meaningful way. None of this "racism was a thing until our king fell in love with a black woman" nonsense.
The show actually felt natural until they brought up the racism part tbh. Then of course, all of obvious alphabet relationships make the show seem even more out of place. All of this would've made way more sense if the show was in modern times.
Making queerness be a part of the world could have still worked with the whole marriage mart thing, because they could have used that aspect to push the fact that marriage back then was just for biological essentialism (men and women must have babies, create heirs) and then have it be an unspoken thing that people in these essentially loveless transactions often take lover's (who are sometimes of the same sex) and a way to subvert it is that one of the Bridgerton siblings wants instead to marry their gay love instead of following the rules of noble marriage. Yknow because Love is all their mother talks about.
I think the problem with that is that it brings up questions about other things in history that the writers of the show clearly have no range or knowledge to address which can be seen as problematic for the show from a viewer’s standpoint.
I was so disappointed at how dirty they did John with that ending of Francesca immediately falling for his cousin. So glad other people are calling attention to that. I loved their story so much and it felt like such a slap in the face.
Makes sense to me actually. She didn’t have the spark with John was just comfortable and wasn’t interested in it. But then she finally sees someone that gives her those feelings unexpectedly
Intending to explore comphet with Fran, and inadvertently creating neurodivergent rep for awkward love, only to reveal that it’s awkward because she’s queer… 😅 and actually she is totally capable and desiring of being swept off her feet by the right person? HUGE bummer! Also huge bummer that Fran has no friends! The pining, the yearning, and the sapphicness would have been so much more sensible if she had a best friend… I dunno, the show is SO busy with SO many characters, everyone ends up being a little underwritten imo.
@@bino8444 Totally!!!! I don’t blame the showrunners for sidestepping the “feminist bcs lesbian” trope, genuinely. But at least Eloise’s conversations pass the Bechdel test yk? 😭
Right! I was so happy to see a love story NOT full of lust and passion because not all love stories are passionate like that or the passion grows over time but introducing "Michel" tosses all that out the window because it show she DOES yearn for that just not with her husband... Making THEIR story feel more like an obstacle to Fran's TRUE happiness then anything else... The Director said that after changing Fran's story she saw HERSELF in the story so if she is changing the story to solely aline more with her story she is spitting in the faces of people who also saw themselves in the original story... IDC if they change the gender and her second "great love" is to a women just that by showing their attraction NOW makes this situation super messy... As far as I know the director is a happy lesbian women who WAS in a "loveless" marriage till she came out... These changes made to Fran are going to destroy her character if not handled right and I don't trust them to handle THIS right... Lesbian or not, cheating, even emotionally is a character assassinator no matter how much of a fan base they personally have... Being "true to yourself" is NOT an excuse to cheat so by showing the attraction NOW they made it impossible for them to be "friends" without thoughts of emotional cheating hanging in the air... Unless they pick up RIGHT after his death any interaction will be seen as them "wanting" each other but the husband/brother is in the way of THEIR love... I'm Demi and I understand deeply loving two people, one a women, the other a man, but I'm not interested in just any women or man... I could have fully gotten behind this change showing two very different but very REAL love stories but the faces they had her make at the end makes me think they DON'T see her first marriage as a "real" love story... The director made a choice to have her look sad about her first marriage because SHE was unhappy with HER first marriage... Which is sad that such a sweet story has such a sad shadow looming over it because ONE person views it as such...
Eh, as an audhd bi/asexual afab person who is engaged to a man... it was extremely relatable to me. I am about 10% into dudes and 90% into anyone else. I met my partner 2 weeks after deciding dating in any form wasn't for me, but he is so kind and genuine I decided to go out with him. I was also in denial about being attracted to women at all. Comphet got me. We've been together for 10 years and I've been more attracted to many women than to him, but it doesn't matter because it doesn't make me love him less. What isn't relatable to one person can be aggressively so to another.
Lord Debling would have been so much better if he was unabashedly a simp for Penelope and for her to ignore him and Colin getting jealous. As far as the Francesca plotline, I know in the books John dies early and she re-marries but like another said: let their romance breathe. It was very sweet, and the actors make you fall in love with them the more they are on screen. I would be great to watch their relationship develop, and when she moves to her next romance also let that develop. Francesca having the cozy romances would work really well I think.
I loved that in their book, it shows that Fran and John like living away rom the drama and business and noise of town. It showed that Mike had been in love with Fran since they met, but stepped aside because John loved her, too and she loved John. I feel insulted, as an introvert, that they just spat on all of that respect and love and made it something it never was.
@@lucinda3964 I also wished that they made Lord Debling interested in Penelope and not just as a housekeeper while he goes off into the world to pursue his interests. I feel like it would have really made the story more compelling. The minute he suggested that she would cheat on him with Colin I rolled my eyes and immediately wrote him off.
exactly. they totally could have had Francesca and Michaela still happen, but you don't have to undo all the beautiful work of John and Francesca's relationship
Same about a character's sexuality being used as a 'twist'. Like, tada she's gay, you're welcome. I've never liked that in any show. Makes it feel like being queer is a trope or something, which is very bleh. My sexuality is not a magic trick, thank you show!
@@bjones6441 I definitely agree with you. I really hate when queerness is treated as an era that you enter in your life and not something that is a part of your identity.
It sucks bc we as a queer community don’t even get to root for her being bisexual. And also we like straight relationships too!!! If we liked her with John then making her like some other person just bc they’re a girl doesn’t make us magically forget him?!
For people wondering about why shows keep getting these awkward, partial season releases - it’s a money thing!! Actors, writers, producers, etc signed onto a show get union-mandated raises every time a new season is picked up which are determined by each worker’s contract. Streamers get around paying the additional $ by slashing season episode totals, then booking a slightly longer season, cutting it in half and releasing it in parts. Now they have two seasons’ worth of content and hype while only paying salaries for one. Fun world we live in.
I admittedly was excited when I saw Kanthony during the trailer but then part 1 dropped, I was like "So yall know we like them and...that's it?" I haven't read the books and I know there's still somewhat of a need to follow them, but when Daphne came back in S2 she had a decent amount of importance - the 1 Bridgerton sibling that knows Anthony loves Kate, & tries to convince him to actually follow love. Kanthony did better in part 2 for sure, but I feel like part 1 already kinda made it obvious that the production team just brought them back for fan service. On the other hand, I can see how it could possibly be difficult for the show to get characters proper story lines because they very well may not have a story in that book/plotline but their contract says they HAVE to come back or something. What you said about the partial releases is frustrating because the only way we can really tell them to fuck off with that is by tanking the viewership of the premieres and rest of the episodes of shows that do that. However, it's really hard to get THAT many people to go along with it and personally, I do have a soft spot for the ensemble of Bridgerton & I do think they ALL are very talented actors with great chemistry so I don't want to ruin "their" season with that. Bridgerton S3 did amazing with the numbers (which I am so happy for Nicola & Luke) and people still ate up the press tour in-between Part 1 & 2 so I think we're going to be stuck with this model for a while...
Idk if eight episodes count as two seasons worth of episodes. Or even if 8 episodes count as one large season. Eight episodes is the current average length of many shows and many networks, no?
@@soph996I don't think they're really standing by the idea that it's actually two seasons worth. More so that that's what the networks "feel" they're getting by doing it.
Netflix is doing it because they want to start slow releasing shows kind of like “last week on the vampire diaries”. Each episode would release by the week. They’re testing it out rn by months, but they want to make smaller gaps for each episode. Bc having to wait a year or two for a new season is crazy imo.
It also forces subscribers to purchase another month. That’s another BIG reason they do it. It’s why it’s only happening to Netflix’s most popular shows lately.
I adored Francesca and John's romance. As an autistic it was absolutely delightful to watch. I could see myself in their quiet compassionate love. As a queer myself I am pretty bothered by the writers spending so much time to hammer home that "not all love has to be dramatic" just for them to be like "haha lies she is actually gay". I would have had the time of my life if they let Eloise and Cressida be explicitly gay but it bothers me that they removed all the neurodivergent coding and went 'nope Francesca is just a lesbian'.
I'm autistic too, and I was so excited to see Francesca and John's love blossom because the whole "let me run off and transpose this song for you that we overheard on the street and you had *strong* opinions on" is such a neurodivergent thing to do and my heart just melted when I saw it. And then they just had to force the "love must always be fireworks and burning desire" narrative yet again. I don't hate Michaela at all, I just wish they had let Francesca and John stay cozy just that little bit longer
So you wanted the 2 white women to be together, but when it's a white woman with a black woman is a problem? Francesca is ending up with Michaela and I'm glad!
@@XxBarbyChanxX Did you even read the comment? This has nothing to do with the actress being black(in fact her being a black women gives me something to be excited about as a black women myself) the issue was not that she is gay but how they chose to throw away all of the stuff about a less dramatic, more comfortable love for yet another story about fire works. And tbh it could have worked if she felt both kind of love if she felt the second one in her own season. But how they did it totally undercuts her story this season.
Funny how r4p3 is more tolerated in the fandom then sapphics, really funny and before anyone says "oh but its faithful to the books" doesn't mean its right
People don’t cheer for things in fiction because they are morally right, but because they make a good story and are meaningful. I know nothing about Bridgerton, but I do know other works where the assault is a necessary and valuable part of the work (ie the Witcher book series, at least some of the time, though admittedly there is about 1 more assault per book than I would prefer; but a couple are story critical and very meaningful) and comparing accepting that to complaining about a story decision that people don’t like is excessively moralizing fiction. If you think the assault in Bridgerton does not fit the characters, that is one thing, but if it fits the characters and is just a horrible thing to do, then that is good storytelling, showing flaws in the characters.
@@crumbsintopebblesOr what little rep always ends in some sort of tragedy. I got sick of watching sapphic movies because so many of them had what I’d classify as a bad ending where they weren’t happy together, and while I can handle that sometimes for variety, I think we could all use more happy endings for sapphic couples in media.
@thrawncaedusl717 why are you talking as if your uninformed opinion means anything to people who read or watched the show???? the rape was unnecessary stfu weirdo.
@@thrawncaedusl717 I doubt anyone watching Bridgerton was cheering for the main lead of the first season to rape her husband, and for the whole thing to not be treated seriously. You can't have a character that is supposed to be heroic and kind commit rape.
Loved all your comments. I have no issues with Michaela. I think the actress who plays her is beautiful. Really what bothered me is they spent the whole season selling us on the quiet romance just to say NOPE in last second. I guess for me I would rather her love John and have that romance and then have the romance with Michaela.
Yes!! It felt like a betrayal of expectation because I truly believed (and loved) their sweet, quiet love, but after the finale it just felt like they went "sike!" and tossed that out of the window 🥲
Yes, literally this! And it could have been so easily fixed by having Michaela be the one who comes over speechless instead. I believe in the books Michael is the one that falls first anyway? That way it wouldn't make John and Francesca's relationship seem less valid, and would still allude to the future romance.
About Benedict’s arc, I don’t have a problem with fake love interests as long as those stories are character driven. One of the reasons Monica and Richard are so compelling is that Richard has fundamentally changed the way Monica sees herself and how she sees relationships; I don’t think her marriage with Chandler could be as wholesome or as great to watch as it was if she hadn’t gone through what she had with Richard. The problem with Benedict’s arc in season 3 is that he was robbed of any character development. He finds out he’s bi and poly, and that’s it. And the all sex, no romance plot doesn’t even fit with what we’ve seen from Benedict in previous seasons. He’s romantic, arguably more so than any of his siblings. The problem with this show is that it’s trying to be plot driven and scandalous and gossip-heavy when good love stories focus on characters and their relationships with each other.
The thing is, though, that Richard wasn't a fake love interest on the way to Chandler -- the writers didn't know they were going to get Monica and Chandler together. Yes to Benedict. And bad timing to find you're bi and poly if a poly relationship is not what we're going to see next (which I'm guessing we aren't). I mean, maybe he experiments during the period they're in the country and finds it empty, but that's offscreen development.
Multi-seasons relationship is not fake love interest! Ffs! If we would thought that way, every person that characters are dating though the entire series and are not end game would be seen as fake love interest...
25:41 just to add to your point here: Jonathan Bailey was already a extremely well-established actor before Bridgerton, particularly in the UK. He's been in St Trininian's, Chewing Gum, Broadchurch, Crashing, W1A, and that's not even mentioning his voice acting roles; so he wouldn't have had any problems with getting his roles in Wicked and Fellow Travellers regardless. Of course, Rege-Jean Page also has an impresive portfolio, but he wasn't as much of a household name as Bailey before Bridgerton
Adding to this, Jonathan was also on Doctor Who and had won an Olivier Award (which is like a Tony for the Brits) back in 2019 for a stage role. He's been performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company from a young age. He was definitely the most established of the younger cast (excluding Violet, Danbury and the Queen).
...I would say that being known in America and being known in Britain are two very, VERY different things. Theater is a much bigger part of the culture in Britain than in the US. Winning an Olivier is a significant achievement that means someone is amazing, but not what I would call a household name at all (especially in the US). And his roles in all of those projects were supporting. He 100% got Wicked because of Bridgerton (and matching Cynthia Erivo's talent). Saying otherwise is ridiculous. And he got Jurassic World because of how much Universal Execs were impressed by what he was doing in Wicked. (he's also had to fight against the industry's homophobia because he's openly gay)
I think Colin would have landed better at the beginning if we saw that he felt somewhat uncomfortable with being a “rake” even if it was effective. But he just seemed like he was enjoying himself. It’s the difference between “fake rake” and “reformed rake” (which we saw twice before).
I deffo respect your opinion, but they showed Colin being uncomfortable with being a rake multiple times? In ep 1, Anthony congratulates him on having admirers and Colin says he’s not sure that should ‘cheer him’ e.g. he’s not totally happy with it. He criticises the bro squad he hangs out with for being crude and stupid about love amongst other things that show that this is an act?
@@Isabella-to4ku exactly! There's also his journal in which Pen reads that Colin felt distance from a woman who was lying next to him (aka he didn't love her so he felt emotionally distant from her and didn't like it), he admits his change to Pen in the carriage: "I have spent so long trying to feel less, trying to be the sort of man society expects me to be... (aka a rake)" and when in the brothel the second time, he didn't even want to look at the women (he legit looked away) because he realized he loved Pen. So essentially, he didn't need to become a reformed rake because he wasn't a rake to begin with, he only flirted (but never took any action) and went to the brothel 2 times, the second time he didn't even want to participate. Colin is the least rakish from the three men so far imo
@@darija9873 absolutely all of this! I just didn’t wanna write a monologue. Even in the first brothel scene, when he says he’s going to be late to meet with Pen but actually he shows up EARLY before her in the next scene. Honestly think S3 requires multiple watches to catch this stuff because it’s all there, people just haven’t watched it carefully.
@@Isabella-to4ku this is the problem I have with the season. I shouldn’t *have* to watch multiple times to “get it”. Multiple rewatches should add to what I already know, not clarify it. I agree with what you pointed out in your original comment and I think I wasn’t being as clear as I could have been. There are definitely moments of discomfort, but I needed more to be satisfied as a viewer. It felt weird and inconsistent. I understand the juxtaposition of the two brothel scenes, I understand what they were trying to do, but I don’t think it landed for a lot of people and it didn’t land for me.
@@yuyu2007 it’s a fair critique to have! I do think watching it more than once doesn’t take away from the fact that the narrative is all there and laid out to follow. But I do agree that this season relies too much on telling us things instead of showing them, not diving deep enough on Colin so it does often feel disjointed and confusing unless you’re laser focused, which isn’t what we should asked to do as viewers and is less satisfying, so I do get your pov!
I feel that it bordered a character assassination for Violet to be so against Franscesca wanting to marry John. Like nothing in the show tells us anything but that she is comfortable and happy with him until the very end. Was that not all her mother was supposed to care about? It gave the whole plotline such a weird fucking vibe like Violaet had something against John in particular.
Violet pissed me off for that reason! Here it is Daphne pretty much forced Simon into marriage to avoid social ruin. Anthony had an emotional affair with his fiancée’s sister. Colin married Lady Whistledown. All of these romances created drama that could’ve tarnished the Bridgerton name. But introverted John is where Violet draws the line? Be serious.
I dont agree. Violet of the time talks about love as and adventure, as an epic story (It may be a writer insertion of how they perseve love should be to make sense in rengency) and i feel like it makes sense for her that had her crazy love story, was so loved by a husband that met and early death and has watched her 3 previous kids live these passionate romances (A forced marriage/ being in live with your fiancé's sister/ friends to lovers) to feel weird about Fran's marriage because it was to easy and boring for them
@@buuuuuuuuuu Violet tells Fran that. She tells Colin that she and Edmund were friends first and that friends first is the best kind of romance. I don't think Francesca and John's romance was boring for them. It was boring for Violet because she didn't have to stage-manage it or interfere, which doesn't cast her in the best light, really.
@@HuntingViolets but for violet it was so boring and thats why she dissaprove of it, because she believe lovw should be earth shaking and epic, and the line between Fran's love match being boring and her wanting to be marry and be done with courship is thin in her eyes. She doesnt want Franchesca to settle with someone she doesnt love just because she doesnt want to be in another season after debuting, it goes after everything she wants for her kids. I guess you can say that it does paint her in a bad light but there is waaaay worse reasons to not accept a match than thinking that the relationship is boring
I think the show told us multiple times that Violet didn't have anything against John in particular. Like, the dialogue told us that explicitly several times, I guess because her actions made it seem otherwise. I personally thought it was funny for the character, for Violet to be so used to dramatic "love matches" that consume people's whole world, that she was disappointed Francesca's didn't feed her any drama. I think it also helped that she *knows* she's being irrational, at least part of the way in the season she realized as much.
Regency times as written by Julia Quinn are already completely removed from actual history anyway. Adding people of color and queer people to the fairy tale doesn't make it any more or less of a fairy tale.
This is the thing that makes no sense! "It has to be accurate" when so many aspects are already false, just shows which people are just bigots right away.
The thing I hated the most about Cressida (who I pity But still dislike) coming out as lady whistledown vs. Penelope coming out as lady whistledown is how the ton reacted. Everyone was upset and felt wronged by her because of what whistledown wrote. So she (and her family) were shunned, isolated and disinvited to events, kicked out of clubs. An obvious backlash to what whistledown did, but when it came out that Penelope was whistledown it was just…huh… okay, let's keep it moving, it didn't feel real. It would have felt more realistic if people were excited to learn that Cressida was lady whistledown and she got a bundle of positive attention and when it comes out that she lied, then have her go through backlash. And my only issue with Micaela is that she was introduced to soon, If she were introduced later, I wouldn't have cared.
@@g-love2401 maybe it's because no one liked Cressida to begin with? 🤷 I don't know, the book made more sense because Whistledown was an establishment after a decade. They loved LW and they were cool with Penelope after that, especially since she retired and went to work with Colin and published her own novel.
I think the difference is Queen Charlotte kinda gave her nod of approval to Pen. But again I agree. It reminded me of the lack of consequences when Dan Humphrey revealed himself as Gossip Girl. It was like, “Omg Dan! ………Oh cool.”
I was really disappointed with the storyline of Lord Debling. I was hoping that he would actually be a really good second love interest. Like in a way that Penelope was torn between the man she always loved but who didn't reciprocate her feelings or the new man, that would give her what she wanted - a relationship/marriage - but wasn't Colin.
I listened to the books afterwards and I thought adding Lord Debling was a good decision, even tho it was wasted, because in the book for a large part nothing happens and it might would have been pretty boring
The reason I disliked so much how they ended Francesca’s story has nothing to do with Michael being Michaela (tough I think, of all the siblings, this is not the best option to gender-bend because of him being John’s heir and the pregnancy issues being very central to their story, but whatever). I trully disliked how they sold us that not every love story needs to be bombastic, and Francesca and John’s quiet and shy love story was as valid and true as any of the Bridgerton’s and THEN they told us to forget about it, only mad and mindblowing passion is real. The writers/showrunners/producers just worked out a beautiful, original love story, and then threw it all away. Their story WAS real (in the books at least) and now is just a huge mistake Francesca has to cope with, filled with misery for the three of them. The key point of Francesca’s arc was overcoming grief because her first love was REAL, and Michael had to overcome his guilt for basically inheriting John’s life and on top of it, loving his widow. In short… they f****d up big time.
Michaela can still be John's heir as women can inherit most titles in Scotland (and some in England, but we'll ignore that), but that does still leave the problem of Michaela's heir. Perhaps a distant cousin could be adopted? Agree about losing the first love story. Sad.
@@HuntingVioletsIt actually depends in the house of lords. A woman that time cannot inherit but only given a portion of land. And if so, michaela have to marry and conceive ( she has a responsibility to follow the rules) bcuz if they dont have an heir they will be kicked out in the kilmartin estate. It always passes through the nearest male relative.
@@HuntingVioletsI'm calling it now, they're going to change the story so Francesca finds out she's pregnant right after John dies, and that's how they're going to sort the inheritance thing.
Ignoring the writing issues -which will keep me away from this series forever-. I will never understand why people would complain so much about having people that are as absurdly good looking as this cast just because they're BIPOC, and not just complain, but be so horrible, that the actors themselves have spoken up about it. It's a series about hot people falling in love with other hot people. I'm asexual as hell and even I can appreciate how gd good looking this cast is.
Yh that one is Always weird to me whenever it Happens, especially since the Arguments are usually such obvious bs. I remember the little Mermaid Thing of "Well Andersen was danish so His mermaids are White" and i was Like... Yes, Hes danish, and His Mermaid Turns to frigging sea foam but is "rewarded" with getting a Soul. Her feet also Hurts Like shes Walking on Glass. And theres No jamaican crab. You want "accuracy"? Then Turn the Story into the Horror Show it IS. (Apart from the fact that the Race Thing is bs in the First place because Andersen never actually specifies a setting. It's... The ocean. It could be anywhere and i honestly doubt He even thought about it. )
That plus the queen and Lady Damburry are absolute icons. The actresses blow it right out the gate. Regency series are not my thing AT ALL but damn do I love these two ladies on screen. Bridgerton is not my cup of tea but I loved the queen centric spin off
I love historical romance because marriage for women in that time period was a matter of life and death. And falling in love was like winning the damn lottery.
I was so disappointed with Fran's storyline. I thought her story was so cute, and indeed that she didn't need to have this 'classic passionnate romance', just find someone she feels comfortable and happy with T_T I swear if they do that but still throw Eloise with Philipp I'm going to scream.
12:24 someone pointed out that as a man, Colin is a hopeless romantic. He keeps looking for the soulmate level romance his mom believes in and pushes her children to go after. But instead, Simon and his older brother did not believe in love and they found their twin flame. Meanwhile Colin is ready for it to be his turn and it didn’t happen. So he instead decided to mimic Simon and his older brothers hoping for his soulmate to show up and here was Penelope. So he could’ve been having an internal struggle of continuing to play the “rake” while at the same time itching to jump into the sunset with any women he has feelings for.
Simone Ashley is unquestionably beautiful -- except it's questioned a lot by racists and colorists on social media (even complaints about her face shape!), so I'm not really sure she's fared better in the online harassment department.
I honsetly thought that was a genuine plot point and it was going to be revealed that he was putting on a facade and hadn't actually had any sexual adventures at all and that Penelope was the one that would not only see through him but also make him become honest with himself.
@@MariaVosa That kind of was the plot point. After having his heart crushed by Marina in season 1 and 2, he decided that being his sensitive loverboy self was wrong. So, he decided to make himself into a rake like Simon and Anthony which is what seemed to be the acceptable version of masculinity in society. It was Penelope who brought him back because he could always be himself around her and be valued just as he was. She made him realize how hollow and meaningless the rake life was and made him long for a true loving connection. That was what he was talking about in the carriage.
@@Afrodiva It felt like they hinted at this, but didn't really deliver on it. Colin wasn't really given a proper arc in my opinion. But it's just an opinion.
He just came across so creepy. It felt like they wanted him to fit with Simon and Anthony's bad boy vibe. There are so many ways to be hot, you don't have to make your male love interest a jerk
@@catty_5656 Exactly right?! We had the whole talk from Francesca about how her love is just different than the others so why can't colin and penelope's romance be a little different too? It was already a theme!
Your point about putting a dark skinned actor in a situation where he would already face endless harassment only for his character to be the comphet in-between relationship is actually something I've been thinking about a lot. How these shows/movies/(the freaking olympic games opening ceremony, shh) will put minorities in the spotlight with absolutely no care about the predictable backlash they will receive. We simply aren't in a colorblind/genderblind/queer friendly world and frankly throwing your actors to the wolves and shrugging it off at this point is to be willingly negligent. We absolutely have to protect the people who will inevitably be the target of hate. Productions can't just live in this fantasy world and hash their hands of the consequences for the actors
True, these showrunners just be putting poc out there without proper care. Having a dark skinned black woman in an original Male masculine character does not sit right with me.
19:44 I think that's an issue overall with streaming shows. It's insane that 2-3 YEARS between seasons is normalized! Even more so when those seasons are only 6-10 episodes! I've never been fond of holiday specials & especially not Christmas specials but we're at a point where I kinda want them back just to have more of these shows. 😭 What's worse is these companies having these massive breaks between seasons & then wondering why viewership drops off in later seasons. Like, I'm not waiting 10 years for 3 seasons of 6-10 episodes. I don't care what the production budget is &/or how polished it looks. Shows should be treated like SHOWS not like 6+ hour movies! I know some of you like the shows that feel like extra long movies but I & many others want shows to be shows NOT segmented movies!
What I feel Francesca's moment with Michaela could've meant is that she saw a girl she felt was really pretty and was feeling odd about it so she got nervous, (as a bi person, I had those moments), but having that doesn't mean she's instantly in love with her and doesn't love John, I think she loves John and will try to ignore those "odd" feelings for Michaela until John dies and the grief pulls them together, Michaela and her could slowly warm up to a "maybe this isn't so odd if you feel the same" and stuff like that (haven't read the books, I just think everyone jumps to think Francesca is instantly over John when it could be so much more compelling, she loves him and might be bi or pan, but ignores the queerness because she is loyal to her hubby and actually process the queerness after he's dead thanks to Michaela helping her through the grief)
Thank you! Despite what Violet said, love at first sight isn't real. And most wlw know the struggle of wanting to date someone or be them. There is no way Francesca would interpret the stuttering as romantic feelings for a long while, especially in the time period she lives in. It doesnt detract from her relationship with John at all
They should have skipped her weird face after the kiss if that was their intention. Now it looks like she doesn't really love John, especially after Violets speech about her reaction to meeting her husband.
I loved John and Franchesca's build up so I felt kind of dissapointed in the end. Though I did love that her next love interest was changed to Michaela, but it was made bittersweet for me because I dont feel it was handled right.
"If the writing is bad, let the straights have it" is a take I strongly disagree with as a bi trans person. Like, I would rather have poorly written yet earnest trans people on screen all day if it means we're there. And this isn't me being okay with scraps or whatever. I just think that it's important not to intimidate the shit out of people with the task of even trying it. They're never going to learn if they don't make these mistakes. And Bridgerton was weird as fuck anyway with making a point of being diverse in its casting but no main character gay people tho. That was always the wrong move.
This this this!! And people are super critical of every queer character and relationship. They have to be uwu precious beans who could do no wrong or they are criticised and shat on to high hell. I *want* mediocre or even poorly written stories because it normalises them!
@@amaurapond Yes! And let's be real, there's a level of iffy writing to *everything* in Bridgerton, so it's sort of by default that most characters in it are at risk of being affected by that. I would definitely rather it be inclusive than not, even so.
I think what Princess mean isn't that we can't have flawed characters that are poc or queer, (she has talked about in her Bad Faith Criticism of Diverse media). Rather, in the case of Bridgerton, she is critical of how the writers (mainly people who are white or straight) aren't aware of nuances when writing minority characters and end up tokenizing them. I think both statements "I want more complex gay characters" and "I want writers to be more thoughtful when writing about POC since the actors are likely to get harassed online" can co exist.
@@pagodrink I think that probably makes more sense to say in the context of POC characters since there's definitely an obligation to deal with the publicity that the role produces, and make sure everyone involved is protected from that harassment. However, it feels different in the case of LGBTQ characters, since often the person in the role is straight in real life (even though there's been a shift to trying to avoid that lately, it still happens anyway.) Hence why I specified here by talking only about that aspect. I still think the solution isn't to give up and make the character be less diverse, but to rather actually catch this in production by any means possible. Obviously, this is easier said than done. Especially when we're *still* struggling with pay gaps and basic respect on set. But my thing is I want to see those opportunities to progress continue to happen.
I do want to state that I am bias as a white straight woman on the spectrum. With that being said here is my 2 cents, John is quite possibly my favourite character in the show. The way he cared for Francesca and listened to her was something that just made my heart melt and I fell for him more than any other man on that show. I loved Francesca shutting down her mother when she insisted that the love was wrong because there was no intense emotions. Love doesn’t have to be intense and full of fiery moments it can be gentle, calm, and safe. I loved the quiet love of Francesca and John. It felt more like friends to lovers than pollen did. All the other relationships insist on spicy, lustful exploding fireworks. And yet Francesca got to have a deep love built on friendship and comforting moments also *gasp* communication. There is absolutely no reason why you should feel uncomfortable or on edge in your relationship, not sure if I explained that right. I think that Francesca’s character was robbed by making her a lesbian that yarns for the spice. If the writers had made an effort to show that Francesca was choosing John for the soul that she felt safe with him as she wouldn’t be expected to have a steamy relationship with him that would be one thing. But to show two people gently fall in love while showing in their own ways that they care for each other even if no one understands, just to have that ripped away hurt the characters for me personally. I think that they can save Francesca and John’s character arcs, but it will be an interesting uphill battle.
Simone's face card hasn't protected her at all. It's upsetting you would say this, considering the horrible, nasty racist comments I've seen about her. And there even be some coming from my fellow desis because colorism is still alive & well. Season 2 was the only season until now that has had a woc lead. It got no promotion. Simone is the only lead who had to share her screentime, which even then was very little when compared to the yt Featherington family in S2. Coincidence? I don't think so. But you'll have yt folks screaming in comments it was COVID. Yet other shows figured it. A glance on Twitter would show you how bad it is. Also, until S3, the official accounts refused to share anything Kanthony or even promote them. Why? Simone barely got press & when she did, it was always to talk about the awful plot of a love triangle. Kate Sharma has no backstory to speak of. We know nothing about her. Anyone who has ever read TVWLM would know Kate had a rounded story of her own and also had deep trauma. But you wouldn't know it watching S2. Representation matters.
everytime someone brings up benedict finally being bisexual its so funny bc i could have sworn up and down he was confirmed bi in like s1 or 2 but i guess not and i just came up w a headcanon that ended up true😭😭😂 also -- would u ever do a video on eves bayou!? i watched it recently and would love to see a video essay about it! idk if its popular tho!
Kate and Anthony were the only ones worth watching. And bruh, they are the only ones still viral on social media. The whole season is forgotten, while people come back to that carriage scene of Kate and Anthony😂 Just Anthony watching his wifey like he's never seen her before
Brushing off the ridiculous hate Simone gets is so weird. There are literal accounts dedicated to slutshaming and hating on her constantly. I’ve seen ppl comment on her body, her jaw, her mouth. It costs you nothing to acknowledge the racism she faces. Just because she’s not vocal about the racism she faces doesn’t mean it’s not there. Her fans have been saying this for literal years but are always told that it’s not true. You’ve made great points in the video, but on this we will not agree!
@@ncz7 yes. Unfortunately 99.9% of shows and movies do not use this outline it would be so refreshing to see a dark skinned black women in a major role
What you said about Penelope/Whistledown becoming a menace starting way back when Mariana and Colin were involved is very correct. It is actually what turned me off from Penelope’s character. It left me not rooting for her when the third season came. And I still lowkey don’t like her. (Love the actress tho! My first introduction to her was “Derry Girls”)
You’ve completely dismissed all the racial abuse & harassment Simone Ashley got since joining bridgerton.. her “facecard” or race never stoped that wtf
honestly as a sapphic myself im honestly not that excited to see them attempt a sapphic season because all of their attempts at queer inclusion in the series have just been sooooooo excruciatingly cringe and awkward. also like im really surprised they chose francesca bc 1. her relationship was really cute this season! and 2. they have been setting up benedict as queer since season one but everytime they go haha not really tho
Shonda has said that the reason for the long delays is the Netflix format itself. She & company are pushing to try and make it episodic and more like older shows! Which would be FANTASTIC tbh. Because there's no reason why there need to be such huge gaps.
We need more sapphic ships!!! Everyone knows that the Bridgerton TV show makes changes to the source material, so why do they care so much when it's two women? [Addition: Yes, ideally we would get a completely original wlw couple, but (again) if they're already changing things, I don't understand why this change specifically has people so triggered].
Look. I am entirely, incredibly here for sapphic ships. I expected Cressida and Eloise to be a thing this season and was severely disappointed. BUT the ONE THING that makes Michael a favorite for the book readers is that he is very enthusiastic about consent, in contrast with every other male lead that far (yes, even Anthony). And to go with that, Francesca's whole motivation in her book is that John passed away suddenly and they hadn't had any children, and she desperately wants kids in the book. She goes back to the marriage mart exclusively because she wants kids, otherwise she would never have remarried. That conflict was what led Michael to confess his feelings, to realise HE could help her achieve her goals. By changing Michael to Michaela, Netflix is unfortunately also changing Francesca's entire character. AGAIN. ELOISE IS RIGHT THERE. Her story is so much worse, she technically marries Miss Thompson's widow, and he didn't seem to treat her that well before her passing. Why change beloved characters if you can change the hated ones, yknow?
But that takes away a core to Francesca's story. She loves her husband, but she also desires a child, so after he dies she tries to find a husband to actually have a child. She falls for Michael while doing that. She was not always into Michael. I was really hoping they were going to do a bait and switch with Eloise. We already met Phillip, so we're meant to believe he's her eventual love interest, but how about she gets a female love interest, heck what if Marina ends up being her love story?
It would be better to have new characters and not a cheap gender swap, like Brimsley and Reynolds. I don't know if you read Fried Green Tomatoes, but that's a beautiful book and has a sapphic romance.
i've been saying this 😭 like what would it have cost for the writers to have her show interest in fran first. honestly would've made more sense judging by the little i've seen from francesca's book
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, by Jane Ward is 1. A fantastic book and 2. had an interesting point about the "tragic gay character" and how heteronormative culture finds this to be acceptable but happy functional lgbtq relationships are not. Mostly I'm just a big fan of the book. And Princess Weekes.
I haven’t read all of books yet but from what I understand from Francesca’s story is a lot of women related to her struggles with conceiving. I’m concerned how they will be able to execute that storyline when they’ve already established that Francesca’s love for John isn’t as strong as her attraction for Michaela is. I really hope this story can have good writing because from my POV they fumbled it hard
This season solidified for me that Bridgerton wants diversity but doesn't have the tact or care for it. Like, I am still bitter that Lady Danbury in Queen Charlotte, the only main dark-skinned black woman character in the show, was the one they decided to be repeatedly maritally r*ped, which was played for laughs. Then, when a small minority of people pointed it out, the majority of fans were like, but that was realistic at the time. Not to mention, this was after we already had the rightful backlash to the Simon r*pe in season 1. In fact, the fans of the show annoy me repeatedly. E.g. I never got the whole Rege Jean Page hate for leaving the show; in book 2, Simon's character is in one scene where he doesn't even have a speaking role. What would they have done with him? Anthony and Kate are now the head of the Bridgerton family, and they have little to do. Then we have the actors for Marina, Edwina, and probably Kate getting hate for choices made for their characters. (Aside: I was also slightly miffed at the whole two sisters fighting over a man plotline in season 2, especially because it wasn't in the books to that extent, and I was already tired of seeing it on mainstream Indian TV). When I heard about the whole race and gender swapping for Francesca's love interest, my first thought was feeling bad for the actress (Masali Baduza) they cast. I think the reason why the love story this season didn't work for me personally is because I felt that Penelope was approaching her relationship with Colin from a place of insecurity, and if they made Colin grovel a bit more. Her asking, "Why do you want me now?" rather than an immediate yes when he revealed his feelings would have sold me more. This season felt more like that movie you see, which seemed more focused on setting up the sequels rather than telling a coherent story. [This got long... I am sorry to people who did read my ramblings]
2:12 what the show failed to show us is Cressida was friends with Daphne in their first season, and her father was already breathing down her neck about getting married. That's why the whole mess with the prince turns them against each other - Daphne used the prince to make the Duke jealous, while Cressida saw it as a safe, secure escape with a man that wasn't old enough to be her father
33:30 that’s so true. It definitely seems like having a seriously studied queer relationship so late in the series and as such a ‘side’-story in this season gives people the opportunity to anticipate that the upcoming season about Francesca is one which they can just tune out of, and it’s doubtful that having one unpopular season would make the Bridgerton franchise completely unpopular, i.e. the series can afford that happening. If anything it seems like this is the ‘cheapest’ way to explore a queer relationship in one of the main Bridgertons… idk, it seems like a great way for Bridgerton to draw in a larger queer audience without jeopardising its appeal to the straights, or at least the homophobic ones. Nonetheless, I am excited to see some serious sapphic pining, and hope they do a good job :)
Excited to see this! The Mondriches are not titled. Only their son is. It would have been interesting if he had been the male heir to the Featherington title (both baron titles), which would have eliminated the baby race plot and instead have the Featheringtons moving to a smaller abode. [Edit: Or at least Portia and Penelope, since presumably the older daughters live elsewhere with their husbands.] Yes, what is with this show's obsession with triangles that weren't in the books? -- the prince (and Marina, I guess), Edwina, Lord Debling. Charlotte and George are fantastic. I mean, Benedict could have had a threesome when Mme. Delacroix again but this time with a man if they really wanted to do that. Or the artist/model from season two. Yes, I hate Lady Whistledown after Marina (and I love Eloise and Theo, sorry -- but also Eloise and Cressida -- but also Phillip could die and there's Marina . . . ), so it's hard for me to root for Penelope on the show. Even the insulting way she talks about some other characters (Kate before ever meeting her). I thought the first half of season three made a good start at getting sympathy for her. But . . . not sure they really carried the day on that in part two. Yes, I want Francesca to love John deeply and only fall in love with Michaela after his death, which is still possible even though she had some unfortunate reactions, as you point out. I realize the optics of having a Black woman pine over an oblivious white woman may be why they gave Francesca the first lightning bolt reaction on the show. Also, they may feel like they've done pining, but they never tire of a love triangle, so that's a little worrying. But I live in hope that we won't have Francesca just feeling she's made a mistake and not loving John after all because I love the type of love she was selling to her mother. I had read a Reddit thread (I know) about Masali Baduza being cast as Sophie, so when she showed up as Michaela (somehow I missed that speculation/spoiler), I was surprised. As you point out, this could work. Francesca could even give a modified version of Michael's _I don't care if you are barren/I don't need a baby_ speech to Michaela. I've seen people break up on TV because one of them wants a baby. Seeing someone say "I want a baby but I want you more; I choose you" would be very powerful, I think. Also, Violet to Colin: Your father and I were friends first. Violet to Francesca: I couldn't remember my own name when I met your father. I don't like Phillip at all in the book, although I'm sure they would improve him in the show. But I'd like to see Eloise actually grow and do some things, even though a lot of the fanbase wants her to shut up and just get married, as if no upper class ladies ever did anything at the time. Kind of hoping for Cressida to visit the Ladies of Llangollen in Wales (the real "Gentleman Jack" did, as well as Lord Byron, Benedict's hated poet -- he would have been an interesting stopgap love/lust interest for B., but I digress -- and I agree, past time for meeting Sophie now). Also, also: No way are Anthony and Kate going on an arduous four-month journey to India while she's pregnant. I'm seeing different things about how they wanted to be more in the season or they couldn't, but if they had to send them away, Aubrey Hall would have made more sense right now. I would vote for ditching the Featherington baby race plot for more time if they were to have gotten more scenes. Great video!
Ik I’m not the only one who knows for a fact that Daphne violated my buai for a damn kid and downplayed his trauma. Yes you do not keep the truth from your new partner that much is true but you also don’t violate his trust unannounced to him when having hanky panky. That was so one sided to me because if Daphne loved him enough she would stick with him even without a child and THEN resolve it together.
With Benedict’s bisexuality, I was really excited to see it. It was interesting to see that blossom into something more. What I found really hard about it was the whole threesome thing. I feel it promotes the idea or stereotype that bisexuals can only be satisfied for their attraction to both genders through threesomes, (or cheating, even though that’s not explicitly shown in the show). I think what upsets me most about it is, will this development for Benedict’s character be forgotten about when Sophie is in the picture? Obviously bisexuals can be in straight relationships and still be bi, much like myself being a bisexual woman dating another woman, it doesn’t explicitly make me lesbian but in a lesbian relationship. I think my worries sit on, where will his bisexuality go from here? Will it be left behind and forgotten for Sophie? Will they acknowledge it further? But then how so, without turning it into a cheating scandal or constant threesomes or open relationships to keep up the fan service. I feel as though nowadays more people feed off of homosexual stories, which is fine, it is nice to see excitement for relationships that differ from heterosexual. It just feels like Benedict’s bisexuality is exactly what was said in the video, ticking all the boxes for inclusivity. Whereas with Francesca it feels more natural. I think giving Francesca the bisexual/lesbian storyline would feel more natural and less like Benedict’s quick stamp of gay/bi inclusion. I am excited to see how Francesca and Michaela’s story works as I would love to see more softer and sweeter lesbian story lines, rather than the super masculine butch stories that are made either for the male gaze/comedy. Reply if you have a similar opinion or have a different view. I’d love to see how others feel about it too ❤
you know if the show doesn't want to be faithful to the books and "wokeify" the series, for lack of better words, Bridgerton owes it to it's audience to touch upon these subjects. It's like the series took away the depth of these characters in favor of opulence. To me, Penelope was my favorite. The way they did nothing, but reduce her to fat girl bestie pissed me off. They could have intertwined the idea of Penelope feeling "othered" in her position in society as a fuel to why she created Lady Whistledown. Penelope doing this to even the playing field, without touching upon the dieting, giving her power where she had none would be a nice touch. OF COURSE, the season that centers a woman who isn't the stereotypical beauty standard HAD to be sidelined for half-baked side characters. It's really disappointing because Polin needs more than 8 episodes to be executed, it left a lot to be desired. It's the show's unwillingness to do anything with depth and the lack of content it takes to do an assemble cast justice!
There were side plots with other characters in previous seasons. Penelope's role as Whistledown, her crush on Colin, her friendship with Eloise, and her home life were all secondary plots over the first two seasons. The show gave Polin nearly 16 episodes of development and screentime before season 3. I'm not sure what more could have been done to improve what was given.
Absolutely agree. She is literally the gossip girl of the series and we didn't see anything interesting or compelling. Feels like a generic wallflower blooming story
I was so happy to see a love story NOT full of lust and passion because not all love stories are passionate like that or the passion grows over time but introducing "Michel" tosses all that out the window because it show she DOES yearn for that just not with her husband... Making THEIR story feel more like an obstacle to Fran's TRUE happiness then anything else... The Director said that after changing Fran's story she saw HERSELF in the story so if she is changing the story to solely aline more with her story she is spitting in the faces of people who also saw themselves in the original story... IDC if they change the gender and her second "great love" is to a women just that by showing their attraction NOW makes this situation super messy... As far as I know the director is a happy lesbian women who WAS in a "loveless" marriage till she came out... These changes made to Fran are going to destroy her character if not handled right and I don't trust them to handle THIS right... Lesbian or not, cheating, even emotionally is a character assassinator no matter how much of a fan base they personally have... Being "true to yourself" is NOT an excuse to cheat... By showing the attraction NOW they made it impossible for them to be "friends" without emotional cheating hanging in the air... Unless they pick up RIGHT after his death any interaction will be seen as them "wanting" each other but the husband/brother is in the way of THEIR love... I'm Demi and I understand deeply loving two people, one a women, the other a man, but I'm not interested in just any women or man... I could have fully gotten behind this change showing two very different but very REAL love stories but the faces they had her make at the end makes me think they DON'T see her first marriage as a "real" love story... The director made a choice to have her look sad about her first marriage because SHE was unhappy with HER first marriage... Which is sad that such a sweet story has such a sad shadow looming over it because ONE person views it as such...
It’s not character assassination for Fran to find Michaela hot. She also flirted with Micheal and listened to his raunchy stories in the books while John was still alive. Married people can find other people attractive.
While I sympathise with Cressida and her situation, I'm so over the "bully gets redeemed seasons later by revealing tragic home life" that we see so much of nowadays. Not every bully needs to be redeemed. Sometimes a bully is just a bully and sometimes that's all a story needs. What was truly gained from the Cressida storyline in S3? (Yes yes, there very well can be pay off in S4 or S5 and id rather have built up that makes sense later instead of a 180 twist but still)
Thank you thank you thank you! Cressida didn’t need redemption. Knowing the emotional neglect and verbal abuse Penelope’s endured, Cressida’s bullying could’ve caused her to unalive herself.
i was so tired of everyone feeling pity for her, like yes she is in an awful situation but she has hurt a lot of people, especially Penelope, and show no mercy, even when she was in the bottom of the social ranks she still was mean and showed no remorse. It may be far fetched but i think they would make her Benedict's love interest, it makes sense eith Sofie's story and also it would be the perfect way to "redeem" Cressida
@@BellesViewbut when you think about it, Penelope is the biggest bully of the all. Ruining people's reputation in front of the entire ton, making their personal lives in to gossip for everyone to read. She almost ruined Eloise's life and ruined Marina's life. In the end, Marina tried to have an abortion and also to off herself in season 1. So i dont get why cressida and her are treated so differently, you know?
@@juliao9999While Penelope did a lot of messed up stuff, some of it definitely not forgivable, most of the gossip she heard was already known by some people, she just amplified the reach of it. When it comes to Eloise I do find it harder to really blame Penelope for how it went down. She tells Eloise multiple times to stop that witch hunt bc she knows Eloise will not like what she finds if she does find it out and later, when the Queen gets involved and is blood hungry, she knows the consequences could be dire for Eloise (which turns out not to be true actually bc the writers decided there should be no consequences actually but in S2 the vibe definitely was "hey, the queen will fuck you up if you don't stop"). So Penelope writing about Eloise's political rebellion made her the talk of the ton and ruined her standing a bit, but that's the lesser evil to what the queen could have done. And Eloise is fine in S3. She was shunned for the off-season and that's why she starts befriending Cressida but once the season is on again her mother manages just fine to make matches. The girls she talks to (the scene where she mocks girly hobbies) don't look at her with any disdain or anything. She's fine. And considering Eloise's whole personality, I don't even get why she'd be so pissed that no one in the talk wants to talk to her when she herself never wanted to talk to the ton.
The worst thing about this season was i couldn’t have any reasonable conversation about it in fandom spaces were to focus on hating black ppl and plus size ppl and the conversation about the costuming was ugh
Thank you for this video! There are some valid critiques of the way some things were written and executed, but it really got lost in the latest round of racism and homophobia. I personally liked Francesca’s storyline, and I’m open to seeing where it goes.
the first four episodes of this season are really good!!!! then it all went downhill unfortunately:( also it kinda was a success since it's in the top ten of netflix shows with hours watched(surpassing season 2)
As a fat person and fat liberation activist who knows absolutely nothing about Bridgerton, this season has been nothing but positive for me because I get to see all the advertisements and everything showing a cute fat girl being the unquestionably beautiful and charming love interest for once 🥰 not to mention she looks like a perfect cross between me and my gorgeous redhead girlfriend so I think she's what our future daughter might look like 😌
The book is like two people doing improv and one of them is really bad at it. Person A: Oh! What if they got into this situation, and this really interesting conflict started? / Person B: Oh! And then... this one thing happened out of nowhere and everyone was fine again.
Theres one thing i disagree with you about. When you basically said simone didnt recieve as much racism because of her face card. Thats a whole WRONG! Simone has faced so much racism even til this day. Even from other parts of the fandom, specifically polin side of the fandom.
This! I’m not going to stop Black actors from getting a check. Emma Naomi who plays Alice was about to go to masseuse school before she booked the role and Martins who plays Will has retired his mom. I’m rooting for them.
Bridgerton is meant to be an indulgent show, and the lesson Mr. Mondrich learns is that he just needs to sit back, chill and focus on throwing cool parties. It was fun!
Yeah, I liked it. Kind of wished they could have inherited the Featherington title and the ladies had to move somewhere smaller, but I'll take what I can get.
My takeaway from the whole thing was Miss Nicola, she’s got style, she’s got grace, she’s a winner owowhoaowow she’s a lady. Also, Luke and her are just sooooo adorable omg
I will never not be supremely pissed that in a season that was supposed to be focused on a guy with the standard Hollywood fit body being obsessed with a woman whose body does not adhere to that Hollywood fit standard, *three* of their four intimate scenes had her clothed. Three. Meanwhile, we got a truly unnecessary number of scenes featuring Benedict discovering his bisexuality through the groundbreaking tactic of having a threesome, but I'm sure the fact that all three of those actors had the expected Hollywood thin body type had absolutely nothing to do with that story/editing choice. 🙃
Nah. You can't say more Kanthony would've taken away from Polin when Penelope and her family took so much away from Kanthony. Why is it ok when white people take up space and leave little for WoC but when WoC take up space and leave less for white people it's not ok?
All of this!!! Kanthony’s presence on the show will always make sense and to me, this season suffered from their lack of screen time. I didn’t need three seasons worth of plot lines for the Featheringtons. I needed to see the Sharma storyline fleshed out during their own season. Why do I know more about Portia’s backstory than Kate’s?
So I have a long distance boyfriend, now fiancé >:) , and I visited him for the entire month of July. I watched some of your videos while I was there and he was at work. Now, your videos bring me comfort. Not only are they informative and well made, and I'll watch then just for that, but they remind me of being home.
Sadly, I was unable to finish this season. By episode 3, I was bored. The excellent build up and slow burn of the first season is completely lost on season 3. Also, what happened to the music and the crescendo and emotional scenes? The first season was so immersive and season 2 was interesting and curious but still a step down from season 1. However, season 3 lacked magic, tension, and fun. Maybe episodes 4-8 were better but the first 3 took me off the show.
I think my biggest problem with the Michaela switch is Jess Brownell and her reasoning and the self insert aspect. I’m also just antsy about that season because based off of this season the writing seems to be getting worse but idk if I trust the writers as a fan to keep the aspects of the characters and story that made it so great and translate them into the show version. Like I think there are two pretty obvious ways to keep the infertility while also allowing Fran to ultimately have a kid and explain the turmoil in Fran & Michaela about the situation but based off this season the writers can’t do it. Also the treatment of quiet love in the end really left a bad taste in my mouth, like Michaela could have fallen first and it could have still taken Fran time to realize how she feels.
That is my only gripe with the season (I personally love it for the most part and rewatch the Polin scenes often). They made many improvements from the book, but I wish they would have kept the part where Penelope and Colin were together and talked about their issues, coming to an understanding of each other. Penelope was sad and crying far too much for my tastes. That last minute speech at the end was cute and all, but I needed them to have more time together.
IMHO the funniest thing about Benedict's storyline this season was that it was solved an episode earlier so in the last one they kept showing his threesome scenes while shit was going down in the main plot XD. I don't know, the abrupt traditions made me laugh so bad! And you hit the nail on the head with your criticism of using a character's sexuality as plot twist for shock value. Lastly, I'm very sad that you were attacked by some people in the fandom over this video essay. It sucks when toxicity leads someone away from a fandom (I have been on the periphery of the Bridgerton fandom because it has always seemed quite toxic to me, I mean the ship wars are REALLY heated and vicious + there's the rampant homophobia and racism, as you mentioned in the video). Anyway, even if I enjoyed your comments on the show, I respect your decision to avoid discussing the series publicly in the future, if you don't feel comfortable doing so.
30:39 - I think if there is actually a way to kind of "save" the lesbian Francesca idea (since I do think it was hinted at in the beginning of the season) is to simply make what she has with John (from her perspective, at least) a queerplatonic relationship. That way, she can still have two great loves that are equally as important to her, even if one wasn't romantic, and for the show to explore different types of love. As someone who is on the aro and ace spectrums, I'd love to see more romances and love stories about different kinds of love and normalize the idea that romantic love isn't the end all be all. And perhaps to set up Eloise as being on the aro/ace spectrum too...
6:44 she's coming, I just hope they don't Girlbossify her. 9:39 it's a throw away line, but Edwina got married abroad, to someone in India, I believe in the town where her and Kate grew up (had to fact check) 26:07 Dungeons and Dragons was a fun movie and his character was awesome.
@@HuntingViolets I know they said Edwina is abroad, I don't remember them saying she's back in India. Update: I completely forgot! She is living in India with her new husband! How did I forget? Nevermind 😂
In regards to wanting more boob-love from Colin this season: I really think we should be careful with that because it could be a matter of what the actors are comfortable with during these intimate scenes. In particular because thank god we're in an era of intimacy coordinators basically being the expectation & every actor in the world says they help so much in advocating for them during those scenes & making them feel comfortable. It may very well be that Nic & Luke were comfortable with him touching her breasts over her dress and kissing her chest, but maybe 1 of them (incl. Nic) didn't want to do anything that involved touching/kissing bare breasts. So as long as the intimate scenes are actually important to the narrative and HOT (I'm not even gonna front), I will be happy. Relating to Nic's body, I definitely see how the fatphobia from the series came in during S1&2. Honestly, the fact they put her in unflattering dresses would be a bigger argument since the line you showed was literally the 1 time her weight is ever mentioned. But the showrunners have also said that they purposely put her in unflattering dresses to set-up her later glow-up. And I do have to disagree about them not countering it properly because at the end of the day, her glow-up did not involve weight loss (like you mentioned), but during the intimate scenes, Colin is explicitly admiring her body. In the mirror scene, he simply says "You are so beautiful" and from then on, Pen is very confident & active during their first time. Compared to other series, I think Bridgerton is pretty neutral when it comes to Nic's body & fatphobia. I think the best argument that they suck at that is that none of the other main characters are normal-sized but like, that's pretty much every show ever.
The last few hours have been interesting. I want to thank those who in good faith reached out to me and took the time to explain what has been going on within the Bridgerton fandom because I genuinely did not know.
I did not realize that there was a segment of the Bridgerton fanbase that dismisses the racism that Simone Ashley faces or acts like she doesn’t experience any at all.
When I made the comment about Simone’s face card, it was seen by fans as contributing to the erasure of her experiences as a woman of color, especially a darker skinned one, in a fandom that has been racist and antagonistic towards her.
That was not my intent. For me, when I made that comment it was not to erase her experiences, but to share how in my experiences of being somewhat in the fandom-people have loved her. But “fairing better” does not mean-you don’t experience any. And mentioning her face card was in jest because I think racism is stupid and only being that ridiculous could you find something to complain about when it came to someone that beautiful.
I take accountability that I could have been clearer in my words and that I could have explored what Simone and Charithra went through. The ways in which Kate could have deserved more in her season and Simone as an actress deserves as much as her white counterparts. I didn’t because I was focused more on season three, and because I myself am not Indian-I didn’t want to speak too much out of turn. Simone has chosen to not talk much about her negative experience and I, as someone who wants to be sane, has not gotten deep into Bridgerton fandom. As a result I lacked the proper resources of those experiences. That is on me.
I understand and have empathy for those who have to deal with their favorite actress character dealing with racism (raises hand in Tara, Bonnie, Iris West, and many others). But I am also a person. I make mistakes. And a few people crossed a line into being very antagonistic towards me and saying you are upset at me because of the actions of Shondaland or because you hate a character-that is not a reasonable reason to attack someone. We need to normalize conversations that don’t dissolve into people behaving aggressively.
Anyway-thank you for taking the time to read, thank you to those who informed me of the bullshit that Simone has been dealing with-she deserves better-and I plan to never talk about Bridgerton publicly again.
dont think anything in your video was dismissive of the racism Simone receives, especially when you said she does not get the same opportunities as Nicola.
I'm glad people let you know about Simone (I put a little comment in myself that I hope was not offensive), but I'm very sorry that people have attacked you and that you plan not to talk about the show again publicly. I hope you're doing okay. I always love your videos and this one had a lot of great stuff to say.
don't let the toxic sect of fandom bully you! if you want to comment about Bridgerton in the future, you should flipping do so!
I guess, maybe because I'm not very current on all the latest slang or memes or such, I didn't even have any idea what you meant or not by a face card at all-but I interpreted the overall heart and intent of everything you were saying about her to be that you think she is beautiful and that anyone who would judge her negatively probably isn't someone whose opinion is even worth weighing in or giving any positively-valued regard at all. 🤔🤔🤷🤷♀️🤷🏻♂️
Either way, it sucks the way discourse too often devolves these days, and that discrimination and prejudice is even a thing anyone ever has to deal with at all-and I'm sure that's putting it all entirely too mildly. 😿
Keep talking about Bridgerton. Your thoughts are very enlightening and you give thoughtful takes. I look forward to your analysis of this show. This video was spot on. Don't let a misunderstanding stop you from discussing Bridgerton. And to the fans that know you, we know that you have no malice or dismissiveness in your heart. You know how stans can be, if you don't include their fav in every discussion they get pissed. You can't please every one, and we know you didn't mean any harm.
People really think there was zero joy in Black and queer life prior to the civil rights movement. People build spaces of joy no matter how bleak the circumstances. The show could lean into those historical spaces, which did exist and are documented.
Literally as black people we were so resilient and found joy in so many things
yes!! black and queer spaces always existed, the reason we do t hear of most of these spaces is because
one- most were undoubtedly destroyed by homophobes and racists
and two, they were illegal and people knew, and those in the al rs didn’t walk around telling everyone about it !!!
Oh btw I'm specifically thinking of Molly houses in this time and place! Drop another example if you know one! Let's remember these spaces!
Hearing that anyone was complaining about John Stirling's actor being too dark is just... wtf? Are y'all done yet? Franscesca and John were adorable together, probably my favorite couple of Bridgerton so far. And I have to ask bc I've not seen anyone talking about it - am I the only one getting ND vibes from Franscesca and John? Like is that not part of why they click so well???
Also haven't read the books but I completely missed the whole Michael/Michaela budding queer polyamory thing... I'll have to look out for that when I re-watch bc it sounds awesome!
Many more thoughts re: DEI in this context but I think Princess covered it fairly well. I def thought the fantasy was somewhat ruined in S1 when Lady Danbury (🙌🏽) revealed that there was history to the racial diversity of the ton and it wasn't just a world where race isn't really a thing. Feels like they made telling a cohesive, introspective adaptation far more difficult for themselves by doing that. And at least they are trying but def missing the mark in several places, especially with Daphne r**ing Simon.
@@caspenbeeof women - there is a series called Gentleman Jack, based on a real life story of a lesbian landowner (White and privileged, yes), Anne Lister, and a little later, Selma Lagerlöf (white and educated, born to privilege but still, working woman, first female Nobel prize in literature) managed to live a life with her two lovers in almost open. The whole "spinsters having deep friendships" trope served many people well, and it wasnt completely unavailable for men. We are just two jolly bachelors who enjoy each others company... etc.
There also were successful black or mixed race people in Europe before 20th century, Alexander Dumas most famously, also a few classical musicians rose to success like Vittoria Tesi Tramontini, or Joseph Bologne. It would be hard to write about them without including some hints of the racism they experienced, but still you could emphasise the positive aspects of their lives without being totally ahistorical.
Every time I think about the fact that the writers robbed Kate of a Regency Indian wedding for a contrived love triangle I lose my sanity a little bit.
I feel that
Really? That would’ve been so cool to see!
Initially, I thought Kate would give birth in the season three finale without Edwina and Mary. I’m glad she’ll spend the early days of motherhood with her family in her homeland 😊
And then we hear, well, there was a wedding. There was a non-wedding that didn't happen, and that wasn't Kate's, and then we didn't get to see the real wedding.
@@BellesView Going to India by ship -- an arduous journey for a pregnant woman during an era where medical wasn't the best, a four-month journey, if not longer -- just is bizarre, though. The baby isn't going to remember India if they come back, and if they don't (since they are the heads of the family), it will be annoying. And it's just impossible to buy that Anthony would suggest that when he was there when Violet and Hyacinth almost died. Although your thought is sweet, and I'm sorry to rain on it with my bad attitude. :/
Bro literally was just thinking abt this
I never cared that Michael was a woman, as long as she has rizz we will be just fine. What I cared about is that they gave Michael's love at first sight to Fran the DAY AFTER HER WEDDING! I'm sorry...what was the point of showing such a beautifully quiet love between John and Fran only to burn it on their wedding day & when she meets someone else.
I don't mind Lesbianism in Bridgerton but I thought they laid seeds for Eloise, Francesca came out of nowhere
That's why I'm so hoping they just make her gay, because otherwise the disrespect to John is tenfold. And because if they make her bi, it's definitely going to come across as 'bi people are cheaters' and no one needs that
@@suzygirl1843 Eloise would have been a stereotype… I never saw her being a lesbian
@@spacebar9733 Eloise is feminine but not doesn't behave feminine like Daphne. She performs Feminism because she wants to be one of the "boys", not because she cares about equality. Eloise wants to do stuff like travel, not be pressured to marry so soon, be independent like her brothers... hence why it bothered her that Penelope is basically living out her fantasies as Lady Whistledown. She AND Benedict get along the most because they are most similar this way because they want more to life than just to settle down and conform. Benedict has no restrictions as a man, too much time, no responsibility, thus has the freedom Eloise always wanted.
This video explains it better: ua-cam.com/video/4FPIz77wcJg/v-deo.htmlsi=GOCCJwjpb4RShIqE
Yes, that. And we're haters because we called it out the showrunner for the deliberate disrespect. She's not stupid. When she saw the final edits, she knew what it looked like. If she didn't someone else did. No hate to the actors. Plus the direction of the characters in the end was bizarre.
I remembered how funny it was when they were talking about "oh, let's just hop over to India", like they could get on a plane and be there tomorrow. It took 6 months on a ship to get there! She would probably give birth on the ship! Not to mention how dangerous such voyages were. Epidemics, death, weather,... It wasn't that uncommon for people to never make it to the end. I doubt many pregnant women made such a voyage without a good cause.
That made me kind of crazy, especially after Anthony had already been traumatized by Hyacinth's birth. I would expect him to be oversolicitous for Kate's health, if anything.
Bridgerton is very unrealistic in most physical reality aspects, the classism annoys me too, historical novels of the time also concentrate on the upper classes, but they do sometimes acknowledge other people at least exist. Enormous amounts of labour went into manufacturing all those luxury goods, food, houses, horse maintenance, armies of servants were needed to put on all those balls. And yes, travel was hard, slow and dangerous, people got sick and with little effective medicine, even rich people could just drop dead from infectious disease. Childbirth was super dangerous. Accidents were dangerous, again with lack of medical science you could easily get an infection and die after what now would be a minor boo-boo. It all starts to irk me after a while, as escapism goes, this is pure fantasy. I guess that is fine too, just seems pointless to then start whining about what is not "historically accurate" in other ways.
I was like, if you want them out of the picture so that the actors can go off and pursue other projects without having to worry about scheduling conflicts appearing because they're needed for a cameo, just say they are off to the countryside to take care of business and next season they're too busy with their newborn to be bothered to show up in London for society events.
Travelling such a long distance was, as you've said, dangerous and unpredictable, and Anthony still needs to be viscount, gallivanting around the world was an activity for younger sons for a reason, ffs, the head, the heir and the spare were needed to be kept alive to keep the show running.
@@phelanii4444 Yeah, it was ridiculous. The actors have expressed a desire to continue to appear on the show, something that is a gift to the production. But if there is a conflict, it's easy enough for them to just be offscreen some of the time. No need to send them to India so their child will know its mother's heritage (how long are they going to be in India that the child would even remember this?).
Not to mention no antibiotics 😂
You really encapsulated what I felt about Francesca’s relationship. I think it would have worked better if she had no reaction to meeting Micaela. I thought her quiet romance was so cute and with that ending they just threw it away like it didn’t matter and I wish she could have both loves.
Yes! Franchesca and John’s love felt so realistic.
They could have done enough to have Michaela be utterly stuttering and stumbling over her words obsessed and Francesca being politely unbothered but no. Undermines the season instead
@@mollybusch1281 I'd watch the hell out of Francesca and John having their cozy love life, followed by Francesca and Michaela. It wouldn't be the punchy viral-ness of the rest of the series, but it would be basically everyone's comfort series.
I absolutely agree with all of this. I don’t think they needed to play into clearly neurodivergent representation then be like psych this is actually queer representation because this character thinks this is what love is but they haven’t figured out they’re gay. Like why can’t we have both. We don’t have to make a competition of what types of love matter most. She can have her real love with John who understands her and she feels comfortable with and she can have a passionate later love with Michaela which is true in its own special way. Julia wrote that and it’s one of the few things she did right. Let Fran be a lover girl who has two beautiful great loves.
Idk why yall act like her feeling butterflies meeting Michaela means she never loved/doesnt love John, like... thats so stupid
I get irrationally angry every time I think about what they did to Benedict’s character this season. They didn’t know what to do with him so they made his whole story sleeping with some random lady who feels like she time traveled from the 1940s. Then, they made him discovering his bisexuality into fanservice.
That’s what it was cause when she showed up I was wondering are we sure this is the right era?…
And it's the third season in a row of him having random affairs. It bored me already in s2...
Yea, the way she was dressed made no sense for this era lol. Way too revealing
I want to know if you've read his book before commenting on Ben's character development this season.
@@heathercontois4501that didn’t make it any less out of place and clunky.
Colin’s energy this season was very travel as a hobby on his dating profile. I felt like I didn’t know anything else about him. Traveling is not a personality.
I cackled at it is illegal to sell bound fan fiction
The fact some one thought of the idea and attempted it😂
The fact that After and 50 shades of grey beg to differ
Twilight as well
However they had to change names and such from the IP they were inspired by
frankly, he appeared like a side character to me and this is me being honest
Colin and Penelope are weak leads. Sorry to say it. But Season 1 and 2 had VERY strong leads, and this was a let down.
Colin was horrible this season, I felt like he had no care for Penelope's reputation. He didn't even hesitate to literally have sex with her prior to marriage, which could push her into absolute ruin, if anyone found out.
He was boring, indecisive, childish and just overall super annoying.
The Bridgerton writers/showrunners needed to either set the show in an ideal alternate reality where racism and LGBTQ discrimination didn't ever exist; or, they needed to address the reality in some meaningful way. None of this "racism was a thing until our king fell in love with a black woman" nonsense.
The show actually felt natural until they brought up the racism part tbh. Then of course, all of obvious alphabet relationships make the show seem even more out of place. All of this would've made way more sense if the show was in modern times.
Making queerness be a part of the world could have still worked with the whole marriage mart thing, because they could have used that aspect to push the fact that marriage back then was just for biological essentialism (men and women must have babies, create heirs) and then have it be an unspoken thing that people in these essentially loveless transactions often take lover's (who are sometimes of the same sex) and a way to subvert it is that one of the Bridgerton siblings wants instead to marry their gay love instead of following the rules of noble marriage. Yknow because Love is all their mother talks about.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928queer people existed in history. Kaz Rowe has great videos about the subject if you’re interested
@@VultureSkinswe already know that. What is the point of this comment?
I think the problem with that is that it brings up questions about other things in history that the writers of the show clearly have no range or knowledge to address which can be seen as problematic for the show from a viewer’s standpoint.
I was so disappointed at how dirty they did John with that ending of Francesca immediately falling for his cousin. So glad other people are calling attention to that. I loved their story so much and it felt like such a slap in the face.
Damn did i miss that in the show??
For real
What a waste of build up tbh
For real. They could easily make her officially bisexual, totally in love with John, just not understanding what she feels for Michaela.
Makes sense to me actually. She didn’t have the spark with John was just comfortable and wasn’t interested in it. But then she finally sees someone that gives her those feelings unexpectedly
Intending to explore comphet with Fran, and inadvertently creating neurodivergent rep for awkward love, only to reveal that it’s awkward because she’s queer… 😅 and actually she is totally capable and desiring of being swept off her feet by the right person? HUGE bummer!
Also huge bummer that Fran has no friends! The pining, the yearning, and the sapphicness would have been so much more sensible if she had a best friend… I dunno, the show is SO busy with SO many characters, everyone ends up being a little underwritten imo.
you know who DID have the markings of that sapphic storyline?? eloise!
@@bino8444 Totally!!!! I don’t blame the showrunners for sidestepping the “feminist bcs lesbian” trope, genuinely. But at least Eloise’s conversations pass the Bechdel test yk? 😭
Right! I was so happy to see a love story NOT full of lust and passion because not all love stories are passionate like that or the passion grows over time but introducing "Michel" tosses all that out the window because it show she DOES yearn for that just not with her husband... Making THEIR story feel more like an obstacle to Fran's TRUE happiness then anything else...
The Director said that after changing Fran's story she saw HERSELF in the story so if she is changing the story to solely aline more with her story she is spitting in the faces of people who also saw themselves in the original story... IDC if they change the gender and her second "great love" is to a women just that by showing their attraction NOW makes this situation super messy... As far as I know the director is a happy lesbian women who WAS in a "loveless" marriage till she came out... These changes made to Fran are going to destroy her character if not handled right and I don't trust them to handle THIS right...
Lesbian or not, cheating, even emotionally is a character assassinator no matter how much of a fan base they personally have... Being "true to yourself" is NOT an excuse to cheat so by showing the attraction NOW they made it impossible for them to be "friends" without thoughts of emotional cheating hanging in the air... Unless they pick up RIGHT after his death any interaction will be seen as them "wanting" each other but the husband/brother is in the way of THEIR love...
I'm Demi and I understand deeply loving two people, one a women, the other a man, but I'm not interested in just any women or man... I could have fully gotten behind this change showing two very different but very REAL love stories but the faces they had her make at the end makes me think they DON'T see her first marriage as a "real" love story... The director made a choice to have her look sad about her first marriage because SHE was unhappy with HER first marriage... Which is sad that such a sweet story has such a sad shadow looming over it because ONE person views it as such...
Eh, as an audhd bi/asexual afab person who is engaged to a man... it was extremely relatable to me. I am about 10% into dudes and 90% into anyone else. I met my partner 2 weeks after deciding dating in any form wasn't for me, but he is so kind and genuine I decided to go out with him. I was also in denial about being attracted to women at all. Comphet got me. We've been together for 10 years and I've been more attracted to many women than to him, but it doesn't matter because it doesn't make me love him less. What isn't relatable to one person can be aggressively so to another.
@@bino8444seriously I don’t get why they didn’t make Eloise the sapphic storyline and just leave Fran and John as they are
Lord Debling would have been so much better if he was unabashedly a simp for Penelope and for her to ignore him and Colin getting jealous. As far as the Francesca plotline, I know in the books John dies early and she re-marries but like another said: let their romance breathe. It was very sweet, and the actors make you fall in love with them the more they are on screen. I would be great to watch their relationship develop, and when she moves to her next romance also let that develop. Francesca having the cozy romances would work really well I think.
Real. Make Colin uncomfy facing up to a man not ashamed to admit she's hot
@@LadyAhro it really was a disappointment when Debling was basically "You're a single lady, with a pulse. Eh? Nah? k. I'm going to leave now"
I loved that in their book, it shows that Fran and John like living away rom the drama and business and noise of town. It showed that Mike had been in love with Fran since they met, but stepped aside because John loved her, too and she loved John. I feel insulted, as an introvert, that they just spat on all of that respect and love and made it something it never was.
@@lucinda3964 I also wished that they made Lord Debling interested in Penelope and not just as a housekeeper while he goes off into the world to pursue his interests. I feel like it would have really made the story more compelling. The minute he suggested that she would cheat on him with Colin I rolled my eyes and immediately wrote him off.
exactly. they totally could have had Francesca and Michaela still happen, but you don't have to undo all the beautiful work of John and Francesca's relationship
Same about a character's sexuality being used as a 'twist'. Like, tada she's gay, you're welcome. I've never liked that in any show. Makes it feel like being queer is a trope or something, which is very bleh. My sexuality is not a magic trick, thank you show!
@@bjones6441 I definitely agree with you. I really hate when queerness is treated as an era that you enter in your life and not something that is a part of your identity.
It sucks bc we as a queer community don’t even get to root for her being bisexual. And also we like straight relationships too!!! If we liked her with John then making her like some other person just bc they’re a girl doesn’t make us magically forget him?!
Small tangent: Michaelas actress is beyond gorgeous. Just spellbinding
Yes, I really want to check out her previous show.
Absolutely!! Easily the most stunning of all the Bridgerton siblings 😍
@@joannamarieart Michaela isn't a Bridgerton sibling, though.
@@HuntingViolets you are correct 🤦🏻♀️ I read Michaela and my brain said Francesca! 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️
Would have made a lovely Sophie.
For people wondering about why shows keep getting these awkward, partial season releases - it’s a money thing!! Actors, writers, producers, etc signed onto a show get union-mandated raises every time a new season is picked up which are determined by each worker’s contract. Streamers get around paying the additional $ by slashing season episode totals, then booking a slightly longer season, cutting it in half and releasing it in parts. Now they have two seasons’ worth of content and hype while only paying salaries for one. Fun world we live in.
I admittedly was excited when I saw Kanthony during the trailer but then part 1 dropped, I was like "So yall know we like them and...that's it?" I haven't read the books and I know there's still somewhat of a need to follow them, but when Daphne came back in S2 she had a decent amount of importance - the 1 Bridgerton sibling that knows Anthony loves Kate, & tries to convince him to actually follow love. Kanthony did better in part 2 for sure, but I feel like part 1 already kinda made it obvious that the production team just brought them back for fan service. On the other hand, I can see how it could possibly be difficult for the show to get characters proper story lines because they very well may not have a story in that book/plotline but their contract says they HAVE to come back or something.
What you said about the partial releases is frustrating because the only way we can really tell them to fuck off with that is by tanking the viewership of the premieres and rest of the episodes of shows that do that. However, it's really hard to get THAT many people to go along with it and personally, I do have a soft spot for the ensemble of Bridgerton & I do think they ALL are very talented actors with great chemistry so I don't want to ruin "their" season with that. Bridgerton S3 did amazing with the numbers (which I am so happy for Nicola & Luke) and people still ate up the press tour in-between Part 1 & 2 so I think we're going to be stuck with this model for a while...
Idk if eight episodes count as two seasons worth of episodes. Or even if 8 episodes count as one large season. Eight episodes is the current average length of many shows and many networks, no?
@@soph996I don't think they're really standing by the idea that it's actually two seasons worth. More so that that's what the networks "feel" they're getting by doing it.
Netflix is doing it because they want to start slow releasing shows kind of like “last week on the vampire diaries”. Each episode would release by the week. They’re testing it out rn by months, but they want to make smaller gaps for each episode. Bc having to wait a year or two for a new season is crazy imo.
It also forces subscribers to purchase another month. That’s another BIG reason they do it. It’s why it’s only happening to Netflix’s most popular shows lately.
I adored Francesca and John's romance. As an autistic it was absolutely delightful to watch. I could see myself in their quiet compassionate love. As a queer myself I am pretty bothered by the writers spending so much time to hammer home that "not all love has to be dramatic" just for them to be like "haha lies she is actually gay". I would have had the time of my life if they let Eloise and Cressida be explicitly gay but it bothers me that they removed all the neurodivergent coding and went 'nope Francesca is just a lesbian'.
Right like
Maybe she is bi though?
Edit: Never mind, I didn't catch the look she gave after kissing him when I watched it.
I'm autistic too, and I was so excited to see Francesca and John's love blossom because the whole "let me run off and transpose this song for you that we overheard on the street and you had *strong* opinions on" is such a neurodivergent thing to do and my heart just melted when I saw it. And then they just had to force the "love must always be fireworks and burning desire" narrative yet again. I don't hate Michaela at all, I just wish they had let Francesca and John stay cozy just that little bit longer
So you wanted the 2 white women to be together, but when it's a white woman with a black woman is a problem? Francesca is ending up with Michaela and I'm glad!
@@XxBarbyChanxX Did you even read the comment? This has nothing to do with the actress being black(in fact her being a black women gives me something to be excited about as a black women myself) the issue was not that she is gay but how they chose to throw away all of the stuff about a less dramatic, more comfortable love for yet another story about fire works. And tbh it could have worked if she felt both kind of love if she felt the second one in her own season. But how they did it totally undercuts her story this season.
Funny how r4p3 is more tolerated in the fandom then sapphics, really funny and before anyone says "oh but its faithful to the books" doesn't mean its right
Yes! As a sapphic woman myself, why do we get so little in terms of rep? Low-key, I am tired.
People don’t cheer for things in fiction because they are morally right, but because they make a good story and are meaningful.
I know nothing about Bridgerton, but I do know other works where the assault is a necessary and valuable part of the work (ie the Witcher book series, at least some of the time, though admittedly there is about 1 more assault per book than I would prefer; but a couple are story critical and very meaningful) and comparing accepting that to complaining about a story decision that people don’t like is excessively moralizing fiction.
If you think the assault in Bridgerton does not fit the characters, that is one thing, but if it fits the characters and is just a horrible thing to do, then that is good storytelling, showing flaws in the characters.
@@crumbsintopebblesOr what little rep always ends in some sort of tragedy. I got sick of watching sapphic movies because so many of them had what I’d classify as a bad ending where they weren’t happy together, and while I can handle that sometimes for variety, I think we could all use more happy endings for sapphic couples in media.
@thrawncaedusl717 why are you talking as if your uninformed opinion means anything to people who read or watched the show???? the rape was unnecessary stfu weirdo.
@@thrawncaedusl717 I doubt anyone watching Bridgerton was cheering for the main lead of the first season to rape her husband, and for the whole thing to not be treated seriously. You can't have a character that is supposed to be heroic and kind commit rape.
Loved all your comments. I have no issues with Michaela. I think the actress who plays her is beautiful. Really what bothered me is they spent the whole season selling us on the quiet romance just to say NOPE in last second. I guess for me I would rather her love John and have that romance and then have the romance with Michaela.
Same!
Yes!! It felt like a betrayal of expectation because I truly believed (and loved) their sweet, quiet love, but after the finale it just felt like they went "sike!" and tossed that out of the window 🥲
Yes.
Yes, literally this! And it could have been so easily fixed by having Michaela be the one who comes over speechless instead. I believe in the books Michael is the one that falls first anyway?
That way it wouldn't make John and Francesca's relationship seem less valid, and would still allude to the future romance.
@@izzisart completely agree that would have been the better option!
About Benedict’s arc, I don’t have a problem with fake love interests as long as those stories are character driven. One of the reasons Monica and Richard are so compelling is that Richard has fundamentally changed the way Monica sees herself and how she sees relationships; I don’t think her marriage with Chandler could be as wholesome or as great to watch as it was if she hadn’t gone through what she had with Richard. The problem with Benedict’s arc in season 3 is that he was robbed of any character development. He finds out he’s bi and poly, and that’s it. And the all sex, no romance plot doesn’t even fit with what we’ve seen from Benedict in previous seasons. He’s romantic, arguably more so than any of his siblings.
The problem with this show is that it’s trying to be plot driven and scandalous and gossip-heavy when good love stories focus on characters and their relationships with each other.
The thing is, though, that Richard wasn't a fake love interest on the way to Chandler -- the writers didn't know they were going to get Monica and Chandler together. Yes to Benedict. And bad timing to find you're bi and poly if a poly relationship is not what we're going to see next (which I'm guessing we aren't). I mean, maybe he experiments during the period they're in the country and finds it empty, but that's offscreen development.
Multi-seasons relationship is not fake love interest! Ffs!
If we would thought that way, every person that characters are dating though the entire series and are not end game would be seen as fake love interest...
who is richard and who is chandler?
edit: wait i think ik who richard is, but who is chandler? is he a character from the books?
@@yh0o They are all characters on Friends. OP was drawing a parallel.
@@HuntingViolets omg im so dumh, it was literally so obvious..
25:41 just to add to your point here: Jonathan Bailey was already a extremely well-established actor before Bridgerton, particularly in the UK. He's been in St Trininian's, Chewing Gum, Broadchurch, Crashing, W1A, and that's not even mentioning his voice acting roles; so he wouldn't have had any problems with getting his roles in Wicked and Fellow Travellers regardless. Of course, Rege-Jean Page also has an impresive portfolio, but he wasn't as much of a household name as Bailey before Bridgerton
Adding to this, Jonathan was also on Doctor Who and had won an Olivier Award (which is like a Tony for the Brits) back in 2019 for a stage role. He's been performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company from a young age. He was definitely the most established of the younger cast (excluding Violet, Danbury and the Queen).
...I would say that being known in America and being known in Britain are two very, VERY different things. Theater is a much bigger part of the culture in Britain than in the US. Winning an Olivier is a significant achievement that means someone is amazing, but not what I would call a household name at all (especially in the US). And his roles in all of those projects were supporting.
He 100% got Wicked because of Bridgerton (and matching Cynthia Erivo's talent). Saying otherwise is ridiculous. And he got Jurassic World because of how much Universal Execs were impressed by what he was doing in Wicked. (he's also had to fight against the industry's homophobia because he's openly gay)
I think Colin would have landed better at the beginning if we saw that he felt somewhat uncomfortable with being a “rake” even if it was effective. But he just seemed like he was enjoying himself. It’s the difference between “fake rake” and “reformed rake” (which we saw twice before).
I deffo respect your opinion, but they showed Colin being uncomfortable with being a rake multiple times? In ep 1, Anthony congratulates him on having admirers and Colin says he’s not sure that should ‘cheer him’ e.g. he’s not totally happy with it. He criticises the bro squad he hangs out with for being crude and stupid about love amongst other things that show that this is an act?
@@Isabella-to4ku exactly! There's also his journal in which Pen reads that Colin felt distance from a woman who was lying next to him (aka he didn't love her so he felt emotionally distant from her and didn't like it), he admits his change to Pen in the carriage: "I have spent so long trying to feel less, trying to be the sort of man society expects me to be... (aka a rake)" and when in the brothel the second time, he didn't even want to look at the women (he legit looked away) because he realized he loved Pen. So essentially, he didn't need to become a reformed rake because he wasn't a rake to begin with, he only flirted (but never took any action) and went to the brothel 2 times, the second time he didn't even want to participate. Colin is the least rakish from the three men so far imo
@@darija9873 absolutely all of this! I just didn’t wanna write a monologue. Even in the first brothel scene, when he says he’s going to be late to meet with Pen but actually he shows up EARLY before her in the next scene. Honestly think S3 requires multiple watches to catch this stuff because it’s all there, people just haven’t watched it carefully.
@@Isabella-to4ku this is the problem I have with the season. I shouldn’t *have* to watch multiple times to “get it”. Multiple rewatches should add to what I already know, not clarify it. I agree with what you pointed out in your original comment and I think I wasn’t being as clear as I could have been. There are definitely moments of discomfort, but I needed more to be satisfied as a viewer. It felt weird and inconsistent. I understand the juxtaposition of the two brothel scenes, I understand what they were trying to do, but I don’t think it landed for a lot of people and it didn’t land for me.
@@yuyu2007 it’s a fair critique to have! I do think watching it more than once doesn’t take away from the fact that the narrative is all there and laid out to follow. But I do agree that this season relies too much on telling us things instead of showing them, not diving deep enough on Colin so it does often feel disjointed and confusing unless you’re laser focused, which isn’t what we should asked to do as viewers and is less satisfying, so I do get your pov!
I feel that it bordered a character assassination for Violet to be so against Franscesca wanting to marry John. Like nothing in the show tells us anything but that she is comfortable and happy with him until the very end. Was that not all her mother was supposed to care about? It gave the whole plotline such a weird fucking vibe like Violaet had something against John in particular.
Violet pissed me off for that reason! Here it is Daphne pretty much forced Simon into marriage to avoid social ruin. Anthony had an emotional affair with his fiancée’s sister. Colin married Lady Whistledown. All of these romances created drama that could’ve tarnished the Bridgerton name. But introverted John is where Violet draws the line? Be serious.
I dont agree. Violet of the time talks about love as and adventure, as an epic story (It may be a writer insertion of how they perseve love should be to make sense in rengency) and i feel like it makes sense for her that had her crazy love story, was so loved by a husband that met and early death and has watched her 3 previous kids live these passionate romances (A forced marriage/ being in live with your fiancé's sister/ friends to lovers) to feel weird about Fran's marriage because it was to easy and boring for them
@@buuuuuuuuuu Violet tells Fran that. She tells Colin that she and Edmund were friends first and that friends first is the best kind of romance. I don't think Francesca and John's romance was boring for them. It was boring for Violet because she didn't have to stage-manage it or interfere, which doesn't cast her in the best light, really.
@@HuntingViolets but for violet it was so boring and thats why she dissaprove of it, because she believe lovw should be earth shaking and epic, and the line between Fran's love match being boring and her wanting to be marry and be done with courship is thin in her eyes. She doesnt want Franchesca to settle with someone she doesnt love just because she doesnt want to be in another season after debuting, it goes after everything she wants for her kids.
I guess you can say that it does paint her in a bad light but there is waaaay worse reasons to not accept a match than thinking that the relationship is boring
I think the show told us multiple times that Violet didn't have anything against John in particular. Like, the dialogue told us that explicitly several times, I guess because her actions made it seem otherwise. I personally thought it was funny for the character, for Violet to be so used to dramatic "love matches" that consume people's whole world, that she was disappointed Francesca's didn't feed her any drama. I think it also helped that she *knows* she's being irrational, at least part of the way in the season she realized as much.
Regency times as written by Julia Quinn are already completely removed from actual history anyway. Adding people of color and queer people to the fairy tale doesn't make it any more or less of a fairy tale.
This is the thing that makes no sense! "It has to be accurate" when so many aspects are already false, just shows which people are just bigots right away.
The thing I hated the most about Cressida (who I pity But still dislike) coming out as lady whistledown vs. Penelope coming out as lady whistledown is how the ton reacted. Everyone was upset and felt wronged by her because of what whistledown wrote. So she (and her family) were shunned, isolated and disinvited to events, kicked out of clubs. An obvious backlash to what whistledown did, but when it came out that Penelope was whistledown it was just…huh… okay, let's keep it moving, it didn't feel real. It would have felt more realistic if people were excited to learn that Cressida was lady whistledown and she got a bundle of positive attention and when it comes out that she lied, then have her go through backlash. And my only issue with Micaela is that she was introduced to soon, If she were introduced later, I wouldn't have cared.
@@g-love2401 maybe it's because no one liked Cressida to begin with? 🤷
I don't know, the book made more sense because Whistledown was an establishment after a decade. They loved LW and they were cool with Penelope after that, especially since she retired and went to work with Colin and published her own novel.
I think the difference is Queen Charlotte kinda gave her nod of approval to Pen. But again I agree. It reminded me of the lack of consequences when Dan Humphrey revealed himself as Gossip Girl. It was like, “Omg Dan! ………Oh cool.”
"Not even in the spirit of Pride" and "I root for women's wrongs" are my only personalities now
I was really disappointed with the storyline of Lord Debling. I was hoping that he would actually be a really good second love interest. Like in a way that Penelope was torn between the man she always loved but who didn't reciprocate her feelings or the new man, that would give her what she wanted - a relationship/marriage - but wasn't Colin.
I listened to the books afterwards and I thought adding Lord Debling was a good decision, even tho it was wasted, because in the book for a large part nothing happens and it might would have been pretty boring
The reason I disliked so much how they ended Francesca’s story has nothing to do with Michael being Michaela (tough I think, of all the siblings, this is not the best option to gender-bend because of him being John’s heir and the pregnancy issues being very central to their story, but whatever).
I trully disliked how they sold us that not every love story needs to be bombastic, and Francesca and John’s quiet and shy love story was as valid and true as any of the Bridgerton’s and THEN they told us to forget about it, only mad and mindblowing passion is real. The writers/showrunners/producers just worked out a beautiful, original love story, and then threw it all away.
Their story WAS real (in the books at least) and now is just a huge mistake Francesca has to cope with, filled with misery for the three of them. The key point of Francesca’s arc was overcoming grief because her first love was REAL, and Michael had to overcome his guilt for basically inheriting John’s life and on top of it, loving his widow.
In short… they f****d up big time.
Michaela can still be John's heir as women can inherit most titles in Scotland (and some in England, but we'll ignore that), but that does still leave the problem of Michaela's heir. Perhaps a distant cousin could be adopted? Agree about losing the first love story. Sad.
@@HuntingVioletsIt actually depends in the house of lords. A woman that time cannot inherit but only given a portion of land. And if so, michaela have to marry and conceive ( she has a responsibility to follow the rules) bcuz if they dont have an heir they will be kicked out in the kilmartin estate. It always passes through the nearest male relative.
@@HuntingVioletsI'm calling it now, they're going to change the story so Francesca finds out she's pregnant right after John dies, and that's how they're going to sort the inheritance thing.
Ignoring the writing issues -which will keep me away from this series forever-. I will never understand why people would complain so much about having people that are as absurdly good looking as this cast just because they're BIPOC, and not just complain, but be so horrible, that the actors themselves have spoken up about it.
It's a series about hot people falling in love with other hot people. I'm asexual as hell and even I can appreciate how gd good looking this cast is.
Yh that one is Always weird to me whenever it Happens, especially since the Arguments are usually such obvious bs. I remember the little Mermaid Thing of "Well Andersen was danish so His mermaids are White" and i was Like... Yes, Hes danish, and His Mermaid Turns to frigging sea foam but is "rewarded" with getting a Soul. Her feet also Hurts Like shes Walking on Glass. And theres No jamaican crab. You want "accuracy"? Then Turn the Story into the Horror Show it IS. (Apart from the fact that the Race Thing is bs in the First place because Andersen never actually specifies a setting. It's... The ocean. It could be anywhere and i honestly doubt He even thought about it. )
That plus the queen and Lady Damburry are absolute icons. The actresses blow it right out the gate.
Regency series are not my thing AT ALL but damn do I love these two ladies on screen. Bridgerton is not my cup of tea but I loved the queen centric spin off
I love historical romance because marriage for women in that time period was a matter of life and death. And falling in love was like winning the damn lottery.
I was so disappointed with Fran's storyline. I thought her story was so cute, and indeed that she didn't need to have this 'classic passionnate romance', just find someone she feels comfortable and happy with T_T
I swear if they do that but still throw Eloise with Philipp I'm going to scream.
12:24 someone pointed out that as a man, Colin is a hopeless romantic. He keeps looking for the soulmate level romance his mom believes in and pushes her children to go after. But instead, Simon and his older brother did not believe in love and they found their twin flame. Meanwhile Colin is ready for it to be his turn and it didn’t happen. So he instead decided to mimic Simon and his older brothers hoping for his soulmate to show up and here was Penelope. So he could’ve been having an internal struggle of continuing to play the “rake” while at the same time itching to jump into the sunset with any women he has feelings for.
Simone Ashley is unquestionably beautiful -- except it's questioned a lot by racists and colorists on social media (even complaints about her face shape!), so I'm not really sure she's fared better in the online harassment department.
She is such a babe, so she is not responsible for the voluntary blindness of others hahaha
Just looking in awe at her beauty was the only thing that kept me invested during season two cause I don’t find Jonathan Bailey very attractive lol
@@the_lorax9079 Definitely not her fault that some people are awful.
i'm glad i'm not the only one who thought colin was weird this season
I honsetly thought that was a genuine plot point and it was going to be revealed that he was putting on a facade and hadn't actually had any sexual adventures at all and that Penelope was the one that would not only see through him but also make him become honest with himself.
@@MariaVosa That kind of was the plot point. After having his heart crushed by Marina in season 1 and 2, he decided that being his sensitive loverboy self was wrong. So, he decided to make himself into a rake like Simon and Anthony which is what seemed to be the acceptable version of masculinity in society. It was Penelope who brought him back because he could always be himself around her and be valued just as he was. She made him realize how hollow and meaningless the rake life was and made him long for a true loving connection. That was what he was talking about in the carriage.
@@Afrodiva It felt like they hinted at this, but didn't really deliver on it. Colin wasn't really given a proper arc in my opinion. But it's just an opinion.
He just came across so creepy. It felt like they wanted him to fit with Simon and Anthony's bad boy vibe. There are so many ways to be hot, you don't have to make your male love interest a jerk
@@catty_5656 Exactly right?! We had the whole talk from Francesca about how her love is just different than the others so why can't colin and penelope's romance be a little different too? It was already a theme!
Your point about putting a dark skinned actor in a situation where he would already face endless harassment only for his character to be the comphet in-between relationship is actually something I've been thinking about a lot. How these shows/movies/(the freaking olympic games opening ceremony, shh) will put minorities in the spotlight with absolutely no care about the predictable backlash they will receive. We simply aren't in a colorblind/genderblind/queer friendly world and frankly throwing your actors to the wolves and shrugging it off at this point is to be willingly negligent. We absolutely have to protect the people who will inevitably be the target of hate. Productions can't just live in this fantasy world and hash their hands of the consequences for the actors
True, these showrunners just be putting poc out there without proper care. Having a dark skinned black woman in an original Male masculine character does not sit right with me.
19:44 I think that's an issue overall with streaming shows. It's insane that 2-3 YEARS between seasons is normalized! Even more so when those seasons are only 6-10 episodes! I've never been fond of holiday specials & especially not Christmas specials but we're at a point where I kinda want them back just to have more of these shows. 😭 What's worse is these companies having these massive breaks between seasons & then wondering why viewership drops off in later seasons. Like, I'm not waiting 10 years for 3 seasons of 6-10 episodes. I don't care what the production budget is &/or how polished it looks. Shows should be treated like SHOWS not like 6+ hour movies! I know some of you like the shows that feel like extra long movies but I & many others want shows to be shows NOT segmented movies!
Some shows can be 6-hour-long movies, but they don't all have to be.
Like why is literally everything Sherlock now?
The Regina George voice over 🤣 💀
What I feel Francesca's moment with Michaela could've meant is that she saw a girl she felt was really pretty and was feeling odd about it so she got nervous, (as a bi person, I had those moments), but having that doesn't mean she's instantly in love with her and doesn't love John, I think she loves John and will try to ignore those "odd" feelings for Michaela until John dies and the grief pulls them together, Michaela and her could slowly warm up to a "maybe this isn't so odd if you feel the same" and stuff like that (haven't read the books, I just think everyone jumps to think Francesca is instantly over John when it could be so much more compelling, she loves him and might be bi or pan, but ignores the queerness because she is loyal to her hubby and actually process the queerness after he's dead thanks to Michaela helping her through the grief)
Thank you! Despite what Violet said, love at first sight isn't real. And most wlw know the struggle of wanting to date someone or be them. There is no way Francesca would interpret the stuttering as romantic feelings for a long while, especially in the time period she lives in. It doesnt detract from her relationship with John at all
They should have skipped her weird face after the kiss if that was their intention. Now it looks like she doesn't really love John, especially after Violets speech about her reaction to meeting her husband.
Yes! As a neurodivergent bisexual, i would love it to be like this!
I loved John and Franchesca's build up so I felt kind of dissapointed in the end. Though I did love that her next love interest was changed to Michaela, but it was made bittersweet for me because I dont feel it was handled right.
"If the writing is bad, let the straights have it" is a take I strongly disagree with as a bi trans person. Like, I would rather have poorly written yet earnest trans people on screen all day if it means we're there. And this isn't me being okay with scraps or whatever. I just think that it's important not to intimidate the shit out of people with the task of even trying it. They're never going to learn if they don't make these mistakes. And Bridgerton was weird as fuck anyway with making a point of being diverse in its casting but no main character gay people tho. That was always the wrong move.
This this this!! And people are super critical of every queer character and relationship. They have to be uwu precious beans who could do no wrong or they are criticised and shat on to high hell. I *want* mediocre or even poorly written stories because it normalises them!
@@amaurapond Yes! And let's be real, there's a level of iffy writing to *everything* in Bridgerton, so it's sort of by default that most characters in it are at risk of being affected by that. I would definitely rather it be inclusive than not, even so.
I think what Princess mean isn't that we can't have flawed characters that are poc or queer, (she has talked about in her Bad Faith Criticism of Diverse media). Rather, in the case of Bridgerton, she is critical of how the writers (mainly people who are white or straight) aren't aware of nuances when writing minority characters and end up tokenizing them. I think both statements "I want more complex gay characters" and "I want writers to be more thoughtful when writing about POC since the actors are likely to get harassed online" can co exist.
@@pagodrink I think that probably makes more sense to say in the context of POC characters since there's definitely an obligation to deal with the publicity that the role produces, and make sure everyone involved is protected from that harassment.
However, it feels different in the case of LGBTQ characters, since often the person in the role is straight in real life (even though there's been a shift to trying to avoid that lately, it still happens anyway.) Hence why I specified here by talking only about that aspect.
I still think the solution isn't to give up and make the character be less diverse, but to rather actually catch this in production by any means possible. Obviously, this is easier said than done. Especially when we're *still* struggling with pay gaps and basic respect on set. But my thing is I want to see those opportunities to progress continue to happen.
I agree with you
I do want to state that I am bias as a white straight woman on the spectrum.
With that being said here is my 2 cents, John is quite possibly my favourite character in the show. The way he cared for Francesca and listened to her was something that just made my heart melt and I fell for him more than any other man on that show. I loved Francesca shutting down her mother when she insisted that the love was wrong because there was no intense emotions. Love doesn’t have to be intense and full of fiery moments it can be gentle, calm, and safe.
I loved the quiet love of Francesca and John. It felt more like friends to lovers than pollen did. All the other relationships insist on spicy, lustful exploding fireworks. And yet Francesca got to have a deep love built on friendship and comforting moments also *gasp* communication. There is absolutely no reason why you should feel uncomfortable or on edge in your relationship, not sure if I explained that right. I think that Francesca’s character was robbed by making her a lesbian that yarns for the spice. If the writers had made an effort to show that Francesca was choosing John for the soul that she felt safe with him as she wouldn’t be expected to have a steamy relationship with him that would be one thing. But to show two people gently fall in love while showing in their own ways that they care for each other even if no one understands, just to have that ripped away hurt the characters for me personally.
I think that they can save Francesca and John’s character arcs, but it will be an interesting uphill battle.
Exactlyyyyyy, I completely agreeee
well said
Simone's face card hasn't protected her at all. It's upsetting you would say this, considering the horrible, nasty racist comments I've seen about her. And there even be some coming from my fellow desis because colorism is still alive & well.
Season 2 was the only season until now that has had a woc lead. It got no promotion. Simone is the only lead who had to share her screentime, which even then was very little when compared to the yt Featherington family in S2. Coincidence? I don't think so. But you'll have yt folks screaming in comments it was COVID. Yet other shows figured it. A glance on Twitter would show you how bad it is. Also, until S3, the official accounts refused to share anything Kanthony or even promote them. Why? Simone barely got press & when she did, it was always to talk about the awful plot of a love triangle. Kate Sharma has no backstory to speak of. We know nothing about her. Anyone who has ever read TVWLM would know Kate had a rounded story of her own and also had deep trauma. But you wouldn't know it watching S2.
Representation matters.
Hate against Simone Ashley knows no bounds!
I thought she was one of the better characters this season. Especially her wardrobe finally suiting her
everytime someone brings up benedict finally being bisexual its so funny bc i could have sworn up and down he was confirmed bi in like s1 or 2 but i guess not and i just came up w a headcanon that ended up true😭😭😂
also -- would u ever do a video on eves bayou!? i watched it recently and would love to see a video essay about it! idk if its popular tho!
Ooh, yes to _Eve's Bayou._
Kate and Anthony were the only ones worth watching. And bruh, they are the only ones still viral on social media. The whole season is forgotten, while people come back to that carriage scene of Kate and Anthony😂 Just Anthony watching his wifey like he's never seen her before
Brushing off the ridiculous hate Simone gets is so weird. There are literal accounts dedicated to slutshaming and hating on her constantly. I’ve seen ppl comment on her body, her jaw, her mouth. It costs you nothing to acknowledge the racism she faces. Just because she’s not vocal about the racism she faces doesn’t mean it’s not there. Her fans have been saying this for literal years but are always told that it’s not true. You’ve made great points in the video, but on this we will not agree!
I have no trouble with the gender swap it's the timing, it gave that sweet romance they'd already built any time to breathe
The books are also FULL with historical inaccuracies, so her comments about representation pisses me OFF.
Her quote reminds me of the game creators who were like, "We don't make female characters because we don't really understand what women are."
Let’s talk about the colorism in the show
If they follow the multi-cultural steps of Brandy and whitney houston's cinderella film casting. We wont have conversation like this.
@@ncz7 yes. Unfortunately 99.9% of shows and movies do not use this outline it would be so refreshing to see a dark skinned black women in a major role
What you said about Penelope/Whistledown becoming a menace starting way back when Mariana and Colin were involved is very correct. It is actually what turned me off from Penelope’s character. It left me not rooting for her when the third season came. And I still lowkey don’t like her. (Love the actress tho! My first introduction to her was “Derry Girls”)
Me too (except I saw _Derry Girls_ after _Bridgerton)._
How can people not be happy with Masali Baduza as Michaela? She's exceptionally beautiful!
You’ve completely dismissed all the racial abuse & harassment Simone Ashley got since joining bridgerton.. her “facecard” or race never stoped that wtf
Yeah that was a little weird. Kind of "But so socially standard pretty, what troubles can there be?"
honestly as a sapphic myself im honestly not that excited to see them attempt a sapphic season because all of their attempts at queer inclusion in the series have just been sooooooo excruciatingly cringe and awkward. also like im really surprised they chose francesca bc 1. her relationship was really cute this season! and 2. they have been setting up benedict as queer since season one but everytime they go haha not really tho
True they cannot even handle a heterosexual relationship well, what more a sapphic romance. Its following the steps of GoT and the witcher.
Tbf, Brimsley and Reynolds were pretty great.
@morgianasartre6709 I believe Queen Charlotte had different writers. And the show not being connected directly to a book probably helped
Dungeons and Dragons made $1 billion in my heart's box office
Shonda has said that the reason for the long delays is the Netflix format itself. She & company are pushing to try and make it episodic and more like older shows! Which would be FANTASTIC tbh. Because there's no reason why there need to be such huge gaps.
We need more sapphic ships!!!
Everyone knows that the Bridgerton TV show makes changes to the source material, so why do they care so much when it's two women?
[Addition: Yes, ideally we would get a completely original wlw couple, but (again) if they're already changing things, I don't understand why this change specifically has people so triggered].
BECAUSE ITS THE WRONG WOMAN WHO IS YEARNING!!! MICHAELA NEEDS TO BE YEARNING
Look. I am entirely, incredibly here for sapphic ships. I expected Cressida and Eloise to be a thing this season and was severely disappointed. BUT the ONE THING that makes Michael a favorite for the book readers is that he is very enthusiastic about consent, in contrast with every other male lead that far (yes, even Anthony). And to go with that, Francesca's whole motivation in her book is that John passed away suddenly and they hadn't had any children, and she desperately wants kids in the book. She goes back to the marriage mart exclusively because she wants kids, otherwise she would never have remarried. That conflict was what led Michael to confess his feelings, to realise HE could help her achieve her goals. By changing Michael to Michaela, Netflix is unfortunately also changing Francesca's entire character.
AGAIN. ELOISE IS RIGHT THERE. Her story is so much worse, she technically marries Miss Thompson's widow, and he didn't seem to treat her that well before her passing. Why change beloved characters if you can change the hated ones, yknow?
But that takes away a core to Francesca's story. She loves her husband, but she also desires a child, so after he dies she tries to find a husband to actually have a child. She falls for Michael while doing that. She was not always into Michael. I was really hoping they were going to do a bait and switch with Eloise. We already met Phillip, so we're meant to believe he's her eventual love interest, but how about she gets a female love interest, heck what if Marina ends up being her love story?
It would be better to have new characters and not a cheap gender swap, like Brimsley and Reynolds. I don't know if you read Fried Green Tomatoes, but that's a beautiful book and has a sapphic romance.
@@turnipcrazy They could adopt or smth
I feel like the Michaela introduction could’ve gone over so much better if Michaela was the one who was flustered instead of Francesca 😭
YES
i've been saying this 😭 like what would it have cost for the writers to have her show interest in fran first. honestly would've made more sense judging by the little i've seen from francesca's book
I never been this early. I never seen the show, but i wont miss a princess video
I hope it made sense to you. :)
The Tragedy of Heterosexuality, by Jane Ward is 1. A fantastic book and 2. had an interesting point about the "tragic gay character" and how heteronormative culture finds this to be acceptable but happy functional lgbtq relationships are not.
Mostly I'm just a big fan of the book. And Princess Weekes.
Is Jane Ward also Princess Weekes?
I haven’t read all of books yet but from what I understand from Francesca’s story is a lot of women related to her struggles with conceiving. I’m concerned how they will be able to execute that storyline when they’ve already established that Francesca’s love for John isn’t as strong as her attraction for Michaela is. I really hope this story can have good writing because from my POV they fumbled it hard
This season solidified for me that Bridgerton wants diversity but doesn't have the tact or care for it. Like, I am still bitter that Lady Danbury in Queen Charlotte, the only main dark-skinned black woman character in the show, was the one they decided to be repeatedly maritally r*ped, which was played for laughs. Then, when a small minority of people pointed it out, the majority of fans were like, but that was realistic at the time. Not to mention, this was after we already had the rightful backlash to the Simon r*pe in season 1.
In fact, the fans of the show annoy me repeatedly. E.g. I never got the whole Rege Jean Page hate for leaving the show; in book 2, Simon's character is in one scene where he doesn't even have a speaking role. What would they have done with him? Anthony and Kate are now the head of the Bridgerton family, and they have little to do. Then we have the actors for Marina, Edwina, and probably Kate getting hate for choices made for their characters. (Aside: I was also slightly miffed at the whole two sisters fighting over a man plotline in season 2, especially because it wasn't in the books to that extent, and I was already tired of seeing it on mainstream Indian TV). When I heard about the whole race and gender swapping for Francesca's love interest, my first thought was feeling bad for the actress (Masali Baduza) they cast.
I think the reason why the love story this season didn't work for me personally is because I felt that Penelope was approaching her relationship with Colin from a place of insecurity, and if they made Colin grovel a bit more. Her asking, "Why do you want me now?" rather than an immediate yes when he revealed his feelings would have sold me more. This season felt more like that movie you see, which seemed more focused on setting up the sequels rather than telling a coherent story.
[This got long... I am sorry to people who did read my ramblings]
This season was so much set up for the next seasons, that it took away from the main couple's story.
@@tonialston1968 Yes! You summarised my thoughts into one sentence 😆
facts!
2:12 what the show failed to show us is Cressida was friends with Daphne in their first season, and her father was already breathing down her neck about getting married. That's why the whole mess with the prince turns them against each other - Daphne used the prince to make the Duke jealous, while Cressida saw it as a safe, secure escape with a man that wasn't old enough to be her father
33:30 that’s so true. It definitely seems like having a seriously studied queer relationship so late in the series and as such a ‘side’-story in this season gives people the opportunity to anticipate that the upcoming season about Francesca is one which they can just tune out of, and it’s doubtful that having one unpopular season would make the Bridgerton franchise completely unpopular, i.e. the series can afford that happening. If anything it seems like this is the ‘cheapest’ way to explore a queer relationship in one of the main Bridgertons… idk, it seems like a great way for Bridgerton to draw in a larger queer audience without jeopardising its appeal to the straights, or at least the homophobic ones.
Nonetheless, I am excited to see some serious sapphic pining, and hope they do a good job :)
Have I seen Bridgerton? No, never. Will I watch this entire thing to support Princess? Yes, of course.
Excited to see this!
The Mondriches are not titled. Only their son is. It would have been interesting if he had been the male heir to the Featherington title (both baron titles), which would have eliminated the baby race plot and instead have the Featheringtons moving to a smaller abode. [Edit: Or at least Portia and Penelope, since presumably the older daughters live elsewhere with their husbands.]
Yes, what is with this show's obsession with triangles that weren't in the books? -- the prince (and Marina, I guess), Edwina, Lord Debling.
Charlotte and George are fantastic.
I mean, Benedict could have had a threesome when Mme. Delacroix again but this time with a man if they really wanted to do that. Or the artist/model from season two.
Yes, I hate Lady Whistledown after Marina (and I love Eloise and Theo, sorry -- but also Eloise and Cressida -- but also Phillip could die and there's Marina . . . ), so it's hard for me to root for Penelope on the show. Even the insulting way she talks about some other characters (Kate before ever meeting her). I thought the first half of season three made a good start at getting sympathy for her. But . . . not sure they really carried the day on that in part two.
Yes, I want Francesca to love John deeply and only fall in love with Michaela after his death, which is still possible even though she had some unfortunate reactions, as you point out. I realize the optics of having a Black woman pine over an oblivious white woman may be why they gave Francesca the first lightning bolt reaction on the show. Also, they may feel like they've done pining, but they never tire of a love triangle, so that's a little worrying. But I live in hope that we won't have Francesca just feeling she's made a mistake and not loving John after all because I love the type of love she was selling to her mother.
I had read a Reddit thread (I know) about Masali Baduza being cast as Sophie, so when she showed up as Michaela (somehow I missed that speculation/spoiler), I was surprised. As you point out, this could work. Francesca could even give a modified version of Michael's _I don't care if you are barren/I don't need a baby_ speech to Michaela. I've seen people break up on TV because one of them wants a baby. Seeing someone say "I want a baby but I want you more; I choose you" would be very powerful, I think.
Also, Violet to Colin: Your father and I were friends first. Violet to Francesca: I couldn't remember my own name when I met your father.
I don't like Phillip at all in the book, although I'm sure they would improve him in the show. But I'd like to see Eloise actually grow and do some things, even though a lot of the fanbase wants her to shut up and just get married, as if no upper class ladies ever did anything at the time.
Kind of hoping for Cressida to visit the Ladies of Llangollen in Wales (the real "Gentleman Jack" did, as well as Lord Byron, Benedict's hated poet -- he would have been an interesting stopgap love/lust interest for B., but I digress -- and I agree, past time for meeting Sophie now).
Also, also: No way are Anthony and Kate going on an arduous four-month journey to India while she's pregnant. I'm seeing different things about how they wanted to be more in the season or they couldn't, but if they had to send them away, Aubrey Hall would have made more sense right now. I would vote for ditching the Featherington baby race plot for more time if they were to have gotten more scenes.
Great video!
Ik I’m not the only one who knows for a fact that Daphne violated my buai for a damn kid and downplayed his trauma. Yes you do not keep the truth from your new partner that much is true but you also don’t violate his trust unannounced to him when having hanky panky. That was so one sided to me because if Daphne loved him enough she would stick with him even without a child and THEN resolve it together.
With Benedict’s bisexuality, I was really excited to see it. It was interesting to see that blossom into something more. What I found really hard about it was the whole threesome thing. I feel it promotes the idea or stereotype that bisexuals can only be satisfied for their attraction to both genders through threesomes, (or cheating, even though that’s not explicitly shown in the show).
I think what upsets me most about it is, will this development for Benedict’s character be forgotten about when Sophie is in the picture? Obviously bisexuals can be in straight relationships and still be bi, much like myself being a bisexual woman dating another woman, it doesn’t explicitly make me lesbian but in a lesbian relationship.
I think my worries sit on, where will his bisexuality go from here? Will it be left behind and forgotten for Sophie? Will they acknowledge it further? But then how so, without turning it into a cheating scandal or constant threesomes or open relationships to keep up the fan service. I feel as though nowadays more people feed off of homosexual stories, which is fine, it is nice to see excitement for relationships that differ from heterosexual. It just feels like Benedict’s bisexuality is exactly what was said in the video, ticking all the boxes for inclusivity. Whereas with Francesca it feels more natural. I think giving Francesca the bisexual/lesbian storyline would feel more natural and less like Benedict’s quick stamp of gay/bi inclusion.
I am excited to see how Francesca and Michaela’s story works as I would love to see more softer and sweeter lesbian story lines, rather than the super masculine butch stories that are made either for the male gaze/comedy.
Reply if you have a similar opinion or have a different view. I’d love to see how others feel about it too ❤
you know if the show doesn't want to be faithful to the books and "wokeify" the series, for lack of better words, Bridgerton owes it to it's audience to touch upon these subjects. It's like the series took away the depth of these characters in favor of opulence. To me, Penelope was my favorite. The way they did nothing, but reduce her to fat girl bestie pissed me off. They could have intertwined the idea of Penelope feeling "othered" in her position in society as a fuel to why she created Lady Whistledown. Penelope doing this to even the playing field, without touching upon the dieting, giving her power where she had none would be a nice touch. OF COURSE, the season that centers a woman who isn't the stereotypical beauty standard HAD to be sidelined for half-baked side characters. It's really disappointing because Polin needs more than 8 episodes to be executed, it left a lot to be desired. It's the show's unwillingness to do anything with depth and the lack of content it takes to do an assemble cast justice!
There were side plots with other characters in previous seasons. Penelope's role as Whistledown, her crush on Colin, her friendship with Eloise, and her home life were all secondary plots over the first two seasons. The show gave Polin nearly 16 episodes of development and screentime before season 3. I'm not sure what more could have been done to improve what was given.
@@BexR1227 you're really not sure? NOTHING more could've been done??? lmao
Absolutely agree. She is literally the gossip girl of the series and we didn't see anything interesting or compelling. Feels like a generic wallflower blooming story
what they could’ve done: make a better Colin 👀
(listen, Pen deserved so much better and he’s so ughhh 😂)
I know I've been playing too much Crusader Kings because I heard the guy was an Earl and thought "ugh, that's basically a peasant."
I was so happy to see a love story NOT full of lust and passion because not all love stories are passionate like that or the passion grows over time but introducing "Michel" tosses all that out the window because it show she DOES yearn for that just not with her husband... Making THEIR story feel more like an obstacle to Fran's TRUE happiness then anything else...
The Director said that after changing Fran's story she saw HERSELF in the story so if she is changing the story to solely aline more with her story she is spitting in the faces of people who also saw themselves in the original story... IDC if they change the gender and her second "great love" is to a women just that by showing their attraction NOW makes this situation super messy... As far as I know the director is a happy lesbian women who WAS in a "loveless" marriage till she came out... These changes made to Fran are going to destroy her character if not handled right and I don't trust them to handle THIS right...
Lesbian or not, cheating, even emotionally is a character assassinator no matter how much of a fan base they personally have... Being "true to yourself" is NOT an excuse to cheat... By showing the attraction NOW they made it impossible for them to be "friends" without emotional cheating hanging in the air... Unless they pick up RIGHT after his death any interaction will be seen as them "wanting" each other but the husband/brother is in the way of THEIR love...
I'm Demi and I understand deeply loving two people, one a women, the other a man, but I'm not interested in just any women or man... I could have fully gotten behind this change showing two very different but very REAL love stories but the faces they had her make at the end makes me think they DON'T see her first marriage as a "real" love story... The director made a choice to have her look sad about her first marriage because SHE was unhappy with HER first marriage... Which is sad that such a sweet story has such a sad shadow looming over it because ONE person views it as such...
It’s not character assassination for Fran to find Michaela hot. She also flirted with Micheal and listened to his raunchy stories in the books while John was still alive. Married people can find other people attractive.
@@Rachel-SparksShe never flirted with michael. She doesn't have romantic or sexual feelings towards him. She's very clear of loving john.
While I sympathise with Cressida and her situation, I'm so over the "bully gets redeemed seasons later by revealing tragic home life" that we see so much of nowadays.
Not every bully needs to be redeemed. Sometimes a bully is just a bully and sometimes that's all a story needs. What was truly gained from the Cressida storyline in S3?
(Yes yes, there very well can be pay off in S4 or S5 and id rather have built up that makes sense later instead of a 180 twist but still)
Thank you thank you thank you! Cressida didn’t need redemption. Knowing the emotional neglect and verbal abuse Penelope’s endured, Cressida’s bullying could’ve caused her to unalive herself.
i was so tired of everyone feeling pity for her, like yes she is in an awful situation but she has hurt a lot of people, especially Penelope, and show no mercy, even when she was in the bottom of the social ranks she still was mean and showed no remorse.
It may be far fetched but i think they would make her Benedict's love interest, it makes sense eith Sofie's story and also it would be the perfect way to "redeem" Cressida
@@BellesViewbut when you think about it, Penelope is the biggest bully of the all. Ruining people's reputation in front of the entire ton, making their personal lives in to gossip for everyone to read.
She almost ruined Eloise's life and ruined Marina's life. In the end, Marina tried to have an abortion and also to off herself in season 1. So i dont get why cressida and her are treated so differently, you know?
Hard same.
@@juliao9999While Penelope did a lot of messed up stuff, some of it definitely not forgivable, most of the gossip she heard was already known by some people, she just amplified the reach of it.
When it comes to Eloise I do find it harder to really blame Penelope for how it went down. She tells Eloise multiple times to stop that witch hunt bc she knows Eloise will not like what she finds if she does find it out and later, when the Queen gets involved and is blood hungry, she knows the consequences could be dire for Eloise (which turns out not to be true actually bc the writers decided there should be no consequences actually but in S2 the vibe definitely was "hey, the queen will fuck you up if you don't stop"). So Penelope writing about Eloise's political rebellion made her the talk of the ton and ruined her standing a bit, but that's the lesser evil to what the queen could have done. And Eloise is fine in S3. She was shunned for the off-season and that's why she starts befriending Cressida but once the season is on again her mother manages just fine to make matches. The girls she talks to (the scene where she mocks girly hobbies) don't look at her with any disdain or anything. She's fine.
And considering Eloise's whole personality, I don't even get why she'd be so pissed that no one in the talk wants to talk to her when she herself never wanted to talk to the ton.
The worst thing about this season was i couldn’t have any reasonable conversation about it in fandom spaces were to focus on hating black ppl and plus size ppl and the conversation about the costuming was ugh
Thank you for this video! There are some valid critiques of the way some things were written and executed, but it really got lost in the latest round of racism and homophobia. I personally liked Francesca’s storyline, and I’m open to seeing where it goes.
the first four episodes of this season are really good!!!! then it all went downhill unfortunately:( also it kinda was a success since it's in the top ten of netflix shows with hours watched(surpassing season 2)
As a fat person and fat liberation activist who knows absolutely nothing about Bridgerton, this season has been nothing but positive for me because I get to see all the advertisements and everything showing a cute fat girl being the unquestionably beautiful and charming love interest for once 🥰 not to mention she looks like a perfect cross between me and my gorgeous redhead girlfriend so I think she's what our future daughter might look like 😌
The book is like two people doing improv and one of them is really bad at it. Person A: Oh! What if they got into this situation, and this really interesting conflict started? / Person B: Oh! And then... this one thing happened out of nowhere and everyone was fine again.
Thank you for making a video essay for the most niche topics that I NEED to hear opinions on
Theres one thing i disagree with you about. When you basically said simone didnt recieve as much racism because of her face card.
Thats a whole WRONG! Simone has faced so much racism even til this day. Even from other parts of the fandom, specifically polin side of the fandom.
I doubt it's from the polin side considering what Nicola has gone through it feels to me that Simone gets dirt from the Dimon side
@likhwezititus nope. I'm on bridgerton twitter and the amount of hate simone gets from all sides especially polin side is crazy and ridiculous
She has since addressed this in the pinned comment :)
BABE WAKE UP PRINCESS WEEKES JUST UPLOADED
I don't care about how irrelevant the Mondrich family storyline was, it was my favourite part of the season. Just giggles and happy stuff
This! I’m not going to stop Black actors from getting a check. Emma Naomi who plays Alice was about to go to masseuse school before she booked the role and Martins who plays Will has retired his mom. I’m rooting for them.
Bridgerton is meant to be an indulgent show, and the lesson Mr. Mondrich learns is that he just needs to sit back, chill and focus on throwing cool parties. It was fun!
Yeah, I liked it. Kind of wished they could have inherited the Featherington title and the ladies had to move somewhere smaller, but I'll take what I can get.
@@BellesView Great!
100 % my feeling about Benedict’s arc. Such a wasted opportunity and a waste of screen time 💔
My takeaway from the whole thing was Miss Nicola, she’s got style, she’s got grace, she’s a winner owowhoaowow she’s a lady.
Also, Luke and her are just sooooo adorable omg
Season one really making one of the few black woman's story lines being about how she's a single mom is really not remarked upon enough....
I will never not be supremely pissed that in a season that was supposed to be focused on a guy with the standard Hollywood fit body being obsessed with a woman whose body does not adhere to that Hollywood fit standard, *three* of their four intimate scenes had her clothed. Three.
Meanwhile, we got a truly unnecessary number of scenes featuring Benedict discovering his bisexuality through the groundbreaking tactic of having a threesome, but I'm sure the fact that all three of those actors had the expected Hollywood thin body type had absolutely nothing to do with that story/editing choice. 🙃
I think so desensitized to the Bridgerton meltdowns, that I'm just mildly disappointed.
Nah. You can't say more Kanthony would've taken away from Polin when Penelope and her family took so much away from Kanthony. Why is it ok when white people take up space and leave little for WoC but when WoC take up space and leave less for white people it's not ok?
All of this!!! Kanthony’s presence on the show will always make sense and to me, this season suffered from their lack of screen time. I didn’t need three seasons worth of plot lines for the Featheringtons. I needed to see the Sharma storyline fleshed out during their own season. Why do I know more about Portia’s backstory than Kate’s?
Mrs Mondrich is so beautiful, idc if the plot dont fit. I just wanna see more of this beautiful woman.
My favourite part of the promotions was Nicola manifesting that Luke’s DMs will blow up after Season 3 😂
?
So I have a long distance boyfriend, now fiancé >:) , and I visited him for the entire month of July. I watched some of your videos while I was there and he was at work. Now, your videos bring me comfort. Not only are they informative and well made, and I'll watch then just for that, but they remind me of being home.
Sadly, I was unable to finish this season. By episode 3, I was bored. The excellent build up and slow burn of the first season is completely lost on season 3. Also, what happened to the music and the crescendo and emotional scenes? The first season was so immersive and season 2 was interesting and curious but still a step down from season 1. However, season 3 lacked magic, tension, and fun. Maybe episodes 4-8 were better but the first 3 took me off the show.
I think my biggest problem with the Michaela switch is Jess Brownell and her reasoning and the self insert aspect. I’m also just antsy about that season because based off of this season the writing seems to be getting worse but idk if I trust the writers as a fan to keep the aspects of the characters and story that made it so great and translate them into the show version. Like I think there are two pretty obvious ways to keep the infertility while also allowing Fran to ultimately have a kid and explain the turmoil in Fran & Michaela about the situation but based off this season the writers can’t do it. Also the treatment of quiet love in the end really left a bad taste in my mouth, like Michaela could have fallen first and it could have still taken Fran time to realize how she feels.
The conflict between Penelope and her family is never really handled either.
It was so disappointing how unhappy pen and Colin were once he found out she was whistle down. I’m not here to watch them barely look at each other!!!
That is my only gripe with the season (I personally love it for the most part and rewatch the Polin scenes often). They made many improvements from the book, but I wish they would have kept the part where Penelope and Colin were together and talked about their issues, coming to an understanding of each other. Penelope was sad and crying far too much for my tastes. That last minute speech at the end was cute and all, but I needed them to have more time together.
Nicola saved this for me.
And the soundtrack 😂
IMHO the funniest thing about Benedict's storyline this season was that it was solved an episode earlier so in the last one they kept showing his threesome scenes while shit was going down in the main plot XD. I don't know, the abrupt traditions made me laugh so bad!
And you hit the nail on the head with your criticism of using a character's sexuality as plot twist for shock value.
Lastly, I'm very sad that you were attacked by some people in the fandom over this video essay. It sucks when toxicity leads someone away from a fandom (I have been on the periphery of the Bridgerton fandom because it has always seemed quite toxic to me, I mean the ship wars are REALLY heated and vicious + there's the rampant homophobia and racism, as you mentioned in the video). Anyway, even if I enjoyed your comments on the show, I respect your decision to avoid discussing the series publicly in the future, if you don't feel comfortable doing so.
Let’s go! Another great video from Princess!
30:39 - I think if there is actually a way to kind of "save" the lesbian Francesca idea (since I do think it was hinted at in the beginning of the season) is to simply make what she has with John (from her perspective, at least) a queerplatonic relationship. That way, she can still have two great loves that are equally as important to her, even if one wasn't romantic, and for the show to explore different types of love. As someone who is on the aro and ace spectrums, I'd love to see more romances and love stories about different kinds of love and normalize the idea that romantic love isn't the end all be all. And perhaps to set up Eloise as being on the aro/ace spectrum too...
🔥🔥🔥
6:44 she's coming, I just hope they don't Girlbossify her.
9:39 it's a throw away line, but Edwina got married abroad, to someone in India, I believe in the town where her and Kate grew up (had to fact check)
26:07 Dungeons and Dragons was a fun movie and his character was awesome.
Edwina is living in India now.
@@HuntingViolets I know they said Edwina is abroad, I don't remember them saying she's back in India.
Update: I completely forgot! She is living in India with her new husband! How did I forget? Nevermind 😂
In regards to wanting more boob-love from Colin this season: I really think we should be careful with that because it could be a matter of what the actors are comfortable with during these intimate scenes. In particular because thank god we're in an era of intimacy coordinators basically being the expectation & every actor in the world says they help so much in advocating for them during those scenes & making them feel comfortable. It may very well be that Nic & Luke were comfortable with him touching her breasts over her dress and kissing her chest, but maybe 1 of them (incl. Nic) didn't want to do anything that involved touching/kissing bare breasts. So as long as the intimate scenes are actually important to the narrative and HOT (I'm not even gonna front), I will be happy.
Relating to Nic's body, I definitely see how the fatphobia from the series came in during S1&2. Honestly, the fact they put her in unflattering dresses would be a bigger argument since the line you showed was literally the 1 time her weight is ever mentioned. But the showrunners have also said that they purposely put her in unflattering dresses to set-up her later glow-up. And I do have to disagree about them not countering it properly because at the end of the day, her glow-up did not involve weight loss (like you mentioned), but during the intimate scenes, Colin is explicitly admiring her body. In the mirror scene, he simply says "You are so beautiful" and from then on, Pen is very confident & active during their first time. Compared to other series, I think Bridgerton is pretty neutral when it comes to Nic's body & fatphobia. I think the best argument that they suck at that is that none of the other main characters are normal-sized but like, that's pretty much every show ever.