Okay so pre watching video, I love Peeta and the role he plays and how Peeta and Katness fit into each others lives. I don’t hate Gale (well apart from him coming up with the idea for the bombs) but I definitely never really understood the Gale/ Katness shippers.
the thing about s3 that annoyed me beyond belief is the decision to handwave away all of the groundwork they laid for fatphobia influencing how pen is treated by her family and the ton. i don't necessarily think they would have executed it very well, but to have two prior seasons of build-up where pen is treated like she's literally invisible and is regularly demeaned about her appearance (textually and subtextually) only to turn around and nonsensically claim that her confidence was the real issue the whole time pissed me off. nothing makes the decision to veer away from that more obvious than the fact that pen was the only fat woman in the show pre-s3 and s3 suddenly specifically includes a fat background character getting married w ease. what makes it more irritating is that there were so many readily available ways for pen to have trouble on the marriage mart unrelated to her body - the cousin-jack-swindling-everyone scandal, the marina scandal, her father dying under mysterious circumstances, colin declaring to half of the ton's gentlemen that he would never court pen - and they didn't use any of them. they couldn't even throw me a bone w providing an actual reason as to why portia treated pen so differently than her sisters when they were reconciling.
tacking this below bc it's more subjective - ik that pen's issues w speaking to people are drawn from rmb but it came out of nowhere for me in the show considering pen has never had an issue w it before! in the show, pen befriended marina and gen easily, socializes easily w non-cressida debutantes in s2, built a close friendship w colin, haggles with the print shop owner to raise the delivery boys' wages, has fierce arguments with people, and so on. ffs pen was ready to confess her feelings to colin in s1! the most prominent examples that come to mind where pen did struggle to socialize (any pre-s3 scene with cressida, when suitors approach eloise in early s2) are moments where ppl flat out act as if she doesn't exist or are purposefully cruel to her.
How about you shut up because actually that’s a very very good movie so you could shut your mouth and stop talking about other peoples movies because it could actually hurt peoples feelings that you’re saying that because they acted I’m so how about you shut up and and you’re the garbage because you’re garbage who is that
1. Elite thumbnail 2. I was waiting to watch this until I felt chill and normal about Bridgerton, because I certainly was not for quite a while, being a Polin shipper 3. Agree wholeheartedly about sideplots absolutely needing to be interwoven. I personally think when we are all screaming about "not enough screentime", its perhaps about the *quality* of screentime and the duration of the important scenes. I found we weren't left to linger long enough in emotional moments for them to feel meaningful. 3. Agree about Colin's characterisation, I loved awkward earnest Colin. Desperately needed to explore his flaws (which he had! Much more than in the book) so he felt like a more complex character that we are accustomed to getting for the main leads. 4. The hot air balloon thing was supposed to be a sexual tension moment? 😂 Would never have guessed that. Editing was a super weird choice and it was to the detriment for the romantic vibes in many scenes
I was expecting and really excited to see queer romances in Bridgerton (even after the show established the society does not accept queer relationships, meaning that a queer romance featuring a main character must also be a story of struggle against society instead of just allowing queer characters to be in love and happy, as they and we deserve from a romance series). And I'm extremely disappointed by the volume of viewers who seem way more upset with a queer lead romance generally than they do with the specific choices made in s3. That said, I think they REALLY messed up on meaningful character development. Show Francesca is NOT queer coded. There is zero indication she may be queer (or even grappling with the question of her sexuality generally) before she meets Michaela. The only tension we're shown between society's expectations and Francesca's inner thoughts/desires is Francesca's apparent desperation to just get married to *anyone* to get out of the Bridgerton household - it's never even hinted at that Francesca's nonchalance toward finding a husband she loves may be related to sexual/romantic disinterest in men generally. And then when she meets John, she confidently proclaims that she IS in love and that her love is real even if it's quieter and more reserved than Violet thinks it should be. Up until the moment she (and we) meet Michaela, we have no reason to believe that Francesca is anything other than a champion of quiet, reserved REAL love. Because of that, it absolutely feels like it's coming out of nowhere when Francesca reacts to Michaela as she does. (And that's aside from it being wildly disrespectful to suggest those who IRL have experienced quiet love didn't have real love.) Eloise, on the other hand, most definitely *is* queer coded. Other than her brief relationship with Theo, she's shown to be disinterested in men and significantly more invested in her relationships with women. Simultaneously, she's significantly closer to and views herself as much more similar to her brothers than her sisters. She's also (at least, prior to the mess of s3) shown to be pretty comfortable flouting society's expectations of women, especially if those expectations prevent her from doing what she wants. That particular facet of her personality isn't necessarily queer coded, but it is an important quality to have if we're talking a queer romance set in a society that doesn't even acknowledge queer people. Yes, IRL some people need time to understand their sexuality and may not read as queer or questioning to others. But in fictional media??? You can't just drop major new facets of a character's personality in the denouement without any prior hint or reference and expect people to accept it. The backlash to Michaela has been really gross in a lot of ways, but that doesn't change that Francesca's realization feels entirely unearned and unreal. And it's not the only example of sloppy "tell don't show" writing viewers picked up on - Violet describing Colin as always putting others first also wasn't well-received in light of all the time he spent making rash decisions and flitting across Europe to appease his ego. Meanwhile, after 2 seasons of genuine queer coded character development with Eloise, it's announced her story will feature a hetero romance. It's like literally all the character development of seasons 1 & 2 was tossed in the trash, along with any attempts at meaningful development for the characters more heavily featured in season 3. And to cap it off, Francesca's story is one of the most (if not the most) popular among book readers, and part of that is because it features significantly less misogyny and abuse than the others. It could have been adapted to screen without any serious plot changes and no one would have complained. And that's not a gripe about adaptation faithfulness - it's questioning why the show is electing to make additional and unnecessary work for itself. Book Eloise has the most misogynistic and toxic plot of the bunch. Her book plot will need to be changed substantially for the screen, there's no way out of it. And again, she was already written as queer coded, so fully rewriting her plot into an epic queer romance was easily possible, would have made sense, and could have been amazing. Yet somehow, the decision was made that BOTH currently established queer coded characters will have hetero main romances (let's not leave Benedict out either), another character who is not queer coded is suddenly set up for a queer main romance, and a TON of extra labor has been added because now TWO of the next three seasons will require significant plot rewrites. I really do hope all of the coming seasons blow us away, but rn these choices just do not make sense.
I think one of the great joys of playing life is strange is exactly this menial clicking on every single object and interacting with every person. This world is so beautifully crafted, with such a thick atmosphere that I find myself wanting to see every corner of it and colour in all the aspects of Blackwell, Arcadia bay and its inhabitants. It’s just mesmerising
great video! I'm a season 3 fan (in spite of some problems) and on your early point, I wonder if I'm warmer on it because I'm new to the show? I watched all three seasons for the first time back-to-back, so the eccentricities of the show were all fresh in my mind going into S3. in any case, thanks for the review
We know why we needed Tilley to reintroduce homosexuality and non monogamy to Benedict. Because the show didn’t trust the audience to understand that Benedict is bi/pan without having him be with a woman too. He had to have a threesome because they thought the only way to show that he isn’t gay but instead is bi is to have him have sex with multiple genders at once. Revealing your character is bi through a threesome already annoys me (a bisexual) but it annoys me even more because it’s obvious they did it because they didn’t want the audience to think Benedict is gay because they thought that would put people (women) off from investing in him as a male lead and might suggest that his love interest won’t be a woman. They wanted to have their cake and eat it to, have Benedict be bi so all of us that have wanted bi Benedict since seaosn one are happy and have people (homophobes) who would not be invested in an mlm romance or be apparently unable to wish fulfilment themselves into an mlm relationship be assured that next season won’t be gay. It’s annoying because they didn’t! have to do it like that. They make it a threesome/throuple to also suggest implicitly that it is less serious than another relationship. It’s the narrative of “you can have as much fun as you want and then you’ll settle down” which isn’t that what the lads basically say when they’re drinking in the club. I see the argument that “if we introduced a male love interest now then it would serious and be hard to cast them off so Benedict can have his season” but that’s a problem in and of itself. There are endless ways to write a fling or situationship ending and a monogamous relationship is not more serious than a polyamorous one. I wouldn’t have said this a few months ago because I was trying to be grateful about two bi+ characters in a show but with the fandom biphobia I’m done playing as nice.
I was surprised that Eloise was so okay with Cressida being forced to marry a geriatric though if their friendship was genuine - and a little bit with Penelope but I would more easily understand Penelope being okay with it as Cressida has been bullying her for years. But the Bridgertons have so much money I'm kind of like throw the girl a rope. It feels a little like Eloise was just giving up her friends when they became inconvenient for her/annoyed her. The season made me feel bad for Cressida, i hope she gets an okay life, but i definitely think she will come back.
I can understand that Polin weren't given more or less then what the other couples had, but my problem is the editing of it (I just realised this ha ha), like the sex scene of Ben was placed right at when Polin were having problems, I can't have a show showing me 2 emotions at once without letting me breathe and process it, we needed the show to give us time to transport us, and even though I know the show wasn't structured like that, I wanted to see them YEARN more, love more and have more sex scenes.I think that's why the 1st season was better at this, they placed the couple doing the thing a lot because they were in love, never mind Simon's rape scene that they should've been treated differently or cut it out completely, and I felt that was lacking. 19:32 the mondriches was actually a side plot I wished I saw more of, I wanted to explore more of this "no nobleman should have a bar" thing, it was interesting and I wished to see more of an expantion of the class commentary this had in the universe. 44:05 yes, thank you!
I see what you're saying about Colin standing up for Penn, at times, and generally being a good older brother, but as someone who didn't rewatch either S1 or S2 before S3 dropped, my lasting impression of Colin was of him insulting Penn in order to look cool infront of his friends. Then, with the premier of S3, we see him being a rake, hooking up with everyone in a skirt, and general f*ckboi energy. So to have his mother say he's such a kind and selfless child felt disingenuine. This season really suffered from the lack of flashbacks, it would've been so much more satisfying to actually see Colin and Penn's first encounter along with other interactions between them so we, the viewer, could appreciate why she fell in love with him.
I do feel Polin was rushed, but I felt like it was rushed in individual scenes rather than as a whole. The camera didn't linger over those important moments. I keep thinking of Simon and Daphne looking at paintings, the way their fingers stretched towards one another. The show didn't allow breathing room on those moments this season. In the same vein, I agree, the editing impacted their chemistry. They had TONS of chemistry in seasons 1 and 2, it was electric. That moment when they stare at each other across the Bridgerton drawing room, man.
The way they used the Romancing Mr Bridgerton episode referring to Benedict getting wooed by his (positive, beautiful, absolutely insanely edited) polycule instead of Penelope and Colin was rude asf 😂
It's worth mentioning that "chemistry" is incredibly subjective. It's really mostly about personal preferences. For example, people like to talk about the chemistry between Kate and Anthony, but I just do not see it. At all. They do absolutely nothing for me. I skipped past their scenes this season because I simply don't care. And I'm not the only one- I've encountered plenty of people who feel the same. But I know that's just a personal preference. I would never say they aren't a good couple, or that they don't have chemistry... they're just not for me. And there are a LOT of people out there, including me, who think Polin's chemistry this season was 🔥🔥🔥. But that doesn't invalidate your view, or anyone else's who doesn't feel it. It's all just a matter of preference.
yeah just watched the dance scene bts and im astonished how much a difference it makes. More than getting to see Colin at the pillar, I liked the steady cam so much more than the handheld they went with. Yes it's visually beautiful and dynamic, but it takes away from the incredible work the actors are already doing to portray that turbulence and tension. Would have worked maybe for characters that were less expressive, but colin and pen, even here when they're arguing and keeping secrets, have a comfort existing fully around each other that comes through so much more fully without the constant motion. Really out of touch choice. IDK how some shows pull off successful balance and communication between concurrent crafts it's like magic to me, but it's still sad to see it miss the mark.
personally i liked the 30 hour consecutive threesome montage because I was watching with my roommates and every time they cut back to it we lost it. Would make a fun drinking game on rewatch.
i was so wondering why I didn't feel the chemistry between pen and colin when I did in the first 2, thanks for finding a practical explanation! I had the same problem with season 2 but I am audibly in the minority there. I'll have to ponder why kanthony didn't do it for me. Great video as always!
People misunderstand 3 things about Bridgerton EVERY season: 1. There are going to be changes to the novels. They are never going to directly copy the books one to one because they are mills and boon level romance. Season one deviated pretty heavily but somehow book fans want a copy paste. 2. This show is labelled as an ensemble cast, but people constantly complain about it being one. I think they fundamentally don’t know what an ensemble cast is. 3. JULIA QUINN NEVER SIGNED A CONTRACT SAYING THAT THE LOVE INTERESTS WOULD BE THE SAME AS THE BOOKS. People craved a gay plotline with Benedict or Eloise, but raged when it was their favourite book.
I tend to disagree with you about Colin's characterization. First, let me say that I'm only discussing show Colin, not book Colin. There are enough differences between the two that I consider them two distinct characters, with their own individual, though related, issues. This is where I think some of the disconnect comes from. The show went a different way with Colin's character, which I actually prefer, but not everyone recognizes that. And a lot of your complaints about his characterization and arc seem to come from parts of his book character that the show writers changed or dropped. Show Colin isn't pretentious. He also doesn't lack of a sense of self (which is why the show doesn't dig into that). His major flaws/obstacles are the idea that his "self" is somehow not good enough, and his mistaken belief born of that that he has to earn or deserve love. Allow me to make my case (in a totally chill and normal way 😉): A few of the points that you argue are signs of his pretentiousness- 1) You say that he overcompensates for his insecurities by portraying himself as a "traveler." But canonically (within the show) he has always had a great desire to travel, even since childhood. That is a true aspect of his personality. And he is genuinely excited to share those things on his return, which is why he ends up oversharing. Not overcompensating, but simply overeager, which is another documented character trait of his. It is the absolute lack of interest, and even the mockery of his eagerness, by everyone else (besides Pen) that plays into his insecurities. Consider that when his pretense is at its most extreme at the beginning of season 3, that's the only time he's not trying to share stories of his travels. He's learned the lesson that no one cares, and so he's putting up a wall and pretending not to care either. 2) The rakish persona he adopted at the beginning of the season- This "pretense" isn't pretentiousness (attempting to impress others by pretending to have greater importance or merit than one actually has). It is, again, the armor that Violet spoke of. And far from being shoehorned in, it actually makes a lot of sense based on his character growth thus far. He spent the first two seasons being either mocked (mostly by his family) or taken advantage of (by Marina, Jack Featherington, etc) for his sweet, trusting, naïve, romantic, excitable nature. And then the total lack of communication from home (even from Penelope) further convinces him that no one really values him, or cares to hear what he has to say. So he protects himself by putting on this persona of the man society expects him to be… a rake like his brothers. He is trying to "feel less" in his own words. Rather than basking in the social capital this gains him (which is what we would expect if this was his goal, aka. pretentiousness) it leaves him feeling emptier and lonelier than ever. Consider his reaction to Anthony congratulating him on his many new admirers in episode 1, or his response to Fife and co. in episode 4. All the outward praise and validation only further drives home the point that who he is wasn't good enough, since everyone (in the ton, not the audience) seems to prefer the mask he's put on. His insecurities also help explain why he didn't notice Penelope's affections. He wasn't protecting his reputation because she was unpopular. That idea is coming from book Colin, who is insultingly aware of and influenced by Penelope's low social status. Show Colin never displays any of this thinking in the slightest. Consider when he is coaching her in episode 2- most of his advice to her boils down to 'be yourself'- because her 'self' is charming and witty and desirable. Her only problem is that her awkwardness and nervousness cover it up. When she recoils against the idea of flirting with a viscount, his response is simply to remind her that she is Penelope Featherington. To him, she is a catch, one that a viscount would be lucky to get. He doesn't pick up on her affections simply because he never expects anyone to see him that way. That's what made him such a sucker for Marina in season 1, because she was the only one to take him seriously. We know Penelope does as well but, for obvious reasons, Marina was much more blatant about it, and about seeing him as a potential husband. She was forward enough to overcome his natural barriers. We actually see the same thing in Penelope in season 3. She was completely shocked by his revelation in the carriage, despite the fact that he'd practically been drooling over her since their kiss, and despite his obvious intensity at the end of episode 3, and even the fact that he was *staring* *at* *her* *lips* the whole time! But she never expects him to return her feelings, so she rewrites and reinterprets all the signs in her head. And that's what Colin has been doing with her. He would never attribute her attentions to romantic feelings for him, so he just assumes its all simply because she's his friend. (Also, on that note, we need to cut Colin some slack for not noticing her feelings. SOOOOO much of the evidence we the audience have is stuff that he wouldn't have seen anyway. Things like her gazing at him from across a ballroom while the camera zooms into a close-up, or her talking to others about him when he's not present, her expressions when he's flirting with and focused on Marina, her gazing out her sitting room window towards his house, or crying herself to sleep at the idea of him marrying Marina. We shouldn't expect it to be as obvious to him as it is to us) The reason Colin's apology doesn't acknowledge him protecting his reputation at her expense, is because that's not what happened. That's how everyone interpreted it, and it's understandable, especially with Penelope as our POV character. But it's not true. The "insult" of his comment comes entirely from the meaning and motivations _we_ attribute to it. People assume he is embarrassed for others to think he's courting her because she's so undesirable. They assume he's saying that the idea of courting her is laughable. They assume that's the only reason he would deny it so emphatically. But he doesn't actually say any of that. While that motivation makes sense when you consider book Colin and his insultingly condescending views of Penelope in the beginning, it doesn't fit with show Colin's character at all. First of all, he has a very high view of her. And he is always quick to jump to her defense anytime anyone dares to insult or talk down about her, including Penelope herself. It's not in his character to openly mock *any* woman that way, let alone his best friend who he's always been super protective of, and who he just promised to take care of mere moments before. That's not to say people don't sometimes act against their own character. But if he had, if he had chosen in that moment to throw his best friend under the bus in order to save face or gain the approval of those men, he would feel at least some amount of guilt over it. Considering his already low view of himself, he would probably beat himself up endlessly for it. But what he wouldn't do is simply forget it like any other random comment. So the fact that he doesn't even remember what she's talking about when Penelope brings it up is telling. Also, consider the fact that Penelope completely cut him off after that, and he spent the better part of a year wondering why. Colin is always quick to assume the blame whenever those around him are upset, even when it has nothing to do with him. And yet in this case, when he is truly at fault, it doesn't even occur to him? He attributes Penelope's silence to her simply living her life and having no need of him like the rest of his family. This conversation isn't even a flicker on the edge of his consciousness. To his mind, he was asked if they were courting and he said no. Period. It wasn't even worth remembering, let alone considering as a possible reason for Penelope's distance. No matter how it sounded to Penelope (or to us), he clearly didn't mean it in the insulting way it was taken. To be fair, his wording was unnecessarily emphatic. But I think that has more to do with the fact that he hadn't yet recognized his own feelings for her. He protests too much. It's important to remember that we're seeing all this through Penelope's eyes. We saw her hopes get built up, only to be dashed so brutally. We felt her heart breaking in real time. And it's only human nature to jump to the worst, most painful conclusion. We see her do exactly this after the Danbury ball in Season 3. He compliments her dress, and she assumes he's mocking her. He wants to find somewhere private where they can talk, and she assumes it's because he's embarrassed to be seen with her. But we the audience just saw him interrupt a conversation with two men (who were part of that same group from Season 2) to inquire after her, and then when they tried to brush her off, he straight up ditched them to go check on her, with no pretense whatsoever. He's clearly not ashamed to be seen with her (also, he sought her out in broad daylight at the garden party earlier, and she was the only person he spoke to individually, clearly singling her out to anyone who would notice). But in her hurt and anger she jumps to the worst, most painful conclusion. Because that's what people do. And we jump with her, because we're so deep in her POV. The thing is, he *did* hurt her, and he may well have hurt her chances with those other eligible men. She has every right to be mad at him and to tell him so. But it seems clear, based on his response, that it was a mistake (a hurtful one) rather than callousness, or cruelty, or protecting his reputation. (continued in the comments, because apparently I have a lot of thoughts! 😜🤣)
This season did "lean into his weaknesses, hold his feet to the fire, and allow him to grow in earnest." They are just different weaknesses than you expected- different than the ones book Colin had. When you consider that they were addressing his low self-worth and his belief that he has to do something to earn/deserve love, which is where his hero complex comes in, you can see they actually put together a pretty cohesive character arc for him. He starts the season having fully embraced the lie that who he is isn't good enough, so he needs to be someone else. He's so deluded on this front that he's able to encourage Pen to forget what society thinks and just be herself "like him," which is about the most ironic thing imaginable. But we can see that it's only feeding his loneliness (we see Eloise call this out in episode 1, and his mother in episode 4, in addition to the conversations I mentioned earlier). Once he recognizes his feelings for Penelope, he still thinks he fell first. He has no clue that she might return his feelings, because why would she? Even once they are engaged and have slept together, he's still insecure and worried that she might not feel the same way and might want out of their engagement. But things seem to be getting better. He's starting to get glimpses of his own value through Penelope's eyes. Her admiration of his writing moves him from being ashamed for anyone to read his journals, to considering publishing them. Her love for him makes him feel like maybe he has some worth after all, especially since she loves the person he's always been, rather than the persona everyone else seems to prefer. But he still clearly feels like he needs to do something to earn or deserve her love. This is the reason he gives for wanting to edit his manuscript on his own- he wants to prove himself, to be worthy of her. When he first finds out that she's Whistledown and he addresses the atmosphere between them since the engagement, we find out that he assumed that it was because he was undeserving of her love. The Whistledown reveal attacks his weaknesses in every possible way. Beyond the simple fact of all the damage she has done that he has to reckon with, it attacks his insecurities on multiple levels. 1) Penelope's love and admiration were just starting to chip away at his insecurities, and now he finds out that she's the one who exposed him to the entire ton at the beginning of the season. He takes this as evidence that she doesn't respect him (which is also why she didn't come to him about Marina), which is devastating to him and his fledgling self-esteem 2) He was just starting to think he could prove himself as a writer, specifically prove himself to Penelope. Now he feels like a joke next to her, and that she must have been humoring him, or even laughing at him. 3) The whole situation has several parallels to the situation with Marina in season 1, mainly his fiance keeping a massive secret, one that he should have been told to truly know what he was choosing and committing to. Which makes him feel like the same fool being taken advantage of again (consider the fact that "fool" is the main word he used to describe himself in the first two seasons). 4) He already thought Penelope was out of his league and he needed to prove himself to be worthy of her, and now she's not only the amazing woman he already knew and loved, but also a renowned writer with her own personal fortune and no apparent need for him at all. What could he possibly bring to the table now? The only other things he can do as a man in that society is to protect and provide for her. And now she apparently doesn't need that either. ("Then what good am I to you?"- this is also why he folds immediately when she says she loves him… she's directly addressing his greatest fear) The last episode shows him desperately trying to do something, anything, to prove his value. This is his Lie/weakness rearing its ugly head one last time, and he fails pretty spectacularly. He takes over the conversation about Cressida's blackmail and only succeeds in making things worse. He then decides he has to lie to his brothers in order to get the money to pay her off, but Penelope stops him. It all comes to a head in their final conversation before the butterfly ball. His question, "then how am I meant to help you" and her response that "it's not the things you do for me that make me love you" and "who you are is enough," demonstrate the crux of his arc. We see the resolution at the end of the ball. He has finally stepped back and allowed her to handle it herself. This is further evidence of how show Colin's arc is meant to be different from book Colin's. Rather than publicly outing and defending her as he does in the book, his character growth in the show is learning that he doesn't have to step in and save her in order to be worthy of her love. Instead, he allows her to take the spotlight and resolve it in her own way, while he simply supports her from the sidelines. She looks at him in her speech to the ton as she talks about how "one always has worth" no matter how your efforts turn out, and he smiles in acceptance. He tells her of his envy, but says that now he is simply thrilled that someone so amazing loves him. He is no longer trying to prove himself, but is simply happy to bask in her light and love. Which then actually allows him to progress in his own career, as we seem him having published his book by the end, with Penelope's help. It's a beautiful character arc, and it stays true to the characterization they've had for him all along. There are no contradictions to his character or growth when you understand who the show was writing him to be, rather than viewing it through the lens of the book version. And it also makes for a beautiful love story between him and Penelope. Both are on similar journeys, but in their own unique ways. Both are struggling to reconcile and embrace who they truly are, especially the parts society will not accept. Penelope is very strong in her own sense of worth, but despairs of anyone else ever recognizing it, and Colin is the one who has always seen her. Colin has the outward approval of the ton, but doesn't feel his own value internally, and Penelope is the one who loves and accepts him for who he truly is. Both love the other desperately and put them on a pedestal, while worrying that they don't deserve them (we hear them each say as much in the first half of part 2). Both spend the season loving and building the other up, and are uniquely suited to helping the other overcome their issues. Both see through the other's facade and love them for who they truly are. It's a beautiful love story, and I think they nailed it. Were there problems with this season? Absolutely. But at the heart of it, it was everything I wanted it to be. It is my favorite season and love story so far. I honestly can't imagine any future season topping it.
I thought Cressida and Eloise were going to ask for Penelope’s help in getting out from under he father’s thumb and that this would redeem her in Colin’s eyes (and show the viewers how gossip can be good)
Where I got mad is I felt the show runner and many feel the same, is that they focused on the favorite characters instead of the main couple. Colin barely got character development, were wishy washy with why Penelope wrote as LW in the first place, and we did not get enough conversations with them in the first place. Also, it feels weird that the mirror scene in the show combined the statement in the book, their first time, and the drawing room scene in one scene. It should have been separate scenes so we can see the ups and downs of their relationship in the book. Shoehorning in their intimate scenes in one scene makes fans feel that they don’t care enough about this couple. It was like “you got what you wanted”, now we’re focusing on what we want to focus on. It just made me mad. Yes, adaptations don’t need every little thing from the book, but I felt they didn’t even try to use it. I still felt the spirit of books 1 and 2 in their seasons. I didn’t fully see that spirit of Polin’s book in their season. Rants done. On the other topics, she said everything I felt about them.
Part 2: Why the side plots did not bother me as much in season 1 and 2 is because they were cohesive to the main story line aside from Jack and Portia’s scheme. That one needed to be condensed. I do agree with fans that Kate and the Sharmas needed their back stories and development and the time used on the scheme could have easily been used for Kate and her family. But Eloise’s dynamic with Theo tied in with the LW search and starting the arc of Penelope and Eloise’s friendship falling apart and how are they going to fix it? The queen picking Edwina as the diamond kept the continuity of the world building. And they only stuck with a few sideplots in the previous seasons. There were too many in season 3.
Part 1: I think why I was disappointed with the side plots this season is because of how disjointed they were from the main storyline. I love Francesca and John because their book was around the same time as Polin’s, so that makes sense. The theories about the Modriches made me realize if they did not give up on the parallels of keeping their buisness while Penelope keeps her writing, I would love it more. My problems is when the show runner and editing team stopped keeping repetitive scenes the stories did not need to be there, there would be more time to keep conversations and events from Polin’s book.
"I hate the change from Michael to Michaela because book accuracy matters!" Fascinating. I'd love to know every single one of your opinions on the numerous changes to the books in every season thus far. Quickly, there are many to get through.
My biggest gripes with season 3 are: 1. The 14 layers of makeup they put on Penelope do not make look any prettier than the actress already is, they make her look like a painter hooker. 2. I haven't read Francheska's book, but the way it was told me - Michael was secretly in love with her while she was married to his cousin. So I was not happy with Francheska falling in love with Michaela at first site right after her wedding. Kind of invalidated whatever feeling Frncheska has for her husband while he is still alive. 3. The whole Colin helping Penelope find a husband subplot was so unbelievably cringe, I expected it to end in "this was all a dream" revelation.
