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My wait what moment was was Benedict was asked if he had hobbies/a passion/purpose (art may have even specifically been suggested) and he said no. I'm like...did they forget the whole art school plotline in season 1? He literally IS an artist?
Imposter syndrome. His brother paid for him to be accepted into the art school. He quit because he still didn't feel like he was good enough, just wealthy enough to get a spot. Anthony was on his honeymoon and Benedict ran the household very well (to Anthony's surprise), but with Anthony back, Benedict was back to doing nothing in particular. Why mention that you are wealthy enough to pay to enter an art school? That's just kind of an embarrassing fact to Benedict.
The thing is, I get that we're supposed to see that Benedict is still hurting over that reveal, but socially it's still stupid to just say a choked and tragic "No!" to the hobbies question when you can still say "oh I used to paint but I lost the love for it"
It's like Eloise saying "I doN'T nEeD YouR bOoK CoLiN, I aLrEaDY HAve onE"
It means something about the character, but it's being expressed in the dumbest, most unnatural way.
It was also, like, a *decision* for the show runners to use Jane Austen - Jane Austen! - as an example of “apolitical thoughtless femininity”, in a show watched by people who theoretically enjoy regency-era romance stories. And then, as OP said, to never circle back on that idea. Just like, leave *Jane Austen* out there as an example of Eloise trying to be a thought-free society lady
Well when I first saw that scene I assumed it was more nuanced since JA would be a good feminist voice for Eloise in this position, she sees the flaws of society but has resigned to live within it. She doesn't write about how the patriarchy should be burned to the ground, but she does demonstrate that society should respect the minds and hearts of its women more than it does.
But other than references like the charades scene the book wasn't really present in any other way and then it was just "Nm I was being fake"
OK that part might have made sense for his character in the moment, but when you consider all of the S3 whiplash moments? It kind of seemed like more whiplash. Which is a pity because it COULD have been subtle and made sense and given us a window into where he was as a person, but instead it just felt like they forgot something.
My “favorite” inconsistency was Anthony, who watched his mom newrly die in childbirth, take his very pregnant wife on a boat voyage to India.
I still liked the season overall but there were so many weird storylines or things with no payoff.
Yeah, that was a weird choice. I get that JB and SA were busy with other jobs but it didn’t make sense for him to suggest they go on a boat with his pregnant wife. Why not just go to Aubrey Hall and say it’s less stressful there or something?
The craziest thing was when KATE HERSELF pointed out how stupid the idea was! She literally told Anthony she was worried about the long trip!! The writing makes zero sense. It's like the characters themselves know how ridiculous it is now.
They just couldn’t make up an excuse for Anthony not to be around for episode 8 at very crucial moments (Francesca’s wedding and the LW reveal), presumably because Jonny’s schedule didn’t allow it. They had to create an excuse so ludicrous it went against all character sense.
Now maybe I'm wrong, because it's not my job, but couldn't you have shot the scenes separately and then edited them? Especially if they only serve as a background? Or shoot those scenes first and all together?
I don’t claim to understand the shooting schedule but it seems like they mostly shot this season quite linearly? Maybe it’s because of the directors? I think about the epilogue of part 2 quite a lot because I’m sure they shot the second pall mall scene at the same time as the first so Phoebe could be present (unless they reaaaally got her back for just that one bit).
In the wrap they shared for Anthony and Kate this season they were the only named cast in that wrap - at the wedding breakfast prior to the Queen’s entrance, Anthony and Kate are only shown in isolation and are not seen in group shots, meaning that JB and SA shot on a different day/time to everyone else and they inserted them into those scenes.
Leave the duties of Viscount to Benedict indefinitely? Difficult and long journey without leaving heirs? They might as well have made him run away with Siena Rosso
The more I think about it, the more I think this is just what happens to Shonda’s shows. All of her shows knock it out of the park in S1 and then have a STEEP decline somewhere between S2-S5 that renders it completely unwatchable.
I have high hopes that they can turn it around in S4, but as a Scandal, HTGAWM, and Grey’s Anatomy fan, I’m not holding my breath.
S1 was amazing, everything after was just recycled. Call me crazy, but I feel liker her shows are really good but then end up relying on diversity points. Like, oh hey we saw a character in a wheelchair this season, only for them to never show up again. Not even as a background character.
Same here. Gave up after S4 and never looked back. Shondaland shows suffer from Ryan Murphy syndrome. Good ideas absolutely squandered in one to two seasons.
Yep, I'm with ya. Very good point! I LOVED all 3 of those straight out of the gate, but didn't see any of them to the end. (Although Grey's is still stumbling along out there, isn't it?)
I was a hard cord Grey’s Anatomy fan, even had pets named after characters. The finale where George dies and Izzie sees him in the elevator while she’s coding took my breath away (side note: as a friends-to-lovers super fan, I really wanted them to be together and the way they handled that storyline had already made me so mad). But, the slide into, “What is even happening?!” after that was steep! I stopped watching after I was convinced that, in reality, Meredith would’ve jumped off a bridge due to all the trauma and heartache she had been put through. It was just too insane after awhile.
Also Lord Anderson! They kept building up him and Violet, and then hinting at the drama between him and LD. And then we find out he did something at the age of TEN to piss off LD like ???
And then also nothing happened between Violet and Marcus either so what was even the point of that storyline?
I laughed so hard when they revealed the beef between the Danburys. Also, they had like 40 years to talk about it but avoided each other instead, and then resolved it in less than 2 minutes? O.o
Literally, just give us a scene where he's upset and makes a stupid excuse for leaving like "I'm going to , to prepare for my trip".
The same with Lord Samadani, why they can’t make a scene where he's looking at Fran and John and tell the Queen that he's going back to Vienna
I still think they should have created a way to bring Debling and Cressida together. Cressida/Jessica Madsen is a great villain, and she could stir up all kinds of trouble as a bored housewife while Debling is traveling.
Whiplash is the theme this season. I myself got dizzy by the amount of things I am forced to assume just to try and make Colin's arc somewhat interesting or believable.
Penelope got the most happily ever after ending in this series, married to the man of her dreams, rich as hell, an accomplished author, reconciled with her family and the mother to the new Lord Featherington.
Meanwhile I just couldn't stop thinking about Cressida and her awful parents who tried to marry her off to that old man who wanted a bunch of kids. Like wtf, I would be that desperate too. Not even Portia would do that. Also Eloise, hello? At least pretend to pay attention to what your friend is talking about??
I'm really hoping this comes up as character development for Eloise's season but wow is Eloise not a girl's girl.
I was crying for Cressida. Maybe they don't want a happy ending for her because she will be in a future season but what was the point of showing us her awful family? All the show look like they put parts together without a clue about what they are doing
Heavy on the KISS poster. The whole season was trying too hard while simultaneously giving us nothing. It’s like all of the characters got a lobotomy this season or amnesia.
The Eloise and Cressida ones bothered me but Francesca took the cake. The writing towards the end for her was just baffling. Not because of Michaela though!
I hate how they write Eloise this season, she’s no longer a character with her values and ideas. They just use her, making her switch sides whenever it is convenient for Polin's story.
The title is so apt. Framing whiplash, yes. All of them, yes, especially Cressida. But... Violet being humbled about her views on love to then immediately being justified? Why?
It also sucks because I thought (non book reader here) that Fran and John’s romance was so sweet. It was the most romantic part of this season for me! Just to be tossed out in the last 3 minutes
So so true. They were the cutest... but then S3E8 was like "actually, no, you see, love is only true when you are thunderstruck". Which is in stark contrast with S1E8, where Violet says "Love is a choice, one that is never too late to make."
Cressida: I never got the impression that we are supposed to root for her tbh. I honestly thought we were just supposed to understand her actions. Just because she got a bad home life doesn't mean she still isn't a villain of some sort.
Fran: she still could be bi, though. Nobody said she was a lesbian.
Or she's cleaning up on isle 3. If you truly love someone you DEMANDED to marry. You aren't panting over someone else, gay or straight HOURS later. You're just not.
>it reminds me of when I worry I'm using something a bit too typical and try to write smarter than I need to just to make sure I'm original but wind up with a knotted mess of confused character intentions
I just wanted to stand in solidarity or this very real writer feeling, lol. Also hard agree on these, especially Cressida. They did her dirty here.
I think the Cresseida storyline was obvious from the get go. She was never going to have a happy ending, at least not in this season. I don't see how people ever believed otherwise. Same with Eloise. It was clear her new persona was a facade.
Francesca is just JB self-inserting.
They also made John extremely sweet and likeable (he was so cool with the boys and then gave the cutest speech ever in the marriage), with such a huge chemistry and thoughtfulness (the song he rearranged for Francesca), only to trash it when Michaela (I won't even get started on this) appears.
For this Season 3 Spoilers post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The S3 writing was truly baffling. So many “wait, what?” moments and a lot of revisionist history, as if the writers never even read or watched S1/S2.
My wait what moment was was Benedict was asked if he had hobbies/a passion/purpose (art may have even specifically been suggested) and he said no. I'm like...did they forget the whole art school plotline in season 1? He literally IS an artist?
Oh thank god I didn't take crazy pills. Why would he not mention that, it would've made him 10x more attractive to that guy
Imposter syndrome. His brother paid for him to be accepted into the art school. He quit because he still didn't feel like he was good enough, just wealthy enough to get a spot. Anthony was on his honeymoon and Benedict ran the household very well (to Anthony's surprise), but with Anthony back, Benedict was back to doing nothing in particular. Why mention that you are wealthy enough to pay to enter an art school? That's just kind of an embarrassing fact to Benedict.
The thing is, I get that we're supposed to see that Benedict is still hurting over that reveal, but socially it's still stupid to just say a choked and tragic "No!" to the hobbies question when you can still say "oh I used to paint but I lost the love for it" It's like Eloise saying "I doN'T nEeD YouR bOoK CoLiN, I aLrEaDY HAve onE" It means something about the character, but it's being expressed in the dumbest, most unnatural way.
Oh my gosh you're so right. I was like "Eloise, people can have more than one book you know?"
It was also, like, a *decision* for the show runners to use Jane Austen - Jane Austen! - as an example of “apolitical thoughtless femininity”, in a show watched by people who theoretically enjoy regency-era romance stories. And then, as OP said, to never circle back on that idea. Just like, leave *Jane Austen* out there as an example of Eloise trying to be a thought-free society lady
Well when I first saw that scene I assumed it was more nuanced since JA would be a good feminist voice for Eloise in this position, she sees the flaws of society but has resigned to live within it. She doesn't write about how the patriarchy should be burned to the ground, but she does demonstrate that society should respect the minds and hearts of its women more than it does. But other than references like the charades scene the book wasn't really present in any other way and then it was just "Nm I was being fake"
OK that part might have made sense for his character in the moment, but when you consider all of the S3 whiplash moments? It kind of seemed like more whiplash. Which is a pity because it COULD have been subtle and made sense and given us a window into where he was as a person, but instead it just felt like they forgot something.
Effing THANK YOU. Like what the hell was that?? I was questioning my sanity over the artist thing.
My “favorite” inconsistency was Anthony, who watched his mom newrly die in childbirth, take his very pregnant wife on a boat voyage to India. I still liked the season overall but there were so many weird storylines or things with no payoff.
Yeah, that was a weird choice. I get that JB and SA were busy with other jobs but it didn’t make sense for him to suggest they go on a boat with his pregnant wife. Why not just go to Aubrey Hall and say it’s less stressful there or something?
Anthony could have asked Kate family to come to Aubrey Hall, it would have made more sense to me
Exactly! And then go to India when the baby was older.
The craziest thing was when KATE HERSELF pointed out how stupid the idea was! She literally told Anthony she was worried about the long trip!! The writing makes zero sense. It's like the characters themselves know how ridiculous it is now.
They just couldn’t make up an excuse for Anthony not to be around for episode 8 at very crucial moments (Francesca’s wedding and the LW reveal), presumably because Jonny’s schedule didn’t allow it. They had to create an excuse so ludicrous it went against all character sense.
Now maybe I'm wrong, because it's not my job, but couldn't you have shot the scenes separately and then edited them? Especially if they only serve as a background? Or shoot those scenes first and all together?
I don’t claim to understand the shooting schedule but it seems like they mostly shot this season quite linearly? Maybe it’s because of the directors? I think about the epilogue of part 2 quite a lot because I’m sure they shot the second pall mall scene at the same time as the first so Phoebe could be present (unless they reaaaally got her back for just that one bit). In the wrap they shared for Anthony and Kate this season they were the only named cast in that wrap - at the wedding breakfast prior to the Queen’s entrance, Anthony and Kate are only shown in isolation and are not seen in group shots, meaning that JB and SA shot on a different day/time to everyone else and they inserted them into those scenes.
Leave the duties of Viscount to Benedict indefinitely? Difficult and long journey without leaving heirs? They might as well have made him run away with Siena Rosso
The more I think about it, the more I think this is just what happens to Shonda’s shows. All of her shows knock it out of the park in S1 and then have a STEEP decline somewhere between S2-S5 that renders it completely unwatchable. I have high hopes that they can turn it around in S4, but as a Scandal, HTGAWM, and Grey’s Anatomy fan, I’m not holding my breath.
As a former HTGAWM fan I feel this in my bones.
S1 was amazing, everything after was just recycled. Call me crazy, but I feel liker her shows are really good but then end up relying on diversity points. Like, oh hey we saw a character in a wheelchair this season, only for them to never show up again. Not even as a background character.
Yeah I was pumped to see him again, he seemed really intriguing, and then they just dropped his character instantly
Lord Remington! He was so fun. I wanted to see him again.
I just want to hang out and gossip with Lord Remington fr.
Yeh, I would have loved to have seen more oh him. The show needed more witty banter and gossip.
Same here. Gave up after S4 and never looked back. Shondaland shows suffer from Ryan Murphy syndrome. Good ideas absolutely squandered in one to two seasons.
Yep, I'm with ya. Very good point! I LOVED all 3 of those straight out of the gate, but didn't see any of them to the end. (Although Grey's is still stumbling along out there, isn't it?)
I was a hard cord Grey’s Anatomy fan, even had pets named after characters. The finale where George dies and Izzie sees him in the elevator while she’s coding took my breath away (side note: as a friends-to-lovers super fan, I really wanted them to be together and the way they handled that storyline had already made me so mad). But, the slide into, “What is even happening?!” after that was steep! I stopped watching after I was convinced that, in reality, Meredith would’ve jumped off a bridge due to all the trauma and heartache she had been put through. It was just too insane after awhile.
Also Lord Anderson! They kept building up him and Violet, and then hinting at the drama between him and LD. And then we find out he did something at the age of TEN to piss off LD like ??? And then also nothing happened between Violet and Marcus either so what was even the point of that storyline?
I laughed so hard when they revealed the beef between the Danburys. Also, they had like 40 years to talk about it but avoided each other instead, and then resolved it in less than 2 minutes? O.o
Well he creeped on her all season, and then they danced. So I guess that’s something? 😂
Plus Debling just vanishing into thin air. Dude disappeared faster than the great auks.
Literally, just give us a scene where he's upset and makes a stupid excuse for leaving like "I'm going to, to prepare for my trip".
The same with Lord Samadani, why they can’t make a scene where he's looking at Fran and John and tell the Queen that he's going back to Vienna
I still think they should have created a way to bring Debling and Cressida together. Cressida/Jessica Madsen is a great villain, and she could stir up all kinds of trouble as a bored housewife while Debling is traveling.
Whiplash is the theme this season. I myself got dizzy by the amount of things I am forced to assume just to try and make Colin's arc somewhat interesting or believable.
Penelope got the most happily ever after ending in this series, married to the man of her dreams, rich as hell, an accomplished author, reconciled with her family and the mother to the new Lord Featherington. Meanwhile I just couldn't stop thinking about Cressida and her awful parents who tried to marry her off to that old man who wanted a bunch of kids. Like wtf, I would be that desperate too. Not even Portia would do that. Also Eloise, hello? At least pretend to pay attention to what your friend is talking about?? I'm really hoping this comes up as character development for Eloise's season but wow is Eloise not a girl's girl.
I was crying for Cressida. Maybe they don't want a happy ending for her because she will be in a future season but what was the point of showing us her awful family? All the show look like they put parts together without a clue about what they are doing
Heavy on the KISS poster. The whole season was trying too hard while simultaneously giving us nothing. It’s like all of the characters got a lobotomy this season or amnesia. The Eloise and Cressida ones bothered me but Francesca took the cake. The writing towards the end for her was just baffling. Not because of Michaela though!
I hate how they write Eloise this season, she’s no longer a character with her values and ideas. They just use her, making her switch sides whenever it is convenient for Polin's story.
The title is so apt. Framing whiplash, yes. All of them, yes, especially Cressida. But... Violet being humbled about her views on love to then immediately being justified? Why?
It also sucks because I thought (non book reader here) that Fran and John’s romance was so sweet. It was the most romantic part of this season for me! Just to be tossed out in the last 3 minutes
So so true. They were the cutest... but then S3E8 was like "actually, no, you see, love is only true when you are thunderstruck". Which is in stark contrast with S1E8, where Violet says "Love is a choice, one that is never too late to make."
It made no sense whatsoever
Within the same episode 🙄
My exact words at the end of this season were “what a cluster fuck” 😂
The Bridgerton tree in the show’s title card also suffered whiplash. Angry. Happy. Angry. Happy.
They used AI to help write the script, which explains a lot. :(
They WHAT?!
[удалено]
Cressida: I never got the impression that we are supposed to root for her tbh. I honestly thought we were just supposed to understand her actions. Just because she got a bad home life doesn't mean she still isn't a villain of some sort. Fran: she still could be bi, though. Nobody said she was a lesbian.
I think Jess has said she's gay not bi
Damn. As a bi person, I wish we had more bi representation
She said queer which could be gay or bi. However from her interview she said Francesca does love john so I am leaning towards bi.
Or she's cleaning up on isle 3. If you truly love someone you DEMANDED to marry. You aren't panting over someone else, gay or straight HOURS later. You're just not.
>it reminds me of when I worry I'm using something a bit too typical and try to write smarter than I need to just to make sure I'm original but wind up with a knotted mess of confused character intentions I just wanted to stand in solidarity or this very real writer feeling, lol. Also hard agree on these, especially Cressida. They did her dirty here.
I think the Cresseida storyline was obvious from the get go. She was never going to have a happy ending, at least not in this season. I don't see how people ever believed otherwise. Same with Eloise. It was clear her new persona was a facade. Francesca is just JB self-inserting.
They also made John extremely sweet and likeable (he was so cool with the boys and then gave the cutest speech ever in the marriage), with such a huge chemistry and thoughtfulness (the song he rearranged for Francesca), only to trash it when Michaela (I won't even get started on this) appears.
Valid points
AFAIK, all of those arcs are ongoing so we don't really know how they are going to end up yet.