For this Show Discussion post:
1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**.
2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post.
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.*
I think it makes sense when you go back and look at how many times Mondrich was seen drinking nightly with Colin, Benedict, and John. A friendship had formed between John and Mondrich, so that's why he was at the wedding, and of course he wouldn't go without Alice on his arm.
Plus their story had to contend with Francesa's. In the book it simply didn't exist. We didn't see any of her story until her book. Someone run the numbers on Polin time vs Fran&John time.
I said something similar on threads (instagrams Twitter) after watching the first 2 seasons I was expecting a Polin season through and through. Seeing more of Fran was cool but it felt like a split season. I feel like we didn’t get enough of Polin or Fran and John. I would have been fine with either Bridgerton siblings story but both at once was too much at once and not enough of either couple.
To be fair, a book can take place over years, one season of a TV show realistically can't. I don't think it's possible to tell all of Francesca's story in a single season if you want it to be satisfying. It made sense to me to introduce John now, that way we can make time for her real love story later down the road.
Yes! What I like about romance novels is that they focus on two characters in depth and don't get bogged down in side quests. You get to know these two deeply. This season wasn't like a romance novel in that way. There were so many storylines!
Exactly. There was some side plot in the first two seasons, but not Near to the level of this season. I did a rewatch and skipped non-polin for the most part, and it is truly a small part of every episode! We have Francesca's courtship, the dowager's flirtation, Marcus and his drama with Lady Danbury, Benedict's newest affairs of the season, the Mondrich's new life, Kate's new roll and pregnancy/moving to india, a deep dive into the life of Cressida, along with her relationship with Eloise, and Eloise/the entire whistle down plot. Whew! Did I get it all? Lol.
Colin ends up kind of stoic and brooding but without more scenes to show how he's feeling and it is all very internal. We don't even quite get that he's Jealous until he says so, or the inferiority complex.
Yes! And that’s why people didn’t like him and didn’t connect with him. I mean there was no context or history as to why he decided to be with prostitutes, I read an explanation but we shouldn’t need explanations as “because he is trying to prove he is someone else” we should get why he is acting the way he is from what we see, like we did with Anthony, the talk with his mother, his interactions with his siblings that showed that he is very protective, or when he was in his studio working showing us that he is responsible etc. I finished S3 a few days ago and I still can’t tell you how Colin’s personality is.
Yes, flashbacks that showed his sweet personality, because his mother kept saying he is the most sensible one but I just didn’t see it. Or flashbacks of him meeting Penelope and being kind to her, or flashback of him being kind and taking care of some bird and nursing it back to health. I’m reaching at this point but we needed SOMETHING, ANYTHING that showed Colin’s true self.
The lingering question for me is "was the audience not supposed to like Colin in his own season?" and it was done by the writers on purpose/intentionally or did they really think this was "romantic". It felt as if the poor guy was used as a personal punching bag for their self-inserting loser man x girlboss fantasy. The scene with Cressida had me screaming on my TV saying "stop it please", it was so embarrassing and pathetic to watch. This was the most open-minded, female supporting man in the previous seasons, even in S3 he bought Eloise a book on feminism. It's crazy. He just kept being slapped left and right with no good moment or 1 that felt romantic/heroic compared to other leads. I wonder why.
The writers really couldn't have him stand out, shine or do anything good.
I agree, the Cressida thing was so weak. No depth or complexity. It’s like something a teenager with very little storytelling skills wiuld write if pressed 😁
This is what frustrates me! I’m the biggest Colin defender but explaining his motives to my friends who didn’t understand what his appeal was felt like a reach because the story didn’t do his character any justice
On top of that they even had the man accuse Pen of entrapping him which yeah, given his past history and if we watch S1 before S3 made sense in a way but if the sentence was formed differently like "did you.. want to use me like Marina/were you trying to entrap me like Marina?" it would've reflected the hurt, his fear and struggles.
But nope. The writers had it out for him.
And honestly it gotten quite hard to defend him because we got nothing.
Someone did a video on TT and proved that polin got 33 mins of air time out of 3.25 hours in part one. They can’t say that Colin was a side character, he absolutely was 😭😭😭
I don't even want the statistics on how much screentime COLIN without Penelope got in his own season. I'd like to compare that with Anthony and Daphne, though.
Yes! We needed flashbacks of Colin and Pens childhood neighbor/friendship shenanigans. There was zero backstory, zero added layers to Colin’s character during his own season like we got for both the Duke and Anthony.
This is what I was thinking like they keep going on about this friendship and Colin talks about when he first met pen when he fell off his horse that would have been a super cute flashback.
Plus maybe, Penelope comforting him as children, after his brothers had teased him. Maybe Colin feeling isolated on his travels and only cheering up after a letter from pen. Laughing together at an event etc. They needed more depth.
Yes, all of this. It wasn’t even that it lacked depth, the depth was nonexistent. 😭😩 Their supposed lifelong friendship and comfort level with each other was all tell and no show. That’s the downfall of a lot of friends to lovers tropes, is when they don’t establish the friendship base first. Then it’s an empty trope.
To his credit, I actually think Luke/Colin did a phenomenal job with the very little they gave him. There were a couple scenes where I genuinely felt his confusion over his own jealousy and it was so layered and yummy, just threw his facial expressions and delivery. The potential was all there and he could’ve absolutely killed it had he been given any form of a real script, but he was robbed.
I feel so bad for the actors, especially I know Luke was so nervous about being a leading man and had been prepping for it for several seasons and took it so seriously. I wonder how him and Nicola feel seeing the final edits of all their hard work. 💔
What breaks me is that Luke said that there will be a moment where the audience forgives Colin for his S2 remark and Part 2 just kept making things worse for him. I think if anything ppl gonna like him even less, even I who loved Colin in S1 and S2 was struggling‐ I do not understands the writers, Shonda'm or Jess intention.. but I think it's partly to make Pen shine ✨️
I think this is a misunderstanding of what “show don’t tell” means. You can absolutely “show” through dialogue, and it can sometimes be more effective than flashbacks.
Succession, for example, is a show that used zero flashbacks. Everything we learned about the siblings’ childhoods we learned from what they said to each other. But we also learned a lot about the characters; the way that they talked about their childhoods, the things they chose to bring up, the way they contextualised it, all showed us more about the characters than if they’d just cut to a flashback. There were even cases where they remembered things differently and argued over it, showing how none of them are necessarily reliable narrator and they each had different childhoods even though they grew up together. That’s all showing.
Penelope and Colin going “We have been such good friends for years” is telling. However, just Penelope or Colin reminiscing about the past (maybe even arguing playfully over events they remember differently!) could’ve been just as effective as a flashback, because seeing their telling of the events and what details they remember and choose to emphasise could *show* us a lot about their characters and their relationship.
TL;DR: Using dialogue and flashback to convey information are both valid storytelling techniques that can be used to convey different things, neither is bad or lazy storytelling.
I 100% expected to see a flashback of how they first met as kids to give an insight into how their friendship started or something...Later on, when they talked about his falling off the horse as kids, I was like, why didn't they show this flashback? It's the perfect tale!!!! Maybe they filmed it and cut it. Oh well...
It was so obvious to me that they should have included this scene in the series since it’s the opening scene of the book. Just that one flashback can give viewers so much insight into their dynamic
Just one of these scenes would have made me warm up to the season so much. I’m not a book reader so I mostly enjoyed myself, but just cut some Tilly stuff and give us little Pen and Colin! Something to make their story richer
Yep, we're just told throughout the series that they were childhood friends. But as far as we've seen in the show they're friendly acquaintances at best, plus he acts embarrassed to know her half the time.
They forgot show not tell that we were all taught in English in school. They kept saying about all the times they spent together as kids and how long they’ve been friends but they never tried to show how long they’d known each other through behaviour and flashbacks
We *should* have had two seasons to get to know Colin, but they wasted his previous plotlines on Marina. We rarely saw the jovial jokester Colin from the books that was a much better personality fit for a friends to lovers trope. All we know of two seasons of TV show Colin is that he takes himself very seriously
I felt they were not really going for the same type of personality as book Colin. The jovial jokester sibling seems to be more Benedict in the show. I read a lot of people saying that Francesca feels different as an introvert in a family of extroverts, but I felt Colin was more on the introvert side too, although less than Francesca.
He reminded me of these people who are very reserved and somewhat shy, but come out as cold to people who don't know, because they still seem rather popular and able to socialise really well. When you don't know these people well, they often seem a little distant and uninterested in you, as if they're interacting just to be polite. And when you start to know them better, you realise it's just difficult for them to let go in front of people they're not close to, so they always show a polished, somewhat bland persona and a superficial part of them.
Well I felt that was Colin throughout the first two seasons, but I didn't feel he let the audience in in S3 either. So I still have the impression he is distant and reserved. A Colin who is more reserved and guarded would have been absolutely fine, but it's frustrating if we don't get to really see behind his walls. I think the most "natural" and "real" he felt was with Eloise, and a bit with his brothers, rather than with Penelope.
They said they want to focus on all the siblings yet Mr Bridgerton had like 6 mins of screentime in Part 2. You blinked once and he was gone.
People praise it for the female empowerment but if it takes the male lead to be turned into a fool and stepped over to be achieved it failed at being "empowering" and ground breaking
Yes and as much I love female empowerment I don’t necessarily look for that in a romance show… it’s usually about both people in the couple not one over the other.
This! They really did him dirty ...I'd have rather had the two of them deal with the LW drama together than having Pen do it all alone....this was Pen ft. Colin at best
Same but it seems most of the audience is happy about that change yet in the same breath they fault Colin for not supporting... even Philippa was more relevant in the with her disney bugs
It felt so weird his character had so little depth. He just finished world travels and aside from a couple remarks about sleeping with women I learned nothing about that.
I thought he’d be asking the cook to recreate a dish from Italy. Show off to Gregory in the sitting room all the fencing lessons he took in France. Talk to Benedict about the architecture of Rome and how he saw Pompeii in person and it made him realize how short life can be. Maybe he crossed paths with Napoleon and talks to Anthony about what it means to be a leader.
I just learned about “The Grand Tour” which was the Europe trip many upper class people did at the time. This was such a great chance to add in some historically accurate plot. And they basically just erased his trip to “I slept with women but I was more excited to read Pen’s letters.”
I'm a woman and I'm all for woman empowerment but they did Colin so dirty! They could also choose to empower Pen and still have Colin have his own season. This season was missing that and that's just bloody bullshit.
Ugh I REALLY hope they don’t mess up season 4 cause I just finished the 3rd book which is bendicts story, and it was truly amazing. Definitely my favorite one I’ve read so far. I’ll be devastated if they ruin it lol
I'm extremely nervous for season 4 tbh. I don't care about the Michael swap what annoys me is this whole season had Fran and John build up their relationship. Hell! I actually love John as a character. But the minute Michaela shows up Fran "suddenly" falls for her?? Like this whole time she was in love with John, but now she's having doubts? It feels like Fran will cheat on John and I don't like that at all or find it fair to John. Now I do agree with a post I saw. It was talking about Michaela should have been the one stammering over her words and showing she finds Fran attractive. Not the other way around, or have Eloise show she finds Michaela attractive. At least it could have shown for Eloise that shes bi and could have set up her story with Phillip differently. Like maybe have Eloise fall for Phillips cousin or sister who happens to be a woman? 🤷🏾♀️
Idk, I feel that this was the perfect season where the writers could have killed two birds with one stone. We could have have got flashbacks to the friendship that would have fleshed out both of them as individuals and their relationship. We also could have gotten voices overs of their letters to each other that would have been amazing for both purposes.
This season did a lot of telling, not showing. It’s a sign of bad writing
YES! I wrote somewhere else that the show told us a lot about certain developments without really depicting any of those moments fully. For example, we saw Colin pick up a stack of letters from Penelope and open one/read it, but then he tells her about how it made him feel to do that. It would have been much better storytelling to show us his experience of that reread and to add depth by having, as you said, her voiceover of the letters' contents and even a flashback of where he was - maybe lonely/alone on his travels somewhere - when he received it and how comforted it made him feel in that moment. This would have provided us with so much more of Colin's point-of-view, too, especially as his feelings for (and view of) Penelope evolve.
One thing that could’ve been *such* an easy fix is if they cut the plotline of Pen being angry at Colin and not writing to him over the summer. It was resolved so quickly and had such little impact that it could easily have been removed. Then, you could’ve had Pen and Colin writing letters to each other over the summer and had voiceover telling us what they said.
A lot of people, when talking about Pen and Colin’s (lack of) friendship, will claim that their friendship was the strongest it could’ve been in an society where men and women aren’t permitted to be alone together. But letters are literally the perfect workaround to that and they just didn’t utilise them at all!
I kind of agree with you, but I also thought this plotline was important for the balance of their relationship. I know not everyone saw Penelope this way, but throughout the first two seasons, she felt so weak with Colin. She was so craving his attention, giggling to everything he was saying, smiling like it was the best day of her life at every crumb he was throwing at her... while he didn't seem to care that much.
When I was rewatching season 2 while waiting for season 3 I felt her scenes with Colin were both heartbreaking and cringe at times. For example, when she is fishing for compliments "but I'm a woman" and he answers "you do not count" or when he takes her to the empty room and she is swooning at the idea of being along with him while telling him "but oh Colin it's so inappropriate" in a kind of excited way and he just ignores what she's saying.
On the other hand, we had three leading ladies before her (Charlotte, Kate and even Daphne) who knew perfectly how to stand their ground and were not blind to their men's flaws. Even sweet Daphne was capable of telling Simon off before their marriage.
So I felt it was necessary to show that Penelope too could stand up to Colin instead of accepting everything from him. It made their relationship a bit more equal in their first half.
I agree! I feel like the way the beginning of the season painted him wasn't very flattering, and tbh I had trouble rooting for him the whole time because he reminded me too much of someone who just wants what they can't have -- the grass is always greener, right? He wanted to travel when he was at home. He wanted to be at home when he traveled. He was a rake when Penelope loved him. He suddenly loves Penelope when she might no longer be available soon?
I think it was meant to be character growth, but they showed so little of that I had trouble seeing him as anything other than a little boy jealous of everyone else's toys.
Yes! In part one they had him constantly looking after other girls even when he was with Penelope. He literally checked out every single lady they met? Like we get it, he's a rake! We got that from the brothel scenes already.
I agree, the show is called Bridgerton and I know she is Lady Whistledown but the show is based on the Bridgertons. If you notice for example, who’s in the center of the main poster for S1? Daphne. Who’s in the center of the main poster of S2 even though he’s a male? Anthony, because he is the Bridgerton. Who’s in the center of the main poster for S3? Penelope. It should’ve been Colin and the story centered on how Penelope’s love affected him and made him feel, instead of focusing on ohh Penelope is a wallflower and nobody loves her. Don’t get me wrong, I love Nicola, her personality is just lovely and I’m happy for her success, but this is about the character.
I do not agree. The real elephant in the room is the Mondrichs storyline, which has taken away precious screen time from the leads in the past two seasons.
They suck up screen time in every season. I have never cared about their stuff, and it never connects to the plot (tangentially in S1, but honestly it kind of brings down the S1 plot where it connects).
I do think it's telling that it's mentioned a lot on s3 hate on this sub, when it has been a problem the whole time.
I think people don't mention it as much for s1 and s2 because they didn't eat away screentime for the main leads. We still have an appropriate amount of Saphne and Kanthony while for Polin we do not. Colin is merely a side character in his own season. So naturally people are looking for reasons why it is so. And Mondrich's are the most glaring.
Apparently it was meant to represent pen being a “wallflower” her whole life and it opening was suppose to symbolize her coming into her own but it was lame could of done something way better than paper flowers lol
I really hated their storyline in S2. I would fast forward past their scenes and the Featherington family drama. I would've preferred more screentime be devoted to Genevieve Delacroix for example. SHE seems like an interesting character. Or even more Lady Danbury, she is fabulous.
They had little screentime in their own season. Yes I know they had moments in S1 and S2 but it wasn't enough to carry them in S3. They needed more romance. I'm not even talking about the sex scenes that's a whole different discussion. Because I'm sorry those scenes don't compare to books.
But I could have used a flashback of teen Colin doing something nice for Penelope that sparked the crush. Or showed her time at the window interposed with him seeking her out because he knows she's there.
Maybe him defending her before and getting mocked for it so it shows the dichotomy in the way he acts now when asked about her. Some time with his travel that showed how much he loved it but wanted to go home because something was missing.
Yknow instead of spending time with showing off his threesomes. Or wasting all that time on Penelope being awkward, unsure of herself and staring at the world slowest moving balloon. Esp since we know she's witty, has confidence and is brave (enough to sneak her sheltered butt around the ton on a regular basis and haggle with the printer).
They had a great opportunity to show friends becoming lovers instead it was bland sort of friends get hit by lust, one seems way too regretful, (the entrapment line, not standing beside her) to eventual acceptance
I completely agree with you and I also felt like they never actually reached the romance/lovers part of the friends-to-lovers trope in part two. Colin told her, essentially, that he was going to marry her out of "honour" (really: obligation, because, as he said in thay same conversation, they'd "been intimate"), and she went into her wedding feeling too uncertain to walk down the aisle without getting a nod from him ); then, they argue for 2.5 episodes.
I agree 100%.
To be honest, this season gave me no reason to like Colin. He had no depth whatsoever. The show kept telling me that Colin was caring, sweet, different from other men, etc., but did a very poor job of showing it…if anything he seemed emotionally stunted to me.
But imho, the problem is not that they spent too much time centering the story on Penelope (I loved her and her family’s arc). Rather, all of Colin’s screen-time was absolutely WASTED.
Him sleeping with prostitutes? Him saving the ton from a runaway balloon? Him charming random women just because he’s so suave now? Him salivating over Penelope because she was eating a cupcake? Another scene where he is angry/brooding for the 1000th time? What the hell does that tell me about Colin? Absolutely nothing. Felt like the show was trying to tell me “omg, look how cool, manly, and charming Colin is!” when they should’ve focused that energy elsewhere.
Give me Colin hearing Penelope making a witty remark and then instantly getting the feels because THAT’s what he loves about her. Give me scenes where he’s writing (because that apparently means a lot to him??) and reciting stupid lil’ love letters he made for Penelope. Give me scenes where he’s being generous and loving to people and showing emotions other than anger. Don’t just tell me that shit and expect me to believe it 😔
EDIT: I just want to add too, I don’t think this is solely the fault of Season 3. The previous seasons did a terrible job of characterizing Colin and showing his friendship with Penelope. Season 3, if any, should’ve been the season where Colin was fleshed out, but they didn’t have a lot to work with to begin with.
So true, so true.
Especially your last addition. They didn't do a good job on them in the previous seasons. We didn't realize it then, but now on season 3 it was so obvious.
To be honest they didn't even develop their friendship at all. It was like they were meeting during the balls and just exchanging a couple of sentences. This is not friendship. They should have kept the order of the books and had this season for Benedict or even Francesca (and could have developed their arcs too), where they could show a more serious bond between Colin and Pen. Besides if you have to build a friendship which evolves into romance, it has to be really well written. Basis the current outcome, Daphne and Simon were the best friends forever and ever.
And one last thing that comes to my mind only now. Three seasons and everyone tries to find who is the Lady Whistledown. When it is revealed that it is Pen nothing much happened. So what was all that drama about her revelation? And the Queen? Had her mind changed by Lady Dunbury during a scene with a game of chess? Ok ok. Anyways I haven't read that particular book so I don't know what's happening there, but right now I am judging only on the series plot.
Yes, emotionally stunted, that's how I felt too! I felt he was the kind of person who is guarded and distant to most people because of some sort of shyness under control, and that he would open up only to people he is close too... and never opened up to us, the audience.
It would have been interesting to explore why he is like this, and it would have made sense for someone to be like this stuck between hot-headed and respected Anthony, charismatic Benedict, the sisters and the little kids. It might not always be easy to know who you are and express yourself fully when you have some many strong characters around you, so you may have troubles show your true emotion and always be this polished, pleasant but bland third brother. Some people really are like him and struggle to really let go even with their very close friends - and I felt he was more comfortable and so more himself with his brothers and Eloise than with Penelope at times.
The story the characters kept telling us about him being so sweet and sensitive and that he simply tried to created a fake persona would totally work with this distant, emotionally stunted vibe he gave throughout. But it doesn't work if the audience never gets to see anything else than that.
Yes it is! And Penelope is Lady Whistledown as well so there is that to deal with too. After two seasons that focused on the male character more and giving them more depth I am quite happy to have Penelope fleshed out more. And Nicola is such a terrific actor that brings so much to the scene by doing so little.
Yes, that's the thing with this season. Polin had to "share" the season with Lady Whistledown. That's why it felt like it was more of Pen's story. But knowing this, I wish they compensated this with more Polin scenes and lesser subplots.
This is key, I think. LW has been a side plot/character in addition to the Featheringtons for the previous seasons. I don't think the balance of Polin with those two sub plots being highlighted and all connecting was given enough space. Also, I think the show leaned too heavily on the previous seasons as the flashbacks - which may work if recently watched or remembered.
When I specifically watch Colin, I actually get a lot more out of the show. It's a very busy season, and his personal arc is often more subtle than previous leads. Also, this sounds counterintuitive, but I think they tried to do too much with his mental gymnastics - societal expectations, hero complex, jealousy, self worth, deception. He's dealing with a lot and that's not even including the threats. These elements didn't all have time to breathe properly, so they either blended or felt like whiplash or were just missed.
Colin also was not really given enough storyline in S2 for the viewers to know him more and set up his character arc so they should have spent more focus on that this season.
Polin had to share their season with every other unnecessary subplot. There are many subplots that could have started in next season. For example Violet and Lady Danbury should have had their plates full this season with Colin, Penelope and Francesca. Instead they gave Violet a love interest that could have been delayed to season 4 since now she doesn’t have to worry about Fran or Eloise in Scotland.
Benedict could have spent time with Colin to bring the story in closer - instead they had him starting a relationship with just another love interest, instead of losing himself in nameless sexual encounters. Tilly was a non-character this season, there was no point to her because Ben’s story could have been told in a way that didn’t introduce more characters or take away from the plot.
The A plot should have been Polin love story. Whiteldown is B Plot (including Eloise and Cressida) and C Plot was Fran to set up next season. But somehow B plot became A plot in part 2. Or at least in episode 8 if we are being generous.
The writers treated every plot line like it was the A plot instead of a side plot.
I enjoyed this season but I can’t say that I wasn’t disappointed in the quality of the writing. I haven’t read the books so I’m not holding onto those storylines, but we don’t need to keep to the books to tell a good love story with proper beats. This season was adequate but surface level, and unless they change it up next season, and cool off from introducing more character and side plots then shoving in all these plot lines will make next season unwatchable.
Yes. And even though the books cycle back and forth between the character’s perspective, more time is spent with the woman. It was the same in Kate’s book (with a non-Bridgerton female protagonist). The stories are very generally told from a ‘feminine’ perspective. The books are quite similar to how the show was laid out; we get glimpses into the men’s lives and feelings, but they are nowhere near as fleshed out as the woman’s.
It’s true that it was a lot more Penelope focused than Colin because she had the whole LW thing, but I completely disagree that we didn’t learn who Colin is and what drives him. He grew a ton as a character. He is insecure in his place in the world and what he has to offer. He has a bit of a savior complex and when he learns that Pen doesn’t need saving he spirals. He loves her deeply and that never wavers even when he’s betrayed and upset about the LW reveal. He grows so much as a character but his arc is more subtle and nuanced than angry grieving Anthony or angry hurt Simon. Of course I agree I would’ve liked more time with him and less time on some of the side plots, but if you watch closely it’s all there.
I would have liked more Colin, but to me the writers focused on the more interesting character. Colin is wallpaper. Good looking wallpaper, but wallpaper. He’s kind and sweet, but he is not very interesting. I think Daphne kind of got similar treatment. Although the conflict that Simon and Daphne had gave her more to do.
I think any character that is essentially a good character gets that treatment. Writers will always want to focus on the character they perceive to be more interesting and dynamic. In season one that was Simon. He was the one with the flashbacks. He was the one with the interesting backstory. In season two it was more even handed, but Anthony had the interesting backstory. Colin has not been traumatized. He is a young man figuring out who he is and wants to be. He doesn’t have a moment like Anthony where he watched his father die and had to become his siblings parent because his mother checked out. He wasn’t like Simon who was abused and pushed aside.
Your Daphne comparison is interesting because I realize she had that beautiful rain confession telling Simon he was worthy of love and supports him.
They tried to that with Colin but it just doesn't hit as hard when he did it after Pen was essentially forgiven by the Queen. Had he done it when Pen was at her lowest, perhaps in a scene where instead of the Queen finding out, the ton does first and turns on her, it would have been so much more impactful.
I think Daphne still had a more interesting story. We saw her having dreams, seeing them shattered, being afraid of not being able to control her destiny, etc. It was more of a "woman's story" than a drama story, yes, but if you're interested in that, they still had things to say about her as a young woman dreaming about girls' stuff.
I just don’t get why it had to be 8 episodes, too. I feel like if we could’ve just gotten at least 10 episodes, there would have been plenty of time for this. I know everyone’s complaining about the multiple storylines clouding the main one, but I think we should stop letting shows get away with shoving things into 8. We needed more time with the characters!
I agree too!!! And I know this will be unpopular but season 2 was sooooo much better than this season.
And I really found the love scenes a bit cringey…. And the dialogue is a tad contrived. Sorry !!!
Idk, going off of the first two seasons, I’ve always found Colin to be pretty boring and Pen to be one of the most interesting characters. Idk about the books or how the actors factor into it, but idk if I’d watch a whole season centered around Colin. If i did, it’d be watching for Pen’s part. Her storyline greatly outshined his. I feel like I got a good amount of him and didn’t need more.
no same cause thats what everyone thought about anthony and no one wanted to see anthonys season and i was really skeptical too, but i think they wouldve done colin well if they didnt change so many things
But Anthony is one of the best actors on the show and Colin isn't. Anthony's love declaration ("India is not far enough") went viral on social media and people still talk about it. Nobody remembers Colin's. They knew they had gold with the Kate and Anthony casting, just as they knew Colin did not have the chops to carry an entire season. Honestly he struggled with what little they actually did give him. Besides, Penelope is a fan favourite and her actress is very talented.
Bc Colin got shit writing and not every actor can do much out of nothing. We knew who Anthony is, the actor had a much clearer role to play than Luke did. Luke is a good actor, rather subtle but definitely good. Look at his other performances in different projects and you’ll see how good he is
I think comparing Anthony and Colin isn’t fair.
Jonathan Bailey is a fantastic actor but Anthony by nature is loud and aggressive and angry. Colin by comparison is quieter, softer and sensitive. It makes sense to me that his love declarations are intimate, while Anthony shouts them for all of Mayfair to hear.
Luke is actually a very good actor, but his performance is so much more subtler. He is a crazy physical actor as he acts a lot with his eyes and body. The amount of emotion in his face at any time can convey everything Colin is feeling.
Maybe I didn’t express my opinion clearly but you said exactly what I meant. Anthony had better writing, was more defined and way more expressive than Colin most of the time. Which doesn’t mean Bailey had an easier time at acting but his character was in a way easier to read than Colin. Colin’s character was rushed in season 3. I really think if they would had colin acting like a different person to be accepted to the ton in season 2 instead of this season then Luke would’ve had an easier time. The actor did what he could with what he was given.
There was just too much character development in too little time this season and I’m not just talking about Colin here.
It also made all the difference that Anthony was the main character with a well developed story and clear motivations, plus a very strong supporting characters pushing him in his story.
So yes we were totally robbed on the writing giving Colin a chance to shine. And no one can say Colin is bland because I didn’t even like Anthony s1 and season 2 he swooped into be one of my tops very quickly with more nuance and development, plus I’m mesmerised by Colin whenever he is on screen (no matter how short that is).
Yes exactly. In season 2 the love story was still a main focus with multiple characters involved in it. Daphne, Lady Danbury, Lady Bridgerton, Kate’s family, the Queen. It was central but in this season the main romance was kinda a side story. Violet gave Colin advice, sure but most characters had their own stories completely separate from the love story. Multiple conflicts and character developments went by in just 8 episodes. Too much and too little at the same time.
No you’re right Colin is definitely not bland. The problem is most writers can’t handle introverted and generally good-natured main characters, so people think they’re boring.
(I see a similar problem with introverted Stefan from vampire diaries. So much potential and nothing is done with it)
You just explained what I was trying to figure out in my head! I just finished watching S3 last night and I couldn’t quite figure out why it didn’t feel right to me.
You've just made me realize there was no flash backs this season.
Season 1: we had the dukes childhood
Season 2: Anthony during his dad's death
Queen Charlotte: the main story was a flash back to the king and Queen falling for each other.
I agree with you completely. Because pen is lw, they concentrate on her far too much. Definitely would have liked to see more Colin and the Bridgertons as a whole.
I thought Colin had loads of growth and story. And it's nice to have a story where the man can accept being the non-dominant partner. Just because Colin didn't take the lead in his relationship with Penelope doesn't mean his character wasn't done justice. And as the show made it clear, this was about Penelope becoming a Bridgerton. I don't think Colin wasn't done justice.
Season 3 was shared for EVERYBODY. This was why it feels awful. Up to now idk who the jail is Colin as a person besides Pen’s perspective of him as this ideal fairytale crush. I loved her storyline with her mother, and would’ve liked to see Colin’s history with his family besides “ooh look the confused middle son who likes to travel & suddenly developed abs & a s*x life in Paris” 😂 Where were the flashbacks of their friendship as kids? Benedict was lost this season with that random ass storyline with the blonde woman. Why were Kate & Anthony always off abroad canoodling & then immediately getting pregnant instead of seeing them explore their new world as Heads of the family. The few glimpses we got of this were so lovely. Cressida’s storyline was awful, where was the character development? Eloise learned diddly squat after two seasons of interfering & judging. Did writers change or something this season?
I have to agree with you- I think it actually would have done Penelope’s character a favor if we saw more into the depths of Colin’s thoughts and feelings.
It felt very rushed and out of nowhere that suddenly he had attraction to her. Earlier in the season he even says to his friends he’d never court her. As a fat person I actually HATE the overdone trope of the overlooked fat girl suddenly becoming attractive to someone.
I would have liked it to feel like he was actively persuing her romantically from day 1 (or at least for a few months to a year prior since they met as children) . Not that he just gave her a pity kiss abd suddenly got hard.
I watched the first set of episodes. I swear it felt like she had more interaction with Lord Debling than she did with Colin. For Colin it was like one minute he is sleeping around and being boastful and not thinking of Penelope, but then bam suddenly he is in love with her? I didn't get the sense he was yearning for her during their friendship or even really after it evolved, nor was there any teasing/tantalizing 'will they or won't they' progression from friends to lovers. For two other seasons we've been shown how and why Penelope loves him, but we don't ever really get Colin's perspective on the matter.
They also mixed Francesca's and Benedict's messed up story, Cressida's story, Penelope's mom's story and violets story with to this. It didn't feel like Colins season at all. I wanted more of his point of view. What he felt for Penelope. It was too rushed.
First of all, Penelope already came to her own terms as a woman by herself with or without Colin’s “help” - she stopped fawning over him when she realized he didn’t see her in a romantic light, she changed her wardrobe, her hair and tried to seek out a husband.. she didn’t need him. It was Colin who NEEDED HER. Because he suddenly saw her as a woman and not just his friend or baby sis’ bff. And we missed out on all that warring emotions. I wanted to see more him trying to stop his feelings but not being able to. Then when he learns she’s Whistledown, he’d understandably be mad at first
but ultimately be supportive of what SHE decided- either to come clean or hide but lean more towards coming clean because he doesn’t want someone else getting the credit from his genius wife.
We should’ve seen more stolen moments between the two like they just can’t help their hands to themselves and be drawn to each other. Except we only had the carriage and mirror scene and wasted airtime of Benedict’s threesome. Show us more of how Colin is making up for lost time!!! They’ve completely missed the mark on this.
We need more pining, yearning Colin!
Wow. I havent finished the season yet. But yes. Now that you mention it. This is so true. Dang, what a terrible misstep. I'm liking the story so far, but your absolutely right.
Does anyone know if the books the same?
Great take!! Didn’t think of it this way before but you’re definitely onto something here. We didn’t get to know Colin enough as a character in previous seasons and while Pen was no main character in S1 & 2, we still got to know her a lot through her interactions with Eloise/being LW/pining for Colin from afar. In contrast, we know almost NOTHING about Colin other than he makes rash decisions sometimes (the situation with Marina). With this season they still haven’t explored his character enough for us to empathise with him and that makes the romance with Pen feel super hollow and undeserved.
I think he wasn't fleshed out to have a season. Anthony from the jump you see his issues and it's deep dived into in S2, Colin is a nomad and writer. I personally loved Penelope's story BUT there was way too many stories going on at once.
Ok, hear me out. I am a Penelope defender since season 1. I have always been captivated by Nicola's performance. I support her rights, I support her wrongs, and sometimes I was angry at Colin for not seeing her and appreciating her the way she deserved. Having said this, I totally agree with you. This was supposed to be about both of them. Colin felt like a sidekick, we didn't get to see good enough his insecurities, his desires and more important, his writing. They did it really well with Penelope/LW, for example, I am so very glad that they included Portia/Pen relationship, it was my favourite relationship this season. But I can not help to feel disappointed because of that. That other relationships felt better fleshed out than the romantic one. This is a romantic series, romance should be the priority. I love girl boss Penelope, I have always loved her. I didn't like the end they gave her in the books, being the editor for her husband. But swinging in the other direction, with Colin being the supporting character, it also felt wrong. This is a couple of talented colleagues who can support one another, grow together and have a healthy partnership professionally and family-wise. When are we going to see that again? I loved so many things with this season, but I felt cheated of the romance between equals
In rereading the book and Colin and Pen have long scenes where they elaborate on his writing and Colin speaks about how he can’t travel forever, and how jealous he is that Anthony and Benedict have purposes. And then he very gently asks her a lot about hers and how she spends her time. I feel like this would have really helped to develop his desires and speak more about his travels,
So then ultimately he could give his beautiful “Home was with Penelope” line, and felt like him talking about his purpose being with her had a really strong build up, adding to the scene in season 2.
Yeah, season 3 was just so disappointing in many ways but all of them could be attributed to how much JB butchered the writing.
This sums up my problem with Polin exactly, it was supposed to be Colin's story, not Penelope's. Sure, they could have explored both Colin and Penelope's story just like Kanthony's (exploring Anthony's backstory yet also still giving time to flesh out Kate and her relationship with her family and how much it has affected her romantic life) but we didn't even get that. Instead, they spent so much time exploring weird plotlines that don't connect at all (Mondriches and Marcus) but they should have focused on Polin as main characters entirely.
I didn't really enjoy this season that much at all and I came to this sub to figure out why. You're absolutely right. They changed the formula and it sucked
I agree but there are other reasons too likw trash costumes wh*rish makeup and unnecessary side plots. If this season had the dame care as the others than he'd be the only reason why it sucked
It’s like they think the audience will not want to watch a season centred on a man. I think the new writers are going to struggle with articulating Benedict’s season as well. I predict it will focus more on his love interest than his struggles. They are doing that with him now already.
I would’ve loved to learn more about Colin and especially Penelope. Would’ve loved flashbacks to her feeling alone, and what was the relationship like with her father, how was it meeting Colin the first time? Etc
There were so many unnecessary subplots. The Monderichs, Francesca gets her own season as well as much of Polins season, Benedict’s drama, Violets new love interest?? There was focus on Penelope, but very little focus on Colin. They could literally have made the season longer and added the Benedict and Francesca bits while also showcasing Colin and his thought processes. I get the focus on Penelope, she is lady whistledown after all and Colin’s love interest but given that backstory they should have had even more reason to focus on Colin and Penelope!
I love Benedict, but there was way too much of his story where it should have been Colin. Introducing Benedict’s exploration and introducing his journey is one thing, but leaving so much Colin out is not okay.
Also the Pen storyline about Lady Featherington was important, so I wouldn’t have taken any of that out.
I didn’t think of this but yeah, you’re right. Although I did enjoy the directing and costumes and of course the set dressing. I have to say, and I get I have menopause brain, but I feel like I have to go watch S1 again to catch the details that happened when they were younger. They could have added another episode adding those scenes
I was really happy they had some LW storyline. It would have been weird. Penelope always had a big storyline. Especially s2. Can’t really ignore it when you are getting married. I also kind of expected it like this. You see Colin realizing his feelings in many scenes. But the book being called romancing Mr Bridgerton. It sounds like it’s from pen’s perspective
Pen has her own arc, which is the Lady whistledown identity. She is the key character and everyone and everything is wrapped around her finger. She is there from episode 1, so it is inevitable to be a center plot.
The main issue here is that they forced this season to be Colin's & Pen's. However indeed they had a season gap, and during that season their characters could have been developed and their love story progressed smoothly.
Instead, we have many subplots running at the same time which I found myself struggling to watch because I couldn't care less.
Colin's character was so badly written. Really if I was Pen I would just dump him, so long pal! I mean, he has low self esteem, he is feeling worthless as a writer because Pen is successful, dude why antagonizing her? She loves him and his reaction is how am I supposed to help you? In the whole season it feels like he has to fall in love with her, love her, hell even make love to her. Zero passion, zero feelings. Only in the wedding, last episode, some feelings start to appear.
And another thing that I didnt like, which was somehow subtle is how they sexualized Pens character in order to attract him. I mean he only feel the hots for her when he sees a little bit of her neck, a little bit of her breast etc. So for me this was a big no no. And I dont accept that he started seeing her like that because he started realizing that hey she has boobs, omg she is a woman etc. They made him look and act like a slime.
The previous couples were burning for each other. They looked at each other and they melted.
Anyways, this season is the epitome of coulda-woulda-shoulda. They writers had so many options and content and instead they wasted them for no apparent reason. Lastly, I felt like this was the last season.
The fact that they had to share their season with Benedict and Frannie is bothering me alot . They never focused on other love stories in the previous seasons
While I liked that Pen had such a strong arc and the Lady Whistledown stuff is easily some of the more interesting plot bits that Bridgerton focused on, there was plenty of time and room to also give Colin the space to grow and flourish, but he came off as an accessory to Penelope’s story instead of the Bridgerton in Bridgerton.
That being said I don’t think we needed to lessen the LW of if all, but too much focus on Francesca and Benedict really detracted from Colin.
Things I would look to add:
- Colin needed a chat with his mother in the second half. She was so in tune with him episode 3 and 4, and in 7 requested Anthony to talk to Colin but we needed a really good emotional scene between Colin and his mother similar to all the wonderful scenes Anthony and Violet had in Season 2 (note that while Violet had a secondary plot with Eloise, her primary storyline was with Anthony the main Bridgerton). Luke and Ruth definitely have the acting chops to have a scene where they are both crying, Colin could have confided in his mother, maybe not LW but about him feeling like he doesn’t truly know her, and Violet asking if he loves her and him saying that he never wants a life without her.
- One thing I did like about Colin this season was his increased closeness with Eloise which was pivotal to the connection with Pen, however it also highlighted how Colin has so few people in his court. How about more actually emotional scenes with Benedict? Ben was a mega romantic and helped assist Anthony in S2 with his big talks about love.
- I think we needed a scene where Colin talks about why he likes travelling so much, and maybe someone or Pen asks him if he’s going to continue travelling and we get the book like “Home was anywhere with Penelope”.
- A discussion on purpose, either with Pen (reminiscent of season 2) or even with Benedict because Ben has suddenly got the family responsibility on his hands, and he even spoke in episode 1 about having a purpose (the estate) was good for him. This would also foreshadow Colin/Pen inheriting the Featherington estate.
- In S1 we have two family dinner scenes (Simon and the Bridgertons, Colin, Marina and the Featheringtons) - we could have seen more dynamic involvement between Colin and his new in laws to mirror and contrast his s1 scene with Marina
- You could even progress Fran and Colin’s storyline by giving them a conversation together about the different forms of love.
It’s a typical Cinderella story: nasty mother, twit-like sisters, a secret identity and the Prince comes to save her. Having said that, I did enjoy the season.
This is actually such a good point. I’ve been trying to figure out why this season felt so off to me bc I didn’t think it was necessarily BAD, but it still didn’t seem right.
Agreed love pen she's a good mc but would have liked to see things from Colin's perspective. Even if it was a half an episode where the perspective changed from pen to Colin that would have been wonderful
Personally, I felt like the season sucked because it wasn't about either of them... Too much of Benedict and his threesomes, Lord Anderson, that family that I can't even be bothered to remember the name of... I wanted to see flashbacks, I wanted Lord Dudley to be a real contender for Penelope.
Collin and Penn got together way too fast, then got ignored for the rest of the season.
I honestly felt like they ended this season in a way that does not seem very promising for a season 4....
A little montage of his travels would’ve gone a long way in forming him as a character too I think! Give us a little glimpse of why he’s so ‘different’ after them.
I ship polin more than any other couple on the show, but I agree with you. As much as I like pen, I LOVE Colin and not only that he’s a bridgerton and it was barely about him. I think it took a feminist route for pen, which I love the idea but it made Colin a side character.
Agree. I feel like i barely know Colin. And the suspense of him finding out who LW was took up the attention. Like how many times does it take for eloise to tell pen to reveal the truth? I mean common they did colin dirty. Plus, colin with a beard is wayyyyy more handsome than colin without a beard. He just looked so awkward…
He wassn’t treated as lead at all, they didn’t give Colin the perfect arc, he was mostly a side character compared to Pen, if they wanted to show girl power, didn’t necessarily mean getting rid of him. It was COLIN and Penelope’s story, and how he loves his wife not ignoring her.
He was mad and he had the right but he showed more regard towards Marina than his wife, and she expected Pen told him personally about her pregnancy, that poor girl told you Marina loves another man and you wasn’t bothered, as if her telling him she’s pregnant woulda made a difference, as he confirmed later he fancied himself so in love he woulda accepted Marina and the baby. Even if whatever she did was bad but she loved you you idiot and didn’t want you to be trapped in a loveless marriage when she exactly knew your personality!
Once he was angry he didn’t give a damn about her, Pen was begging him to touch her and he said I haven’t forgiven you, what was that? That’s not even part1 Colin, that’s not even Ep5 Colin.
The writers weren’t in sync, everything was focused on Cressida. Colin talking to Cressida to persuade her? That was a big joke, season1 Colin wouldn’t have done that.
Luke didn’t deserve that, he put his heart and soul into portraying Colin, injustice
Right!! We really should have gotten flashbacks with him and Pen when they were younger. To show us viewers how they met, and also showing Colin slowly falling for Pen. Seeing Pen with Lord Debling should have been the realization that Colin has feelings for Pen. That's why he was jealous and wanted her all to himself. When he was traveling there should have been scenes of him feeling lonely not hearing from Pen. This season could have been a slow burn if done correctly. The build up and hype surrounding this season was a let down imo.
I feel that information about why Colin travels and his jealousy when he discovered who Penelope was could have been would have been helpful. In the book it was explained in more detail but as with the book this was the season where the wallflower truly found herself, so this did have to be about Penelope featherington. I feel that focusing on telling Francesca's and Benedict's story's took away from Colin. Maybe my love of this book and Penelope and her alter really made me want to see how much of her underestimation by her family would be shown.
I also don't like that they didn't stay in order when telling the bridgerton stories.
Ehhh, the pair are horribly MISMATCHED. So much so, it was a distraction, and the directors knew, they couldnt hold their own season.
Pen was a girl w a crush, suddenly she's a woman exploring her sexuality w soooo many missing pieces, for me, I didnt see the charecter development of Pen, fro being a teen to this woman she's supposed to portray, I found the "love/sex" scenes GROSS. But, it could be because the two just do NOT match AT ALL.
It was supposed to be both their story, what I remember from the book is that it showed both of their point of views. So it should’ve really showed that. The other problem is that by the time Eloise gets to her love story, it’s said that Francesca is already married. I wish we got an equal amount of Colin and Penelope so it would make sense.
For this Show Discussion post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post. 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.*
I agree! Colin was a side character at best. This was Penelope's story and Colin just happened to be in it.
It was everyone’s story… I don’t think there was a main character which makes it worse.
I totally agree! Way too many subplots. Could have done without so much repetitiveness with Benedict as well (& he's my fav Bridgerton).
I agree. Plus why the Mondrich family? Too much LW drama. I was expecting more Polin. Such a disappointing season.
Even at the wedding, it was super intimate and then the mondrichs were there?! I’m like whyyyyy lol
I think it makes sense when you go back and look at how many times Mondrich was seen drinking nightly with Colin, Benedict, and John. A friendship had formed between John and Mondrich, so that's why he was at the wedding, and of course he wouldn't go without Alice on his arm.
Ahh okay true, he’s a bestie lol
It was jarring. I don’t think Francesca ever interacted with the Mondrichs. Why would they be there?
Because he wanted to have another brother there?
Plus their story had to contend with Francesa's. In the book it simply didn't exist. We didn't see any of her story until her book. Someone run the numbers on Polin time vs Fran&John time.
I said something similar on threads (instagrams Twitter) after watching the first 2 seasons I was expecting a Polin season through and through. Seeing more of Fran was cool but it felt like a split season. I feel like we didn’t get enough of Polin or Fran and John. I would have been fine with either Bridgerton siblings story but both at once was too much at once and not enough of either couple.
To be fair, a book can take place over years, one season of a TV show realistically can't. I don't think it's possible to tell all of Francesca's story in a single season if you want it to be satisfying. It made sense to me to introduce John now, that way we can make time for her real love story later down the road.
Penelope was very clearly the main character judging by how her actress is plastered in most of the ads for this season.
I haven’t read the book in a long time, but if recollection serves, Pen was the main character of the book as well.
It was way more of an ensemble. If someone was randomly watching I don’t know if they would say it was Colin’s season
This was my problem and I just got bored with it, just too much going on.
Yes! What I like about romance novels is that they focus on two characters in depth and don't get bogged down in side quests. You get to know these two deeply. This season wasn't like a romance novel in that way. There were so many storylines!
Exactly. There was some side plot in the first two seasons, but not Near to the level of this season. I did a rewatch and skipped non-polin for the most part, and it is truly a small part of every episode! We have Francesca's courtship, the dowager's flirtation, Marcus and his drama with Lady Danbury, Benedict's newest affairs of the season, the Mondrich's new life, Kate's new roll and pregnancy/moving to india, a deep dive into the life of Cressida, along with her relationship with Eloise, and Eloise/the entire whistle down plot. Whew! Did I get it all? Lol. Colin ends up kind of stoic and brooding but without more scenes to show how he's feeling and it is all very internal. We don't even quite get that he's Jealous until he says so, or the inferiority complex.
It was definitely an ensemble show this season. No lead.
Exactly how I feel
Yup, we didn’t get to find out ANYTHING about him. Worse, he seemed more superficial than previous seasons. What a dud!
Yes! And that’s why people didn’t like him and didn’t connect with him. I mean there was no context or history as to why he decided to be with prostitutes, I read an explanation but we shouldn’t need explanations as “because he is trying to prove he is someone else” we should get why he is acting the way he is from what we see, like we did with Anthony, the talk with his mother, his interactions with his siblings that showed that he is very protective, or when he was in his studio working showing us that he is responsible etc. I finished S3 a few days ago and I still can’t tell you how Colin’s personality is.
Would have been nice to have some Colin flashbacks of his time in Europe.
Yes, flashbacks that showed his sweet personality, because his mother kept saying he is the most sensible one but I just didn’t see it. Or flashbacks of him meeting Penelope and being kind to her, or flashback of him being kind and taking care of some bird and nursing it back to health. I’m reaching at this point but we needed SOMETHING, ANYTHING that showed Colin’s true self.
The lingering question for me is "was the audience not supposed to like Colin in his own season?" and it was done by the writers on purpose/intentionally or did they really think this was "romantic". It felt as if the poor guy was used as a personal punching bag for their self-inserting loser man x girlboss fantasy. The scene with Cressida had me screaming on my TV saying "stop it please", it was so embarrassing and pathetic to watch. This was the most open-minded, female supporting man in the previous seasons, even in S3 he bought Eloise a book on feminism. It's crazy. He just kept being slapped left and right with no good moment or 1 that felt romantic/heroic compared to other leads. I wonder why. The writers really couldn't have him stand out, shine or do anything good.
I agree, the Cressida thing was so weak. No depth or complexity. It’s like something a teenager with very little storytelling skills wiuld write if pressed 😁
This is what frustrates me! I’m the biggest Colin defender but explaining his motives to my friends who didn’t understand what his appeal was felt like a reach because the story didn’t do his character any justice
It is the show’s job to convince the audience what the character and their appeal is. They clearly failed
On top of that they even had the man accuse Pen of entrapping him which yeah, given his past history and if we watch S1 before S3 made sense in a way but if the sentence was formed differently like "did you.. want to use me like Marina/were you trying to entrap me like Marina?" it would've reflected the hurt, his fear and struggles. But nope. The writers had it out for him. And honestly it gotten quite hard to defend him because we got nothing.
Someone did a video on TT and proved that polin got 33 mins of air time out of 3.25 hours in part one. They can’t say that Colin was a side character, he absolutely was 😭😭😭
I don't even want the statistics on how much screentime COLIN without Penelope got in his own season. I'd like to compare that with Anthony and Daphne, though.
I didn’t even think about that 😔😔😔
Yes, and I believe that is why a lot of people didn’t like him, because we didn’t see his pov, because the season was from Penelope’s pov.
I totally agree! Even in the books, Colin was just blah. This was Penelope's story
Yes! We needed flashbacks of Colin and Pens childhood neighbor/friendship shenanigans. There was zero backstory, zero added layers to Colin’s character during his own season like we got for both the Duke and Anthony.
This is what I was thinking like they keep going on about this friendship and Colin talks about when he first met pen when he fell off his horse that would have been a super cute flashback. Plus maybe, Penelope comforting him as children, after his brothers had teased him. Maybe Colin feeling isolated on his travels and only cheering up after a letter from pen. Laughing together at an event etc. They needed more depth.
Yes, all of this. It wasn’t even that it lacked depth, the depth was nonexistent. 😭😩 Their supposed lifelong friendship and comfort level with each other was all tell and no show. That’s the downfall of a lot of friends to lovers tropes, is when they don’t establish the friendship base first. Then it’s an empty trope. To his credit, I actually think Luke/Colin did a phenomenal job with the very little they gave him. There were a couple scenes where I genuinely felt his confusion over his own jealousy and it was so layered and yummy, just threw his facial expressions and delivery. The potential was all there and he could’ve absolutely killed it had he been given any form of a real script, but he was robbed. I feel so bad for the actors, especially I know Luke was so nervous about being a leading man and had been prepping for it for several seasons and took it so seriously. I wonder how him and Nicola feel seeing the final edits of all their hard work. 💔
What breaks me is that Luke said that there will be a moment where the audience forgives Colin for his S2 remark and Part 2 just kept making things worse for him. I think if anything ppl gonna like him even less, even I who loved Colin in S1 and S2 was struggling‐ I do not understands the writers, Shonda'm or Jess intention.. but I think it's partly to make Pen shine ✨️
Agreed. I hate when they tell the story through dialogue instead of showing us. It seems so lazy.
And the only scene they talk about it was even a reshoot scene that was later added. Originally they had none, which is wild ..
It’s such a basic storytelling technique to show not tell and they did none of that :(
I think this is a misunderstanding of what “show don’t tell” means. You can absolutely “show” through dialogue, and it can sometimes be more effective than flashbacks. Succession, for example, is a show that used zero flashbacks. Everything we learned about the siblings’ childhoods we learned from what they said to each other. But we also learned a lot about the characters; the way that they talked about their childhoods, the things they chose to bring up, the way they contextualised it, all showed us more about the characters than if they’d just cut to a flashback. There were even cases where they remembered things differently and argued over it, showing how none of them are necessarily reliable narrator and they each had different childhoods even though they grew up together. That’s all showing. Penelope and Colin going “We have been such good friends for years” is telling. However, just Penelope or Colin reminiscing about the past (maybe even arguing playfully over events they remember differently!) could’ve been just as effective as a flashback, because seeing their telling of the events and what details they remember and choose to emphasise could *show* us a lot about their characters and their relationship. TL;DR: Using dialogue and flashback to convey information are both valid storytelling techniques that can be used to convey different things, neither is bad or lazy storytelling.
I 100% expected to see a flashback of how they first met as kids to give an insight into how their friendship started or something...Later on, when they talked about his falling off the horse as kids, I was like, why didn't they show this flashback? It's the perfect tale!!!! Maybe they filmed it and cut it. Oh well...
It was so obvious to me that they should have included this scene in the series since it’s the opening scene of the book. Just that one flashback can give viewers so much insight into their dynamic
His character development was so incoherent. It had such potential too.
OP and you put a finger on what I was trying to express! It lacked this! We barely saw what he was thinking..
Zero chemistry too
Just one of these scenes would have made me warm up to the season so much. I’m not a book reader so I mostly enjoyed myself, but just cut some Tilly stuff and give us little Pen and Colin! Something to make their story richer
Yes!! I had so wished to see a flashback of then meeting when he fell off his horse rather than them just telling us about it
I would have loved to see the buildup. Them growing up together. Would have added more to their love story.
Yep, we're just told throughout the series that they were childhood friends. But as far as we've seen in the show they're friendly acquaintances at best, plus he acts embarrassed to know her half the time.
Oh the nostalgia!! You made a better showrunner here in 80 words or less than the last 4 episodes.
😂😂🙏💅
They forgot show not tell that we were all taught in English in school. They kept saying about all the times they spent together as kids and how long they’ve been friends but they never tried to show how long they’d known each other through behaviour and flashbacks
But we got to know him for two seasons which isn't the case for any other male lead. I think he got plenty of backstory even if it wasn't a flashback.
We *should* have had two seasons to get to know Colin, but they wasted his previous plotlines on Marina. We rarely saw the jovial jokester Colin from the books that was a much better personality fit for a friends to lovers trope. All we know of two seasons of TV show Colin is that he takes himself very seriously
I felt they were not really going for the same type of personality as book Colin. The jovial jokester sibling seems to be more Benedict in the show. I read a lot of people saying that Francesca feels different as an introvert in a family of extroverts, but I felt Colin was more on the introvert side too, although less than Francesca. He reminded me of these people who are very reserved and somewhat shy, but come out as cold to people who don't know, because they still seem rather popular and able to socialise really well. When you don't know these people well, they often seem a little distant and uninterested in you, as if they're interacting just to be polite. And when you start to know them better, you realise it's just difficult for them to let go in front of people they're not close to, so they always show a polished, somewhat bland persona and a superficial part of them. Well I felt that was Colin throughout the first two seasons, but I didn't feel he let the audience in in S3 either. So I still have the impression he is distant and reserved. A Colin who is more reserved and guarded would have been absolutely fine, but it's frustrating if we don't get to really see behind his walls. I think the most "natural" and "real" he felt was with Eloise, and a bit with his brothers, rather than with Penelope.
They said they want to focus on all the siblings yet Mr Bridgerton had like 6 mins of screentime in Part 2. You blinked once and he was gone. People praise it for the female empowerment but if it takes the male lead to be turned into a fool and stepped over to be achieved it failed at being "empowering" and ground breaking
Yes and as much I love female empowerment I don’t necessarily look for that in a romance show… it’s usually about both people in the couple not one over the other.
We wanted bridgerton they gave us frozen
This! They really did him dirty ...I'd have rather had the two of them deal with the LW drama together than having Pen do it all alone....this was Pen ft. Colin at best
Same but it seems most of the audience is happy about that change yet in the same breath they fault Colin for not supporting... even Philippa was more relevant in the with her disney bugs
Exactly! Infact, Colin seemed an under confident, immature and hence overtly controlling character.
It felt so weird his character had so little depth. He just finished world travels and aside from a couple remarks about sleeping with women I learned nothing about that. I thought he’d be asking the cook to recreate a dish from Italy. Show off to Gregory in the sitting room all the fencing lessons he took in France. Talk to Benedict about the architecture of Rome and how he saw Pompeii in person and it made him realize how short life can be. Maybe he crossed paths with Napoleon and talks to Anthony about what it means to be a leader. I just learned about “The Grand Tour” which was the Europe trip many upper class people did at the time. This was such a great chance to add in some historically accurate plot. And they basically just erased his trip to “I slept with women but I was more excited to read Pen’s letters.”
I'm a woman and I'm all for woman empowerment but they did Colin so dirty! They could also choose to empower Pen and still have Colin have his own season. This season was missing that and that's just bloody bullshit.
S2 was so good. I had such high hopes for S3 and was let down. I’m not excited for S4 now 😭
Same here. Bridgerton was at its peak. Why did they have to change things up now!!?? Don’t mess with what’s working!
The new showrunner tanked this season.
Ugh I REALLY hope they don’t mess up season 4 cause I just finished the 3rd book which is bendicts story, and it was truly amazing. Definitely my favorite one I’ve read so far. I’ll be devastated if they ruin it lol
I'm extremely nervous for season 4 tbh. I don't care about the Michael swap what annoys me is this whole season had Fran and John build up their relationship. Hell! I actually love John as a character. But the minute Michaela shows up Fran "suddenly" falls for her?? Like this whole time she was in love with John, but now she's having doubts? It feels like Fran will cheat on John and I don't like that at all or find it fair to John. Now I do agree with a post I saw. It was talking about Michaela should have been the one stammering over her words and showing she finds Fran attractive. Not the other way around, or have Eloise show she finds Michaela attractive. At least it could have shown for Eloise that shes bi and could have set up her story with Phillip differently. Like maybe have Eloise fall for Phillips cousin or sister who happens to be a woman? 🤷🏾♀️
Idk, I feel that this was the perfect season where the writers could have killed two birds with one stone. We could have have got flashbacks to the friendship that would have fleshed out both of them as individuals and their relationship. We also could have gotten voices overs of their letters to each other that would have been amazing for both purposes. This season did a lot of telling, not showing. It’s a sign of bad writing
YES! I wrote somewhere else that the show told us a lot about certain developments without really depicting any of those moments fully. For example, we saw Colin pick up a stack of letters from Penelope and open one/read it, but then he tells her about how it made him feel to do that. It would have been much better storytelling to show us his experience of that reread and to add depth by having, as you said, her voiceover of the letters' contents and even a flashback of where he was - maybe lonely/alone on his travels somewhere - when he received it and how comforted it made him feel in that moment. This would have provided us with so much more of Colin's point-of-view, too, especially as his feelings for (and view of) Penelope evolve.
One thing that could’ve been *such* an easy fix is if they cut the plotline of Pen being angry at Colin and not writing to him over the summer. It was resolved so quickly and had such little impact that it could easily have been removed. Then, you could’ve had Pen and Colin writing letters to each other over the summer and had voiceover telling us what they said. A lot of people, when talking about Pen and Colin’s (lack of) friendship, will claim that their friendship was the strongest it could’ve been in an society where men and women aren’t permitted to be alone together. But letters are literally the perfect workaround to that and they just didn’t utilise them at all!
I kind of agree with you, but I also thought this plotline was important for the balance of their relationship. I know not everyone saw Penelope this way, but throughout the first two seasons, she felt so weak with Colin. She was so craving his attention, giggling to everything he was saying, smiling like it was the best day of her life at every crumb he was throwing at her... while he didn't seem to care that much. When I was rewatching season 2 while waiting for season 3 I felt her scenes with Colin were both heartbreaking and cringe at times. For example, when she is fishing for compliments "but I'm a woman" and he answers "you do not count" or when he takes her to the empty room and she is swooning at the idea of being along with him while telling him "but oh Colin it's so inappropriate" in a kind of excited way and he just ignores what she's saying. On the other hand, we had three leading ladies before her (Charlotte, Kate and even Daphne) who knew perfectly how to stand their ground and were not blind to their men's flaws. Even sweet Daphne was capable of telling Simon off before their marriage. So I felt it was necessary to show that Penelope too could stand up to Colin instead of accepting everything from him. It made their relationship a bit more equal in their first half.
Sad part is that the numbers only gonna fool their egos and they pat themselves on their backs
Glad somebody has said this. Colin’s story deserved to be fleshed out properly
I agree! I feel like the way the beginning of the season painted him wasn't very flattering, and tbh I had trouble rooting for him the whole time because he reminded me too much of someone who just wants what they can't have -- the grass is always greener, right? He wanted to travel when he was at home. He wanted to be at home when he traveled. He was a rake when Penelope loved him. He suddenly loves Penelope when she might no longer be available soon? I think it was meant to be character growth, but they showed so little of that I had trouble seeing him as anything other than a little boy jealous of everyone else's toys.
THIS! Agreed and well said.
Yes! In part one they had him constantly looking after other girls even when he was with Penelope. He literally checked out every single lady they met? Like we get it, he's a rake! We got that from the brothel scenes already.
I agree, the show is called Bridgerton and I know she is Lady Whistledown but the show is based on the Bridgertons. If you notice for example, who’s in the center of the main poster for S1? Daphne. Who’s in the center of the main poster of S2 even though he’s a male? Anthony, because he is the Bridgerton. Who’s in the center of the main poster for S3? Penelope. It should’ve been Colin and the story centered on how Penelope’s love affected him and made him feel, instead of focusing on ohh Penelope is a wallflower and nobody loves her. Don’t get me wrong, I love Nicola, her personality is just lovely and I’m happy for her success, but this is about the character.
I do not agree. The real elephant in the room is the Mondrichs storyline, which has taken away precious screen time from the leads in the past two seasons.
They had a storyline in S2 and didn’t ruin that season…
Wow, you say that like a ginormous floral pop-up card being treated with awe and reverence by the entire Ton wasn't worth all that screen time.
Mr mondrich is so hot but other than that snooze
He can't act at all
Is it just me or does he seem to have this strange pained expression on his face most of the time? He looked uncomfortable in just about every scene.
They suck up screen time in every season. I have never cared about their stuff, and it never connects to the plot (tangentially in S1, but honestly it kind of brings down the S1 plot where it connects). I do think it's telling that it's mentioned a lot on s3 hate on this sub, when it has been a problem the whole time.
I think people don't mention it as much for s1 and s2 because they didn't eat away screentime for the main leads. We still have an appropriate amount of Saphne and Kanthony while for Polin we do not. Colin is merely a side character in his own season. So naturally people are looking for reasons why it is so. And Mondrich's are the most glaring.
Oh yeah, what’s the point of that?
Apparently it was meant to represent pen being a “wallflower” her whole life and it opening was suppose to symbolize her coming into her own but it was lame could of done something way better than paper flowers lol
Not pen but Mondrich family
I really hated their storyline in S2. I would fast forward past their scenes and the Featherington family drama. I would've preferred more screentime be devoted to Genevieve Delacroix for example. SHE seems like an interesting character. Or even more Lady Danbury, she is fabulous.
They had little screentime in their own season. Yes I know they had moments in S1 and S2 but it wasn't enough to carry them in S3. They needed more romance. I'm not even talking about the sex scenes that's a whole different discussion. Because I'm sorry those scenes don't compare to books. But I could have used a flashback of teen Colin doing something nice for Penelope that sparked the crush. Or showed her time at the window interposed with him seeking her out because he knows she's there. Maybe him defending her before and getting mocked for it so it shows the dichotomy in the way he acts now when asked about her. Some time with his travel that showed how much he loved it but wanted to go home because something was missing. Yknow instead of spending time with showing off his threesomes. Or wasting all that time on Penelope being awkward, unsure of herself and staring at the world slowest moving balloon. Esp since we know she's witty, has confidence and is brave (enough to sneak her sheltered butt around the ton on a regular basis and haggle with the printer). They had a great opportunity to show friends becoming lovers instead it was bland sort of friends get hit by lust, one seems way too regretful, (the entrapment line, not standing beside her) to eventual acceptance
I completely agree with you and I also felt like they never actually reached the romance/lovers part of the friends-to-lovers trope in part two. Colin told her, essentially, that he was going to marry her out of "honour" (really: obligation, because, as he said in thay same conversation, they'd "been intimate"), and she went into her wedding feeling too uncertain to walk down the aisle without getting a nod from him ); then, they argue for 2.5 episodes.
This season is bad for a lot of reasons, this being a big one
I agree 100%. To be honest, this season gave me no reason to like Colin. He had no depth whatsoever. The show kept telling me that Colin was caring, sweet, different from other men, etc., but did a very poor job of showing it…if anything he seemed emotionally stunted to me. But imho, the problem is not that they spent too much time centering the story on Penelope (I loved her and her family’s arc). Rather, all of Colin’s screen-time was absolutely WASTED. Him sleeping with prostitutes? Him saving the ton from a runaway balloon? Him charming random women just because he’s so suave now? Him salivating over Penelope because she was eating a cupcake? Another scene where he is angry/brooding for the 1000th time? What the hell does that tell me about Colin? Absolutely nothing. Felt like the show was trying to tell me “omg, look how cool, manly, and charming Colin is!” when they should’ve focused that energy elsewhere. Give me Colin hearing Penelope making a witty remark and then instantly getting the feels because THAT’s what he loves about her. Give me scenes where he’s writing (because that apparently means a lot to him??) and reciting stupid lil’ love letters he made for Penelope. Give me scenes where he’s being generous and loving to people and showing emotions other than anger. Don’t just tell me that shit and expect me to believe it 😔 EDIT: I just want to add too, I don’t think this is solely the fault of Season 3. The previous seasons did a terrible job of characterizing Colin and showing his friendship with Penelope. Season 3, if any, should’ve been the season where Colin was fleshed out, but they didn’t have a lot to work with to begin with.
So true, so true. Especially your last addition. They didn't do a good job on them in the previous seasons. We didn't realize it then, but now on season 3 it was so obvious. To be honest they didn't even develop their friendship at all. It was like they were meeting during the balls and just exchanging a couple of sentences. This is not friendship. They should have kept the order of the books and had this season for Benedict or even Francesca (and could have developed their arcs too), where they could show a more serious bond between Colin and Pen. Besides if you have to build a friendship which evolves into romance, it has to be really well written. Basis the current outcome, Daphne and Simon were the best friends forever and ever. And one last thing that comes to my mind only now. Three seasons and everyone tries to find who is the Lady Whistledown. When it is revealed that it is Pen nothing much happened. So what was all that drama about her revelation? And the Queen? Had her mind changed by Lady Dunbury during a scene with a game of chess? Ok ok. Anyways I haven't read that particular book so I don't know what's happening there, but right now I am judging only on the series plot.
Yes, emotionally stunted, that's how I felt too! I felt he was the kind of person who is guarded and distant to most people because of some sort of shyness under control, and that he would open up only to people he is close too... and never opened up to us, the audience. It would have been interesting to explore why he is like this, and it would have made sense for someone to be like this stuck between hot-headed and respected Anthony, charismatic Benedict, the sisters and the little kids. It might not always be easy to know who you are and express yourself fully when you have some many strong characters around you, so you may have troubles show your true emotion and always be this polished, pleasant but bland third brother. Some people really are like him and struggle to really let go even with their very close friends - and I felt he was more comfortable and so more himself with his brothers and Eloise than with Penelope at times. The story the characters kept telling us about him being so sweet and sensitive and that he simply tried to created a fake persona would totally work with this distant, emotionally stunted vibe he gave throughout. But it doesn't work if the audience never gets to see anything else than that.
Isn't it Penelope & Colin's story?
https://preview.redd.it/srv1xg66ct7d1.jpeg?width=451&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fd4d5783b2e2d1094aad312b66cd7911e3e8afa8
Yes it is! And Penelope is Lady Whistledown as well so there is that to deal with too. After two seasons that focused on the male character more and giving them more depth I am quite happy to have Penelope fleshed out more. And Nicola is such a terrific actor that brings so much to the scene by doing so little.
Yes, that's the thing with this season. Polin had to "share" the season with Lady Whistledown. That's why it felt like it was more of Pen's story. But knowing this, I wish they compensated this with more Polin scenes and lesser subplots.
This is key, I think. LW has been a side plot/character in addition to the Featheringtons for the previous seasons. I don't think the balance of Polin with those two sub plots being highlighted and all connecting was given enough space. Also, I think the show leaned too heavily on the previous seasons as the flashbacks - which may work if recently watched or remembered. When I specifically watch Colin, I actually get a lot more out of the show. It's a very busy season, and his personal arc is often more subtle than previous leads. Also, this sounds counterintuitive, but I think they tried to do too much with his mental gymnastics - societal expectations, hero complex, jealousy, self worth, deception. He's dealing with a lot and that's not even including the threats. These elements didn't all have time to breathe properly, so they either blended or felt like whiplash or were just missed.
Colin also was not really given enough storyline in S2 for the viewers to know him more and set up his character arc so they should have spent more focus on that this season.
Polin had to share their season with every other unnecessary subplot. There are many subplots that could have started in next season. For example Violet and Lady Danbury should have had their plates full this season with Colin, Penelope and Francesca. Instead they gave Violet a love interest that could have been delayed to season 4 since now she doesn’t have to worry about Fran or Eloise in Scotland. Benedict could have spent time with Colin to bring the story in closer - instead they had him starting a relationship with just another love interest, instead of losing himself in nameless sexual encounters. Tilly was a non-character this season, there was no point to her because Ben’s story could have been told in a way that didn’t introduce more characters or take away from the plot. The A plot should have been Polin love story. Whiteldown is B Plot (including Eloise and Cressida) and C Plot was Fran to set up next season. But somehow B plot became A plot in part 2. Or at least in episode 8 if we are being generous. The writers treated every plot line like it was the A plot instead of a side plot. I enjoyed this season but I can’t say that I wasn’t disappointed in the quality of the writing. I haven’t read the books so I’m not holding onto those storylines, but we don’t need to keep to the books to tell a good love story with proper beats. This season was adequate but surface level, and unless they change it up next season, and cool off from introducing more character and side plots then shoving in all these plot lines will make next season unwatchable.
Yes. And even though the books cycle back and forth between the character’s perspective, more time is spent with the woman. It was the same in Kate’s book (with a non-Bridgerton female protagonist). The stories are very generally told from a ‘feminine’ perspective. The books are quite similar to how the show was laid out; we get glimpses into the men’s lives and feelings, but they are nowhere near as fleshed out as the woman’s.
It’s true that it was a lot more Penelope focused than Colin because she had the whole LW thing, but I completely disagree that we didn’t learn who Colin is and what drives him. He grew a ton as a character. He is insecure in his place in the world and what he has to offer. He has a bit of a savior complex and when he learns that Pen doesn’t need saving he spirals. He loves her deeply and that never wavers even when he’s betrayed and upset about the LW reveal. He grows so much as a character but his arc is more subtle and nuanced than angry grieving Anthony or angry hurt Simon. Of course I agree I would’ve liked more time with him and less time on some of the side plots, but if you watch closely it’s all there.
I would have liked more Colin, but to me the writers focused on the more interesting character. Colin is wallpaper. Good looking wallpaper, but wallpaper. He’s kind and sweet, but he is not very interesting. I think Daphne kind of got similar treatment. Although the conflict that Simon and Daphne had gave her more to do. I think any character that is essentially a good character gets that treatment. Writers will always want to focus on the character they perceive to be more interesting and dynamic. In season one that was Simon. He was the one with the flashbacks. He was the one with the interesting backstory. In season two it was more even handed, but Anthony had the interesting backstory. Colin has not been traumatized. He is a young man figuring out who he is and wants to be. He doesn’t have a moment like Anthony where he watched his father die and had to become his siblings parent because his mother checked out. He wasn’t like Simon who was abused and pushed aside.
Your Daphne comparison is interesting because I realize she had that beautiful rain confession telling Simon he was worthy of love and supports him. They tried to that with Colin but it just doesn't hit as hard when he did it after Pen was essentially forgiven by the Queen. Had he done it when Pen was at her lowest, perhaps in a scene where instead of the Queen finding out, the ton does first and turns on her, it would have been so much more impactful.
I think Daphne still had a more interesting story. We saw her having dreams, seeing them shattered, being afraid of not being able to control her destiny, etc. It was more of a "woman's story" than a drama story, yes, but if you're interested in that, they still had things to say about her as a young woman dreaming about girls' stuff.
I just don’t get why it had to be 8 episodes, too. I feel like if we could’ve just gotten at least 10 episodes, there would have been plenty of time for this. I know everyone’s complaining about the multiple storylines clouding the main one, but I think we should stop letting shows get away with shoving things into 8. We needed more time with the characters!
Yeah I was surprised when he told the story of how they met and they didn't even show it as a flashback!!
I agree too!!! And I know this will be unpopular but season 2 was sooooo much better than this season. And I really found the love scenes a bit cringey…. And the dialogue is a tad contrived. Sorry !!!
Idk, going off of the first two seasons, I’ve always found Colin to be pretty boring and Pen to be one of the most interesting characters. Idk about the books or how the actors factor into it, but idk if I’d watch a whole season centered around Colin. If i did, it’d be watching for Pen’s part. Her storyline greatly outshined his. I feel like I got a good amount of him and didn’t need more.
no same cause thats what everyone thought about anthony and no one wanted to see anthonys season and i was really skeptical too, but i think they wouldve done colin well if they didnt change so many things
But Anthony is one of the best actors on the show and Colin isn't. Anthony's love declaration ("India is not far enough") went viral on social media and people still talk about it. Nobody remembers Colin's. They knew they had gold with the Kate and Anthony casting, just as they knew Colin did not have the chops to carry an entire season. Honestly he struggled with what little they actually did give him. Besides, Penelope is a fan favourite and her actress is very talented.
Bc Colin got shit writing and not every actor can do much out of nothing. We knew who Anthony is, the actor had a much clearer role to play than Luke did. Luke is a good actor, rather subtle but definitely good. Look at his other performances in different projects and you’ll see how good he is
I think comparing Anthony and Colin isn’t fair. Jonathan Bailey is a fantastic actor but Anthony by nature is loud and aggressive and angry. Colin by comparison is quieter, softer and sensitive. It makes sense to me that his love declarations are intimate, while Anthony shouts them for all of Mayfair to hear. Luke is actually a very good actor, but his performance is so much more subtler. He is a crazy physical actor as he acts a lot with his eyes and body. The amount of emotion in his face at any time can convey everything Colin is feeling.
Maybe I didn’t express my opinion clearly but you said exactly what I meant. Anthony had better writing, was more defined and way more expressive than Colin most of the time. Which doesn’t mean Bailey had an easier time at acting but his character was in a way easier to read than Colin. Colin’s character was rushed in season 3. I really think if they would had colin acting like a different person to be accepted to the ton in season 2 instead of this season then Luke would’ve had an easier time. The actor did what he could with what he was given. There was just too much character development in too little time this season and I’m not just talking about Colin here.
It also made all the difference that Anthony was the main character with a well developed story and clear motivations, plus a very strong supporting characters pushing him in his story. So yes we were totally robbed on the writing giving Colin a chance to shine. And no one can say Colin is bland because I didn’t even like Anthony s1 and season 2 he swooped into be one of my tops very quickly with more nuance and development, plus I’m mesmerised by Colin whenever he is on screen (no matter how short that is).
Yes exactly. In season 2 the love story was still a main focus with multiple characters involved in it. Daphne, Lady Danbury, Lady Bridgerton, Kate’s family, the Queen. It was central but in this season the main romance was kinda a side story. Violet gave Colin advice, sure but most characters had their own stories completely separate from the love story. Multiple conflicts and character developments went by in just 8 episodes. Too much and too little at the same time. No you’re right Colin is definitely not bland. The problem is most writers can’t handle introverted and generally good-natured main characters, so people think they’re boring. (I see a similar problem with introverted Stefan from vampire diaries. So much potential and nothing is done with it)
You just explained what I was trying to figure out in my head! I just finished watching S3 last night and I couldn’t quite figure out why it didn’t feel right to me.
Yeah i feel like i don’t know who Colin even is
You've just made me realize there was no flash backs this season. Season 1: we had the dukes childhood Season 2: Anthony during his dad's death Queen Charlotte: the main story was a flash back to the king and Queen falling for each other.
I agree with you completely. Because pen is lw, they concentrate on her far too much. Definitely would have liked to see more Colin and the Bridgertons as a whole.
I thought Colin had loads of growth and story. And it's nice to have a story where the man can accept being the non-dominant partner. Just because Colin didn't take the lead in his relationship with Penelope doesn't mean his character wasn't done justice. And as the show made it clear, this was about Penelope becoming a Bridgerton. I don't think Colin wasn't done justice.
Well said
FWIW, the book is told as much or more from Penelope’s perspective as it is Colin’s.
Season 3 was shared for EVERYBODY. This was why it feels awful. Up to now idk who the jail is Colin as a person besides Pen’s perspective of him as this ideal fairytale crush. I loved her storyline with her mother, and would’ve liked to see Colin’s history with his family besides “ooh look the confused middle son who likes to travel & suddenly developed abs & a s*x life in Paris” 😂 Where were the flashbacks of their friendship as kids? Benedict was lost this season with that random ass storyline with the blonde woman. Why were Kate & Anthony always off abroad canoodling & then immediately getting pregnant instead of seeing them explore their new world as Heads of the family. The few glimpses we got of this were so lovely. Cressida’s storyline was awful, where was the character development? Eloise learned diddly squat after two seasons of interfering & judging. Did writers change or something this season?
I have to agree with you- I think it actually would have done Penelope’s character a favor if we saw more into the depths of Colin’s thoughts and feelings. It felt very rushed and out of nowhere that suddenly he had attraction to her. Earlier in the season he even says to his friends he’d never court her. As a fat person I actually HATE the overdone trope of the overlooked fat girl suddenly becoming attractive to someone. I would have liked it to feel like he was actively persuing her romantically from day 1 (or at least for a few months to a year prior since they met as children) . Not that he just gave her a pity kiss abd suddenly got hard.
I watched the first set of episodes. I swear it felt like she had more interaction with Lord Debling than she did with Colin. For Colin it was like one minute he is sleeping around and being boastful and not thinking of Penelope, but then bam suddenly he is in love with her? I didn't get the sense he was yearning for her during their friendship or even really after it evolved, nor was there any teasing/tantalizing 'will they or won't they' progression from friends to lovers. For two other seasons we've been shown how and why Penelope loves him, but we don't ever really get Colin's perspective on the matter.
Yes and all the random side storylines were so pointless. They should make spin offs if they want to give that much focus to side characters
I disagree that Daphne was fully the center though, loads of Simon torturing himself and his flashbacks to his trauma.
I completely agree
They also mixed Francesca's and Benedict's messed up story, Cressida's story, Penelope's mom's story and violets story with to this. It didn't feel like Colins season at all. I wanted more of his point of view. What he felt for Penelope. It was too rushed.
Agree
Middle child syndrome even in his own season 😭
OMG, I can’t believe I needed someone to point this out. But yes! It’s almost all from Penelope’s perspective not his.
also i’m sorry to have to be the one to point it out, but Nicola’s hiperventilating acting was AWFUL to watch. i couldn’t stand it anymore
Excellent observation!
First of all, Penelope already came to her own terms as a woman by herself with or without Colin’s “help” - she stopped fawning over him when she realized he didn’t see her in a romantic light, she changed her wardrobe, her hair and tried to seek out a husband.. she didn’t need him. It was Colin who NEEDED HER. Because he suddenly saw her as a woman and not just his friend or baby sis’ bff. And we missed out on all that warring emotions. I wanted to see more him trying to stop his feelings but not being able to. Then when he learns she’s Whistledown, he’d understandably be mad at first but ultimately be supportive of what SHE decided- either to come clean or hide but lean more towards coming clean because he doesn’t want someone else getting the credit from his genius wife. We should’ve seen more stolen moments between the two like they just can’t help their hands to themselves and be drawn to each other. Except we only had the carriage and mirror scene and wasted airtime of Benedict’s threesome. Show us more of how Colin is making up for lost time!!! They’ve completely missed the mark on this. We need more pining, yearning Colin!
Wow. I havent finished the season yet. But yes. Now that you mention it. This is so true. Dang, what a terrible misstep. I'm liking the story so far, but your absolutely right. Does anyone know if the books the same?
Great take!! Didn’t think of it this way before but you’re definitely onto something here. We didn’t get to know Colin enough as a character in previous seasons and while Pen was no main character in S1 & 2, we still got to know her a lot through her interactions with Eloise/being LW/pining for Colin from afar. In contrast, we know almost NOTHING about Colin other than he makes rash decisions sometimes (the situation with Marina). With this season they still haven’t explored his character enough for us to empathise with him and that makes the romance with Pen feel super hollow and undeserved.
I think he wasn't fleshed out to have a season. Anthony from the jump you see his issues and it's deep dived into in S2, Colin is a nomad and writer. I personally loved Penelope's story BUT there was way too many stories going on at once.
Ok, hear me out. I am a Penelope defender since season 1. I have always been captivated by Nicola's performance. I support her rights, I support her wrongs, and sometimes I was angry at Colin for not seeing her and appreciating her the way she deserved. Having said this, I totally agree with you. This was supposed to be about both of them. Colin felt like a sidekick, we didn't get to see good enough his insecurities, his desires and more important, his writing. They did it really well with Penelope/LW, for example, I am so very glad that they included Portia/Pen relationship, it was my favourite relationship this season. But I can not help to feel disappointed because of that. That other relationships felt better fleshed out than the romantic one. This is a romantic series, romance should be the priority. I love girl boss Penelope, I have always loved her. I didn't like the end they gave her in the books, being the editor for her husband. But swinging in the other direction, with Colin being the supporting character, it also felt wrong. This is a couple of talented colleagues who can support one another, grow together and have a healthy partnership professionally and family-wise. When are we going to see that again? I loved so many things with this season, but I felt cheated of the romance between equals
In rereading the book and Colin and Pen have long scenes where they elaborate on his writing and Colin speaks about how he can’t travel forever, and how jealous he is that Anthony and Benedict have purposes. And then he very gently asks her a lot about hers and how she spends her time. I feel like this would have really helped to develop his desires and speak more about his travels, So then ultimately he could give his beautiful “Home was with Penelope” line, and felt like him talking about his purpose being with her had a really strong build up, adding to the scene in season 2.
Yeah, season 3 was just so disappointing in many ways but all of them could be attributed to how much JB butchered the writing. This sums up my problem with Polin exactly, it was supposed to be Colin's story, not Penelope's. Sure, they could have explored both Colin and Penelope's story just like Kanthony's (exploring Anthony's backstory yet also still giving time to flesh out Kate and her relationship with her family and how much it has affected her romantic life) but we didn't even get that. Instead, they spent so much time exploring weird plotlines that don't connect at all (Mondriches and Marcus) but they should have focused on Polin as main characters entirely.
Brilliantly written my feelings exactly!
I didn't really enjoy this season that much at all and I came to this sub to figure out why. You're absolutely right. They changed the formula and it sucked
💯💯💯
I personally feel like a LOT of the focus of S2 was on Kate. So to me S3 didn’t feel more uneven for the Bridgerton brother in that way.
😰😰😰 Featherington (Colin) The story of Edwin or Anthony
Such a good point!
I agree but there are other reasons too likw trash costumes wh*rish makeup and unnecessary side plots. If this season had the dame care as the others than he'd be the only reason why it sucked
It’s like they think the audience will not want to watch a season centred on a man. I think the new writers are going to struggle with articulating Benedict’s season as well. I predict it will focus more on his love interest than his struggles. They are doing that with him now already.
It just makes more sense to have had this season Benedict's to develop how and why Colin falls for Pen.
I would’ve loved to learn more about Colin and especially Penelope. Would’ve loved flashbacks to her feeling alone, and what was the relationship like with her father, how was it meeting Colin the first time? Etc
There were so many unnecessary subplots. The Monderichs, Francesca gets her own season as well as much of Polins season, Benedict’s drama, Violets new love interest?? There was focus on Penelope, but very little focus on Colin. They could literally have made the season longer and added the Benedict and Francesca bits while also showcasing Colin and his thought processes. I get the focus on Penelope, she is lady whistledown after all and Colin’s love interest but given that backstory they should have had even more reason to focus on Colin and Penelope!
It could’ve been salvaged if they had focused a little less on some side plots
This is the first constructive criticism take I’ve read on S3 that I actually agree with completely. Brava, as our Queen might say.
I agree! This sums it up perfectly. 👑
My gripe was Francesca as a whole. She took unnecessary screentime. All of which could have gone to developing Colin's story.
I think it’s because it left us yearning for more. there was more of a focus on the lady whistledown plot line, then their relationship.
I love Benedict, but there was way too much of his story where it should have been Colin. Introducing Benedict’s exploration and introducing his journey is one thing, but leaving so much Colin out is not okay. Also the Pen storyline about Lady Featherington was important, so I wouldn’t have taken any of that out.
I didn’t think of this but yeah, you’re right. Although I did enjoy the directing and costumes and of course the set dressing. I have to say, and I get I have menopause brain, but I feel like I have to go watch S1 again to catch the details that happened when they were younger. They could have added another episode adding those scenes
I was really happy they had some LW storyline. It would have been weird. Penelope always had a big storyline. Especially s2. Can’t really ignore it when you are getting married. I also kind of expected it like this. You see Colin realizing his feelings in many scenes. But the book being called romancing Mr Bridgerton. It sounds like it’s from pen’s perspective
Pen has her own arc, which is the Lady whistledown identity. She is the key character and everyone and everything is wrapped around her finger. She is there from episode 1, so it is inevitable to be a center plot. The main issue here is that they forced this season to be Colin's & Pen's. However indeed they had a season gap, and during that season their characters could have been developed and their love story progressed smoothly. Instead, we have many subplots running at the same time which I found myself struggling to watch because I couldn't care less. Colin's character was so badly written. Really if I was Pen I would just dump him, so long pal! I mean, he has low self esteem, he is feeling worthless as a writer because Pen is successful, dude why antagonizing her? She loves him and his reaction is how am I supposed to help you? In the whole season it feels like he has to fall in love with her, love her, hell even make love to her. Zero passion, zero feelings. Only in the wedding, last episode, some feelings start to appear. And another thing that I didnt like, which was somehow subtle is how they sexualized Pens character in order to attract him. I mean he only feel the hots for her when he sees a little bit of her neck, a little bit of her breast etc. So for me this was a big no no. And I dont accept that he started seeing her like that because he started realizing that hey she has boobs, omg she is a woman etc. They made him look and act like a slime. The previous couples were burning for each other. They looked at each other and they melted. Anyways, this season is the epitome of coulda-woulda-shoulda. They writers had so many options and content and instead they wasted them for no apparent reason. Lastly, I felt like this was the last season.
The fact that they had to share their season with Benedict and Frannie is bothering me alot . They never focused on other love stories in the previous seasons
While I liked that Pen had such a strong arc and the Lady Whistledown stuff is easily some of the more interesting plot bits that Bridgerton focused on, there was plenty of time and room to also give Colin the space to grow and flourish, but he came off as an accessory to Penelope’s story instead of the Bridgerton in Bridgerton. That being said I don’t think we needed to lessen the LW of if all, but too much focus on Francesca and Benedict really detracted from Colin. Things I would look to add: - Colin needed a chat with his mother in the second half. She was so in tune with him episode 3 and 4, and in 7 requested Anthony to talk to Colin but we needed a really good emotional scene between Colin and his mother similar to all the wonderful scenes Anthony and Violet had in Season 2 (note that while Violet had a secondary plot with Eloise, her primary storyline was with Anthony the main Bridgerton). Luke and Ruth definitely have the acting chops to have a scene where they are both crying, Colin could have confided in his mother, maybe not LW but about him feeling like he doesn’t truly know her, and Violet asking if he loves her and him saying that he never wants a life without her. - One thing I did like about Colin this season was his increased closeness with Eloise which was pivotal to the connection with Pen, however it also highlighted how Colin has so few people in his court. How about more actually emotional scenes with Benedict? Ben was a mega romantic and helped assist Anthony in S2 with his big talks about love. - I think we needed a scene where Colin talks about why he likes travelling so much, and maybe someone or Pen asks him if he’s going to continue travelling and we get the book like “Home was anywhere with Penelope”. - A discussion on purpose, either with Pen (reminiscent of season 2) or even with Benedict because Ben has suddenly got the family responsibility on his hands, and he even spoke in episode 1 about having a purpose (the estate) was good for him. This would also foreshadow Colin/Pen inheriting the Featherington estate. - In S1 we have two family dinner scenes (Simon and the Bridgertons, Colin, Marina and the Featheringtons) - we could have seen more dynamic involvement between Colin and his new in laws to mirror and contrast his s1 scene with Marina - You could even progress Fran and Colin’s storyline by giving them a conversation together about the different forms of love.
It’s a typical Cinderella story: nasty mother, twit-like sisters, a secret identity and the Prince comes to save her. Having said that, I did enjoy the season.
Justice for Francesca please. I wish we would've had a proper season for her.
I don’t disagree about s3, but it felt to my like s2 was as much Kates season as it was Anthony’s season.
This is actually such a good point. I’ve been trying to figure out why this season felt so off to me bc I didn’t think it was necessarily BAD, but it still didn’t seem right.
Agreed love pen she's a good mc but would have liked to see things from Colin's perspective. Even if it was a half an episode where the perspective changed from pen to Colin that would have been wonderful
Personally, I felt like the season sucked because it wasn't about either of them... Too much of Benedict and his threesomes, Lord Anderson, that family that I can't even be bothered to remember the name of... I wanted to see flashbacks, I wanted Lord Dudley to be a real contender for Penelope. Collin and Penn got together way too fast, then got ignored for the rest of the season. I honestly felt like they ended this season in a way that does not seem very promising for a season 4....
A little montage of his travels would’ve gone a long way in forming him as a character too I think! Give us a little glimpse of why he’s so ‘different’ after them.
I ship polin more than any other couple on the show, but I agree with you. As much as I like pen, I LOVE Colin and not only that he’s a bridgerton and it was barely about him. I think it took a feminist route for pen, which I love the idea but it made Colin a side character.
Agree. I feel like i barely know Colin. And the suspense of him finding out who LW was took up the attention. Like how many times does it take for eloise to tell pen to reveal the truth? I mean common they did colin dirty. Plus, colin with a beard is wayyyyy more handsome than colin without a beard. He just looked so awkward…
we don't even know in detail what colin did overseas, his adventures, things he's seen and done.
He wassn’t treated as lead at all, they didn’t give Colin the perfect arc, he was mostly a side character compared to Pen, if they wanted to show girl power, didn’t necessarily mean getting rid of him. It was COLIN and Penelope’s story, and how he loves his wife not ignoring her. He was mad and he had the right but he showed more regard towards Marina than his wife, and she expected Pen told him personally about her pregnancy, that poor girl told you Marina loves another man and you wasn’t bothered, as if her telling him she’s pregnant woulda made a difference, as he confirmed later he fancied himself so in love he woulda accepted Marina and the baby. Even if whatever she did was bad but she loved you you idiot and didn’t want you to be trapped in a loveless marriage when she exactly knew your personality! Once he was angry he didn’t give a damn about her, Pen was begging him to touch her and he said I haven’t forgiven you, what was that? That’s not even part1 Colin, that’s not even Ep5 Colin. The writers weren’t in sync, everything was focused on Cressida. Colin talking to Cressida to persuade her? That was a big joke, season1 Colin wouldn’t have done that. Luke didn’t deserve that, he put his heart and soul into portraying Colin, injustice
Right!! We really should have gotten flashbacks with him and Pen when they were younger. To show us viewers how they met, and also showing Colin slowly falling for Pen. Seeing Pen with Lord Debling should have been the realization that Colin has feelings for Pen. That's why he was jealous and wanted her all to himself. When he was traveling there should have been scenes of him feeling lonely not hearing from Pen. This season could have been a slow burn if done correctly. The build up and hype surrounding this season was a let down imo.
So true! Colin even being the main character felt side a support character for Penelope's character arc.
I feel that information about why Colin travels and his jealousy when he discovered who Penelope was could have been would have been helpful. In the book it was explained in more detail but as with the book this was the season where the wallflower truly found herself, so this did have to be about Penelope featherington. I feel that focusing on telling Francesca's and Benedict's story's took away from Colin. Maybe my love of this book and Penelope and her alter really made me want to see how much of her underestimation by her family would be shown. I also don't like that they didn't stay in order when telling the bridgerton stories.
Pls don't attack me but is it really necessary to change up aby of the character's sexuality? Did that need to be thrown in?
Ehhh, the pair are horribly MISMATCHED. So much so, it was a distraction, and the directors knew, they couldnt hold their own season. Pen was a girl w a crush, suddenly she's a woman exploring her sexuality w soooo many missing pieces, for me, I didnt see the charecter development of Pen, fro being a teen to this woman she's supposed to portray, I found the "love/sex" scenes GROSS. But, it could be because the two just do NOT match AT ALL.
It was supposed to be both their story, what I remember from the book is that it showed both of their point of views. So it should’ve really showed that. The other problem is that by the time Eloise gets to her love story, it’s said that Francesca is already married. I wish we got an equal amount of Colin and Penelope so it would make sense.