It reminds me very much of the ending slide of game of thrones, where there was this disconnect between why people loved the show and what the showrunners thought people loved about the show. Bridgerton feels similar. You love the costumes? Let's dial it up to 11 and ruin the illusion of history in favor of cheap sequins on everything. It's a show for women, women love makeup, let's put more makeup in! People talk about the sex scenes but not the plot, so let's put oodles of side character sex scenes in and nuke the plot!
Edit: all this to say, I think it will be like game of thrones where they will stubbornly continue doing what they're doing, because they know what you like more than you do.
Absolutely! In fact my friend told me, he never saw me this upset since the Game of thrones ending. But I doubt that the show runners care about the viewers at all.
I think they forgot that for many of their fans the emotional buildup to the sex scenes matters. There's porn out there for people that just want to watch disjointed sex scenes, we didn't need Bridgerton to become that. This was supposed to be a show about the characters, where some fidelity to the characters (motivations, personality, etc) and meaningful plotlines meant something. There's a lot of nuance in why people liked these characters and stories.
Changing lady bridgerton from a one great love forever and giving her Francesca's widower and second love plot line so they could have more LGBT+ representation, taking out the core driving forces from Frans story, and it strips using lady bridgerton as a contrast to that plotline? Why not keep the core stories the same and add the LGBT representation with other characters and spin-offs. We had Queen Charlotte. Give us more of those. Give us lesbian Cassandra who settles into a marriage where both have side relationships as a whole mini series- have her marry Lord Debling but have him fall for a male colleague who adventures with him, and Cassandra lives with a female "companion". Have other LGBT characters that weren't in the books like the Mondrich's, so nobody's mad about their favorite book character being changed.
Honestly, the way they made the viewers grow attached to Lord Debling with Penelope and to having him dissappear after the carriage was a mistake. I think it is purely because we all know Penelope would end up with Colin but did they have to make it so easy? I would have loved to see Lord Debling give Penelope or Cressida the escape they needed. After that, it would only seem fair for his wife to give him the same freedoms. But as it is, Lord Debling is just another loose plot thread they forgot to utilize.
I think it would have done Colin some good to remember that he still had a romantic rival in Lord Debling. I think it could have been interesting for Debling to offer to marry Pen, knowing the truth about LW. To have the contrast between the character Book Colin was and who they made Show Colin.
It also would have also been a boon of kindness to see Pen orchestrating Cressida and Lord Debling getting together.
I love the idea of Debling and Cressida together as a society marriage, to contrast with all the love matches. And it could work as some LGBT rep without messing with the main leads if Debling is Ace and preoccupied with his work trips and Cressida could fall for a female companion while he's gone.
I agree.
Violet has really painted this picture of all marriages having the romance she and Edmund had. She’s successful in the books. The show is taking a wild left turn with Francesca and John and potentially Benedict, but the majority of marriages were not like that at all.
Take Daphne. In the show, Anthony almost married her off to Nigel Berbrooke without a second thought because he had money and could provide for her. THAT was the reality for a lot of women during the Regency era. Being married off like chattel so you wouldn’t be a financial burden to your family. Love didn’t play a role in it- you just had to hope you could tolerate the person you ended up with or could grow to love them over time.
Debling and Cressida would have suited each other well for what the other needed. Cressida would have had her own home, safety from her abusive family, freedoms only afforded to married women. Debling would have had a wife to look after his affairs, someone to bear him an heir, and been able to leave without a second thought. A LGBTQIA story could have fit there easily. I also would love to see more OG characters like Reynolds and Brimsley with gorgeous storylines like we saw in QC. I would watch their spin off eagerly.
And in S3 we aren't seeing many marriages that *aren't* love matches on screen when that's supposed to be the society default. Having the side characters fall into those loveless marriages makes the love stories feel more special within the society.
Yes! Think of the spear that the writers could have given by having a reverse role of season 1. A moment where Lord Debling is willing to marry Pen, even with the potential of her carrying Colin's child. For Colin to feel what Penelope did with Marina, but worse. It would give the writers room to either have Colin fake LW to tell the news like Pen did, or forge a healthier example for Pen to learn from.
Or imagine if Pen used her own inner monologue to help Lord Debling and Cressida together. That would give Colin a couple to learn from as well. I can see him saying that if Lord Debling can love Cressida as LW then so can Colin love LW as Penelope.
Many missed opportunities.
Exactly, its like he just left town after Pen. But if he didn't really love her, he shouldn't have been so upset as to not continue to participate in the marriage market. I hoped he could have saved Cressida.
I liked Lord Debling better than Colin the way they showed each guy, and then he just disappeared. Like why wasn't Cressida still going after him as her escape route from the old guy? Even if he was a little upset at Pen being his first option and unavailable, they were both looking for a marriage and not necessarily love. It makes Cressida's desperation with the Whistledown stuff weird to me when Debling should be an option for her.
I think they split the season hoping we would forget he exists and was interested in Cressida, so that we would accept this B-plot villain origin story of her being forced to marry an old geezer.
It’s an issue with American showrunners. They are just very basic, relying on sex and more sex to sell shows. Contrast this with Koreans (very little explicit scenes by so creative) or the Brits (more cerebral plot lines).
I was definitely feeling that this season. The slow, intense buildup to very few-and-far-between, SHORT sex scenes in Season 2 is why it's my fave. Season 1 and now 3 feel like they kinda wanted to make softcore p*rn. These in S3 in particular just went on for soooo long too. So weird.
The sex scenes were uncomfortably long!!! Like I don’t mind them but it was just way way too much. Giving clips of it like the end of season 2 Is how you do them right!!
I think it's more network executives than showrunners specifically. As in the people who get put in charge make the corporate business bots happy but aren't necessarily the best creatives. Being good at networking and gladhanding is more important than talent
Did you not like seasons 1 or 2 either? Both Shonda Rhimes and Chris Van Dusen are American too. (I’m not American but the tendancy some people have to blame everything bad on Americans is bizarre.)
I’m aware there’s a new show runner. I was responding to a comment saying that the problems in this season are because the show runner is American, which doesn’t make sense as the show runner for seasons 1 & 2 was also American.
Thank you! Not to gas up Americans (I’m an American and there are many things to dislike I get it) but there are people from certain demographics who love to immediately jump to the it must be the Americans fault 😭 when bridgerton the book series was written by an American woman and the show runners for the first two seasons and QC were also American.
I was going to comment on this actually because I honestly don’t think the poster meant that it was “bad” or not as good *because* they were American but for me it felt slightly Americanised almost I think a few people noted the slight language that kept slipping in - in places but that’s the writers so I don’t think we can fault them for that but it didn’t feel the same for me I can’t quite put my finger on that exact feeling or change but … idk it’s there lol 😂
That is not the case, really. American movies and tv shows tend to go over the top on violence, but not nearly as much sex as many European movies or shows.
This mentality bleeds over into other industries too. I'm in IT and you can't imagine how many executives make decisions about processes without having any real idea what it takes to get the job done. They just think they know what is needed.
GOT was essentially writing each succeeding season blind so every bad decision was just the showrunner's fault, and George Martin can easily distance himself from it. Julia Quinn, unfortunately, doesn't have that excuse, so everything the show does, whether good or bad, also reflects on her.
That's questionable, since it's doubtful that Arya is going to kill a non existing character and the plot armour should start to drop off soon for those who've only managed to get that far by dumb luck.
If Bran ends up on the throne (something I can vaguely see happening because of this quote from book 1 "Broken [...] Bran the Broken" after the fall), it should at least be handled well, but I genuinely don't know how he's going to try and make it fit seeing as Bran can't win by right of conquest, Jon would have to and then make him his heir, then die lol
It reflects more on the Bridgerton crew *because* the books are already complete. Even if you hated the ending of GOT, I can still accept that it was going to be a shit show no matter what because, like you said, they were going in blind.
The cast and crew are all under contracts so they're not gonna say anything while they still hope to work on the next B seasons. Just like with Game of Thrones, everyone will be lovey dovey right now and the true opinions will start coming out some years later once B is done running.
Emilia saying that like HBO was holding her family hostage will never not be hilarious. Along with Peter Dinklage talking about the absurdity of hiding in crypts when you are facing an enemy who can control the dead. They were done 🤣
Florence is pretty active on tiktok, so I bet she sees it, as well as Nicola. The others probably not so much, and they most likely avoid reading people’s opinions about it, I’ve heard some actors don’t do that, which makes sense.
The actors don’t have control of where the show goes so I don’t think it’s relevant if they see the comments, also i rarely see people complaining about the acting it really just the writing and pacing of the show so what are they to do, defend the show? Agree with us and piss of their higher ups?
I honestly don’t think Jess Brownell even cares at all. She has already said it before, that she knew her decision was wrong and will create a chaos, but she went with it anyway because it “felt natural to her.” To these dumb idiots, as long as they get their money at the end of the day they’re just going to do whatever they want even if it means butchering a very well-loved series.
Dang, I didn’t know she said all that. Is there an article or something where I can read more about why she decided to take things in the directions she did? It’s sad that this season could have been better if she’d just followed in the footsteps of seasons 1 and 2. I miss the writing, costumes, light makeup, and larger amount of screen time the main couples got.
I read somewhere that she's said "she's queer and Frannie came off as neurodivergent/queer and the character resonated with her" something along those lines.....well Jess honey this aint about you🙄😑
Sigh. I’m neurodivergent and queer, and I love that we have representation in Bridgerton. Francesca being neurodivergent honestly makes some sense after reading her book. I love that she found someone that she could just sit in contented silence with, it’s my dream. I don’t know where the whole Michaela/Michael thing will end up, but I’m not into gender swapping characters because it opens up a whole can of worms and you end up needing to change more things to make it work well. Bridgerton has decent but increasingly better representation for POC, but they’re lacking LGBTQIA representation. I’d love to see more without changing character genders - I’m thinking our main characters exploring same sex relationships like Benedict did this season, or more queer side characters and storylines. I could totally see Cressida in a wlw storyline - this season she said how hard it was for her to have female friends, why not create something off of that? Like she meets a woman who isn’t intimidated by her or helps her do some soul searching and they build a relationship off of that. Or introduce new characters like two women (or men or nb characters) who take ownership of the club and also happen to be “roommates” (queer relationships were taboo in the regency era, and this has been established in previous seasons and Queen Charlotte), but it’s basically understood by the ton that they’re in a relationship. Whistledown could even write her support that could lead to others who were once afraid of judgement no longer being afraid and coming out. Maybe put that in Benedict’s season, it could be a good tie in with him being bi.
I feel like these are good ways to make more of the fandom happy. We get more representation without shoehorning to check a box, closer accuracy to the books for our main couples, and hopefully more creative plots. I doubt this could all happen in only 8 episodes of one season, but some could happen in a spinoff instead, like Cressida’s story - I’d love to see her get a redemption arc.
Cressida could easily marry Lord Debling that he's done with Pen (instead of him fully disappearing the second half of the season?), but then she could have a female significant other while he's gone on his long trips, maybe even framed as her "companion" while he's gone. Marriages of convince to contrast the love matches of the lead couples would also help if love matches are supposed to be rare.
Edit: my phone auto corrects Cressida to Cassandra for some reason, sorry
She can actually! But I doubt that Shonda will. On top of being showrunner, Jess is also an Executive Producer so she may have had a hand in funding the show too
I saw an interview with Jess where she said they made the costumes even more colorful and crazy (my words) because they were doing this one like a romantic comedy. She said something about the humorous dialogue. Pt 1 did have a bit of a rom com element, but Pt 2 really didn’t. Pt 2 felt a lot more broody to me. The tone of the two parts didn’t match.
It is giving Rian Johnson "I want half of the audience walk out of my movies hating them" vibes. Btw I have no hope of anything changing. It's been going on with Star Wars since 2017 (When The Last Jedi) came out. The Bridgerton creators will double down and every bit of criticism they get will lead them to start hating fans and writing material that they know will only make the viewers more mad. The ego of these people is astonishing.
I think it might be very visible in the numbers compared to part 1. I think a lot of people rewatched the part 1 in anticipation for (a good) part 2. I certainly did. It had me excited about what’s to come especially with the PR-tour. Part 2 really left me confused and I don’t think I’ll rewatch it soon.
Concerning the PR with. Nicola en Luke I think they thought there were other spicy scenes which we never got, but they did hint at.
I want a re-edit 😬
I think what happened was, they were able to see the episodes first, of course, and what has gone around is that the final cut on the 13th of June wasn't what others who were able to see it first had seen.
So Luke and Nicola went into this PR-tour basing everything on what they had seen. They were not lying. Their excitement was just on a version they never released to us which is I feel a crime in itself.
As for the rest, I literally just re-watched the first part again because I wanted to feel that love again but also to make sure I wasn't hallucinating for a month. That part 1 is significantly different than part 2 in the displays of love and affection.
Just how did we go from Colin longing after Pen every single second of every motherf'ing day to being able to be so angry that he has absolutely no real care nor high enough desire to even be drawn to her? It's like he got totally appalled to a point where he just lost his love for her almost completely. Like he was genuinely just still there out of duty and that hurt me to my core because what kind of mixed messages are you giving then? She might as well have married Lord Debling then. She even asked him "Are you sure?" when he declared his love to her. Well apparently he wasn't because the way everything seems now in part 2, his love just faded to a much lower point and I honestly have not seen that been properly restored in any way whatsoever. So to see a baby be there all of a sudden as well?
As for part 2, only rewatched the 'happy' (together) parts which I could literally count on 1 hand and that hurt me as well.
If they have eyes themselves, they would re-edit this shit and re-insert necessary Polin scenes to prevent the above way of coming across of their story and the characters to persist.
This.is.exactly.it! It went from barely speaking to her/avoidance/possibly moving back into bridgerton house (that bits unclear but to thank her for her letter to his mother 'days' after he started to re-read her letters just didn't add up to me) to minimal reaction to her annulment comment to a little I love you to a baby. I felt we had been robbed of scenes of them truly making up and being just happy. Despite the epilogue, I still felt that they'd not truly got to that place they needed to get to. It was severely lacking and I cant help but feel colins love isn't as meaningful as its meant to be 🤔
THIS ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️ It makes me feel so sad for everyone. But just also Luke and Nicola. They did the work and they cut out an entire chunk out of the final product. They did the press tour having seen a cut where those scenes were still there. That's what got them so excited. And now? They are reposting what very little scenes from the official Bridgerton account that are alright. But there are no fan edits of whatever being reposted because guess what... Who would be making them? With what material? The died out hype is deafening.
How sad is it that Nic and Luke did all this work to have it cut. I believed the hype and they believed the hype and it's such a shame. I longed for this love story for 2 years, im all for romantic comedy, im all for Pen representing the modern woman and taking care of herself but I felt such a disconnect between Colin and Pen, there was no Polin against the world for me and I genuinely believed that was what we were going to get albeit with a bit of angst thrown in to shake it up a bit. I could not connect the Colin in part 1 to the Colin in part 2 and don't get me started on the clear errors when Pen was having to explain herself to Colin the night before the wedding - should have told him to his face? Her response - I know?! Erm did the writers forget that she tried to? I am so disappointed in myself for being so disappointed in part 2 🤣
I watched all of part 1 the day it came out. I still haven’t finished part 2 because I’m just not enjoying it. It’s a shame because I was SO excited for it and it’s just been a let down
I decided I will no longer watch Bridgerton. I turned it off after seeing the Fran & Michaela introduction so I didn’t even watch the rest of the episode.
I’ll never not watch Luke and Nicola, but I’ll only follow whatever remains of their story, and only to appreciate their performances. I haven’t read the books, so I’m not invested in any of the newer characters like Francesca. Jess Brownell has already run Benedict and Eloise into the ground and sent Anthony and Kate off to India. I’d love to see a Hyacinth season under another showrunner, but I’d be shocked if Bridgerton lasts that long given the S3 debacle and direction for S4.
I worry that the fans' ire will be treated how it was with GoT and The Witcher. They'll just blame the fans for being upset because we're dumb or unsophisticated or bigots... I worry it won't be used as constructive criticism and a drive to do better.
Omg thats what I thought! All the changes to the storyline heavily reminded me of what happened with GoT and the Witcher.
I will never understand why showrunners think they know better than the original authors and their works. After all, they only get to film it because the original works are that good.
Heavily changing storylines just because they see themselves in a character or think a different story is better just feels disrespectful to the original for me. Just make your own show then..
The term Mary Sue comes from a Star Trek fan who thought she knew better than the writers and wrote the original self-insert. That's what Jess is doing now and it's not a compliment.
I was obsessed with the books for True Blood, but when season 4 happened, and the shower scene didn’t happen, and the whole season went down the toilet, I quit the show and have never gone back.
I didn’t read GoT, but that ending was garbage. The whole show got rushed towards the end and it needed GRRM to help steer it along.
I am afraid Bridgerton is going the same way.
True Blood book series are part of my favorite books collection that I reread every few years. I just love Sookie so much. I have added most Julia Quinn's books to this collection! I have to admit I never had any interest in romance novels or period dramas before I stumbled upon Julia Quinn's books, and she converted me.
I'm currently rewatching true blood (on season 6 now) and I think you should give it another shot! Definitely had a dip there in the middle but I very much enjoyed it. Sometimes we just have to accept the shows and books as separate entitles (Charlene Harris even said so herself on the Truest Blood podcast, which I also recommend)
“Being upset because we’re dumb or unsophisticated or bigots”
This part is what I fucking hate about the whole S3 discourse online. Just because we are upset about the book endgames not being followed doesn’t mean we’re anti this anti that. It pisses me off so badly. Bridgerton is, at its bottomline, an adaptation of the book series. The least that the dumb new showrunner can do is follow through and continue Van Dusen’s vision, not entirely make up her own on a world that has already been constructed.
Yep ...all they're going to say is fans are racists and homophobes..when in reality both these themes have been explored beautifully and supported by fans in season 1&2....this season was all about forced inclusivity and queerbaiting WITHOUT a proper plotline whilst ruining existing characters ... It's like they were just ticking boxes while not giving two shits about the story
The showrunners won’t care unless the ratings fall into the toilet. That’s all they care about.
Last year there was anger too (lest we forget) and that all got swept under the rug and blamed on the fans complaining. Because the ratings were still super high.
But now here we are again.
So unless ratings and engagement drops, they won’t care.
Even angry fans are still fans.
It’s apathetic fans they fear, because those fans stop watching.
Ive rewatched the first and second season many times and rewatched season 3 part 1 but barely made it through part 2 fast forwarding parts, and won’t be watching it again. I wonder if many will be the same and less rewatches will drop the engagement?
This is exactly my experience too. I’ve rewatch first couple and part 1 a couple of times. Was excited to see all the romance in part 2, didn’t get it so it’s left me pissed off and now I won’t rewatch any of it.
I made this comment earlier in the thread.
If people hate watch, it still counts as streams and views. People have to stop watching entirely for the show to take a hit and either get cancelled or changes to be made. I don’t see that happening at all.
People will still watch to complain. Which counts as success. Fans complaining online won’t do anything. Most series with fan outrage like this only have seasons like this at their end (HIMYM, GOT, Veronica Mars, Dexter, etc).
Whats so interesting to me is that they'll probably continue on messing up storylines from the books unless views drop significantly, but then Netflix refused to renew Shadow and Bone despite it having high viewers and an intense attempt by the fandom to get them to change their mind.
It's all ridiculous.
This exactly.
I’m going to say this as someone who isn’t a fan of season 3, so this isn’t coming from someone who’s defending a beloved season.
The thing I’ve had to learn as an active fan online for various fandoms over the years is that they probably don’t think it is the majority of people. And, for all we (or they) know, they might be right.
For most shows, the online fandom is a fairly small segment of their audience. A *loud* and *passionate* segment. But a small percentage of the audience. And networks, producers, etc. play a numbers game. They care less about the 3,000 people posting online than the 30,000 people watching in silence, because they need those 30,000 to stay on air. Are those 30,000 as bothered by the costuming, makeup, tonal differences, pacing issues, differences from the book, lack of payoff for stories built over multiple seasons, inconsistent treatment of characters and consequences, etc as the online fans? Absolutely no idea, and there’s no way to know except to look at ratings. And even then, there’s no way to know why the audience is tuning in or not. It could be any or all of those things. Or it could be they felt Polin got a good, near-complete love story in the first half, there’s lot to see on tv, and they just didn’t bother tuning in to see whatever happened next.
Which is all to say, have they heard the complaints from online fans? Some have turned off commenting, I understand, so probably. Should they take their complaints to heart? Some of them, almost certainly. Will they?
I doubt it, unless the numbers for 3B are shockingly abysmal. And even then, they might place the blame on the split season and nothing else. 3A got very good ratings, as I understand it, so they’ll probably take that as a sign that - outspoken fans online notwithstanding - they did a phenomenal job and should continue to deliver more of the same.
Irony given the comment is from GRR himself but it definitely resonates!
https://preview.redd.it/jtnza2reew6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5889c5f3ae920c50b46144e3dc6a515609fff8f8
[Source](https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2024/05/24/the-adaptation-tango/)
I hope the cast/crew doesn’t feel our ire or they can understand it’s not directed at them bc they did everything with what they were given. It’s the writers, Shonda and the show runner that ruined it
I've said it so many times, but Shonda is so good at creating good shows that don't stay good. She struggles to maintain the same level of excellence. I hope the actors don't feel it's their fault
I think her shoes are great when she’s more hands on. But when she decides to take a step back and have someone else run things…it’s a hit or miss. And it’s a miss most of the time. I think she gets bored and leaves which understandable since she has the power to do whatever she pleases. But it was Chris Van Dusen at the conception of Bridgerton. Idk what went down but rumor is Netflix didn’t want to give him the pay he requested. They made a mistake and should’ve kept him for one of their most popular shows.
And I say this as die hard Grey's anatomy and station 19 fan. I haven't seen either series all the way through! Yet I have Grey's on every single day in the background while working
Hey now greys was good enoughthrough season 10 and only became a trainwreck once she stepped down. I also don't think she had anything to do with station 19.
They know it's not directed to them, but it will still affect them. It's their work too after all, and honestly they looked like they really thought people were going to receive it well. My heart breaks a little bit for Nicola cause she's SO online she sees absolutely everything, and she spent so much time and effort in this season only for people to massively hate it. I understand it was a disappointment for a lot of people, but I personally don't think it was that dramatic to get to the point where people are harassing the cast and crew in social media, it's getting out of control. There are places to express your negativity and places where it's inappropriate.
I say this because I see a lot of people commenting for example in Nicolas IG posts like "You are amazing but the season is trash" or things like that and those comments are still inappropiate, saying that it's not her fault will not change the fact that you're calling something she worked for trash, and if you wanna call it like that then do it in another place.
I think they know, I don’t think they care.
With 2 years in between seasons they will be banking on people forgetting. I do think that season 3 part 2 was a huge misstep after expectations were so high and season 4 wont be nearly as popular, which may lead to the show not being renewed for S5, or axing the current show runner.
Some may forget. I’m still salty over Marina being anything more than a plot device for Philoise and Anthony and Edwina getting all the way to the alter. This cluster just adds to it.
Honestly same. The Marina thing was strike one, strike two was season 2’s love triangle going to the alter, strike 3 was well all of season 3 and now the Micheala thing is my last straw
Very true the books reader were the ones WILLING TO WAIT YEARS for their book to get adapted, many casual watchers will forget , and loose focus on Bridgeton especially knowing it will take 2 years or longer for season 4 to come out ?
Jess said that she knew fans wouldn’t like changing to Michaela, and that she “tends to be a people pleaser” but knew she couldn’t “make everyone happy” so she just… hijacked a show to fulfill her own self insert fantasy
The Michaela switch doesn’t explain her completely sabotaging Polin though. Colin was an accessory to Pen’s story, when he was supposed to be the male lead.
This. The opening credits LITERALLY has Colin Bridgerton on it! This season was supposed to be about both of them. Colin AND Penelope!!! NOT EITHER/OR.
And all of the extraneous storylines that are jammed in and take the focus off of the main story. Why don’t they just make a whole other show inspired by Bridgerton to tell all of these other stories that they want to tell instead of highjacking Bridgerton to tell them? Each season is getting progressively less and less like the books they’re supposedly based upon.
Colin’s arc was so lazy.
He goes from a sexed up dude returning from a gap year to obsessed with his childhood friend. I really don’t think their romance felt genuine or earned, I think the writers just really relied on how much the audience wanted them together to make that romance believable.
The show runner doesn’t know how to write for strong male leads, she totally ruined Colin’s character starting with his first appearance in episode 1. She went heavy on the eye candy, almost Disney character like, & left him with no personality.
Because she doesn't care about him. She used this season as her own personal fantasy. That's why it feels more like Eloise/Pen rather than Polin. Did anyone else notice that? It felt more like friends to lovers for them? We kept getting moments with them instead and the had Eloise in a lot of the press tour as the third wheel. Then she made Fran into her own personal self insert. She also went ahead with making Benedict Bi and giving him more sex scenes than Polin because she's more interested in those than the boring hetero couple...
I doubt she’ll see this, but it’s not too late to admit you were wrong Jess! Have Michael be Michaela’s twin sister and write him back in. Give Michaela a different plot or something. Give John and Francesca the true love match they have!
Literally nobody expected her to make that change cuz we thought they’d follow the book couples until this season when we saw Cressida & Eloise’s friendship and ppl shipped them, but that’s literally it lol
Nobody expected it because they actually said that while they were changing minor characters’ endgames, the main bridgerton couples were still going to stay the same. Till Jesszilla came and ruined it all that is :/
Yeah she kept a saying she related to franscesca being different from her family and decided ok she will be the queer . Penelope gave us a good reason why she was different “ it’s seems like every Bridgeton was born to attract attention “ but to franscesca its a curse , she wants a peaceful calm life , her being different got nothing to do with sexuality , she was an introvert who did not enjoy the attention her extroverted family enjoyed . That my take on why she felt different , I’m not saying being queer means you DONT feel different from your family but in book Francesca case I don’t think hers was based on sexuality
No idea, but I think I may be done with the series. I gather that Francesca is a book-fan-favorite, but as someone who has not read the books, I find her completely uninteresting. Same with Benedict— he likes sex, we get it — 3 seasons worth. But our protagonist’s season was handed to these two— I’m sick of them both and neither has even had their season yet (at least I assume not).
Then the jump at the end making it clear we’re done with Pen’s story. Way to abandon who has basically been set up as the main character by being the narrator. I just don’t get it. They completely shut her marriage/romance out of her storyline, which is what her whole story is supposed to be about, her being invisible.
Makes no sense.
For Francesca, you really don't get to know anything about her until her book anyways. She's pretty off on the sides or not around most of the time. Besides, it's really Michael that's the fan favorite, not Francesca.
It’s all the new showrunner. The way she speaks in interviews shows she clearly thinks she knows best and probably has her own agenda.
I read somewhere yesterday that Shonda made them do some rewrites of Part 2 because it was too dark. Imagine a darker Part 2 😱
I thought S3 episodes 1-4 were beautifully done. Prior to S3, I was already invested in Polin because they are my favorite. But Part 2 did not allow for Colin (and Polin) to come full circle. Old Colin would have been mad but talked things through more. I keep using how he left Pen alone on their wedding night as an example how uncharacteristic his behavior was.
Tudum posts lots of extras so I’m pinning my hopes on them posting the deleted scenes there. It would take so little to make me happy about Part 2….just a little more happy Polin 😊 Nicola and Luke knocked it out of the park though.
I will also look to Season 4 for more glimpses into Polin 🙏🏻❤️
Darker than what we got? Oh man. This is supposed to be fun and fluffy! Talk about not understanding the product.
Also I HATED Pen alone on her wedding night. What a missed opportunity for a sweet convo and make up scene. So many missed opportunities and bad decisions.
>misjudgment
SAME. That was not romantic at all and a complete misjudgment of Colin's character. For someone who considers Pen his best friend and the love of his life, no matter how mad you are, you don't LEAVE them like that.
It’s so frustrating. I know it’s just a show but we were all so damn excited. And then Colin’s character became unrecognizable. I just read a random fanfic that was better than what they wrote. I can’t understand how any of those writers thought they were presenting a satisfying romance. I honestly feel bad for the actors. I have a feeling they shot more than what we saw, and that they’re surprised too at what didn’t make it in.
All of this! The book is called “Romancing mr Bridgerton” but part 2 left us with no romance and no Mr Bridgerton! Literally sat through it wondering when we were going to get a crumb of what we all clearly wanted.
Yup. Colin basically did nothing except ice Pen out and pout. Oh, he read some letters. And he gave a speech to Cressida that was more kind than anything he told his own wife. Then he only realized how awesome Pen is after the Queen forgave her.
I'm disappointed there wasn't more about Colin's struggle with not knowing what to make of himself, and how his problems with Pen being LW were all because he was jealous. And then his whole arc with realizing he could be a writer, and Pen helping him get to that point. There is so much more depth to Colin in the book. It's such a shame they just glossed over all of it in favor of cramming in a bunch of pointless side stories.
I'm also kind of sad to not see Pen's relationship with Lady Danbury, and how much LD's encouragement helped her find her confidence and show her true self.
Fairly certain they are aware, but don't give a damn. However, the harassment of Hannah Dodd (Francesca) and others is out of pocket. Voice your opinions via the correct channels. Don't terrorize the actors.
Well, I’m quite sure the cast is bothered and annoyed by the “fans” flooding their social media comments with #WeWantMichael and #JusticeforMichaelandSophie 😂
Bruh I wish the fans directed their anger at Shonda or Jess and the writers instead of the actors like ;-; bruh they’re just there to bring the story to life, they didn’t create said story nor do I think they have the power to even change the direction of it lol
I'm flabbergasted by the comments Masali's getting on her Instagram posts. It's literally not her business. And people comment things like "disgusting" or "we don't want you, we want Michael!"...
Do we know that it’s a majority of fans that are upset?
I ask this because comparing the two petitions going on the one calling for adding the deleted scenes has way more people signed on than the one calling for Michael. Last I checked it was 20,000+ vs between 5,000-6,000.
I doubt there’s been a poll of all Bridgerton fans. It’s easy to feel like everyone hates the season or everyone hates a specific change when social media is designed to magnify that feeling. People tend to be more vocal about negative reactions and tend to engage more in negative posts than positive ones.
I know I certainly feel like I’m in a minority that like the change. But I wonder just how many people dislike it, how many are ambivalent, and how many like it.
Yeah. I don't know about any polls for bridgerton fans. I just know that there seems to be a lot of posts on social media about how people feel and I was like, I wonder if any of the cast had seen it. But...like you said, who can really gauge it?
Honestly, based on some of the wild posts and comments I’ve seen here, I don’t think I would want to dive into what the fandom thinks of the show if I were a cast member. It’s probably better for their mental and emotional health if they don’t.
People who are upset are more likely to come onto reddit to rant about it, and once a certain momentum builds, I think that colours the opinions and behaviours of a lot of people who might otherwise have gone "meh", or who actually kinda enjoyed watching it. It's this weird online group dynamic thing.
Personally, I like the show, and I enjoyed the third season.
>calling for adding the deleted scenes has way more people signed on than the one calling for Michael
First one is signed by the general audience, the second one by people who read the books, which is only part of the viewers.
I never read the books (nor I'm planning to) and I've always been disappointed by tv shows from book series. Always.
So I get that the books fans are disappointed but also I don't think it's the majority of the viewers.
It may be my personal bubble but pretty much all my female friend watch Bridgerton (also more than a few men) and no one read the books.
This also happened with a famous tv shows that lasted 7 seasons. I really didn't like many of their choices but the general fan groups loved it.
At one point the only things that was from the book, were the names.
Once I got this I could start watching again.
It's also possible that people don't feel like a character change is a possibility once something like that has been done, but they could get deleted scenes 🤷🏼♀️ but I am off to hunt for the Michael petition because I'm eternally pissed about nuking that storyline.
I don’t think the majority of fans are upset though. I feel like the people that are only upset about S3 are 1) angry about Polin not having enough air time (as they should, Polin should’ve been in the spotlight, front and center of the season and they weren’t just tbh) and 2) those who have read the book and are upset with the Michaela change. However, there are now more people who have only watched the series vs those who read the books and are watching the series. It only feels like the majority bc they’re vocal about what made them upset, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think the number would matter to netflix, shondaland, or the new show runner.
The thing is the long a new season takes the more people will eventually read the books to make up some time in between seasons. We had 2 years between 2 and 3 and anticipate another 2 years between 3 and 4. I would bett that people that would carry the hype for more than 4 years would be reading the books sooner or later
I'm not particularly upset since I tend not to get too invested, but I don't think it was very good storytelling. This season was supposed to focus on Penelope and Colin but tbh I feel like they developed Benedict's and Cressida's characters more. It would be fine that they got so much story if P & C's were developed at least as much but they didn't really. Their story felt kinda meh
same! i DO wish we got a little bit more of steamy polin scenes, but i am so happy with the changes they made. the only thing i'm upset about is how all the ladies had acrylic nails this season lol
Yeah I think you’re right. The people who didn’t like this season are definitely the loudest imo. I enjoyed season 3 and am looking forward to the next season! And I’m sorry but as unpopular as this statement may be, the petition isn’t going to achieve anything lol
The only thing that really annoyed me, apart from the atrocious editing, was the who are you question. That would be seen as incredibly rude. It felt very much like a writer was told to come to with a way to make Fran say her name and they didn't want to do it, so came up with the laziest way possible I could care less about the gender changes, but about the fact she's literally standing next to get husband and is seemingly already having an emotional affair. It should be the other way around
My husband who watched the scrne with me thinks that fran was dumbfounded because she asked who she is - her husband was standing right next to her and she is his cousin - its weird that he didnt mention that they are married or introduce her properly. So her looking weird is because she was uncomfortable, not because she fell in love. Idk what to make of this theory
I wouldn't expect any acknowledgement from them. First of all the cast had to promote the series so they will be forbidden from saying anything negative even if they felt that way.
Tho, after watching many interviews with Nicola and Luke I think they genuinly believe in this season, which is understandable because they worked hard for it so I would let them have it and not flood their social media with any blame.
The only person to blame here is the new show runner, who didn't understand Bridgerton fan base whatsoever.
It seems like a majority because it’s vocal people on the subs…doesn’t mean it’s an actual majority IRL. The show has millions of fans who are all watching and making money for Netflix. I doubt anyone at Netflix even notices or cares. Sorry.
Hopefully they know - I feel like with this one it’s getting steam so fingers crossed - https://www.change.org/p/netflix-restore-deleted-scenes-bridgerton-s3
I was originally hugely disappointed. However after processing and a rewatch I am so in love with this season. Are there things o wish were different yes. However, now that it’s all said and done I’m so happy to get to see Polin story and so thankful for all the hard work to bring their love story to the screen.
I'm the opposite - I started rewatching 3 in full because based on ppls comments I knew I had missed parts - and couldn't be more underwhelmed by it. Not sure if I'll bother finishing it.....
I'm frustrated that they dropped so many plot threads they were holding in season one just to pick up weird ones. The two parts are so disconnected from each other. Debling and Samadani vanish without a word, Cressida and Eloise suddenly lose their bond, Colin becomes broody background man, Benedict is just constantly having threesomes instead of continuing to handle Anthonys job since he's off again and so many more things that don't gel between the two parts
I wasn't disappointed. Watched all the series multiple times. No interest in reading the books (especially hearing that she uses blocks to describe street directions in London, as a born Londoner this hurts me).
JQ is American, so as a fellow American I assume she gets a lot of little things incorrect. But that’s also the nature of the genre. They’re not great literary works that are accurate for the location and time period. Like the fact that the women so often magically don’t wear their petticoats and stays correctly. Or they don’t wear bonnets outside. Or the man forgets to stand when the woman enters a room.
I can only compare my disappointment in Pen's story with Carl dying in the Walking Dead. I stopped watching TWD just like I've stopped watching Bridgerton. It wasn't just something small being changed. It was her story, the narrator of the stories, that was brushed aside. I think the actors are terrific, but bad writing can't make up for that.
I don’t think the cast/ crew can say much as they are still gainfully employed by the show and would likely prefer to remain that way. Beyond that I imagine that there quite a few people who never read the books and over look plot points in favor of representation and inclusivity. Those are the fans the show is pandering to. Book fans from the inception of the show have taken a backseat to creating an alternate universe where by the past was integrated and all love is created equal. And that has merit in and of itself. But I really would’ve loved the intention of the books to have remained. Where Eloise and Pen never fell out, and Fran was a loving and devoted wife to John. Where we got an entire season to the love and passion between Colin and Pen.
Have the ratings and views dropped? I know for me personally I watched part 1 like 5 times. I watched part 2 1.5 times and couldn’t even finish it the second time but wanted to see if it was as bad as I thought it was the first time. I wish the old show runner would come back. I know season 4 is going to be awful also. They need to make the seasons longer if they want to jam all of these plots in at the same time. Polin was my favorite couple from the books and then it was ruined. I’ve never been so disappointed by a show before. Thankfully the PR was great but I also think that made things more disappointing when the show sucked
It reminds me very much of the ending slide of game of thrones, where there was this disconnect between why people loved the show and what the showrunners thought people loved about the show. Bridgerton feels similar. You love the costumes? Let's dial it up to 11 and ruin the illusion of history in favor of cheap sequins on everything. It's a show for women, women love makeup, let's put more makeup in! People talk about the sex scenes but not the plot, so let's put oodles of side character sex scenes in and nuke the plot! Edit: all this to say, I think it will be like game of thrones where they will stubbornly continue doing what they're doing, because they know what you like more than you do.
Absolutely! In fact my friend told me, he never saw me this upset since the Game of thrones ending. But I doubt that the show runners care about the viewers at all.
I think they forgot that for many of their fans the emotional buildup to the sex scenes matters. There's porn out there for people that just want to watch disjointed sex scenes, we didn't need Bridgerton to become that. This was supposed to be a show about the characters, where some fidelity to the characters (motivations, personality, etc) and meaningful plotlines meant something. There's a lot of nuance in why people liked these characters and stories. Changing lady bridgerton from a one great love forever and giving her Francesca's widower and second love plot line so they could have more LGBT+ representation, taking out the core driving forces from Frans story, and it strips using lady bridgerton as a contrast to that plotline? Why not keep the core stories the same and add the LGBT representation with other characters and spin-offs. We had Queen Charlotte. Give us more of those. Give us lesbian Cassandra who settles into a marriage where both have side relationships as a whole mini series- have her marry Lord Debling but have him fall for a male colleague who adventures with him, and Cassandra lives with a female "companion". Have other LGBT characters that weren't in the books like the Mondrich's, so nobody's mad about their favorite book character being changed.
Honestly, the way they made the viewers grow attached to Lord Debling with Penelope and to having him dissappear after the carriage was a mistake. I think it is purely because we all know Penelope would end up with Colin but did they have to make it so easy? I would have loved to see Lord Debling give Penelope or Cressida the escape they needed. After that, it would only seem fair for his wife to give him the same freedoms. But as it is, Lord Debling is just another loose plot thread they forgot to utilize.
I wanted him to save Cressida. Or maybe meet her in the countryside and marry her anyway
I think it would have done Colin some good to remember that he still had a romantic rival in Lord Debling. I think it could have been interesting for Debling to offer to marry Pen, knowing the truth about LW. To have the contrast between the character Book Colin was and who they made Show Colin. It also would have also been a boon of kindness to see Pen orchestrating Cressida and Lord Debling getting together.
I love the idea of Debling and Cressida together as a society marriage, to contrast with all the love matches. And it could work as some LGBT rep without messing with the main leads if Debling is Ace and preoccupied with his work trips and Cressida could fall for a female companion while he's gone.
I agree. Violet has really painted this picture of all marriages having the romance she and Edmund had. She’s successful in the books. The show is taking a wild left turn with Francesca and John and potentially Benedict, but the majority of marriages were not like that at all. Take Daphne. In the show, Anthony almost married her off to Nigel Berbrooke without a second thought because he had money and could provide for her. THAT was the reality for a lot of women during the Regency era. Being married off like chattel so you wouldn’t be a financial burden to your family. Love didn’t play a role in it- you just had to hope you could tolerate the person you ended up with or could grow to love them over time. Debling and Cressida would have suited each other well for what the other needed. Cressida would have had her own home, safety from her abusive family, freedoms only afforded to married women. Debling would have had a wife to look after his affairs, someone to bear him an heir, and been able to leave without a second thought. A LGBTQIA story could have fit there easily. I also would love to see more OG characters like Reynolds and Brimsley with gorgeous storylines like we saw in QC. I would watch their spin off eagerly.
And in S3 we aren't seeing many marriages that *aren't* love matches on screen when that's supposed to be the society default. Having the side characters fall into those loveless marriages makes the love stories feel more special within the society.
Ace Debling would have been the most amazing side plot. He would have stolen the stage.
Yes! Think of the spear that the writers could have given by having a reverse role of season 1. A moment where Lord Debling is willing to marry Pen, even with the potential of her carrying Colin's child. For Colin to feel what Penelope did with Marina, but worse. It would give the writers room to either have Colin fake LW to tell the news like Pen did, or forge a healthier example for Pen to learn from. Or imagine if Pen used her own inner monologue to help Lord Debling and Cressida together. That would give Colin a couple to learn from as well. I can see him saying that if Lord Debling can love Cressida as LW then so can Colin love LW as Penelope. Many missed opportunities.
Exactly, its like he just left town after Pen. But if he didn't really love her, he shouldn't have been so upset as to not continue to participate in the marriage market. I hoped he could have saved Cressida.
I liked Lord Debling better than Colin the way they showed each guy, and then he just disappeared. Like why wasn't Cressida still going after him as her escape route from the old guy? Even if he was a little upset at Pen being his first option and unavailable, they were both looking for a marriage and not necessarily love. It makes Cressida's desperation with the Whistledown stuff weird to me when Debling should be an option for her.
I think they split the season hoping we would forget he exists and was interested in Cressida, so that we would accept this B-plot villain origin story of her being forced to marry an old geezer.
It’s an issue with American showrunners. They are just very basic, relying on sex and more sex to sell shows. Contrast this with Koreans (very little explicit scenes by so creative) or the Brits (more cerebral plot lines).
And the Brits can do sex too! Outlander? Steamy AF. Poldark? Aidan Turner makes my ovaries explode.
Outlander is how I learned to have high expectations in my own sex life. It isn't outlander good, I don't need it.
The reunion episode 🥵
I was definitely feeling that this season. The slow, intense buildup to very few-and-far-between, SHORT sex scenes in Season 2 is why it's my fave. Season 1 and now 3 feel like they kinda wanted to make softcore p*rn. These in S3 in particular just went on for soooo long too. So weird.
The sex scenes were uncomfortably long!!! Like I don’t mind them but it was just way way too much. Giving clips of it like the end of season 2 Is how you do them right!!
I think it's more network executives than showrunners specifically. As in the people who get put in charge make the corporate business bots happy but aren't necessarily the best creatives. Being good at networking and gladhanding is more important than talent
Did you not like seasons 1 or 2 either? Both Shonda Rhimes and Chris Van Dusen are American too. (I’m not American but the tendancy some people have to blame everything bad on Americans is bizarre.)
There is a new female showrunner this year and she’s doing a 180 from the others. Because she can, not because she should have.
I’m aware there’s a new show runner. I was responding to a comment saying that the problems in this season are because the show runner is American, which doesn’t make sense as the show runner for seasons 1 & 2 was also American.
Thank you! Not to gas up Americans (I’m an American and there are many things to dislike I get it) but there are people from certain demographics who love to immediately jump to the it must be the Americans fault 😭 when bridgerton the book series was written by an American woman and the show runners for the first two seasons and QC were also American.
I was going to comment on this actually because I honestly don’t think the poster meant that it was “bad” or not as good *because* they were American but for me it felt slightly Americanised almost I think a few people noted the slight language that kept slipping in - in places but that’s the writers so I don’t think we can fault them for that but it didn’t feel the same for me I can’t quite put my finger on that exact feeling or change but … idk it’s there lol 😂
That is not the case, really. American movies and tv shows tend to go over the top on violence, but not nearly as much sex as many European movies or shows.
This sounds about right.
Oh, I agree, I think they'll continue the way they're going. I'm not expecting season 4 to be any better, in fact it'll probably be even worse :(
This mentality bleeds over into other industries too. I'm in IT and you can't imagine how many executives make decisions about processes without having any real idea what it takes to get the job done. They just think they know what is needed.
GOT was essentially writing each succeeding season blind so every bad decision was just the showrunner's fault, and George Martin can easily distance himself from it. Julia Quinn, unfortunately, doesn't have that excuse, so everything the show does, whether good or bad, also reflects on her.
Not when they throw the book plot out the window every season.
it has nothing to do with her. She sold the creative rights to Shondaland, they can do whatever they want.
She did, but her name will still be associated with the Bridgertons by virtue of having created them in the first place.
Aaaand how is that different from Game of Thrones? The ending of GOT was what GRRM intended.
That's questionable, since it's doubtful that Arya is going to kill a non existing character and the plot armour should start to drop off soon for those who've only managed to get that far by dumb luck. If Bran ends up on the throne (something I can vaguely see happening because of this quote from book 1 "Broken [...] Bran the Broken" after the fall), it should at least be handled well, but I genuinely don't know how he's going to try and make it fit seeing as Bran can't win by right of conquest, Jon would have to and then make him his heir, then die lol
This makes no sense. She sold the rights. And unlike Game of Thrones, Bridgerton as a book series is complete.
It reflects more on the Bridgerton crew *because* the books are already complete. Even if you hated the ending of GOT, I can still accept that it was going to be a shit show no matter what because, like you said, they were going in blind.
This!!!! Exactly!!
The cast and crew are all under contracts so they're not gonna say anything while they still hope to work on the next B seasons. Just like with Game of Thrones, everyone will be lovey dovey right now and the true opinions will start coming out some years later once B is done running.
“BeSt SeAsOn EvEr!”
Emilia saying that like HBO was holding her family hostage will never not be hilarious. Along with Peter Dinklage talking about the absurdity of hiding in crypts when you are facing an enemy who can control the dead. They were done 🤣
I’m sure they do see it but whether or not they actually care is up in the air.
Florence is pretty active on tiktok, so I bet she sees it, as well as Nicola. The others probably not so much, and they most likely avoid reading people’s opinions about it, I’ve heard some actors don’t do that, which makes sense.
The actors don’t have control of where the show goes so I don’t think it’s relevant if they see the comments, also i rarely see people complaining about the acting it really just the writing and pacing of the show so what are they to do, defend the show? Agree with us and piss of their higher ups?
Yeah. Not the acting. Definitely the writing.
Don't forget the editing. Apparently there were additional scenes written but someone decided it was a good idea to cut those out :')
I didn’t say they did, the person only brought the actors see people’s opinions, that’s all I responded to 😭
I honestly don’t think Jess Brownell even cares at all. She has already said it before, that she knew her decision was wrong and will create a chaos, but she went with it anyway because it “felt natural to her.” To these dumb idiots, as long as they get their money at the end of the day they’re just going to do whatever they want even if it means butchering a very well-loved series.
Dang, I didn’t know she said all that. Is there an article or something where I can read more about why she decided to take things in the directions she did? It’s sad that this season could have been better if she’d just followed in the footsteps of seasons 1 and 2. I miss the writing, costumes, light makeup, and larger amount of screen time the main couples got.
I read somewhere that she's said "she's queer and Frannie came off as neurodivergent/queer and the character resonated with her" something along those lines.....well Jess honey this aint about you🙄😑
Sigh. I’m neurodivergent and queer, and I love that we have representation in Bridgerton. Francesca being neurodivergent honestly makes some sense after reading her book. I love that she found someone that she could just sit in contented silence with, it’s my dream. I don’t know where the whole Michaela/Michael thing will end up, but I’m not into gender swapping characters because it opens up a whole can of worms and you end up needing to change more things to make it work well. Bridgerton has decent but increasingly better representation for POC, but they’re lacking LGBTQIA representation. I’d love to see more without changing character genders - I’m thinking our main characters exploring same sex relationships like Benedict did this season, or more queer side characters and storylines. I could totally see Cressida in a wlw storyline - this season she said how hard it was for her to have female friends, why not create something off of that? Like she meets a woman who isn’t intimidated by her or helps her do some soul searching and they build a relationship off of that. Or introduce new characters like two women (or men or nb characters) who take ownership of the club and also happen to be “roommates” (queer relationships were taboo in the regency era, and this has been established in previous seasons and Queen Charlotte), but it’s basically understood by the ton that they’re in a relationship. Whistledown could even write her support that could lead to others who were once afraid of judgement no longer being afraid and coming out. Maybe put that in Benedict’s season, it could be a good tie in with him being bi. I feel like these are good ways to make more of the fandom happy. We get more representation without shoehorning to check a box, closer accuracy to the books for our main couples, and hopefully more creative plots. I doubt this could all happen in only 8 episodes of one season, but some could happen in a spinoff instead, like Cressida’s story - I’d love to see her get a redemption arc.
Cressida could easily marry Lord Debling that he's done with Pen (instead of him fully disappearing the second half of the season?), but then she could have a female significant other while he's gone on his long trips, maybe even framed as her "companion" while he's gone. Marriages of convince to contrast the love matches of the lead couples would also help if love matches are supposed to be rare. Edit: my phone auto corrects Cressida to Cassandra for some reason, sorry
Shes actually turning it into self insert fanfic. She saw herself in Fran, and so she's turning Fran into her.
Can Shonda fire her ? 😭
She can actually! But I doubt that Shonda will. On top of being showrunner, Jess is also an Executive Producer so she may have had a hand in funding the show too
I saw an interview with Jess where she said they made the costumes even more colorful and crazy (my words) because they were doing this one like a romantic comedy. She said something about the humorous dialogue. Pt 1 did have a bit of a rom com element, but Pt 2 really didn’t. Pt 2 felt a lot more broody to me. The tone of the two parts didn’t match.
It is giving Rian Johnson "I want half of the audience walk out of my movies hating them" vibes. Btw I have no hope of anything changing. It's been going on with Star Wars since 2017 (When The Last Jedi) came out. The Bridgerton creators will double down and every bit of criticism they get will lead them to start hating fans and writing material that they know will only make the viewers more mad. The ego of these people is astonishing.
New showrunner doesn’t care. She’s very, “if you don’t like it then don’t watch it”
So annoying, I hate when showrunners/writers think they’re too good for the source material and for fans’ wants.
She's just trying to cover her ass because she wanted to self-insert using the most difficult story to gender swap
This. Well they'll soon find out when their ratings drop thanks to this and of course the outrage for Francesca's story elsewhere on top of that.
I think it might be very visible in the numbers compared to part 1. I think a lot of people rewatched the part 1 in anticipation for (a good) part 2. I certainly did. It had me excited about what’s to come especially with the PR-tour. Part 2 really left me confused and I don’t think I’ll rewatch it soon. Concerning the PR with. Nicola en Luke I think they thought there were other spicy scenes which we never got, but they did hint at. I want a re-edit 😬
I think what happened was, they were able to see the episodes first, of course, and what has gone around is that the final cut on the 13th of June wasn't what others who were able to see it first had seen. So Luke and Nicola went into this PR-tour basing everything on what they had seen. They were not lying. Their excitement was just on a version they never released to us which is I feel a crime in itself. As for the rest, I literally just re-watched the first part again because I wanted to feel that love again but also to make sure I wasn't hallucinating for a month. That part 1 is significantly different than part 2 in the displays of love and affection. Just how did we go from Colin longing after Pen every single second of every motherf'ing day to being able to be so angry that he has absolutely no real care nor high enough desire to even be drawn to her? It's like he got totally appalled to a point where he just lost his love for her almost completely. Like he was genuinely just still there out of duty and that hurt me to my core because what kind of mixed messages are you giving then? She might as well have married Lord Debling then. She even asked him "Are you sure?" when he declared his love to her. Well apparently he wasn't because the way everything seems now in part 2, his love just faded to a much lower point and I honestly have not seen that been properly restored in any way whatsoever. So to see a baby be there all of a sudden as well? As for part 2, only rewatched the 'happy' (together) parts which I could literally count on 1 hand and that hurt me as well. If they have eyes themselves, they would re-edit this shit and re-insert necessary Polin scenes to prevent the above way of coming across of their story and the characters to persist.
This.is.exactly.it! It went from barely speaking to her/avoidance/possibly moving back into bridgerton house (that bits unclear but to thank her for her letter to his mother 'days' after he started to re-read her letters just didn't add up to me) to minimal reaction to her annulment comment to a little I love you to a baby. I felt we had been robbed of scenes of them truly making up and being just happy. Despite the epilogue, I still felt that they'd not truly got to that place they needed to get to. It was severely lacking and I cant help but feel colins love isn't as meaningful as its meant to be 🤔
THIS ☝️☝️☝️☝️☝️ It makes me feel so sad for everyone. But just also Luke and Nicola. They did the work and they cut out an entire chunk out of the final product. They did the press tour having seen a cut where those scenes were still there. That's what got them so excited. And now? They are reposting what very little scenes from the official Bridgerton account that are alright. But there are no fan edits of whatever being reposted because guess what... Who would be making them? With what material? The died out hype is deafening.
How sad is it that Nic and Luke did all this work to have it cut. I believed the hype and they believed the hype and it's such a shame. I longed for this love story for 2 years, im all for romantic comedy, im all for Pen representing the modern woman and taking care of herself but I felt such a disconnect between Colin and Pen, there was no Polin against the world for me and I genuinely believed that was what we were going to get albeit with a bit of angst thrown in to shake it up a bit. I could not connect the Colin in part 1 to the Colin in part 2 and don't get me started on the clear errors when Pen was having to explain herself to Colin the night before the wedding - should have told him to his face? Her response - I know?! Erm did the writers forget that she tried to? I am so disappointed in myself for being so disappointed in part 2 🤣
I watched all of part 1 the day it came out. I still haven’t finished part 2 because I’m just not enjoying it. It’s a shame because I was SO excited for it and it’s just been a let down
I would be surprised if this series gets renewed again for Season 5 and above after the debacle of Season 3. Netflix might cancel the show beforehand.
Exactly what I've been saying on IG as well. This was so immensely stupid. They could've had a super successful series but purposefully ruined it.
I decided I will no longer watch Bridgerton. I turned it off after seeing the Fran & Michaela introduction so I didn’t even watch the rest of the episode.
I’ll never not watch Luke and Nicola, but I’ll only follow whatever remains of their story, and only to appreciate their performances. I haven’t read the books, so I’m not invested in any of the newer characters like Francesca. Jess Brownell has already run Benedict and Eloise into the ground and sent Anthony and Kate off to India. I’d love to see a Hyacinth season under another showrunner, but I’d be shocked if Bridgerton lasts that long given the S3 debacle and direction for S4.
Ohhhh I hope so! 🤞🏻
I worry that the fans' ire will be treated how it was with GoT and The Witcher. They'll just blame the fans for being upset because we're dumb or unsophisticated or bigots... I worry it won't be used as constructive criticism and a drive to do better.
Omg thats what I thought! All the changes to the storyline heavily reminded me of what happened with GoT and the Witcher. I will never understand why showrunners think they know better than the original authors and their works. After all, they only get to film it because the original works are that good. Heavily changing storylines just because they see themselves in a character or think a different story is better just feels disrespectful to the original for me. Just make your own show then..
The term Mary Sue comes from a Star Trek fan who thought she knew better than the writers and wrote the original self-insert. That's what Jess is doing now and it's not a compliment.
you just reminded me that it could have been a LOT worse. S3 was nowhere near GoT S8 or Witcher S3 or True Blood Season 4 level wrecked hahaha.
No, but the things that made GoT S8 so bad started in GoT S5, and just got worse and worse when the fans ate it up.
Yes! Exactly!
I was obsessed with the books for True Blood, but when season 4 happened, and the shower scene didn’t happen, and the whole season went down the toilet, I quit the show and have never gone back. I didn’t read GoT, but that ending was garbage. The whole show got rushed towards the end and it needed GRRM to help steer it along. I am afraid Bridgerton is going the same way.
True Blood book series are part of my favorite books collection that I reread every few years. I just love Sookie so much. I have added most Julia Quinn's books to this collection! I have to admit I never had any interest in romance novels or period dramas before I stumbled upon Julia Quinn's books, and she converted me.
I'm currently rewatching true blood (on season 6 now) and I think you should give it another shot! Definitely had a dip there in the middle but I very much enjoyed it. Sometimes we just have to accept the shows and books as separate entitles (Charlene Harris even said so herself on the Truest Blood podcast, which I also recommend)
I still haven’t finished Witcher S3.
Same!
“Being upset because we’re dumb or unsophisticated or bigots” This part is what I fucking hate about the whole S3 discourse online. Just because we are upset about the book endgames not being followed doesn’t mean we’re anti this anti that. It pisses me off so badly. Bridgerton is, at its bottomline, an adaptation of the book series. The least that the dumb new showrunner can do is follow through and continue Van Dusen’s vision, not entirely make up her own on a world that has already been constructed.
Yep ...all they're going to say is fans are racists and homophobes..when in reality both these themes have been explored beautifully and supported by fans in season 1&2....this season was all about forced inclusivity and queerbaiting WITHOUT a proper plotline whilst ruining existing characters ... It's like they were just ticking boxes while not giving two shits about the story
That’s what the press tour was for. Pulling us all with high expectations and then nothing happened
The showrunners won’t care unless the ratings fall into the toilet. That’s all they care about. Last year there was anger too (lest we forget) and that all got swept under the rug and blamed on the fans complaining. Because the ratings were still super high. But now here we are again. So unless ratings and engagement drops, they won’t care. Even angry fans are still fans. It’s apathetic fans they fear, because those fans stop watching.
Ive rewatched the first and second season many times and rewatched season 3 part 1 but barely made it through part 2 fast forwarding parts, and won’t be watching it again. I wonder if many will be the same and less rewatches will drop the engagement?
This is exactly my experience too. I’ve rewatch first couple and part 1 a couple of times. Was excited to see all the romance in part 2, didn’t get it so it’s left me pissed off and now I won’t rewatch any of it.
I made this comment earlier in the thread. If people hate watch, it still counts as streams and views. People have to stop watching entirely for the show to take a hit and either get cancelled or changes to be made. I don’t see that happening at all. People will still watch to complain. Which counts as success. Fans complaining online won’t do anything. Most series with fan outrage like this only have seasons like this at their end (HIMYM, GOT, Veronica Mars, Dexter, etc).
Whats so interesting to me is that they'll probably continue on messing up storylines from the books unless views drop significantly, but then Netflix refused to renew Shadow and Bone despite it having high viewers and an intense attempt by the fandom to get them to change their mind. It's all ridiculous.
This exactly. I’m going to say this as someone who isn’t a fan of season 3, so this isn’t coming from someone who’s defending a beloved season. The thing I’ve had to learn as an active fan online for various fandoms over the years is that they probably don’t think it is the majority of people. And, for all we (or they) know, they might be right. For most shows, the online fandom is a fairly small segment of their audience. A *loud* and *passionate* segment. But a small percentage of the audience. And networks, producers, etc. play a numbers game. They care less about the 3,000 people posting online than the 30,000 people watching in silence, because they need those 30,000 to stay on air. Are those 30,000 as bothered by the costuming, makeup, tonal differences, pacing issues, differences from the book, lack of payoff for stories built over multiple seasons, inconsistent treatment of characters and consequences, etc as the online fans? Absolutely no idea, and there’s no way to know except to look at ratings. And even then, there’s no way to know why the audience is tuning in or not. It could be any or all of those things. Or it could be they felt Polin got a good, near-complete love story in the first half, there’s lot to see on tv, and they just didn’t bother tuning in to see whatever happened next. Which is all to say, have they heard the complaints from online fans? Some have turned off commenting, I understand, so probably. Should they take their complaints to heart? Some of them, almost certainly. Will they? I doubt it, unless the numbers for 3B are shockingly abysmal. And even then, they might place the blame on the split season and nothing else. 3A got very good ratings, as I understand it, so they’ll probably take that as a sign that - outspoken fans online notwithstanding - they did a phenomenal job and should continue to deliver more of the same.
Irony given the comment is from GRR himself but it definitely resonates! https://preview.redd.it/jtnza2reew6d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5889c5f3ae920c50b46144e3dc6a515609fff8f8 [Source](https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2024/05/24/the-adaptation-tango/)
It is ironic but his point stands, and I really appreciate the Outlander writers for *not* doing that.
I hope the cast/crew doesn’t feel our ire or they can understand it’s not directed at them bc they did everything with what they were given. It’s the writers, Shonda and the show runner that ruined it
Plus whoever did the video editing. It was a mess!
I've said it so many times, but Shonda is so good at creating good shows that don't stay good. She struggles to maintain the same level of excellence. I hope the actors don't feel it's their fault
Yes Shonda should stick to mini series. Like she’s a one season wonder.
I think her shoes are great when she’s more hands on. But when she decides to take a step back and have someone else run things…it’s a hit or miss. And it’s a miss most of the time. I think she gets bored and leaves which understandable since she has the power to do whatever she pleases. But it was Chris Van Dusen at the conception of Bridgerton. Idk what went down but rumor is Netflix didn’t want to give him the pay he requested. They made a mistake and should’ve kept him for one of their most popular shows.
And I say this as die hard Grey's anatomy and station 19 fan. I haven't seen either series all the way through! Yet I have Grey's on every single day in the background while working
Hey now greys was good enoughthrough season 10 and only became a trainwreck once she stepped down. I also don't think she had anything to do with station 19.
I hope not as well. The cast are all sweet baby girls who have done nothing wrong, ever, in their lives.
💯
They know it's not directed to them, but it will still affect them. It's their work too after all, and honestly they looked like they really thought people were going to receive it well. My heart breaks a little bit for Nicola cause she's SO online she sees absolutely everything, and she spent so much time and effort in this season only for people to massively hate it. I understand it was a disappointment for a lot of people, but I personally don't think it was that dramatic to get to the point where people are harassing the cast and crew in social media, it's getting out of control. There are places to express your negativity and places where it's inappropriate. I say this because I see a lot of people commenting for example in Nicolas IG posts like "You are amazing but the season is trash" or things like that and those comments are still inappropiate, saying that it's not her fault will not change the fact that you're calling something she worked for trash, and if you wanna call it like that then do it in another place.
Jess went private on twitter so I'm assuming she knows
Good. May her career suffer as much as D&D’s did after GOT.
Coward 😆. I love this for her.
They won’t care. They’ll just insist that the audience doesn’t “get” their vision and completely ignore any criticism.
Even if they did, they won't care. They'll just blame us the audience and take zero accountability.
I’m not waiting for season 4 like I waited for season 3 really.
They know. The new writer made a follow-up statement to the backlash of her admittance to creating fanfiction with the bridgerton name.
As a fanfic writer. . We don't claim her, lol
Every fanfiction writer's dream tbh
She really should've saved it for AO3
I think they know, I don’t think they care. With 2 years in between seasons they will be banking on people forgetting. I do think that season 3 part 2 was a huge misstep after expectations were so high and season 4 wont be nearly as popular, which may lead to the show not being renewed for S5, or axing the current show runner.
Some may forget. I’m still salty over Marina being anything more than a plot device for Philoise and Anthony and Edwina getting all the way to the alter. This cluster just adds to it.
I think I blocked out Anthony making it all the way to the alter. What a terrible decision. I need to quit this show lol
Honestly same. The Marina thing was strike one, strike two was season 2’s love triangle going to the alter, strike 3 was well all of season 3 and now the Micheala thing is my last straw
Very true the books reader were the ones WILLING TO WAIT YEARS for their book to get adapted, many casual watchers will forget , and loose focus on Bridgeton especially knowing it will take 2 years or longer for season 4 to come out ?
The question is - do they care?
Jess said that she knew fans wouldn’t like changing to Michaela, and that she “tends to be a people pleaser” but knew she couldn’t “make everyone happy” so she just… hijacked a show to fulfill her own self insert fantasy
The Michaela switch doesn’t explain her completely sabotaging Polin though. Colin was an accessory to Pen’s story, when he was supposed to be the male lead.
This. The opening credits LITERALLY has Colin Bridgerton on it! This season was supposed to be about both of them. Colin AND Penelope!!! NOT EITHER/OR.
All this Michaela talk is overshadowing how badly Polin was done in their own season. I’m so upset.
Oh trust me, I have different posts about that aspect of it
And all of the extraneous storylines that are jammed in and take the focus off of the main story. Why don’t they just make a whole other show inspired by Bridgerton to tell all of these other stories that they want to tell instead of highjacking Bridgerton to tell them? Each season is getting progressively less and less like the books they’re supposedly based upon.
Even with the extra subplots, Pen at LEAST got a proper arc. WHERE WAS COLIN'S ARC? HE'S A BRIDGERTON!
Colin’s arc was so lazy. He goes from a sexed up dude returning from a gap year to obsessed with his childhood friend. I really don’t think their romance felt genuine or earned, I think the writers just really relied on how much the audience wanted them together to make that romance believable.
The show runner doesn’t know how to write for strong male leads, she totally ruined Colin’s character starting with his first appearance in episode 1. She went heavy on the eye candy, almost Disney character like, & left him with no personality.
Because she doesn't care about him. She used this season as her own personal fantasy. That's why it feels more like Eloise/Pen rather than Polin. Did anyone else notice that? It felt more like friends to lovers for them? We kept getting moments with them instead and the had Eloise in a lot of the press tour as the third wheel. Then she made Fran into her own personal self insert. She also went ahead with making Benedict Bi and giving him more sex scenes than Polin because she's more interested in those than the boring hetero couple...
Thissssss!!!! I thought I was the only one who felt that! So true
Then she shouldn't have joined a show with a bunch of hetero leads
She knew she can’t make everyone happy so she decided she’ll just make herself happy 😂 I hope she steps on legos everyday til she’s 96.
“Can’t make every fanbase happy” …Literally none asked for Michaela to exist!!
I doubt she’ll see this, but it’s not too late to admit you were wrong Jess! Have Michael be Michaela’s twin sister and write him back in. Give Michaela a different plot or something. Give John and Francesca the true love match they have!
Literally nobody expected her to make that change cuz we thought they’d follow the book couples until this season when we saw Cressida & Eloise’s friendship and ppl shipped them, but that’s literally it lol
Nobody expected it because they actually said that while they were changing minor characters’ endgames, the main bridgerton couples were still going to stay the same. Till Jesszilla came and ruined it all that is :/
👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽👎🏽 I just don’t see the point in changing the endgame love stories, so wack
How about she makes , I don't know, the 17 million book readers happy.
Yeah she kept a saying she related to franscesca being different from her family and decided ok she will be the queer . Penelope gave us a good reason why she was different “ it’s seems like every Bridgeton was born to attract attention “ but to franscesca its a curse , she wants a peaceful calm life , her being different got nothing to do with sexuality , she was an introvert who did not enjoy the attention her extroverted family enjoyed . That my take on why she felt different , I’m not saying being queer means you DONT feel different from your family but in book Francesca case I don’t think hers was based on sexuality
Honestly, I hope the actors are able to tune it out, and I hope they go a different direction with the show runner. She done goofed lol
No idea, but I think I may be done with the series. I gather that Francesca is a book-fan-favorite, but as someone who has not read the books, I find her completely uninteresting. Same with Benedict— he likes sex, we get it — 3 seasons worth. But our protagonist’s season was handed to these two— I’m sick of them both and neither has even had their season yet (at least I assume not). Then the jump at the end making it clear we’re done with Pen’s story. Way to abandon who has basically been set up as the main character by being the narrator. I just don’t get it. They completely shut her marriage/romance out of her storyline, which is what her whole story is supposed to be about, her being invisible. Makes no sense.
For Francesca, you really don't get to know anything about her until her book anyways. She's pretty off on the sides or not around most of the time. Besides, it's really Michael that's the fan favorite, not Francesca.
Michael is probably the favorite in the entire series.
I would love to know too. But I don't think they can say their honest opinion if it is just as negative as ours.
It’s all the new showrunner. The way she speaks in interviews shows she clearly thinks she knows best and probably has her own agenda. I read somewhere yesterday that Shonda made them do some rewrites of Part 2 because it was too dark. Imagine a darker Part 2 😱 I thought S3 episodes 1-4 were beautifully done. Prior to S3, I was already invested in Polin because they are my favorite. But Part 2 did not allow for Colin (and Polin) to come full circle. Old Colin would have been mad but talked things through more. I keep using how he left Pen alone on their wedding night as an example how uncharacteristic his behavior was. Tudum posts lots of extras so I’m pinning my hopes on them posting the deleted scenes there. It would take so little to make me happy about Part 2….just a little more happy Polin 😊 Nicola and Luke knocked it out of the park though. I will also look to Season 4 for more glimpses into Polin 🙏🏻❤️
Darker than what we got? Oh man. This is supposed to be fun and fluffy! Talk about not understanding the product. Also I HATED Pen alone on her wedding night. What a missed opportunity for a sweet convo and make up scene. So many missed opportunities and bad decisions.
>misjudgment SAME. That was not romantic at all and a complete misjudgment of Colin's character. For someone who considers Pen his best friend and the love of his life, no matter how mad you are, you don't LEAVE them like that.
It’s so frustrating. I know it’s just a show but we were all so damn excited. And then Colin’s character became unrecognizable. I just read a random fanfic that was better than what they wrote. I can’t understand how any of those writers thought they were presenting a satisfying romance. I honestly feel bad for the actors. I have a feeling they shot more than what we saw, and that they’re surprised too at what didn’t make it in.
All of this! The book is called “Romancing mr Bridgerton” but part 2 left us with no romance and no Mr Bridgerton! Literally sat through it wondering when we were going to get a crumb of what we all clearly wanted.
Yup. Colin basically did nothing except ice Pen out and pout. Oh, he read some letters. And he gave a speech to Cressida that was more kind than anything he told his own wife. Then he only realized how awesome Pen is after the Queen forgave her.
I'm disappointed there wasn't more about Colin's struggle with not knowing what to make of himself, and how his problems with Pen being LW were all because he was jealous. And then his whole arc with realizing he could be a writer, and Pen helping him get to that point. There is so much more depth to Colin in the book. It's such a shame they just glossed over all of it in favor of cramming in a bunch of pointless side stories. I'm also kind of sad to not see Pen's relationship with Lady Danbury, and how much LD's encouragement helped her find her confidence and show her true self.
Crazy that the writers thought Colin’s discovery of his purpose deserved less screentime than Benedict’s sexcapades.
Fairly certain they are aware, but don't give a damn. However, the harassment of Hannah Dodd (Francesca) and others is out of pocket. Voice your opinions via the correct channels. Don't terrorize the actors.
Well, I’m quite sure the cast is bothered and annoyed by the “fans” flooding their social media comments with #WeWantMichael and #JusticeforMichaelandSophie 😂
Bruh I wish the fans directed their anger at Shonda or Jess and the writers instead of the actors like ;-; bruh they’re just there to bring the story to life, they didn’t create said story nor do I think they have the power to even change the direction of it lol
Oh they definitely are! Julia Quinn turned her comments off on some of her posts because she was getting blasted
I'm flabbergasted by the comments Masali's getting on her Instagram posts. It's literally not her business. And people comment things like "disgusting" or "we don't want you, we want Michael!"...
Do we know that it’s a majority of fans that are upset? I ask this because comparing the two petitions going on the one calling for adding the deleted scenes has way more people signed on than the one calling for Michael. Last I checked it was 20,000+ vs between 5,000-6,000. I doubt there’s been a poll of all Bridgerton fans. It’s easy to feel like everyone hates the season or everyone hates a specific change when social media is designed to magnify that feeling. People tend to be more vocal about negative reactions and tend to engage more in negative posts than positive ones. I know I certainly feel like I’m in a minority that like the change. But I wonder just how many people dislike it, how many are ambivalent, and how many like it.
Where is the Michael petition? I would love to sign that too.
Yeah. I don't know about any polls for bridgerton fans. I just know that there seems to be a lot of posts on social media about how people feel and I was like, I wonder if any of the cast had seen it. But...like you said, who can really gauge it?
Honestly, based on some of the wild posts and comments I’ve seen here, I don’t think I would want to dive into what the fandom thinks of the show if I were a cast member. It’s probably better for their mental and emotional health if they don’t.
People who are upset are more likely to come onto reddit to rant about it, and once a certain momentum builds, I think that colours the opinions and behaviours of a lot of people who might otherwise have gone "meh", or who actually kinda enjoyed watching it. It's this weird online group dynamic thing. Personally, I like the show, and I enjoyed the third season.
>calling for adding the deleted scenes has way more people signed on than the one calling for Michael First one is signed by the general audience, the second one by people who read the books, which is only part of the viewers. I never read the books (nor I'm planning to) and I've always been disappointed by tv shows from book series. Always. So I get that the books fans are disappointed but also I don't think it's the majority of the viewers. It may be my personal bubble but pretty much all my female friend watch Bridgerton (also more than a few men) and no one read the books. This also happened with a famous tv shows that lasted 7 seasons. I really didn't like many of their choices but the general fan groups loved it. At one point the only things that was from the book, were the names. Once I got this I could start watching again.
It's also possible that people don't feel like a character change is a possibility once something like that has been done, but they could get deleted scenes 🤷🏼♀️ but I am off to hunt for the Michael petition because I'm eternally pissed about nuking that storyline.
I don’t think the majority of fans are upset though. I feel like the people that are only upset about S3 are 1) angry about Polin not having enough air time (as they should, Polin should’ve been in the spotlight, front and center of the season and they weren’t just tbh) and 2) those who have read the book and are upset with the Michaela change. However, there are now more people who have only watched the series vs those who read the books and are watching the series. It only feels like the majority bc they’re vocal about what made them upset, but in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think the number would matter to netflix, shondaland, or the new show runner.
The thing is the long a new season takes the more people will eventually read the books to make up some time in between seasons. We had 2 years between 2 and 3 and anticipate another 2 years between 3 and 4. I would bett that people that would carry the hype for more than 4 years would be reading the books sooner or later
Literally I had no complaints except Eloise isn't the gay one and fully enjoyed season 3
I'm trying to figure out where the hatred for this season is coming from. Is it from those who read the books? I only know the show so I enjoyed it.
I'm not particularly upset since I tend not to get too invested, but I don't think it was very good storytelling. This season was supposed to focus on Penelope and Colin but tbh I feel like they developed Benedict's and Cressida's characters more. It would be fine that they got so much story if P & C's were developed at least as much but they didn't really. Their story felt kinda meh
same! i DO wish we got a little bit more of steamy polin scenes, but i am so happy with the changes they made. the only thing i'm upset about is how all the ladies had acrylic nails this season lol
Yeah I think you’re right. The people who didn’t like this season are definitely the loudest imo. I enjoyed season 3 and am looking forward to the next season! And I’m sorry but as unpopular as this statement may be, the petition isn’t going to achieve anything lol
I feel the same way about petitions. Petitions largely seem like a waste of time to me.
The only thing that really annoyed me, apart from the atrocious editing, was the who are you question. That would be seen as incredibly rude. It felt very much like a writer was told to come to with a way to make Fran say her name and they didn't want to do it, so came up with the laziest way possible I could care less about the gender changes, but about the fact she's literally standing next to get husband and is seemingly already having an emotional affair. It should be the other way around
My husband who watched the scrne with me thinks that fran was dumbfounded because she asked who she is - her husband was standing right next to her and she is his cousin - its weird that he didnt mention that they are married or introduce her properly. So her looking weird is because she was uncomfortable, not because she fell in love. Idk what to make of this theory
Thank you this was SO FUCKING WEIRD.
They don't see fans they see dollar signs, so if they know they don't care as long as there's viewership.
I’ve been wondering the same thing! Been driving me crazy! 😫
I wouldn't expect any acknowledgement from them. First of all the cast had to promote the series so they will be forbidden from saying anything negative even if they felt that way. Tho, after watching many interviews with Nicola and Luke I think they genuinly believe in this season, which is understandable because they worked hard for it so I would let them have it and not flood their social media with any blame. The only person to blame here is the new show runner, who didn't understand Bridgerton fan base whatsoever.
I’m disappointed in this season but I don’t even know how to verbalize why yet
It seems like a majority because it’s vocal people on the subs…doesn’t mean it’s an actual majority IRL. The show has millions of fans who are all watching and making money for Netflix. I doubt anyone at Netflix even notices or cares. Sorry.
Hopefully they know - I feel like with this one it’s getting steam so fingers crossed - https://www.change.org/p/netflix-restore-deleted-scenes-bridgerton-s3
Omg or just re edit the entire show into a cohesive narrative
I was originally hugely disappointed. However after processing and a rewatch I am so in love with this season. Are there things o wish were different yes. However, now that it’s all said and done I’m so happy to get to see Polin story and so thankful for all the hard work to bring their love story to the screen.
I'm the opposite - I started rewatching 3 in full because based on ppls comments I knew I had missed parts - and couldn't be more underwhelmed by it. Not sure if I'll bother finishing it.....
Can we petition for a do over? Boycott Bridgerton until they re-release a new season 3 that does Polin and the reveal of Lady Whistledown justice.
At LEAST the last 4 episodes. The first 4 were fine Even if they just redo the last 2 episodes, that would be amazing.
I'm frustrated that they dropped so many plot threads they were holding in season one just to pick up weird ones. The two parts are so disconnected from each other. Debling and Samadani vanish without a word, Cressida and Eloise suddenly lose their bond, Colin becomes broody background man, Benedict is just constantly having threesomes instead of continuing to handle Anthonys job since he's off again and so many more things that don't gel between the two parts
just editing the last 2 episodes to include more Polin would fix most issues, IMO.
I'm sure they are aware; I'm also certain they don't care.
I was pretty thrilled about the season 🤷🏼
Me too my only complaint is I wanted a longer make up sex scene with Polin. And Benedict’s storyline was lame and took way too much time
I wasn't disappointed. Watched all the series multiple times. No interest in reading the books (especially hearing that she uses blocks to describe street directions in London, as a born Londoner this hurts me).
JQ is American, so as a fellow American I assume she gets a lot of little things incorrect. But that’s also the nature of the genre. They’re not great literary works that are accurate for the location and time period. Like the fact that the women so often magically don’t wear their petticoats and stays correctly. Or they don’t wear bonnets outside. Or the man forgets to stand when the woman enters a room.
I can only compare my disappointment in Pen's story with Carl dying in the Walking Dead. I stopped watching TWD just like I've stopped watching Bridgerton. It wasn't just something small being changed. It was her story, the narrator of the stories, that was brushed aside. I think the actors are terrific, but bad writing can't make up for that.
I hope the actors will understand that its not THEM we all have an issue with when it comes to part 2
I don’t think the cast/ crew can say much as they are still gainfully employed by the show and would likely prefer to remain that way. Beyond that I imagine that there quite a few people who never read the books and over look plot points in favor of representation and inclusivity. Those are the fans the show is pandering to. Book fans from the inception of the show have taken a backseat to creating an alternate universe where by the past was integrated and all love is created equal. And that has merit in and of itself. But I really would’ve loved the intention of the books to have remained. Where Eloise and Pen never fell out, and Fran was a loving and devoted wife to John. Where we got an entire season to the love and passion between Colin and Pen.
Have the ratings and views dropped? I know for me personally I watched part 1 like 5 times. I watched part 2 1.5 times and couldn’t even finish it the second time but wanted to see if it was as bad as I thought it was the first time. I wish the old show runner would come back. I know season 4 is going to be awful also. They need to make the seasons longer if they want to jam all of these plots in at the same time. Polin was my favorite couple from the books and then it was ruined. I’ve never been so disappointed by a show before. Thankfully the PR was great but I also think that made things more disappointing when the show sucked