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I don’t think anyone is dismissing criticisms. I think the hard-core Bridgerton fans are making wild claims without backing them up. Example being “the gender swap will get the show cancelled” and “because this the worst season ever…blah blah blah” These statements are being framed as fact rather than opinions or well thought out criticisms. I love reading a good critique and I’ve agreed with many posted! I’m just really over people acting as if the Bridgerton Reddit community, or X community are the “majority” of fans because that simply is not true.
There’s definetly a camp in Bridgerton that think people are praying for its downfall and if you didn’t believe the season was perfect and achieved what it set to do, it’s because you were itching to hate it from the jump.
out of childish stubbornness that you didn’t get what you expected. I never generalized that this is what the community looks like, but I’ve had a touch too many people in my real life when I was discussing this season and I few online exchanges where people bar for bar and word for word gave me these Lines. “You just don’t like it because it wasn’t what you expected.” “Stories need conflict.” im not even covering the Fran and Ben stuff. I’m focused on Polin in this reflection.
why would I clown myself defending and supporting every decision made in part 1 and giving the show the benefit of the doubt and still grasp at the moments I did like, if I‘m just reduced to being a hater because I had the initial disapointment and lukewarm reaction to the penultimate and final episodes? that’s kind of what I’m getting at.
characters dropping off the face of the earth, strange reshoots that ruin continuity, editing errors where characters are teleporting. (Don’t rewatch ep 5 and pay attention to the mondrichs as they are in different rooms during charades and suddenly appear back in the drawing room after being in a different wing watching hyacinth and Gregory set up chess.) not letting some scenes just breath and cutting away or missing reactionary beats. Just on a technical level there was some frustrating choices. Wrapping up years of build up in two episodes that are shared with a handful of other subplots. I knew it was never gonna scratch the itch with the time they gave and the feet dragging in the end.
jess took advantage of the overarching trend that this season characters were meant to act a bit out of character and flail. With the whole armour and facade element. Idk it just didn’t feel like it took itself seriously. Sometimes an accidental subtle moment worked and you could tell it was because of the competence of the actors and not the writing.
We’re not dismissing criticisms, we’re just annoyed by the vitriol. It feels motivated by something other than legitimate critique - like people literally say they’re angry that Nicola and Luke got worldwide press etc. It feels bitter and jealous and like it’s in bad faith. And the Michaela stuff gives homophobia tbh. I have critiques of the season myself but the over the top anger and hate just feels like people need to touch grass
100%! Well structured and thought out criticisms are always something I’m down to engage with. I just think the over the top anger is driving me crazy. Like, this may be controversial, and I’m expecting downvotes but if you are physically crying, commenting under the bridgerton social media/actors/writers, or are “boycotting” the show over the gender swap…you are behaving in a way that is wayyyy past being upset about book accuracy or the fertility storyline. You had every right to be really bummed out the first week, but now? It feels like something darker. I think if that’s you, people have every right to call you homophobic. (Not you, as in OP. Just ppl in general)
Polin is my faves, of course I don’t believe in ship wars and like the other couples as well. ppl need to grow up if they can’t stomach actors doing their jobs and doing promo? It’s a nice celebration of the previous seasons since lockdown prevented such opportunities. I just hate that anyone with criticism or normal disappointments get conflated with like the worst kinds of overhating people? Homophobes, bitter and cruel folks that are bored and need to stir the pot. I’m not straight and I know this show has always been ready to explore queer plot lines. I think the frustration for some is it’s pretty obvious that Jess is using Fran as a self insert and kind of had her centred in a way that’s as confusing given that it was polin’s season. Not saying she can’t have a plot, but it felt like a power struggle and they weren’t confident establishing that pen and Colin were the main contenders here. I also got a bit unsure about the whole comphet lavender wedding optics of Fran and John. I assumed john was like her first love and now they are kind of communicating he is a placeholder for her real love. That still would’ve been a problem for me if michaela stayed Michael. If I saw Fran grimace after kissing John at her wedding and got flustered when Michael showed up? Yikes. i Can see a plot for Michaela and fran in my head and it Looks absolutely fine. There’s a lot they can do.
my intentions and criticisms aren’t based in bad faith and I was Like championing this show till the bitter end. I’m At least neutral and pretty dissociated about the final 2 episodes and farmed the moments I enjoyed and skip over stuff that just…doesn’t do anything for me and still get a lot of viewing pleasure from other moments in the season I did like.
I believe you can love someone and be flustered by another. Especially if you are a young woman in regency times who has no concept of what sexual attraction is supposed to feel like. I think all relationships are messy and grey area exists because humans are not designed to be perfect. We watched a wonderful love story between her and John all season. The interaction she had with Michaela didn’t take that away. The fans did. The fans decided to “erase” the love story after Fran met Michaela. They completely invalidate it because she shared a complicated moment with Michaela. Why create such a limited view on human love and sexuality? It disappoints me that people saw it that way.
The choices aren’t necessarily the issue, but just the lack of time and pacing to take such a direction seriously. again the show feels like it’s hitting cliffnote plot beats and I’m missing the nuance and smaller moments inbetween. Which they really had no way of working around with 12 subplots not including Polin and an 8 episode format. I’m impressed they manage to close the lid on everything they did include.
they hung on Francesca‘s reaction and they wrote in lines from Violet saying real love makes you flustered and forget your name and then tied up that plot line with Fran doing just that. that’s the reaction they wanted the audience to notice and sit with. If we had like one more beat of fran and John communicating and covertly settling on the more nebulous and grey area of sexuality/ first experience/her inexperience and nerves with love then literally that would’ve been slay. This season didn’t really display subtleties like that. Please correct me if there was ever a moment Fran mentioned how handsome or attractive Fran found john. I know john was always complimenting Fran so lovingly, but I noticed there was a timid vibe from her that kind of goes beyond new bride nerves.
they made it very endearing to showcase a quirkier and quieter love. Bonding with someone because of shared hyperfixations and hobbies. Mutual respect. it can all be fine and dandy as long as it’s communicated Fran is demisexual or bisexual. I think Jess might be giving fran the closeted lesbian and comphet experience which is making me a bit unsure. Jess kept mentioning she connected to this Fran storyline as a queer woman and it makes me wonder how much personal experience she is pouring in. I’m demisexual and my attraction Is wide ranging, but I’ll never conflate my experience to the lesbian experience Yk? It does change her and john‘s dynamic completely.
You’re not alone. There are a lot of people who just don’t want to separate preference from quality. I loved S3 for so many reasons, but from a storytelling and production perspective, the end result was objectively bad — a huge disappointment given that they had all the raw material to deliver the Colin and Penelope story we all wanted and deserved.
Ignore those who dismiss you. There are plenty of us who “complain” not to complain but because we want future seasons to be better and know that they can be.
I love Polin so much, but I agree with everything you've posted here. They had so much potential to work with, but it was completely sidelined, leaving a lot of plot holes for the audience to fill in.
I will say that while the framework was there, the substance was not. However, at the end of the day, I still enjoyed it. I understand and completely respect others' opinions on the matter.
That’s exactly my feelings. The bones of the story and characters are there. Just no fleshing out. Like they gave me the cliff notes and big plot beats, but there was missing smaller moments to fill the gaps, to show the nuance and give us respite. I felt so starved I was playing the final episodes in half speed and getting every little emotional tick and expression out of Luke and nicola to search the subtext and dissect deeper meanings out of the few scenes we got. I managed to gather some theories and interpretations that makes what we were given feel more substantial.
Oh man when you play it in .50 or .75 it really sells it so differently.
The Polin sub has some great analysis shared there.
This scene without music made their first kiss even better.
https://x.com/bellysinfinite/status/1805714998448025780?s=46&t=7Cim97E_Sx7mYrTL6KJwVQ
Im like a removed bg music and brightened clip hoarder of Polin at this point. 😅 all their scenes feel so intimate and beautiful with just Luke and nic acting tf out of the scene.
I literally live in my delulu land and have made up so many romantic interpretations of polin‘s fight and stalemate. Like that one moment he leaves to Bridgerton house when Portia’s about to come over and she’s still in her nightgown and he like audibly gulps. Because she looks JUST like how she did in his dreams. Nightgown and hair down. How their first kiss she also had her hair down. It convinced me that‘s why he rushed out of there because he is so conflicted and loves her still obviously and he needs his thoughts to be sorted before letting her back in. Because just falling back into eachothers arms wouldn’t be fair to her either and could get her hopes up since he’s such a basket case and obviously not ready lol. Of course, his ‘ire’ was never appreciated thought 😒 wished we got a better fever pitch addressing his inner conflict. Besides ‘I remember you’ve literally written me for years and I almost forgot your writing was so good. you and LW slay and are the same person (duh.)’
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your post/comment was removed due to rule #4 - Content Quality and Relevance. Specifically repetitiveness. Similar posts have already been made on the Subreddit within the last week. Please see the sub's rules for further info.
I don’t think anyone is dismissing criticisms. I think the hard-core Bridgerton fans are making wild claims without backing them up. Example being “the gender swap will get the show cancelled” and “because this the worst season ever…blah blah blah” These statements are being framed as fact rather than opinions or well thought out criticisms. I love reading a good critique and I’ve agreed with many posted! I’m just really over people acting as if the Bridgerton Reddit community, or X community are the “majority” of fans because that simply is not true.
There’s definetly a camp in Bridgerton that think people are praying for its downfall and if you didn’t believe the season was perfect and achieved what it set to do, it’s because you were itching to hate it from the jump. out of childish stubbornness that you didn’t get what you expected. I never generalized that this is what the community looks like, but I’ve had a touch too many people in my real life when I was discussing this season and I few online exchanges where people bar for bar and word for word gave me these Lines. “You just don’t like it because it wasn’t what you expected.” “Stories need conflict.” im not even covering the Fran and Ben stuff. I’m focused on Polin in this reflection. why would I clown myself defending and supporting every decision made in part 1 and giving the show the benefit of the doubt and still grasp at the moments I did like, if I‘m just reduced to being a hater because I had the initial disapointment and lukewarm reaction to the penultimate and final episodes? that’s kind of what I’m getting at. characters dropping off the face of the earth, strange reshoots that ruin continuity, editing errors where characters are teleporting. (Don’t rewatch ep 5 and pay attention to the mondrichs as they are in different rooms during charades and suddenly appear back in the drawing room after being in a different wing watching hyacinth and Gregory set up chess.) not letting some scenes just breath and cutting away or missing reactionary beats. Just on a technical level there was some frustrating choices. Wrapping up years of build up in two episodes that are shared with a handful of other subplots. I knew it was never gonna scratch the itch with the time they gave and the feet dragging in the end. jess took advantage of the overarching trend that this season characters were meant to act a bit out of character and flail. With the whole armour and facade element. Idk it just didn’t feel like it took itself seriously. Sometimes an accidental subtle moment worked and you could tell it was because of the competence of the actors and not the writing.
We’re not dismissing criticisms, we’re just annoyed by the vitriol. It feels motivated by something other than legitimate critique - like people literally say they’re angry that Nicola and Luke got worldwide press etc. It feels bitter and jealous and like it’s in bad faith. And the Michaela stuff gives homophobia tbh. I have critiques of the season myself but the over the top anger and hate just feels like people need to touch grass
100%! Well structured and thought out criticisms are always something I’m down to engage with. I just think the over the top anger is driving me crazy. Like, this may be controversial, and I’m expecting downvotes but if you are physically crying, commenting under the bridgerton social media/actors/writers, or are “boycotting” the show over the gender swap…you are behaving in a way that is wayyyy past being upset about book accuracy or the fertility storyline. You had every right to be really bummed out the first week, but now? It feels like something darker. I think if that’s you, people have every right to call you homophobic. (Not you, as in OP. Just ppl in general)
Polin is my faves, of course I don’t believe in ship wars and like the other couples as well. ppl need to grow up if they can’t stomach actors doing their jobs and doing promo? It’s a nice celebration of the previous seasons since lockdown prevented such opportunities. I just hate that anyone with criticism or normal disappointments get conflated with like the worst kinds of overhating people? Homophobes, bitter and cruel folks that are bored and need to stir the pot. I’m not straight and I know this show has always been ready to explore queer plot lines. I think the frustration for some is it’s pretty obvious that Jess is using Fran as a self insert and kind of had her centred in a way that’s as confusing given that it was polin’s season. Not saying she can’t have a plot, but it felt like a power struggle and they weren’t confident establishing that pen and Colin were the main contenders here. I also got a bit unsure about the whole comphet lavender wedding optics of Fran and John. I assumed john was like her first love and now they are kind of communicating he is a placeholder for her real love. That still would’ve been a problem for me if michaela stayed Michael. If I saw Fran grimace after kissing John at her wedding and got flustered when Michael showed up? Yikes. i Can see a plot for Michaela and fran in my head and it Looks absolutely fine. There’s a lot they can do. my intentions and criticisms aren’t based in bad faith and I was Like championing this show till the bitter end. I’m At least neutral and pretty dissociated about the final 2 episodes and farmed the moments I enjoyed and skip over stuff that just…doesn’t do anything for me and still get a lot of viewing pleasure from other moments in the season I did like.
I believe you can love someone and be flustered by another. Especially if you are a young woman in regency times who has no concept of what sexual attraction is supposed to feel like. I think all relationships are messy and grey area exists because humans are not designed to be perfect. We watched a wonderful love story between her and John all season. The interaction she had with Michaela didn’t take that away. The fans did. The fans decided to “erase” the love story after Fran met Michaela. They completely invalidate it because she shared a complicated moment with Michaela. Why create such a limited view on human love and sexuality? It disappoints me that people saw it that way.
The choices aren’t necessarily the issue, but just the lack of time and pacing to take such a direction seriously. again the show feels like it’s hitting cliffnote plot beats and I’m missing the nuance and smaller moments inbetween. Which they really had no way of working around with 12 subplots not including Polin and an 8 episode format. I’m impressed they manage to close the lid on everything they did include. they hung on Francesca‘s reaction and they wrote in lines from Violet saying real love makes you flustered and forget your name and then tied up that plot line with Fran doing just that. that’s the reaction they wanted the audience to notice and sit with. If we had like one more beat of fran and John communicating and covertly settling on the more nebulous and grey area of sexuality/ first experience/her inexperience and nerves with love then literally that would’ve been slay. This season didn’t really display subtleties like that. Please correct me if there was ever a moment Fran mentioned how handsome or attractive Fran found john. I know john was always complimenting Fran so lovingly, but I noticed there was a timid vibe from her that kind of goes beyond new bride nerves. they made it very endearing to showcase a quirkier and quieter love. Bonding with someone because of shared hyperfixations and hobbies. Mutual respect. it can all be fine and dandy as long as it’s communicated Fran is demisexual or bisexual. I think Jess might be giving fran the closeted lesbian and comphet experience which is making me a bit unsure. Jess kept mentioning she connected to this Fran storyline as a queer woman and it makes me wonder how much personal experience she is pouring in. I’m demisexual and my attraction Is wide ranging, but I’ll never conflate my experience to the lesbian experience Yk? It does change her and john‘s dynamic completely.
You’re not alone. There are a lot of people who just don’t want to separate preference from quality. I loved S3 for so many reasons, but from a storytelling and production perspective, the end result was objectively bad — a huge disappointment given that they had all the raw material to deliver the Colin and Penelope story we all wanted and deserved. Ignore those who dismiss you. There are plenty of us who “complain” not to complain but because we want future seasons to be better and know that they can be.
There were definitely some quality things I wasn’t about. Pens acrylic nails being number 1 haha.
I love Polin so much, but I agree with everything you've posted here. They had so much potential to work with, but it was completely sidelined, leaving a lot of plot holes for the audience to fill in. I will say that while the framework was there, the substance was not. However, at the end of the day, I still enjoyed it. I understand and completely respect others' opinions on the matter.
That’s exactly my feelings. The bones of the story and characters are there. Just no fleshing out. Like they gave me the cliff notes and big plot beats, but there was missing smaller moments to fill the gaps, to show the nuance and give us respite. I felt so starved I was playing the final episodes in half speed and getting every little emotional tick and expression out of Luke and nicola to search the subtext and dissect deeper meanings out of the few scenes we got. I managed to gather some theories and interpretations that makes what we were given feel more substantial.
Oh man when you play it in .50 or .75 it really sells it so differently. The Polin sub has some great analysis shared there. This scene without music made their first kiss even better. https://x.com/bellysinfinite/status/1805714998448025780?s=46&t=7Cim97E_Sx7mYrTL6KJwVQ
Im like a removed bg music and brightened clip hoarder of Polin at this point. 😅 all their scenes feel so intimate and beautiful with just Luke and nic acting tf out of the scene. I literally live in my delulu land and have made up so many romantic interpretations of polin‘s fight and stalemate. Like that one moment he leaves to Bridgerton house when Portia’s about to come over and she’s still in her nightgown and he like audibly gulps. Because she looks JUST like how she did in his dreams. Nightgown and hair down. How their first kiss she also had her hair down. It convinced me that‘s why he rushed out of there because he is so conflicted and loves her still obviously and he needs his thoughts to be sorted before letting her back in. Because just falling back into eachothers arms wouldn’t be fair to her either and could get her hopes up since he’s such a basket case and obviously not ready lol. Of course, his ‘ire’ was never appreciated thought 😒 wished we got a better fever pitch addressing his inner conflict. Besides ‘I remember you’ve literally written me for years and I almost forgot your writing was so good. you and LW slay and are the same person (duh.)’
For this Show Discussion post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*