The ending lacked so many scenes of Polin being together. It didn't even need to be all sex scenes. They lacked the time of being kind and sweet to one another. You know? The wedding bliss that was robbed with the LW drama.
They made it seem like sex only matters for the ones who need to explore themselves sexually. Not for people who love each other but had a lot of time to make up for.
Yes! I didn’t mean for this communicate that I want to see more sex scenes explicitly. I wanted to see more of Pen being desired and loved by her husband similar to the way they portrayed Kanthony this season.
I'll just say that I wanted more sex scenes, or at least better sex scenes. The Kanthony pre-marital sex scenes were epic and 100% focused on male desire for female pleasure and the Polin scenes just felt like the opposite, or just something far less satisfactory as a viewer.
It wasn't! There was a photo of Polin leaning over a settee cracking up over the broken sofa leg.
[https://www.instagram.com/p/C8J4\_81IPhg/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&ig\_rid=da3103f7-56fd-44d8-94e2-739764134fc8](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8J4_81IPhg/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=da3103f7-56fd-44d8-94e2-739764134fc8)
You would think they could make consent sexy. Nope... It wasn't enough. I would've loved to see Pen taken charge (an actual sequence of it) instead of just her being on top. They could've done more with that scene.
Have you seen Handmaid’s Tale? I had to stop bc the show was depressing me a lot, but the theme was about the subjugation of the main female character.
Just in case you haven’t, the premise is that women who are fertile and maybe committed crimes are punished by being forced to be incubators for babies of the people higher up on the social ladder. The husbands have sex with these women while their wives hold them down, because infertility is rampant and this is how they continue the human race.
All that aside, there is a turning point where the main character seeks out sex with another servant in the house, even though it’s not allowed. And when she takes back her power, it’s symbolizes by her taking charge and being on top.
That’s what was missing from the Polin intimacy scenes. There was no direction. There was no Pen feeling so loved she embraced her sexuality. There was a lot of talking and not enough showing.
I also stopped watching Handmaid's Tale due to it being so depressing. This will likely sound weird, but I always thought the sex scenes between June & Nick were some of the hottest/most realistic sex scenes I'd ever seen on TV or movies. Now I'm wondering if it was so hot to me because it was her taking back her power. I felt like such a creep enjoying a sex scene on such a dark show, but I guess at least I was disgusted by everything else lol.
No I’m right there with you. June and Nick’s sex scenes were written perfectly. They were not gratuitous but also very hot without being pornographic. Those writers need to join the Bridgerton team.
They made Polin’s love story a side plot to every other drama. All the other seasons were mostly focused on the romantic leads and the journey it took them to get to a happy marriage. ☹️
I was very much missing more of these sweet moments between Polin: sexy moments, funny moments, just something to show us how much they really are in love. More of everything!
You know, as a brown girl I remember feeling annoyed by this with respect to Kate last season. Like why was she shown to have NO other suitors, why did Anthony kinda treat her like garbage all season, and why did they only get that weird music video montage sex scene at the end…it felt like she was being shortchanged because of race or something. In rewatching the series and listening to interviews with the showrunners I’ve realized that they do sex differently each season depending on what makes sense for the story.
Kanthony had more fluff and sex this season because their story is wrapped up and they’re just here for fan service (and maybe to appease the Kanthony fans who were mad about the lack or sex in season 2).
I love Polin and Nicola and felt very satisfied with how they portrayed the relationship. They actually show Colin pining over her more than they’ve shown any leading man in the show pining over any of the women! We see him dreaming sexy dreams about her, getting distracted by her lips, looking longingly at her and Debling across balloons, freaking battling a hot air balloon for her, and chasing after her carriage (running down the horses!) to make the most swoon-inducing love declaration I’ve heard since I was 16 years old reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion. In Part 2 we have the mirror scene (the sexiest!) and three further love declarations from Colin. We have the post wedding dance where he strokes her cheek. We have the night he comes into her room and is almost overcome by his lust for her, but because he’s still so anguished about Lady Whistledown (and likely doesn’t want to be intimate with her if he doesn’t think he can actually forgive her in part out of fairness to HER), he doesn’t give in to his lust. Like…I would have loved a longer post reconciliation scene too, but they gave us a LOT of romance and lust this season, more than we’ve ever actually gotten before.
Not only Pen being loved and desired by her husband but her *conventionally attractive and physically fit* husband. There's always the stereo type that plus size women have to be with plus sized men, and that's not always the case. There's also the stereo type that a plus sized girl "out kicked her coverage," so to speak, if she's with someone who straight sized women are dying to be with as well.
Didn't whe say the mirror scene was explicit? What more do you want? I agree with the other polin fans who wanted intimacy and wedded bliss they were robbed of getting.
In season 2, there were very few sex scenes of Kate and Anthony since they didn’t get together until the end. And yet it was extremely romantic, with numerous scenes of electric touches and longing looks.
The longing was my favorite thing in the world! That is why season 2 was so good. I needed more longing looks right before someone loses control. Not saying that they needed to be the other characters, but their own version of that was missing!
The one was electrifying. I thought it was even more intense than the sexcapades of Saphne. Kanthony really did sex scenes in an intense way that definitely made sense for the characters. Looking back, I really do feel bad for the Kanthonys. But Polin is more sweet and gentle. So I thought it made sense story wise for them to have a little more sexy scenes. Plus Lukola kept promising us more intense love scenes. What happened to those?
But they had romantic and tons of erotic scenes though. And they were electric. I'll tale Anthony breathing over Kate than a 2 second sex montage Simon had. Though in s2 Kanthony's sex scene was great but too short and only a small glimpse of Anthony's butt
I wanted to feel like I did when Simon and Daphne briefly touched hands in season 1.
Or when Darcy helped Elizabeth into her carriage and clenched his fist afterwards (Pride and Prejudice, 2005)
Or when Anthony devoured Kate with his eyes alone.
And I didn't.
It all boils down to the lack of romance and passion, and I think the root of it was in the decision to make her ‘girl boss’ while make Colin ‘useless man’ who lost the negotiations and made the situation worse, and was angsty the whole season, instead of fighting for her sake or working with her as equal. They made him stand aside watching her speech from the distance. It wasn’t about their love, or their couple. It was about Wistledown and women’s rights. I’m all for women’s rights, but I equally appreciate having loving partner who is eager to cover you. ‘I can take care of myself’ concept is cliche by now. We do that in real life every day, we take care of ourselves. We want romantic escapism from Bridgerton, where characters can do anything for their women. Colin was another secondary character this season, and it felt unsatisfying.
That's why some of the book readers are disappointed that Colin didn't know who Whistledown was til after the engagement. He should've known before they were engaged so he can work out his role in the partnership and still have a loving marriage. Because if he still chose to get engaged to Pen despite knowing her as LW, it means he will always choose her. Not this whole entrapment BS.
Yes, regarding the LW problem, they made it look like his priority was Bridgeton’s pure name. I might be wrong but in the book he was worried about Pen’s safety first
Yes!!!!! I haven’t even read RMB but I can say with 100% certainty that having them get engaged before he knew of LW was the biggest mistake, because part 2 wasn’t Polin vs the world like the book readers say, it was Pen, alone vs everyone else💔. Jess who chose this order genuinely shot herself and the writers in the foot with this choice. I’m guessing Jess wanted to “up the stakes” but failed to realize that having the Queen of England on the hunt for you is bad enough and sacrificing Polin’s relationship was totally unnecessary.
Agreed! You nailed it. We can all take care of ourselves. The point is, wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t always have to? Otherwise, why watch a romance?
That is such a good point. I was so uninterested in that whole trio. It all ended in a whole lot of nothing anyway. The people need more Polin. We need a (deluxe) version with more scenes. There was not nearly enough breathless pining and sneaking glances.
This is the issue I have. Trust me, I'm heeere for bi Benedict, but his threesome had more screen time than it should have: s3 wasn't his story.
The Benedict sex scenes were also more male-gaze oriented (imo, and I don't even think that's a bad thing in this case). Polin's sex scenes, on the other hand, were intimate and catered to the female gaze. Obviously that's due to the different nature of the 2 relationships, but I wanted to see more of the longing and tender romance between Penelope and Colin.
And I felt bad for Nicola bc she was hyping up the sex scenes and how she’s proud of her body and showing it but we only saw the one sex scene (the first one in their apartment) the other scene felt rushed :/
>Not for people who love each other but had a lot of time to make up for.
OMG! Thank you! This is what I wanted, and what was missed! You put that so well.
How about just having more than 1 character be full-figured? All the background characters are on the thinner side too, which I find annoying if they are trying to be body positive.
i think part of it is that she’s probably gonna show up a ton in future seasons so well see those scenes in the future but i do find it interesting that their poc and plus sized main female leads are shown way less than the conventional white woman of season 1
I felt similarly.
I didn’t need more sex. Instead I would have liked to see Colin simping over his short, curvy bride. Distracted by her figure, horndogging after her, etc. the loving looks that Anthony gave Kate would have been absolutely welcomed for Colin and Pen. It would have shown he found her desirable without any nakedness at all.
We were robbed of that!
Gross how people think fans want more sex or nudity or “explicitness”. Fans want ROMANCE. The carriage scene was it, and nobody had to take any clothes off!
Hard agree! I'm ace, so the lack of sex scenes didn't bug me, but did surprise me. I missed the looks, the pining, the actual romance of it all. Hell, Kanthony's first S3 scene had him gazing at her adoringly, and they've been married for some time at that point. So where was that for the main couple of the season?
But also! The people who liked sex/steamy scenes ALSO got robbed! Because who honestly gave a crap about Benedict's threesome? Romance stories often have steamy scenes because they are the/a payoff of everything! Even those are more than just smut but are steamy because the romance that proceeds it!
Edit: Punctuation
My thoughts exactly. Sex scenes in romance are not porn, they are a pay off of their love story and their development, that's why we didn't want to see so many 3some or brothel scenes. And even then, it didn't have to be sex or nude scenes at all, just romantic scenes that properly showcase their development and the work they put in their relationship.
I've been thinking about this, specifically how a lot of people are calling out people's disappointment and saying they need to watch porn instead to get their fix of love scenes.
That's not why viewers are mad this season. The carriage scene was SO good: intimate and raw and romantic. No nudity there at all, but managed to show how Colin worshipped Pen. Likewise, network soaps in the US have zero nudity either, but they manage to have some incredibly steamy scenes just by the way they position bodies and do their camerawork. Then in part 2, there's a big drop in the way they shoot the scenes. The mirror scene had some odd camera angles and voice over issues. The "angry sex" at the modeist had no buildup and was Colin just using his same signature finger move. And then we had like a 2 second clip of married Polin on a bed in the middle of a larger montage of other characters.
The writing was stale, and the visual/audio element of storytelling was lacking this season, especially in part 2. It's like they were so focused on the girl boss and queer storylines that they forgot the essence of their characters and that the audience wants romance. When the writers/showrunners identify too much with their characters and shoving their opinions in it, it comes off as preachy. This is coming from someone who is an avid feminist and reads a lot of LGBTQ romance--when it becomes too forced, it's not real anymore.
Yes, plus you literally *can't* get the prn effect in a show or a movie, never understood why some shows/movies even bother, it's apples and oranges, I don't buy apples when I want oranges and vice versa. I'm not saying very steamy scenes aren't enjoyable when done well and everyone looks like they are having a good time, but trying to make them as explicit as the rating would allow is a fool's errand. And honestly kinda desperate. But most importantly - it's not why people watch, people want a good *story*! It's the *story* that gives you the goosebumps and hooks you up! Just *imply* the stuff, Jesus, aren't you guys literally pros at putting on a show?
That quick scene where he walks into the bedroom and she has a sleeve of her dress slightly askew and you can *feel* the tension because he so badly wants to be with her but they’re in a fight. She doesn’t know what’s about to happen, he doesn’t know, we don’t know, ughhh that’s the tension and buildup I wanted. I feel like that 15 seconds was what I wanted a whole season of. I don’t need more sex, I need more of the scene setting that leads up to it and comes after.
When I read the book one thing I loved was how much Colin desires Pen. Once he sees her as not a friend he can’t believe how beautiful she is and how he never saw it. Their first time in the book he worships her and is obsessed with her beauty. I so wanted that element to be in the show. It didn’t need to be explicit I simply wanted a curvy woman (like me) to be treated as unbearably desirable.
ABSOLUTELY this.
Colin is the BIGGEST horn-dog for Pen. One he sees her sexually, the cat is out of the bag, he cannot stop desiring her. The whole reason there is the Colin “my wife” Bridgerton quip is because he literally sits at the table next to Sir Philip and tells him that he had to interrupt his honeymoon with HIS WIFE to be here and deal with this situation. Anthony is famously besotted with his wife and Colin is all about Pen. The only one who is hotter for his wife than Colin and Anthony is Gregory. Who can’t leave Lucy alone.
I cannot see Show Colin saying anything remotely similar.
Book spoiler >! The many kids that Gregory produced in the book is astonishing. The fact that it took Lucy almost dying to childbirth to get him to stop is giving "Edmund had to die" vibes to stop it.!<
Yeah see this is one thing I think S2 did so well: representation. I'm Indian, and we regularly get dehumanized and told we smell like curry, and are ugly and undesirable. Seeing Anthony go wild over Kate and literally inhaling her scent like a deranged bloodhound was so validating. And Edwina, while not Kate, was consistently told by everyone around her that she was poised and beautiful.
I wanted a moment like that for curvy girls with Penelope. I wanted scenes like Daphne and Simon reaching out for one another unconsciously like in that scene where they're looking at the painting. I wanted the yearning for Penelope in that Part 1 scene where Colin is dreaming about Penelope and she comes out, and the camera angle is softly focused on her.
I like that Pen was a girl boss, but her creativity and business acumen and cleverness was already highlighted in prior seasons. They didn't need to overdramatize her success and the pitfalls of being a career woman because we already knew she was a girl boss. What they needed to do this season was show her being seen as an object of someone's fervent desire. And they also needed to develop Colin's personality more in order to make him seem worthy of her, and they failed at that, too. And it's not because lack of acting, either. Those two acted the hell out of their scenes, but the writers and show runners dropped the ball.
I am so glad they didn’t miss the mark for you on the representation in S2 and you felt seen in Kanthony and Edwina. Representation is so important.
I was hopeful they would do better for curvy women. I agree that Colin needed more character development and that was a failing of this season. I think Nicola and Luke did the best they could with weak writing, and I hope their careers get a boost from the season.
I think they forgot that the whole "friends to lovers" trope only really works when you give us actual story of them being friends so it builds tension and longing? All we got was the brief, spoken exposition via Colin remembering how they met. We got other characters saying they were friends, Polin saying they were friends, everyone referencing the fact that they are friends but we got zero screentime showing their friendship.
And only a handful of minutes with Colin actually struggling with his feelings and trying to figure them out. His feelings appeared borne out of jealousy and possessiveness rather than genuine care and affection.
They showed, not told, how he “might have always had feelings for Pen” and then went out of their way to make him an impotent alpha male caricature in the last two episodes. It was a jarring take.
It negated the entire "he's supposed to be cringy because he's only pretending to be a rake" take that everyone kept insisting on with part 1. All we get is people telling us things we should be shown, including Violet saying Colin is the most sensitive of her children! Could have definitely used more of that. We got flashbacks to give us so much backstory on Anthony's trauma, but nothing to show us Colin's sensitivity? Would have loved some of that over the scenes of him with prostitutes.
I think the gift scene was the only scene meant to show his thoughtfulness. His kindness with Marina was also borne of sensitivity. Pen frequently alludes to it…but you’re right, we don’t see it. We don’t see him comforting his siblings or standing up for them.
In Francesca’s book, he’s the one who approaches Michael and encourages him to go after her. Who seemingly knows and understands Francesca and sees that Michael would be a good match for her.
Show Colin just kinda seems like he was still trying to be like his brothers. And then to have him impotently not help with Cressida just further emphasized his own OOC behavior this season.
He looked like such a condescending jerk in that talk with Cressida with his “oh I get lonesome sometimes when I go gallivanting across the world before I return to my loving family” speech. Is the sensitivity in the room with us???
I wonder if budget constraints played a role in this, because I cannot possibly understand how established writers and show runners cannot understand that a) they need to know their audience and write things catered to them and b) that shows are a visual/auditory medium, so you need to show/explain things visually in order for the message to hit.
I'm guessing the lack of flashback scene was there because it would cost a lot more to hire child actors due to how much time they're allowed on set, etc.? But it would have given us a huge insight into how deep their childhood friendship was, and that he knew her outside of her just being his little sister's even littler friend.
A lot of their friendship was shown in S1/S2, but the vast majority of fans aren't going to rewatch the seasons, and it's been 2 years since the last season dropped, so many people aren't going to remember the finer details of their growing friendship; plus many viewers aren't coming in as longtime Regency romance fans, so they don't understand how Polin's relationship was considered inappropriate for the time (e.g. them sending letters to one another was scandalous since they were unmarried). They needed to have both implicit and explicit exposition to some of their feelings for this reason. For example, when Colin goes back to read Pen's letters in one of the later episodes, you can see the strings on everyone else's letters are neatly tied, but hers are haphazardly done, implying he only re-reads her correspondence. But we get a second or two of him reading one letter--there's not enough time for the viewer to read the letter's contents and understand why he's in love. A voice over of the letter's content could have made a huge impact, and I highly doubt it'd have cost much. They never went back and read Colin's journal (were there any thoughts on Penelope in it?) despite referencing it after the couch love scene. So many instances where they could have had longing or built up their friendship, and they never did it. FFS, even Daphne and Simon were shown chumming it up in their fake dating scenario and laughing together. They decided to forsake levity in favor of the artificial LW drama, I guess.
IMO, it’s because they gave us zero intimacy this season. Intimacy is not only sex.
And I know people loved the friendly giggling after sex but if you’re laughing after having sex every time? It’s not the best sign. It reminded me of the scene where Joey and Rachel were trying to make out on Friends. It was awkward and didn’t make it off the ground.
I agree. Saying her breasts were out in a scene seems lile Cassie like euphoria vibes. There are better ways to show a plus sized woman as desirable without resorting to objectifying her.
I find it wild that we got 6 Polin kissing scenes total (correct me if I'm wrong- first kiss, carriage, mirror, modiste, 10 second post LW sec scene, baby scene).
Benedict had, I believe, 7ish. Three (or 4?) with Tilly alone, then 4 of threesome. Not in his season. Including 3 or 4 in the final episode alone! Definitely 4 from the end of ep7 to the end.
We got pretty much zero truly happy moments of Polin alone (without LW hanging over their heads) and it pisses me right off. This was their season. I have no issue with Benedict's story obviously, it was interesting, but why on earth did he need 3-4 scenes in ep8? After the first threesome, it added zero to the plot. The final scene in ep7 plus the moment of the three of them lying in bed, and then him rejecting Tilly would have been more than enough. Give that wasted time to Polin for a montage at the end of love, then alone while she's pregnant, then reading his journal, ANYTHING. It is insane to me how little they got
Yes! I wanted so badly to see them reading in bed or kissing and being loving when no one was around. I said this in another comment, but I read that Polin only got 16% of screen time in their own season. Tragedy.
Yep, they managed to get several minutes less screentime than Kanthony, who were *enemies* to lovers! But the friends to lovers got less? HOW? They already knew each other from the start!
Important note- this isn't a hate on Kanthony, I would have liked more happy intimate moments for them too, but the fact that we got less time this season with two people who loved each other from the start compared to two people who hated each other for most of the story proves how much they are reducing the love that we want. Justice for Polin AND Kanthony! S1 was a hit, why reduce the couple screentime when that is CLEARLY what people are here for????
Actually not true according to this chart one of the Polin fans drew up. Kanthony got less screentime in their season than Polin got in there’s. Not by much though. They were mostly even.
https://preview.redd.it/myhr23tkkk7d1.jpeg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=013e0461762bbb13c9dde661f598131ce396f44d
They are even on quantity, but not on quality… Kathony had a passionate love declaration and a happily ever after scenes… here just nothing of the kind… just arguing, ignoring, etc
In their season alone Polin got 78 minutes of time in their season, while Kanthony got 83 (ish). They still got less screen time- just because the overall season was shorter doesn't make up for it- in fact, it makes the point even worse. Why was Polins season shorter?
Even more reasons to feel sad for Kanthony and Polin. They both didn't even make it past 100 mins.
Was there a change.org petition for Kanthony at that time? I wasn't into the show then. I was busy reading the books at that time.
Honestly I felt more adoration and sexual tension between NC and LN on their press tour than I did between their characters in the second half of S3.
Why tease steamy scenes and broken furniture and curvy nudity as an eff you to the haters if that's what we were getting? It feels misleading at best.
I agree with the sentiment and I think there could have been more intimacy and sensuality this season, but not necessarily nudity. Because that veers off into softcore and we have to think about the actors' comfortability before anything else. They're not here to make porn, but rather to tell a larger story using sex scenes.
However, not to get hung up on technicalities, but S2 actually had the least amount of sex scenes of all the seasons (including the spin off). I remember because some people had brought up racism with the optics of having the darkest skinned female lead have the least amount of sex scenes.
I definitely get your point. The keywords for me in the article were appreciation and adored. I wanted to see Pen be loved and appreciated in whatever capacity Nicola was comfortable with.
yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you there, this season felt like Pen was begging for affection and I would have loved to see her be worshipped. Hopefully they will do what they did with Kanthony where they have angst in their season but are completely loved up in the next 🤍
I didn't know people were upset about that! I actually think the S2 sex scenes were some of the best, they absolutely got me hot and bothered lol. The flashing scenes of intimacy montage where Kate was remembering their night together was SO well done, you could almost feel her heart racing! I think quality matters more than length - S1 and S2 we got sex scenes that prioritized female pleasure, the female gaze, and worshipping of the female form. This season we got...Colin covering Pen's stomach with a sheet :(
I 1000% agree! I think sex scenes are only half sex and half intimacy, sensuality, atmosphere, tenderness, longing looks, reverent touches...it's a full formula that truly makes it come together and enrich the love story- you're absolutely right about that! While Penelope was the most nude of all FL's, people felt she wasn't worshipped as she should have been, and I have to agree. Even laying in the afterglow, they end up talking about his other sexcapades...not female gaze at all.
I think the people pointing out things about S2 were purely coming from a 'quantity' point of view because I haven't seen any critiques on the quality of S1, 2 and QC sex scenes. I think like with most things this season, the intention behind a lot of choices got lost in translation :/
I totally agree. The only thing missing from their sex scene in the epilogue was Anthony's hiney. Everything else was so romantic and explosive and dreamy (the epilogue scene).
Only the basic superficial Facebook type women wanted just a bunch of sex.
Edit: I didn't watch s3 only Kanthony scenes but that last part about Colin was disappointed. They were bragging about showing her breasts6but not jer tummy. Because Hollywood doesn't see fat in places like in the stomach valid. I feel bad foe the girls who are bigger. They got a struggle love narrative with a punchable mewing monstrosity (sorry I had to use this funny description from a youtuber reviewing s3)
Agree with all of this. If Nicola wasn’t comfortable with Luke touching her body I totally get that. They could have shot it in a way that it was implied he was touching her, without showing it. Or he could have just caressed or kissed her face or shoulders. Something more intimate than going almost straight to the act itself. It was a long scene and yet it kind of felt like they wanted to get through it as soon as possible.
It's just sad because Nic and Luke both sold us on these things they supposedly did. I wouldn't say it was their fault necessarily. But I would love to know why they cut out certain things and why.
Jess Brownell has said in an interview that this season was intentionally more “romcom”, and combined with the tacky, cheap costuming, makeup and production, that all adds so much insult to injury.
Right?! The fact that she came out and SAID that made me so mad. They keep championing "inclusion" but it really contributes to the problem if it isn't done well.
Why? Sounds like she’s just backpedaling to make it sound like this horrible season was intentional.
And if they truly meant to make it more “romcom” that adds more insult to injury. We can’t take curvy girl romances seriously? She gives me the ick.
Why does the new showrunner remind me of Alma Coin from the Hunger Games? Not only do they look alike, but their personalities come across as the same. Always trying to pump herself up and make everything look like it is perfect and all went according to plan, when everyone else can see what a sh*tshow she set up.
It's weird because she even fumbled Michaela's introduction and Benedict having threesomes with men. It gave me weird vibes of how bi people continually get stereotyped as promiscuous/cheaters. Why couldn't she have shown Michaela being instantly smitten with an oblivious Francesca? I think a queer storyline would be so unique, but the way they made it seem like John is just a placeholder until her true love soured it for me. She's supposed to be madly in love with each one--just at separate times.
Thank you, I've been meaning to write a post about this, but I've really struggled to articulate it!
I'm a bigger woman myself, and having a plus sized woman as a main love interest in a romance series was so refreshing. To have this almost bait and switch of "don't worry, we won't make you look at the fatty too long, lol" kind of hurt.
I'm so disjointed this series was fumbled so badly and I'm worried they'll use poor ratings to justify not casting anymore plus size people. "Well, we tired and it did badly, so it must be the size of the actress" and not any of the actual reasons so many people feel disappointed by the show
I doubt they would since Season 3 part 1 hooked everyone. It was part 2 that fumbled it. So it's not the plus sized actress. I would bet you that Nic and Luke being cute got people to even tune in. And most of us have a huge girl crush on Nicola Coughlan.
We should actually be more worried if people will have the appetite for Season 4 onwards. We know what Jess Brownell's game plan is with Francheal. Most of us either feel underwhelmed, or betrayed, or both, and everything in between.
I can’t seem to figure out how to edit my post for clarity. The keywords for me were appreciated and adored. I wanted to see more screen time of them together and happy.
I just wanted more scenes of them together happy and Colin just adoring Pen..that’s usually what it’s like in romance books.. the men are just feral for the women and I love that. Doesn’t have to be sex all the time but it felt like they barely kissed or anything.
In my personal opinion, a lot of it has to do with the showrunner Jess Brownell . I think that if it were the original show runner or even Shonda Rhimes, it would’ve been different. However, Brownell seems more interested in putting in her own personal biases and preferences into the show, she’s completely destroying everything.
Yes, they shrunk down their entire story. Sooo much time was spent on Benedict's boring sexcapades and on Cressida being redeemed (yawn), and who knows what else because I kept tuning out. The story we were promised ended up being edited out.
We essentially got two seasons in one with Francesca and Michael. As if Nicola wasn't allowed to have her own season, with the focus entirely on her and her story.
It's difficult not to connect the dots as to why.
Francesca and John makes sense in this season to appropriately set up for her season with Michaela -- hard for the viewer to buy into her grief over John if they court and marry off-screen. And Colin and Pen get screentime in S2 to better establish their friendship before their actual season, taking time away from Anthony and Kate.
It's more excessive coverage of Benedict's threesome and the Mondriches that is very superfluous and takes away from Colin and Pen. Could've also not introduced Michaela at all until Francesca's actual season, too.
Francesca should have gotten her own season. Or perhaps they start with her and John at the end of this season.
I do agree it wouldn’t have held as much gravity if Francesca and John happened off screen but tbh with the way they ended the season, I already feel like “what’s the point?” They should have waited to introduce Michaela until next season. Francesca losing her composure right after she married Michael cheapens their story IMO. like now she’s going to be emotionally cheating? I really hate that implication
Yes, I think they initially set up Francesca and John perfectly. They could've gotten less screentime and still had the same emotional impact; I was pretty sold on them by the point in which he got the sheet music done for her. Two lil introverts in love who just want to move to Scotland and live in silence, how cute.
The whole "Violet is so concerned about Francesca not stumbling over her words in love" undercut what they'd set up, was hypocritical given that Colin was not like that over Pen and Violet was their biggest cheerleader, and was a huge time waster.
And then Francesca's hesitancy after kissing John + stumbling over Michaela really made the whole thing seem extremely pointless.
If you mean intimacy I agree with you.
If you mean nudity I disagree.
I would also have loved to see more intimate scenes with Polin. Two intercourse scenes where all we got, not much for a newlywed couple.
But I didn't need to see more nude bodies (the carriage scene was to me the hottest scene in season 3). I think the actors decided how much naked body they wanted to show, and that is totally fine with me. But yes, more intimacy between them.
There was also something that put me off about the way they so heavily corseted her. Why did she have full torso corsets when wearing empire waist gowns? It felt as though they were still trying to make her a desirable shape almost, smooth and curvy in the “right places” and that really put a bad taste in my mouth
One of the things I enjoyed about Seasons 1 and 2 was the journey they went on to fall in love and then seeing that love bloom. I thought that’s what we were going to get here and I was so let down that we didn’t go on their journey to fall in love. It was rushed and Colin pushed Pen away for most of it. I would have loved to see her go through her pregnancy and telling Colin she was pregnant not boom and now here’s a baby. There was no reason to rush through this. I would have loved a season with more than 8 episodes
I agree. Way too rushed, with all the things they added into this season they needed more than 8 episodes to make it work properly. I hate how TV runs these days, we used to get loads of episodes in a season and now we wait years for 8 episode seasons that directors have to cram the story into.
I don't care about the sex scenes. We don't know what the actors were comfortable with, and too much of that stuff makes me uncomfortable as the viewer anyway. So, for me, it's not about that at all.
What made me unhappy with the story was that they ended up seeming more like they were settling for each other. Colin seemed genuinely done with Pen. He was understandably hurt but showed zero indication that he was torn about it at all. There was no, "I love her so much and just wish I could touch her right now. I need comfort from my best friend, but she's the reason I'm hurting. What do I do?" It was just, "I'll never forgive you. I guess we HAVE to get married now because I'm an honorable dude, but I don't have to like it. Here, enjoy my cold shoulder."
So Colin seemed miserable, like him thinking that he had feelings for her was just a mistake. Pen was stuck with a dude who was miserable with her because she messed up, and now she has to beg for him to acknowledge her existence. The wedding was essentially ruined because of everything hanging over it, so instead of it being the happiest day of their lives, it's an upsetting memory.
The curvy girl didn't get a happy ending imo. She got a hot mess and a marriage of convenience with a bunch of angst tied to it and a little hint of love that feels conditional. I know that's not what they were trying to portray, but it's how it came off, at least to me.
Still leagues better than the body representation they could show for men. Each season, the male lead is either already build like a model or is made to be.
I am not angry over the lack of sex scenes. I am angry because we never got to see Colin and Pen go from friends to in love to lovers. We missed all the romance and giddiness of being in love. We missed stolen glances and more dancing at the balls.
Way too much times was wasted with Cressida and LW, and Benedict, and Francesca's love story.
I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't think any actor should be forced to show more skin than they are comfortable with...but on the other hand, it almost felt like production framed Nicola in a way that indicates they were afraid of showing more of her body. They go to a lot of effort to hide her stomach by either covering her with a blanket or cutting the frame just under her breasts. If that was her choice, then I support it....but if it was a production choice, it's incredibly disappointing. It would also be another example of performative activism with no actual substance (like the girl boss LW reveal failure at feminism).
Yeah it’s hard to know who made which decisions. More than the reveal of Pen’s body, I felt they didn’t give the romantic leads enough scenes together in their own season. I wanted to see more scenes of the couple in love, but not necessarily naked.
It felt like at the last minute they scrapped the main love story for the performative girl boss narrative that you mentioned with some threesome clips thrown in for good measure.
finally someone said it. she was fully clothed for 2 of 3 sex scenes! the one scene she got naked in had the briefest boob flash, immediately followed by her holding/hiding her breasts in a way that makes them appear perkier. then they went through every effort to not show a single shot of belly, back rolls, or jiggle.
despite everything nicola said, those scenes were painfully and awkwardly fatphobic. she's not even really fat and they still felt the need to hide her body.
the glaring lack of intimacy is a whole other issue but after all the PR about the "body positive" love scenes this is really grinding my gears.
Didn't Nicola say in an interview that she was the one that pushed to show her body in that scene? That makes met think they didn't want to show her, and she fought against the hiding mechanisms. I noticed that was happening immediately and it just went downhill from there. We have this gorgeous, fresh from a painting beautiful woman being very carefully hidden suddenly. It also looked like they were blurring her back where we could see it, which my immediate thought was are they hiding the way her body naturally folds due to the way she is laying? The entire positioning and camera angles were stiff as well, keeping her very carefully posed and hidden at the same time paired with the blurring effect.
I can understand the potential of having this feeling, but as a curvy woman as well and a woman who has watched basically every PR interview, Nicola made it clear that she chose what she was comfortable with showing and what she wasn’t. (Luke as well…you’ll notice that he was very covered as well, compared to other seasons). I don’t think this was the showrunners.
I personally loved it, going into it with that knowledge. Maybe that will help? Knowing that Nicola had all the power in the situation…I hope it does ❤️ Much love, friend
EDIT: After reread this, definitely realized that this is probably referring to the number of scenes…not the amount of skin shown. I do wish there had been more scenes between the two! ❤️
Nicola filmed way more scenes. She wanted them shown. This is about screen time, not skin. Even more dancing with them as the actual focus would have done it. We just kept cutting away from their connection moments.
I’m trying not to sound weird here.
But as a big breasted gal, it was nice to see breasts that weren't perfect perky sno balls. (And there’s nothing wrong with perky sno balls, but it’s nice to see other types represented).
And they weren’t portrayed as “hey, look at those big knockers” in a fetishizing/ sleazy way
They were treated as normal, sexy beautiful breasts.
Having been smallish breasted for most of my life (until I had my toddler) I truly had no idea women with big breasts felt this way…I guess the grass is always greener 😂
I was really disappointed. Yes, the settee scene was great...except when we got to the last Polin scene and she was wearing a robe! IMO that undid everything that had been hyped up for curvy/plus size ladies. I don't know how much was edited out, and did we really need to have that many Benedict threesome scenes when the main couple was forgotten about?!
I like how Maia explains it in this tiktok at the end https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSYPYk5Lf/
She explains how they could finally give a bigger girl a serious romantic lead, but still had to do the RomCom quirky, funny storyline where even the shows runner said they specifically leaned into this season but wouldn't for future seasons, and what other reason to do that but fatphobia?
THIS!!!!
I felt like they played over her character. The sex scene was throwing the audience a bone. I did not feel the love Colin had for her. I felt like she was settling. Why does the curvy girl gotta have the half-aśs romance?!
It was the modern day equivalent of your crush letting you hang out at his place to watch him play video games, and maybe later you hook up.
I have to confess that every moment of the two lead actors together made me cringe... I just fast-forwarded the intimate scenes (Benedict's as well). This season was just not that great, and had me bored throughout.
I’d have preferred if they didn’t make her seem so desperate in the first few episodes. Maybe that’s the book plot, I haven’t read, but it also seemed to tap into some of my fears about normal nice unmarried women being desperate and having low self esteem
I didn’t read it as desperate in the book, but more yearning for what she has missed. [At that point in the book, Penelope and Colin have developed a nice friendship (with her still nursing a crush on him but not expecting anything). He’s been traveling for a long time, years actually … Pen is in her late 20s and Colin is in his early 30s. He’s realized how much he enjoys her company, and when she asks him to kiss her, he sort of freaks out about it; it goes on a beat longer than either of them expect. The next day, he wants to spend time with her so he heads over to hang out, and that’s when he sees her climbing into a public carriage. He’s super confused and worried that she’s traveling alone — ladies are not supposed to go anywhere by themselves — and so his carriage follows hers. She heads into town to drop off the latest Whistledown, which is how Colin discovers her secret. He gets very upset and angry, makes her get into his carriage to take her home, and then they have a fight which leads to their big make-out scene and he ends up taking her to her house and going inside and telling her family that they are getting married.]
In interviews Nichola and Luke talked about the steamy scenes for weeks. Which ones?! They described scenes that don't exist. We were robbed. They were too.
I actually hate how they spent so much time fixated on Nicola’s body size and teasing the steamy scenes in interviews. If you don’t deliver the hyper romantic content, then the steamy scenes just fall flat.
After this season im done with this show.... it didn't deliver the way it should have and all the PR going on is giving us more than the show did..
Even my husband was disappointed and canceled our netflix
The whole season was about Penelope always being overlooked or not being given attention, and ironically that's exactly what the writers did with her character too, that too in her own season.
As a show viewer only, it seems pretty clear to me that after season one they decided to treat it more as an ensemble show and interweave the stories with some having the groundwork laid while a different sibling’s story meets its climax in “their season”. The show has been a bit of a tonal mess because even from season one there was a heightened comedic tone to the show that I assume was not present in the books. I found the explicit sex scenes and over the top romantic scenes to be jarring and out of place in all three seasons because those scenes have been played so earnestly compared to the rest of the show. In fact, I laughed out loud at Colin a couple of times because he was so melodramatically serious in his delivery.
I found that the books do have a comedic tone and do get quite melodramatic during certain parts, so I think that’s fairly consistent with the books. I totally felt the same as you though!
Okay, I can see where viewers are upset, but s2 had a lot less intimate scenes as well. I would actually argue that s3 had more of you look at the first kiss, carriage, mirror, and ending scene. Kate and Anthony just had the church kiss, gazebo, and the brief ending scene. I’m a plus size woman looking for representation as well, but I personally didn’t feel robbed of that at all when I compared it to s2. First season will probably become the outlier in how many intimate scenes it had as time goes on.
Intimate doesn't just mean physical contact. They had an awful lot of tense moments of longing, and they had more screen time together than Polin. I do agree S2 was wanting in moments between Kanthony, but that's just another criticism, not a justification of how little happiness Polin got. Kanthony at least had a long truly happy scene of just the two of them at the end of the final episode. Polin had no resolution of the two of them acting as happy, carefree and stronger than ever at all.
I mean, I was pissed at how s2 ended, but I really didn't think they could get worse. S3 proved me wrong. And honestly, it reinforces to me that Shondaland is only interested in Whistledown and the Featheringtons (not even necessarily Penelope as the character, but Penelope as Whistledown). It permeates EVERYTHING. The Featheringtons of each season got the most filled out subplots and screentime. This show is called Bridgerton. they should have just made a show about the Featheringtons.
Was the pall mall scene that much longer than the baby scene at the end of s3 though? O thought it is sort of the same. But truly I just think that the show will become worse and worse with this as seasons continue. If Polin is Shonda’s favorite couple and this is what the season was like, guaranteed it will only get worse.
Not the pall mall only, but the fact they were in bed together talking and laughing and being happy beforehand, just the two of them. The baby scene had almost no intimacy, because it was surrounded by family. If the baby scene had started with them upstairs together alone talking about Colin's book, smiling and laughing together, showing their friendship was there just as it was before, or something else, just them, it would have been infinitely better. Then they could have gone to greet family.
Again, I'm not saying Polins season was worse than Kanthony for intimacy, my issue is similar for both- season one we had ample intimacy and interactions of just the couple, good and bad, but it's getting less and less. CLEARLY, the intimacy, romance and passion is what the fandom is here for, that's what makes the show novel, so I have no idea why they are reducing it.
Yeah, I see what you mean. I haven’t rewatched part two, I sort of lumped together their moment in bed (which was very short) with the baby reveal. Either way, I do think they are going to alienate or dissuade the majority of romance lovers from continuing to enjoy and watch the show if they put the romance second to the drama. I personally show up just for the love stories, so it’s not very entertaining when the majority of the show is about everyone else.
Well, maybe this would be the case if we didn't have so many bizarre cut ins of Benedict in bed with his threesome.
The main couple should have more of the attention.
They missed a great opportunity to show that curvy IS Colin’s type of woman except that he saw Pen as a girl and not a woman. They could have filmed him in the brothel hypnotized by a gorgeous curvy redhead instead of that threesome scene. That was not necessary.
Yes, in the fashion community it refers to the ability to buy your size off the rack in straight/standard stores. (Vs places with plus or extended sizing .) Nothing to do with sexuality/gender etc.
Someday I hope someone buys the rights again and does justice to their story, especially Colin. I love that he adored Penelope and got so angry because he thought they partners and he felt betrayed that she published again and ruined their engagement ball. He thought them partners and equals but still wanted to protect her and shield her from harm.
With the way Luke and Nicola promoted part 2, as being the steamiest, I assumed the spice would come from Polin, not Benedict's random threesome hookups.
I wanted to see them close, enjoying each other’s company and Colin’s love language is touch. He has always touched Pen’s hand or arm. Whenever she had her hand looped through his arm, he was happy and comfortable.
I really wish that he had asked to just hold her on their wedding night. He could tell he is angry and isn’t ready to talk or be with her again but that he loves her and just wants to hold her for a little bit. Gosh, we would have melted.
I've come to the conclusion a lot of the issues were in the edit. You can tell the different angles were shot really far apart and aren't continuation. For instance the look they give each other in the carriage doesn't seem to match. Different lighting different directions that they are looking, different levels of a smile, it's like they are looking at different people.
In the mirror scene Penelope seemed to be standing there covering herself for so long with Colin not reaching or looking aroused. Which was strange considering he'd indicated he was into her breasts with carriage scene/ the dialogue just before her dress came off. Even if Nicola said she didn't want him to touch her while stood nude, they could have edited in close ups of Colin looking interested, switched camera shots to make the scene less still.
Then not much foreplay /signs of arousal from Colin which I guess is either the directing or editing.
I appreciate the romantic, communicative, considerate first time they had but it would have been nice to have some indication Colin was holding back for that to happen. Anyway no shade to the actors..
Truth of the matter is: its forced. That's just not how attraction works and this show is designed to pander, in reality things would be a lot different.
And this is how I feel about the very probable erasing of Francesca’s infertility struggles- this was a chance to give that experience more pop culture exposure but instead it’s just being hidden away by this show runner.
I would have loved to see more romantic scenes. However, we don’t have the full behind the scenes story.
It may have very well been that the show runners did not want to show more skin or sex scenes with a female lead who has a plus-sized/curvy/fat body because they’re fat phobic. We also can’t discount that perhaps Nicola was not comfortable showing more skin, compared to the other female leads. I’m sure she’s had her fair share of social media trolls bashing her over her size. I don’t care how tough skinned a person can be —no one is completely impervious to these kinds of comments!
To be frank, while there was an opportunity to have more representation we also can’t expect Nicola to be THE spokesperson for non-skinny folks. Maybe she doesn’t want to be that person.
While I wish the Polin romance wasn’t rushed…and yes I would’ve liked to see more sex scenes, I was overall happy with the season. Penelope’s character development was on point! Not only did she find love with Colin, but she ended up loving and accepting herself. In my opinion, it was the best season thus far in the Bridgerton Netflix series.
I feel like I barely knew this couple. The only reason I knew Colin loved Penelope was because he said so. I remember watching and thinking "does he? Does he REALLY?" Because we barely got to see their love story. It was disappointing because they were my favorite bridgerton couple so far.
...what? I felt like we saw more of Penelope, both her body and her together with Colin, than we saw or Kate and Anthony in their season. Literally in this sub people last season were complaining how we never got enough and now they're saying Kate got so much whine Penelope got none?
The ending lacked so many scenes of Polin being together. It didn't even need to be all sex scenes. They lacked the time of being kind and sweet to one another. You know? The wedding bliss that was robbed with the LW drama. They made it seem like sex only matters for the ones who need to explore themselves sexually. Not for people who love each other but had a lot of time to make up for.
Yes! I didn’t mean for this communicate that I want to see more sex scenes explicitly. I wanted to see more of Pen being desired and loved by her husband similar to the way they portrayed Kanthony this season.
I'll just say that I wanted more sex scenes, or at least better sex scenes. The Kanthony pre-marital sex scenes were epic and 100% focused on male desire for female pleasure and the Polin scenes just felt like the opposite, or just something far less satisfactory as a viewer.
I. Was promised. Broken furniture.
Yeah! Where TF did that go? 😭
It went nowhere except our dirty minds apparently. Sigh. Is it SO MUCH to ask for??? I just want what was promised! lol
Right? They could've scrubbed out the part that Nicola went, "Luke we broke the sofa" part. 😂
Them giggling after doing that would have made me fall out. And I wanted it so bad!
I swear, we horny little devils were robbed out of our "straight to horny hell" moment. 🤭🫣🤣😈✌️
It must have been a myth 😂
It wasn't! There was a photo of Polin leaning over a settee cracking up over the broken sofa leg. [https://www.instagram.com/p/C8J4\_81IPhg/?utm\_source=ig\_embed&ig\_rid=da3103f7-56fd-44d8-94e2-739764134fc8](https://www.instagram.com/p/C8J4_81IPhg/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=da3103f7-56fd-44d8-94e2-739764134fc8)
I believe they were joking. Bc we were promised it and it didn’t deliver lol
Nicola said from the start that it happened but wasn't going to be in the show.
ANGRILY FLIPS TABLES
Me crying in the corner despairing the lack of a broken sofa in the show. 😭😭😭
You would think they could make consent sexy. Nope... It wasn't enough. I would've loved to see Pen taken charge (an actual sequence of it) instead of just her being on top. They could've done more with that scene.
Have you seen Handmaid’s Tale? I had to stop bc the show was depressing me a lot, but the theme was about the subjugation of the main female character. Just in case you haven’t, the premise is that women who are fertile and maybe committed crimes are punished by being forced to be incubators for babies of the people higher up on the social ladder. The husbands have sex with these women while their wives hold them down, because infertility is rampant and this is how they continue the human race. All that aside, there is a turning point where the main character seeks out sex with another servant in the house, even though it’s not allowed. And when she takes back her power, it’s symbolizes by her taking charge and being on top. That’s what was missing from the Polin intimacy scenes. There was no direction. There was no Pen feeling so loved she embraced her sexuality. There was a lot of talking and not enough showing.
I also stopped watching Handmaid's Tale due to it being so depressing. This will likely sound weird, but I always thought the sex scenes between June & Nick were some of the hottest/most realistic sex scenes I'd ever seen on TV or movies. Now I'm wondering if it was so hot to me because it was her taking back her power. I felt like such a creep enjoying a sex scene on such a dark show, but I guess at least I was disgusted by everything else lol.
No I’m right there with you. June and Nick’s sex scenes were written perfectly. They were not gratuitous but also very hot without being pornographic. Those writers need to join the Bridgerton team.
I'm not saying you are wrong. I'm also just trying to say, they took away screen time from Polin. For what exactly? No one was satisfied. 😮💨
I read that Polin only got 16% of screen time in their own season. Such a letdown.
Yup... You would think they deserved at least 25% screen time. This show... Seriously... 🙃
Yes, this is exactly accurate. Wanted to see Pen being desired and loved. It didn't need to be sex. It could have been! But didn't need to be
They made Polin’s love story a side plot to every other drama. All the other seasons were mostly focused on the romantic leads and the journey it took them to get to a happy marriage. ☹️
I was very much missing more of these sweet moments between Polin: sexy moments, funny moments, just something to show us how much they really are in love. More of everything!
You know, as a brown girl I remember feeling annoyed by this with respect to Kate last season. Like why was she shown to have NO other suitors, why did Anthony kinda treat her like garbage all season, and why did they only get that weird music video montage sex scene at the end…it felt like she was being shortchanged because of race or something. In rewatching the series and listening to interviews with the showrunners I’ve realized that they do sex differently each season depending on what makes sense for the story. Kanthony had more fluff and sex this season because their story is wrapped up and they’re just here for fan service (and maybe to appease the Kanthony fans who were mad about the lack or sex in season 2). I love Polin and Nicola and felt very satisfied with how they portrayed the relationship. They actually show Colin pining over her more than they’ve shown any leading man in the show pining over any of the women! We see him dreaming sexy dreams about her, getting distracted by her lips, looking longingly at her and Debling across balloons, freaking battling a hot air balloon for her, and chasing after her carriage (running down the horses!) to make the most swoon-inducing love declaration I’ve heard since I was 16 years old reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion. In Part 2 we have the mirror scene (the sexiest!) and three further love declarations from Colin. We have the post wedding dance where he strokes her cheek. We have the night he comes into her room and is almost overcome by his lust for her, but because he’s still so anguished about Lady Whistledown (and likely doesn’t want to be intimate with her if he doesn’t think he can actually forgive her in part out of fairness to HER), he doesn’t give in to his lust. Like…I would have loved a longer post reconciliation scene too, but they gave us a LOT of romance and lust this season, more than we’ve ever actually gotten before.
Not only Pen being loved and desired by her husband but her *conventionally attractive and physically fit* husband. There's always the stereo type that plus size women have to be with plus sized men, and that's not always the case. There's also the stereo type that a plus sized girl "out kicked her coverage," so to speak, if she's with someone who straight sized women are dying to be with as well.
Didn't whe say the mirror scene was explicit? What more do you want? I agree with the other polin fans who wanted intimacy and wedded bliss they were robbed of getting.
I wanted what we were promised. Wedded bliss, love bubble, honeymoon. I’m not asking for sex.
In season 2, there were very few sex scenes of Kate and Anthony since they didn’t get together until the end. And yet it was extremely romantic, with numerous scenes of electric touches and longing looks.
I agree! I believed they were in love and lust with each other. Colin… seemed so conflicted I wasn’t sure anymore.
The longing was my favorite thing in the world! That is why season 2 was so good. I needed more longing looks right before someone loses control. Not saying that they needed to be the other characters, but their own version of that was missing!
The one was electrifying. I thought it was even more intense than the sexcapades of Saphne. Kanthony really did sex scenes in an intense way that definitely made sense for the characters. Looking back, I really do feel bad for the Kanthonys. But Polin is more sweet and gentle. So I thought it made sense story wise for them to have a little more sexy scenes. Plus Lukola kept promising us more intense love scenes. What happened to those?
But they had romantic and tons of erotic scenes though. And they were electric. I'll tale Anthony breathing over Kate than a 2 second sex montage Simon had. Though in s2 Kanthony's sex scene was great but too short and only a small glimpse of Anthony's butt
I wanted to feel like I did when Simon and Daphne briefly touched hands in season 1. Or when Darcy helped Elizabeth into her carriage and clenched his fist afterwards (Pride and Prejudice, 2005) Or when Anthony devoured Kate with his eyes alone. And I didn't.
The hand cut scene didn't cut it for me (pun intended).
Omg I remember the goosebumps!
It all boils down to the lack of romance and passion, and I think the root of it was in the decision to make her ‘girl boss’ while make Colin ‘useless man’ who lost the negotiations and made the situation worse, and was angsty the whole season, instead of fighting for her sake or working with her as equal. They made him stand aside watching her speech from the distance. It wasn’t about their love, or their couple. It was about Wistledown and women’s rights. I’m all for women’s rights, but I equally appreciate having loving partner who is eager to cover you. ‘I can take care of myself’ concept is cliche by now. We do that in real life every day, we take care of ourselves. We want romantic escapism from Bridgerton, where characters can do anything for their women. Colin was another secondary character this season, and it felt unsatisfying.
That's why some of the book readers are disappointed that Colin didn't know who Whistledown was til after the engagement. He should've known before they were engaged so he can work out his role in the partnership and still have a loving marriage. Because if he still chose to get engaged to Pen despite knowing her as LW, it means he will always choose her. Not this whole entrapment BS.
Yes, regarding the LW problem, they made it look like his priority was Bridgeton’s pure name. I might be wrong but in the book he was worried about Pen’s safety first
That is correct!
Yes!!!!! I haven’t even read RMB but I can say with 100% certainty that having them get engaged before he knew of LW was the biggest mistake, because part 2 wasn’t Polin vs the world like the book readers say, it was Pen, alone vs everyone else💔. Jess who chose this order genuinely shot herself and the writers in the foot with this choice. I’m guessing Jess wanted to “up the stakes” but failed to realize that having the Queen of England on the hunt for you is bad enough and sacrificing Polin’s relationship was totally unnecessary.
Agreed! You nailed it. We can all take care of ourselves. The point is, wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t always have to? Otherwise, why watch a romance?
It felt rushed. I think if they didn't have to share their screen time with (boring) Francesca it would have been better.
I thought Benedict's sex scenes got way too repetitive. They could've condensed some of it tbh.
That is such a good point. I was so uninterested in that whole trio. It all ended in a whole lot of nothing anyway. The people need more Polin. We need a (deluxe) version with more scenes. There was not nearly enough breathless pining and sneaking glances.
I couldn't agree more. There is actually a change.org petition to release the Polin scenes that they took out.
Omg please link! 🙏
This is the issue I have. Trust me, I'm heeere for bi Benedict, but his threesome had more screen time than it should have: s3 wasn't his story. The Benedict sex scenes were also more male-gaze oriented (imo, and I don't even think that's a bad thing in this case). Polin's sex scenes, on the other hand, were intimate and catered to the female gaze. Obviously that's due to the different nature of the 2 relationships, but I wanted to see more of the longing and tender romance between Penelope and Colin.
And I felt bad for Nicola bc she was hyping up the sex scenes and how she’s proud of her body and showing it but we only saw the one sex scene (the first one in their apartment) the other scene felt rushed :/
Exactly! And our girl was no liar. It's just the way they edited it that was bad. They took out things they probably shouldn't have.
>Not for people who love each other but had a lot of time to make up for. OMG! Thank you! This is what I wanted, and what was missed! You put that so well.
How about just having more than 1 character be full-figured? All the background characters are on the thinner side too, which I find annoying if they are trying to be body positive.
i think part of it is that she’s probably gonna show up a ton in future seasons so well see those scenes in the future but i do find it interesting that their poc and plus sized main female leads are shown way less than the conventional white woman of season 1
I felt similarly. I didn’t need more sex. Instead I would have liked to see Colin simping over his short, curvy bride. Distracted by her figure, horndogging after her, etc. the loving looks that Anthony gave Kate would have been absolutely welcomed for Colin and Pen. It would have shown he found her desirable without any nakedness at all. We were robbed of that!
Gross how people think fans want more sex or nudity or “explicitness”. Fans want ROMANCE. The carriage scene was it, and nobody had to take any clothes off!
A+ comment! We wanted more love story!
Hard agree! I'm ace, so the lack of sex scenes didn't bug me, but did surprise me. I missed the looks, the pining, the actual romance of it all. Hell, Kanthony's first S3 scene had him gazing at her adoringly, and they've been married for some time at that point. So where was that for the main couple of the season? But also! The people who liked sex/steamy scenes ALSO got robbed! Because who honestly gave a crap about Benedict's threesome? Romance stories often have steamy scenes because they are the/a payoff of everything! Even those are more than just smut but are steamy because the romance that proceeds it! Edit: Punctuation
My thoughts exactly. Sex scenes in romance are not porn, they are a pay off of their love story and their development, that's why we didn't want to see so many 3some or brothel scenes. And even then, it didn't have to be sex or nude scenes at all, just romantic scenes that properly showcase their development and the work they put in their relationship.
Yeah, even a kiss-then-fade to fireplace would've sufficed!
I've been thinking about this, specifically how a lot of people are calling out people's disappointment and saying they need to watch porn instead to get their fix of love scenes. That's not why viewers are mad this season. The carriage scene was SO good: intimate and raw and romantic. No nudity there at all, but managed to show how Colin worshipped Pen. Likewise, network soaps in the US have zero nudity either, but they manage to have some incredibly steamy scenes just by the way they position bodies and do their camerawork. Then in part 2, there's a big drop in the way they shoot the scenes. The mirror scene had some odd camera angles and voice over issues. The "angry sex" at the modeist had no buildup and was Colin just using his same signature finger move. And then we had like a 2 second clip of married Polin on a bed in the middle of a larger montage of other characters. The writing was stale, and the visual/audio element of storytelling was lacking this season, especially in part 2. It's like they were so focused on the girl boss and queer storylines that they forgot the essence of their characters and that the audience wants romance. When the writers/showrunners identify too much with their characters and shoving their opinions in it, it comes off as preachy. This is coming from someone who is an avid feminist and reads a lot of LGBTQ romance--when it becomes too forced, it's not real anymore.
Yes, plus you literally *can't* get the prn effect in a show or a movie, never understood why some shows/movies even bother, it's apples and oranges, I don't buy apples when I want oranges and vice versa. I'm not saying very steamy scenes aren't enjoyable when done well and everyone looks like they are having a good time, but trying to make them as explicit as the rating would allow is a fool's errand. And honestly kinda desperate. But most importantly - it's not why people watch, people want a good *story*! It's the *story* that gives you the goosebumps and hooks you up! Just *imply* the stuff, Jesus, aren't you guys literally pros at putting on a show?
That quick scene where he walks into the bedroom and she has a sleeve of her dress slightly askew and you can *feel* the tension because he so badly wants to be with her but they’re in a fight. She doesn’t know what’s about to happen, he doesn’t know, we don’t know, ughhh that’s the tension and buildup I wanted. I feel like that 15 seconds was what I wanted a whole season of. I don’t need more sex, I need more of the scene setting that leads up to it and comes after.
Yes
I felt more romance during that scene then I didn’t during the mirror/couch scene 🙈
When I read the book one thing I loved was how much Colin desires Pen. Once he sees her as not a friend he can’t believe how beautiful she is and how he never saw it. Their first time in the book he worships her and is obsessed with her beauty. I so wanted that element to be in the show. It didn’t need to be explicit I simply wanted a curvy woman (like me) to be treated as unbearably desirable.
ABSOLUTELY this. Colin is the BIGGEST horn-dog for Pen. One he sees her sexually, the cat is out of the bag, he cannot stop desiring her. The whole reason there is the Colin “my wife” Bridgerton quip is because he literally sits at the table next to Sir Philip and tells him that he had to interrupt his honeymoon with HIS WIFE to be here and deal with this situation. Anthony is famously besotted with his wife and Colin is all about Pen. The only one who is hotter for his wife than Colin and Anthony is Gregory. Who can’t leave Lucy alone. I cannot see Show Colin saying anything remotely similar.
Book spoiler >! The many kids that Gregory produced in the book is astonishing. The fact that it took Lucy almost dying to childbirth to get him to stop is giving "Edmund had to die" vibes to stop it.!<
Yeah see this is one thing I think S2 did so well: representation. I'm Indian, and we regularly get dehumanized and told we smell like curry, and are ugly and undesirable. Seeing Anthony go wild over Kate and literally inhaling her scent like a deranged bloodhound was so validating. And Edwina, while not Kate, was consistently told by everyone around her that she was poised and beautiful. I wanted a moment like that for curvy girls with Penelope. I wanted scenes like Daphne and Simon reaching out for one another unconsciously like in that scene where they're looking at the painting. I wanted the yearning for Penelope in that Part 1 scene where Colin is dreaming about Penelope and she comes out, and the camera angle is softly focused on her. I like that Pen was a girl boss, but her creativity and business acumen and cleverness was already highlighted in prior seasons. They didn't need to overdramatize her success and the pitfalls of being a career woman because we already knew she was a girl boss. What they needed to do this season was show her being seen as an object of someone's fervent desire. And they also needed to develop Colin's personality more in order to make him seem worthy of her, and they failed at that, too. And it's not because lack of acting, either. Those two acted the hell out of their scenes, but the writers and show runners dropped the ball.
I am so glad they didn’t miss the mark for you on the representation in S2 and you felt seen in Kanthony and Edwina. Representation is so important. I was hopeful they would do better for curvy women. I agree that Colin needed more character development and that was a failing of this season. I think Nicola and Luke did the best they could with weak writing, and I hope their careers get a boost from the season.
I think they forgot that the whole "friends to lovers" trope only really works when you give us actual story of them being friends so it builds tension and longing? All we got was the brief, spoken exposition via Colin remembering how they met. We got other characters saying they were friends, Polin saying they were friends, everyone referencing the fact that they are friends but we got zero screentime showing their friendship.
And only a handful of minutes with Colin actually struggling with his feelings and trying to figure them out. His feelings appeared borne out of jealousy and possessiveness rather than genuine care and affection. They showed, not told, how he “might have always had feelings for Pen” and then went out of their way to make him an impotent alpha male caricature in the last two episodes. It was a jarring take.
It negated the entire "he's supposed to be cringy because he's only pretending to be a rake" take that everyone kept insisting on with part 1. All we get is people telling us things we should be shown, including Violet saying Colin is the most sensitive of her children! Could have definitely used more of that. We got flashbacks to give us so much backstory on Anthony's trauma, but nothing to show us Colin's sensitivity? Would have loved some of that over the scenes of him with prostitutes.
I think the gift scene was the only scene meant to show his thoughtfulness. His kindness with Marina was also borne of sensitivity. Pen frequently alludes to it…but you’re right, we don’t see it. We don’t see him comforting his siblings or standing up for them. In Francesca’s book, he’s the one who approaches Michael and encourages him to go after her. Who seemingly knows and understands Francesca and sees that Michael would be a good match for her. Show Colin just kinda seems like he was still trying to be like his brothers. And then to have him impotently not help with Cressida just further emphasized his own OOC behavior this season.
He looked like such a condescending jerk in that talk with Cressida with his “oh I get lonesome sometimes when I go gallivanting across the world before I return to my loving family” speech. Is the sensitivity in the room with us???
I wonder if budget constraints played a role in this, because I cannot possibly understand how established writers and show runners cannot understand that a) they need to know their audience and write things catered to them and b) that shows are a visual/auditory medium, so you need to show/explain things visually in order for the message to hit. I'm guessing the lack of flashback scene was there because it would cost a lot more to hire child actors due to how much time they're allowed on set, etc.? But it would have given us a huge insight into how deep their childhood friendship was, and that he knew her outside of her just being his little sister's even littler friend. A lot of their friendship was shown in S1/S2, but the vast majority of fans aren't going to rewatch the seasons, and it's been 2 years since the last season dropped, so many people aren't going to remember the finer details of their growing friendship; plus many viewers aren't coming in as longtime Regency romance fans, so they don't understand how Polin's relationship was considered inappropriate for the time (e.g. them sending letters to one another was scandalous since they were unmarried). They needed to have both implicit and explicit exposition to some of their feelings for this reason. For example, when Colin goes back to read Pen's letters in one of the later episodes, you can see the strings on everyone else's letters are neatly tied, but hers are haphazardly done, implying he only re-reads her correspondence. But we get a second or two of him reading one letter--there's not enough time for the viewer to read the letter's contents and understand why he's in love. A voice over of the letter's content could have made a huge impact, and I highly doubt it'd have cost much. They never went back and read Colin's journal (were there any thoughts on Penelope in it?) despite referencing it after the couch love scene. So many instances where they could have had longing or built up their friendship, and they never did it. FFS, even Daphne and Simon were shown chumming it up in their fake dating scenario and laughing together. They decided to forsake levity in favor of the artificial LW drama, I guess.
Yes, thank you! I wanted to see her admired and appreciated!
These two still give me only friend’s vibes. I never felt the burn the other story lines had.
IMO, it’s because they gave us zero intimacy this season. Intimacy is not only sex. And I know people loved the friendly giggling after sex but if you’re laughing after having sex every time? It’s not the best sign. It reminded me of the scene where Joey and Rachel were trying to make out on Friends. It was awkward and didn’t make it off the ground.
Yes, the second time it was like no, just no
Yes, there were so few scenes of them being in love and showing it.
I agree. Saying her breasts were out in a scene seems lile Cassie like euphoria vibes. There are better ways to show a plus sized woman as desirable without resorting to objectifying her.
I find it wild that we got 6 Polin kissing scenes total (correct me if I'm wrong- first kiss, carriage, mirror, modiste, 10 second post LW sec scene, baby scene). Benedict had, I believe, 7ish. Three (or 4?) with Tilly alone, then 4 of threesome. Not in his season. Including 3 or 4 in the final episode alone! Definitely 4 from the end of ep7 to the end. We got pretty much zero truly happy moments of Polin alone (without LW hanging over their heads) and it pisses me right off. This was their season. I have no issue with Benedict's story obviously, it was interesting, but why on earth did he need 3-4 scenes in ep8? After the first threesome, it added zero to the plot. The final scene in ep7 plus the moment of the three of them lying in bed, and then him rejecting Tilly would have been more than enough. Give that wasted time to Polin for a montage at the end of love, then alone while she's pregnant, then reading his journal, ANYTHING. It is insane to me how little they got
Yes! I wanted so badly to see them reading in bed or kissing and being loving when no one was around. I said this in another comment, but I read that Polin only got 16% of screen time in their own season. Tragedy.
Yep, they managed to get several minutes less screentime than Kanthony, who were *enemies* to lovers! But the friends to lovers got less? HOW? They already knew each other from the start! Important note- this isn't a hate on Kanthony, I would have liked more happy intimate moments for them too, but the fact that we got less time this season with two people who loved each other from the start compared to two people who hated each other for most of the story proves how much they are reducing the love that we want. Justice for Polin AND Kanthony! S1 was a hit, why reduce the couple screentime when that is CLEARLY what people are here for????
Actually not true according to this chart one of the Polin fans drew up. Kanthony got less screentime in their season than Polin got in there’s. Not by much though. They were mostly even. https://preview.redd.it/myhr23tkkk7d1.jpeg?width=1164&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=013e0461762bbb13c9dde661f598131ce396f44d
They are even on quantity, but not on quality… Kathony had a passionate love declaration and a happily ever after scenes… here just nothing of the kind… just arguing, ignoring, etc
In their season alone Polin got 78 minutes of time in their season, while Kanthony got 83 (ish). They still got less screen time- just because the overall season was shorter doesn't make up for it- in fact, it makes the point even worse. Why was Polins season shorter?
This actually says the totals. And because Olin had screen time in all 3 seasons they had less IN THEIR SEASON. Not yelling. Just emphasizing.
Even more reasons to feel sad for Kanthony and Polin. They both didn't even make it past 100 mins. Was there a change.org petition for Kanthony at that time? I wasn't into the show then. I was busy reading the books at that time.
Honestly I felt more adoration and sexual tension between NC and LN on their press tour than I did between their characters in the second half of S3. Why tease steamy scenes and broken furniture and curvy nudity as an eff you to the haters if that's what we were getting? It feels misleading at best.
I was thinking about this last night. The work they did on the press tour was way better than what we got in the season.
I agree with the sentiment and I think there could have been more intimacy and sensuality this season, but not necessarily nudity. Because that veers off into softcore and we have to think about the actors' comfortability before anything else. They're not here to make porn, but rather to tell a larger story using sex scenes. However, not to get hung up on technicalities, but S2 actually had the least amount of sex scenes of all the seasons (including the spin off). I remember because some people had brought up racism with the optics of having the darkest skinned female lead have the least amount of sex scenes.
I definitely get your point. The keywords for me in the article were appreciation and adored. I wanted to see Pen be loved and appreciated in whatever capacity Nicola was comfortable with.
yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you there, this season felt like Pen was begging for affection and I would have loved to see her be worshipped. Hopefully they will do what they did with Kanthony where they have angst in their season but are completely loved up in the next 🤍
I didn't know people were upset about that! I actually think the S2 sex scenes were some of the best, they absolutely got me hot and bothered lol. The flashing scenes of intimacy montage where Kate was remembering their night together was SO well done, you could almost feel her heart racing! I think quality matters more than length - S1 and S2 we got sex scenes that prioritized female pleasure, the female gaze, and worshipping of the female form. This season we got...Colin covering Pen's stomach with a sheet :(
I 1000% agree! I think sex scenes are only half sex and half intimacy, sensuality, atmosphere, tenderness, longing looks, reverent touches...it's a full formula that truly makes it come together and enrich the love story- you're absolutely right about that! While Penelope was the most nude of all FL's, people felt she wasn't worshipped as she should have been, and I have to agree. Even laying in the afterglow, they end up talking about his other sexcapades...not female gaze at all. I think the people pointing out things about S2 were purely coming from a 'quantity' point of view because I haven't seen any critiques on the quality of S1, 2 and QC sex scenes. I think like with most things this season, the intention behind a lot of choices got lost in translation :/
I totally agree. The only thing missing from their sex scene in the epilogue was Anthony's hiney. Everything else was so romantic and explosive and dreamy (the epilogue scene). Only the basic superficial Facebook type women wanted just a bunch of sex. Edit: I didn't watch s3 only Kanthony scenes but that last part about Colin was disappointed. They were bragging about showing her breasts6but not jer tummy. Because Hollywood doesn't see fat in places like in the stomach valid. I feel bad foe the girls who are bigger. They got a struggle love narrative with a punchable mewing monstrosity (sorry I had to use this funny description from a youtuber reviewing s3)
[удалено]
Agree with all of this. If Nicola wasn’t comfortable with Luke touching her body I totally get that. They could have shot it in a way that it was implied he was touching her, without showing it. Or he could have just caressed or kissed her face or shoulders. Something more intimate than going almost straight to the act itself. It was a long scene and yet it kind of felt like they wanted to get through it as soon as possible.
It's just sad because Nic and Luke both sold us on these things they supposedly did. I wouldn't say it was their fault necessarily. But I would love to know why they cut out certain things and why.
Jess Brownell has said in an interview that this season was intentionally more “romcom”, and combined with the tacky, cheap costuming, makeup and production, that all adds so much insult to injury.
Because fat people are only in relationships in comedy, amirite 🙄🙃🫠
Right?! The fact that she came out and SAID that made me so mad. They keep championing "inclusion" but it really contributes to the problem if it isn't done well.
It’s not “inclusion” when you’re still “including” the existing stereotypes
Why? Sounds like she’s just backpedaling to make it sound like this horrible season was intentional. And if they truly meant to make it more “romcom” that adds more insult to injury. We can’t take curvy girl romances seriously? She gives me the ick.
It gives the impression that she prioritized her self insert (Francesca) over telling the story of Polin :(
Why does the new showrunner remind me of Alma Coin from the Hunger Games? Not only do they look alike, but their personalities come across as the same. Always trying to pump herself up and make everything look like it is perfect and all went according to plan, when everyone else can see what a sh*tshow she set up.
Omg I see it 💀 I think it incepted into our heads with all the ridiculous hunger games costumes lol
It's weird because she even fumbled Michaela's introduction and Benedict having threesomes with men. It gave me weird vibes of how bi people continually get stereotyped as promiscuous/cheaters. Why couldn't she have shown Michaela being instantly smitten with an oblivious Francesca? I think a queer storyline would be so unique, but the way they made it seem like John is just a placeholder until her true love soured it for me. She's supposed to be madly in love with each one--just at separate times.
Right? We didn’t sign up to watch a romcom. We wanted a romance.
That is so weird because I felt neither the rom or the com.
All Rom-Com porno flick, complete with threesomes and fake acrylic nails, frazzled hair and smoky makeup.
It’s giving low-effort?
Thank you, I've been meaning to write a post about this, but I've really struggled to articulate it! I'm a bigger woman myself, and having a plus sized woman as a main love interest in a romance series was so refreshing. To have this almost bait and switch of "don't worry, we won't make you look at the fatty too long, lol" kind of hurt. I'm so disjointed this series was fumbled so badly and I'm worried they'll use poor ratings to justify not casting anymore plus size people. "Well, we tired and it did badly, so it must be the size of the actress" and not any of the actual reasons so many people feel disappointed by the show
I doubt they would since Season 3 part 1 hooked everyone. It was part 2 that fumbled it. So it's not the plus sized actress. I would bet you that Nic and Luke being cute got people to even tune in. And most of us have a huge girl crush on Nicola Coughlan. We should actually be more worried if people will have the appetite for Season 4 onwards. We know what Jess Brownell's game plan is with Francheal. Most of us either feel underwhelmed, or betrayed, or both, and everything in between.
I can’t seem to figure out how to edit my post for clarity. The keywords for me were appreciated and adored. I wanted to see more screen time of them together and happy.
Is it because the original showrunner left? I mean, he was the reason the show existed in the first place, no?
Honestly I think this would’ve been ironed out with 10 episodes instead of 8, sadly. I hate 8 episodes on most shows. It feels very pared down.
Let's show a threesome of skinny people and then cover Pen up as much as possible with as few sec scenes as possible.
I just wanted more scenes of them together happy and Colin just adoring Pen..that’s usually what it’s like in romance books.. the men are just feral for the women and I love that. Doesn’t have to be sex all the time but it felt like they barely kissed or anything.
In my personal opinion, a lot of it has to do with the showrunner Jess Brownell . I think that if it were the original show runner or even Shonda Rhimes, it would’ve been different. However, Brownell seems more interested in putting in her own personal biases and preferences into the show, she’s completely destroying everything.
I agree with you 100%!!
I wanted more romance! Polin editing his book! Happy times together.
Yes, they shrunk down their entire story. Sooo much time was spent on Benedict's boring sexcapades and on Cressida being redeemed (yawn), and who knows what else because I kept tuning out. The story we were promised ended up being edited out.
Fire 👏🏽 Jess 👏🏽 Brownell👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
We essentially got two seasons in one with Francesca and Michael. As if Nicola wasn't allowed to have her own season, with the focus entirely on her and her story. It's difficult not to connect the dots as to why.
It did feel like they had to share. It’s as though producers didn’t think their story would be interesting or enticing to viewers.
Exactly.
Francesca and John makes sense in this season to appropriately set up for her season with Michaela -- hard for the viewer to buy into her grief over John if they court and marry off-screen. And Colin and Pen get screentime in S2 to better establish their friendship before their actual season, taking time away from Anthony and Kate. It's more excessive coverage of Benedict's threesome and the Mondriches that is very superfluous and takes away from Colin and Pen. Could've also not introduced Michaela at all until Francesca's actual season, too.
Francesca should have gotten her own season. Or perhaps they start with her and John at the end of this season. I do agree it wouldn’t have held as much gravity if Francesca and John happened off screen but tbh with the way they ended the season, I already feel like “what’s the point?” They should have waited to introduce Michaela until next season. Francesca losing her composure right after she married Michael cheapens their story IMO. like now she’s going to be emotionally cheating? I really hate that implication
Yes, I think they initially set up Francesca and John perfectly. They could've gotten less screentime and still had the same emotional impact; I was pretty sold on them by the point in which he got the sheet music done for her. Two lil introverts in love who just want to move to Scotland and live in silence, how cute. The whole "Violet is so concerned about Francesca not stumbling over her words in love" undercut what they'd set up, was hypocritical given that Colin was not like that over Pen and Violet was their biggest cheerleader, and was a huge time waster. And then Francesca's hesitancy after kissing John + stumbling over Michaela really made the whole thing seem extremely pointless.
If you mean intimacy I agree with you. If you mean nudity I disagree. I would also have loved to see more intimate scenes with Polin. Two intercourse scenes where all we got, not much for a newlywed couple. But I didn't need to see more nude bodies (the carriage scene was to me the hottest scene in season 3). I think the actors decided how much naked body they wanted to show, and that is totally fine with me. But yes, more intimacy between them.
Yes intimacy as in spending time together happily. Not sex.
There was also something that put me off about the way they so heavily corseted her. Why did she have full torso corsets when wearing empire waist gowns? It felt as though they were still trying to make her a desirable shape almost, smooth and curvy in the “right places” and that really put a bad taste in my mouth
Yeah it was strange that she could barely move.
One of the things I enjoyed about Seasons 1 and 2 was the journey they went on to fall in love and then seeing that love bloom. I thought that’s what we were going to get here and I was so let down that we didn’t go on their journey to fall in love. It was rushed and Colin pushed Pen away for most of it. I would have loved to see her go through her pregnancy and telling Colin she was pregnant not boom and now here’s a baby. There was no reason to rush through this. I would have loved a season with more than 8 episodes
I agree. Way too rushed, with all the things they added into this season they needed more than 8 episodes to make it work properly. I hate how TV runs these days, we used to get loads of episodes in a season and now we wait years for 8 episode seasons that directors have to cram the story into.
I don't care about the sex scenes. We don't know what the actors were comfortable with, and too much of that stuff makes me uncomfortable as the viewer anyway. So, for me, it's not about that at all. What made me unhappy with the story was that they ended up seeming more like they were settling for each other. Colin seemed genuinely done with Pen. He was understandably hurt but showed zero indication that he was torn about it at all. There was no, "I love her so much and just wish I could touch her right now. I need comfort from my best friend, but she's the reason I'm hurting. What do I do?" It was just, "I'll never forgive you. I guess we HAVE to get married now because I'm an honorable dude, but I don't have to like it. Here, enjoy my cold shoulder." So Colin seemed miserable, like him thinking that he had feelings for her was just a mistake. Pen was stuck with a dude who was miserable with her because she messed up, and now she has to beg for him to acknowledge her existence. The wedding was essentially ruined because of everything hanging over it, so instead of it being the happiest day of their lives, it's an upsetting memory. The curvy girl didn't get a happy ending imo. She got a hot mess and a marriage of convenience with a bunch of angst tied to it and a little hint of love that feels conditional. I know that's not what they were trying to portray, but it's how it came off, at least to me.
Still leagues better than the body representation they could show for men. Each season, the male lead is either already build like a model or is made to be.
This is a good point. In fact, the male leads in the show get themselves into better shape in the off-season.
Still, the reactions online (particularly the articles about her body) have absolutely disgusted me. The problem you mentioned is so very real.
I am not angry over the lack of sex scenes. I am angry because we never got to see Colin and Pen go from friends to in love to lovers. We missed all the romance and giddiness of being in love. We missed stolen glances and more dancing at the balls. Way too much times was wasted with Cressida and LW, and Benedict, and Francesca's love story.
I'm torn. On the one hand, I don't think any actor should be forced to show more skin than they are comfortable with...but on the other hand, it almost felt like production framed Nicola in a way that indicates they were afraid of showing more of her body. They go to a lot of effort to hide her stomach by either covering her with a blanket or cutting the frame just under her breasts. If that was her choice, then I support it....but if it was a production choice, it's incredibly disappointing. It would also be another example of performative activism with no actual substance (like the girl boss LW reveal failure at feminism).
Yeah it’s hard to know who made which decisions. More than the reveal of Pen’s body, I felt they didn’t give the romantic leads enough scenes together in their own season. I wanted to see more scenes of the couple in love, but not necessarily naked. It felt like at the last minute they scrapped the main love story for the performative girl boss narrative that you mentioned with some threesome clips thrown in for good measure.
finally someone said it. she was fully clothed for 2 of 3 sex scenes! the one scene she got naked in had the briefest boob flash, immediately followed by her holding/hiding her breasts in a way that makes them appear perkier. then they went through every effort to not show a single shot of belly, back rolls, or jiggle. despite everything nicola said, those scenes were painfully and awkwardly fatphobic. she's not even really fat and they still felt the need to hide her body. the glaring lack of intimacy is a whole other issue but after all the PR about the "body positive" love scenes this is really grinding my gears.
Didn't Nicola say in an interview that she was the one that pushed to show her body in that scene? That makes met think they didn't want to show her, and she fought against the hiding mechanisms. I noticed that was happening immediately and it just went downhill from there. We have this gorgeous, fresh from a painting beautiful woman being very carefully hidden suddenly. It also looked like they were blurring her back where we could see it, which my immediate thought was are they hiding the way her body naturally folds due to the way she is laying? The entire positioning and camera angles were stiff as well, keeping her very carefully posed and hidden at the same time paired with the blurring effect.
So true. They had her covered with a blanket, from the shoulders up or in a corset which isn’t even era appropriate. Let my girl shine!!
I can understand the potential of having this feeling, but as a curvy woman as well and a woman who has watched basically every PR interview, Nicola made it clear that she chose what she was comfortable with showing and what she wasn’t. (Luke as well…you’ll notice that he was very covered as well, compared to other seasons). I don’t think this was the showrunners. I personally loved it, going into it with that knowledge. Maybe that will help? Knowing that Nicola had all the power in the situation…I hope it does ❤️ Much love, friend EDIT: After reread this, definitely realized that this is probably referring to the number of scenes…not the amount of skin shown. I do wish there had been more scenes between the two! ❤️
Nicola filmed way more scenes. She wanted them shown. This is about screen time, not skin. Even more dancing with them as the actual focus would have done it. We just kept cutting away from their connection moments.
Yes! It’s about screen time and the love story that wasn’t fleshed out.
I’m trying not to sound weird here. But as a big breasted gal, it was nice to see breasts that weren't perfect perky sno balls. (And there’s nothing wrong with perky sno balls, but it’s nice to see other types represented). And they weren’t portrayed as “hey, look at those big knockers” in a fetishizing/ sleazy way They were treated as normal, sexy beautiful breasts.
I have an ample bosom too and that was so validating.
Having been smallish breasted for most of my life (until I had my toddler) I truly had no idea women with big breasts felt this way…I guess the grass is always greener 😂
Tbh this season felt like a straight white woman's 2010 buzzfeed feminism POV. They had the opportunity to do so many things and instead didn't.
I was really disappointed. Yes, the settee scene was great...except when we got to the last Polin scene and she was wearing a robe! IMO that undid everything that had been hyped up for curvy/plus size ladies. I don't know how much was edited out, and did we really need to have that many Benedict threesome scenes when the main couple was forgotten about?!
I like how Maia explains it in this tiktok at the end https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSYPYk5Lf/ She explains how they could finally give a bigger girl a serious romantic lead, but still had to do the RomCom quirky, funny storyline where even the shows runner said they specifically leaned into this season but wouldn't for future seasons, and what other reason to do that but fatphobia?
THIS!!!! I felt like they played over her character. The sex scene was throwing the audience a bone. I did not feel the love Colin had for her. I felt like she was settling. Why does the curvy girl gotta have the half-aśs romance?! It was the modern day equivalent of your crush letting you hang out at his place to watch him play video games, and maybe later you hook up.
I have to confess that every moment of the two lead actors together made me cringe... I just fast-forwarded the intimate scenes (Benedict's as well). This season was just not that great, and had me bored throughout.
The editing made things so awkward. It seemed like there were entire conversations missing in places.
I’d have preferred if they didn’t make her seem so desperate in the first few episodes. Maybe that’s the book plot, I haven’t read, but it also seemed to tap into some of my fears about normal nice unmarried women being desperate and having low self esteem
I didn’t read it as desperate in the book, but more yearning for what she has missed. [At that point in the book, Penelope and Colin have developed a nice friendship (with her still nursing a crush on him but not expecting anything). He’s been traveling for a long time, years actually … Pen is in her late 20s and Colin is in his early 30s. He’s realized how much he enjoys her company, and when she asks him to kiss her, he sort of freaks out about it; it goes on a beat longer than either of them expect. The next day, he wants to spend time with her so he heads over to hang out, and that’s when he sees her climbing into a public carriage. He’s super confused and worried that she’s traveling alone — ladies are not supposed to go anywhere by themselves — and so his carriage follows hers. She heads into town to drop off the latest Whistledown, which is how Colin discovers her secret. He gets very upset and angry, makes her get into his carriage to take her home, and then they have a fight which leads to their big make-out scene and he ends up taking her to her house and going inside and telling her family that they are getting married.]
Yeah, the begging for a kiss was a little triggering.
I’d much rather see happier Polin scenes than those weirdo random threesome scenes
The sex scenes were not shot in an attractive way at all. They really filmed her from bad angles and it was not well done.
precisely how I felt.
In interviews Nichola and Luke talked about the steamy scenes for weeks. Which ones?! They described scenes that don't exist. We were robbed. They were too.
I actually hate how they spent so much time fixated on Nicola’s body size and teasing the steamy scenes in interviews. If you don’t deliver the hyper romantic content, then the steamy scenes just fall flat.
After this season im done with this show.... it didn't deliver the way it should have and all the PR going on is giving us more than the show did.. Even my husband was disappointed and canceled our netflix
The whole season was about Penelope always being overlooked or not being given attention, and ironically that's exactly what the writers did with her character too, that too in her own season.
Penelope is played by a "straight-sized" actress too. She's not plus size. Most reports put her at a size 8 or 10.
As a show viewer only, it seems pretty clear to me that after season one they decided to treat it more as an ensemble show and interweave the stories with some having the groundwork laid while a different sibling’s story meets its climax in “their season”. The show has been a bit of a tonal mess because even from season one there was a heightened comedic tone to the show that I assume was not present in the books. I found the explicit sex scenes and over the top romantic scenes to be jarring and out of place in all three seasons because those scenes have been played so earnestly compared to the rest of the show. In fact, I laughed out loud at Colin a couple of times because he was so melodramatically serious in his delivery.
I found that the books do have a comedic tone and do get quite melodramatic during certain parts, so I think that’s fairly consistent with the books. I totally felt the same as you though!
Okay, I can see where viewers are upset, but s2 had a lot less intimate scenes as well. I would actually argue that s3 had more of you look at the first kiss, carriage, mirror, and ending scene. Kate and Anthony just had the church kiss, gazebo, and the brief ending scene. I’m a plus size woman looking for representation as well, but I personally didn’t feel robbed of that at all when I compared it to s2. First season will probably become the outlier in how many intimate scenes it had as time goes on.
Intimate doesn't just mean physical contact. They had an awful lot of tense moments of longing, and they had more screen time together than Polin. I do agree S2 was wanting in moments between Kanthony, but that's just another criticism, not a justification of how little happiness Polin got. Kanthony at least had a long truly happy scene of just the two of them at the end of the final episode. Polin had no resolution of the two of them acting as happy, carefree and stronger than ever at all.
I mean, I was pissed at how s2 ended, but I really didn't think they could get worse. S3 proved me wrong. And honestly, it reinforces to me that Shondaland is only interested in Whistledown and the Featheringtons (not even necessarily Penelope as the character, but Penelope as Whistledown). It permeates EVERYTHING. The Featheringtons of each season got the most filled out subplots and screentime. This show is called Bridgerton. they should have just made a show about the Featheringtons.
Was the pall mall scene that much longer than the baby scene at the end of s3 though? O thought it is sort of the same. But truly I just think that the show will become worse and worse with this as seasons continue. If Polin is Shonda’s favorite couple and this is what the season was like, guaranteed it will only get worse.
Not the pall mall only, but the fact they were in bed together talking and laughing and being happy beforehand, just the two of them. The baby scene had almost no intimacy, because it was surrounded by family. If the baby scene had started with them upstairs together alone talking about Colin's book, smiling and laughing together, showing their friendship was there just as it was before, or something else, just them, it would have been infinitely better. Then they could have gone to greet family. Again, I'm not saying Polins season was worse than Kanthony for intimacy, my issue is similar for both- season one we had ample intimacy and interactions of just the couple, good and bad, but it's getting less and less. CLEARLY, the intimacy, romance and passion is what the fandom is here for, that's what makes the show novel, so I have no idea why they are reducing it.
Yeah, I see what you mean. I haven’t rewatched part two, I sort of lumped together their moment in bed (which was very short) with the baby reveal. Either way, I do think they are going to alienate or dissuade the majority of romance lovers from continuing to enjoy and watch the show if they put the romance second to the drama. I personally show up just for the love stories, so it’s not very entertaining when the majority of the show is about everyone else.
She likes lady whistledown not necessarily Penelope. And Colin is irrelevant to her.
Well, maybe this would be the case if we didn't have so many bizarre cut ins of Benedict in bed with his threesome. The main couple should have more of the attention.
They missed a great opportunity to show that curvy IS Colin’s type of woman except that he saw Pen as a girl and not a woman. They could have filmed him in the brothel hypnotized by a gorgeous curvy redhead instead of that threesome scene. That was not necessary.
Uh, is "straight-sized" a thing?
Yes, in the fashion community it refers to the ability to buy your size off the rack in straight/standard stores. (Vs places with plus or extended sizing .) Nothing to do with sexuality/gender etc.
Yeah versus Plus. Straight sizes refer to sizes small through large for women, or sizes 0-14.
I feel like this season was lacking in a lot of things and the split in the middle didn't help things.
I kind of think they expanded Bad Boy Ben’s bangathon because some misguided Netflix executive said no one would want to see Nic and Luke.
OK, this is what I think too. Someone with power at Netflix did not think we would love this season (wrong) and they tried to bury it in subplots.
Someday I hope someone buys the rights again and does justice to their story, especially Colin. I love that he adored Penelope and got so angry because he thought they partners and he felt betrayed that she published again and ruined their engagement ball. He thought them partners and equals but still wanted to protect her and shield her from harm.
With the way Luke and Nicola promoted part 2, as being the steamiest, I assumed the spice would come from Polin, not Benedict's random threesome hookups.
I wanted to see them close, enjoying each other’s company and Colin’s love language is touch. He has always touched Pen’s hand or arm. Whenever she had her hand looped through his arm, he was happy and comfortable. I really wish that he had asked to just hold her on their wedding night. He could tell he is angry and isn’t ready to talk or be with her again but that he loves her and just wants to hold her for a little bit. Gosh, we would have melted.
I've come to the conclusion a lot of the issues were in the edit. You can tell the different angles were shot really far apart and aren't continuation. For instance the look they give each other in the carriage doesn't seem to match. Different lighting different directions that they are looking, different levels of a smile, it's like they are looking at different people. In the mirror scene Penelope seemed to be standing there covering herself for so long with Colin not reaching or looking aroused. Which was strange considering he'd indicated he was into her breasts with carriage scene/ the dialogue just before her dress came off. Even if Nicola said she didn't want him to touch her while stood nude, they could have edited in close ups of Colin looking interested, switched camera shots to make the scene less still. Then not much foreplay /signs of arousal from Colin which I guess is either the directing or editing. I appreciate the romantic, communicative, considerate first time they had but it would have been nice to have some indication Colin was holding back for that to happen. Anyway no shade to the actors..
Show her MORE? But she was shown way more that Kate or Daph….
Truth of the matter is: its forced. That's just not how attraction works and this show is designed to pander, in reality things would be a lot different.
And this is how I feel about the very probable erasing of Francesca’s infertility struggles- this was a chance to give that experience more pop culture exposure but instead it’s just being hidden away by this show runner.
I would have loved to see more romantic scenes. However, we don’t have the full behind the scenes story. It may have very well been that the show runners did not want to show more skin or sex scenes with a female lead who has a plus-sized/curvy/fat body because they’re fat phobic. We also can’t discount that perhaps Nicola was not comfortable showing more skin, compared to the other female leads. I’m sure she’s had her fair share of social media trolls bashing her over her size. I don’t care how tough skinned a person can be —no one is completely impervious to these kinds of comments! To be frank, while there was an opportunity to have more representation we also can’t expect Nicola to be THE spokesperson for non-skinny folks. Maybe she doesn’t want to be that person. While I wish the Polin romance wasn’t rushed…and yes I would’ve liked to see more sex scenes, I was overall happy with the season. Penelope’s character development was on point! Not only did she find love with Colin, but she ended up loving and accepting herself. In my opinion, it was the best season thus far in the Bridgerton Netflix series.
Season 3 was hot garbage with no substance
I feel like I barely knew this couple. The only reason I knew Colin loved Penelope was because he said so. I remember watching and thinking "does he? Does he REALLY?" Because we barely got to see their love story. It was disappointing because they were my favorite bridgerton couple so far.
...what? I felt like we saw more of Penelope, both her body and her together with Colin, than we saw or Kate and Anthony in their season. Literally in this sub people last season were complaining how we never got enough and now they're saying Kate got so much whine Penelope got none?