Kirsty

That was a cute announcement video! I like Benedict and the actor playing him. So he's already got a massive advantage over Colin the dullest Bridgerton before the season ever airs. Fingers crossed this new showrunner can deliver a good season. 🤞 I wonder how far off it is? I guess 2026 is most likely. But possibly Christmas '26.

From the Media thread: I can totally understand that. Season 3 has lowered my expectations of the show in terms of production values, as the show looked cheaper this year. And, even though Bridgerton was never Shakespeare, this season has lowered my expectations in terms of the quality of the writing too. My guess is that Benedict will be the next lead. I enjoy Benedict and I like the actor playing him so that's good. But I enjoyed Benedict much more in Season 2 than in Season 3. In both seasons he was a side character with a few nice family moments. But in Season 2, he was given better and more enjoyable material. He got the art school plot and a comedy drug episode in addition to a new sexual relationship, and he stood in for Simon as a friend for Anthony. I felt like the show -- and as a result, the viewers -- had a much better handle on Benedict in Season 2. In Season 3 he got a boring relationship that turned into a boring threesome and ultimately his acceptance of his bisexuality. None of it was very well done or particularly enjoyable or gave me a strong sense of him. The most memorable thing about it was the never-ending threesome that the show kept cutting back to in ludicrous fashion in the season finale! It was like the show didn't know what to do with him this year. I get that perhaps Benedict is supposed to be aimless and lost when he meets his leading lady. But, even taking that into account, this season's lacklustre writing for Benedict is not very encouraging, particularly if it was supposed to be an on-ramp for a leading man. Season 2 was much stronger in that regard. It makes me doubt the new showrunner. Season 3 makes me suspect that the new showrunner is not as good as the old showrunner. I guess we'll find out!

This season was still fun to watch, but I didn't get the sugar-buzz from Penelope/Colin that I get from watching a good tropey romance. I attribute that to the fact that Colin is the dullest Bridgerton. Coming into this season, I knew both that Colin lacked charisma and that he was under-written. Your leading man can maybe get away with one of those issues, but not with both. So I expected the writers to give Colin a personality glow-up the way the show gave him a physical glow-up. I expected them to give him tons of good material -- like flashbacks to his travels or to his friendship with Penelope over the years -- to fill in the gaps. But they never did. In this episode, during his scene with Cressida, he has a monologue about himself and his loneliness, and then another about Penelope's invisibility in society. And I was like... Why has he never had scenes like this before? Why didn't we see this in Part One of the season? I needed the show to sell him to me as the leading man in the first part of Season 3. But I don't believe the writers were aware of that necessity. I guess they thought we had already got to know him and love him (the way Penelope does) in the first two seasons. What I needed in the first half of the season was to see what made him attractive and what made him tick, so I could see what Penelope is drawn to. Instead I saw him swaggering around in a slightly cringey way that was not attractive. In fact, the fandom seems to be split on whether winking Colin was supposed to be cringe-inducing or not! What a strange choice on the writers' part for their leading man. I will say that Colin grew on me a little in the back half of the season. I believed that he and Penelope loved each other. And they got some lovely scenes together. But, unfortunately, he was too blank and vacant for too long for the romance to work for me the way Anthony/Kate did or the way Daphne/Simon did. My ranking of the seasons is Season 2, then Season 1, then Season 3, based purely on how well the main romance worked for me.

Just like Season 2, then.

Yeah, one random "I've had an idea!" trip to get rid of Kate and Anthony is enough. Two of those in the same season is contrived and transparent. Was Penelope's wedding dress blush pink? She looked lovely. So I guess the way the show has chosen to resolve Penelope's double life is by deciding that the Whistledown gossip sheet is feminism now. Is there a handwave emoji? 👋👋👋 Moving on... Benedict is embracing his bisexuality. So much so that he had to rush out of his brother's wedding reception for some kind of emergency threesome 😆 It does feel like a do-over of an earlier storyline, but I suppose they're trying to do it right this time. I agree with people who say that Benedict looks older this year. Claudia Jessie, playing Eloise, is my favourite actor among the remaining unmarried Bridgertons. Her character is so lively! But if Benedict doesn't take the lead next then he's going to look like he's 45 in his season 😄 so I hope he's the romantic lead in Season 4. I've enjoyed the Cressida storyline this season and I have a huge amount of sympathy for her. That shot of her in the mirror, when she's sitting in her weird bedroom, surrounded by giant feathers and other mad costumery, with the only supportive person in her life giving her bad advice that will keep her friendless, was like something from a villain's origin story. I haven't watched the final episode yet, but I'm guessing she's going to out Penelope to win the prize money. Honestly, I find Cressida much more interesting than Colin. Still, Colin and Penelope got some lovely romantic scenes in the back half of this season. I liked their wedding dance in this one. Agreed.

I wonder why the showrunner is already talking about a two year wait for the next season. We know from Season 2 that it doesn't take two years. Not unless you have to deal with a pandemic or a big Hollywood strike or both. Christmas 2025 is a totally doable release deadline for them.

Well, I suppose he had to find out. They couldn't drag it out much longer. And Penelope and Colin had some sweet moments in this episode first. From the previous episode thread: You were right! But I'm very disappointed. The show and Eloise seem to have thrown Cressida under the bus. She is screwed, and she's lucky to have her mother fighting her corner because she just lost her only friend for... reasons? Eloise is now happier to be friends with the woman who wrote all the poisonous stuff than with a woman who didn't write any of it but who is pretending she did. I'm confused. I love Adjoa Andoh's voice. I wonder if she does any audiobook narration.

That's two good episodes in a row. I was waiting for Cressida to either overhear Eloise and Penelope, or else to figure it out herself, but I love this for her! I hope they can make this work and Cressida as Whistledown lasts beyond this episode. Maybe Penelope could pass the mantle to Cressida. Or they could work together. Perhaps Cressida could be the public face of Whistledown. I don't like that Eloise lied to Cressida's face about Whistledown. There's a kind of love triangle going on between Cressida, Eloise, and Penelope. Eloise and Pen still love each other, and you could see that Cressida was jealous of their connection during the after-dinner word game. All season it has been clear to Cressida that Eloise is still hung up on her ex-friend, and she has to keep reminding her that her friendship with Penelope is over. But a few things made me laugh in this episode: Lady Danbury's FILTHY look at her brother at the engagement party needs to be a meme immediately; the smart Featherington sister's crack at the stupider Featherington sister about their mother reading while pregnant with her; and Cressida 'Giant Sleeves' Cowper reacting to her future husband's line that sombre clothing is best and that as his wife she will wear grey or brown! The actor playing Colin lacks charisma, but his acting is perfectly fine when they bother to write for him. The writers have really done him a disservice by neglecting his character. Anyway, well played Colin for standing up to Portia on Penelope's behalf. That was his most heroic moment on the show. I haven't read the books so I don't know what the deal is with Francesca and John. I'm wondering if one or both of them is coded neurodivergent on screen. It was wrong of Penelope to have sex with Colin before telling him the truth about her secret identity. If the show was to stick strictly to historical romance rules, he can't back out of marrying her now because they have already slept together. The only excuse I can see for her on this score is her apparent ignorance about sex. I don't think that sleeping with him first was a calculated decision on her part, or intentionally manipulative, but it's terribly unfair to him.

Lady Whistledown's surprising engagement announcement reverberates through the Ton, while Penelope grapples with the need to disclose her true identity.

I don't think I've ever seen an aristocratic love interest on screen who looks like Victor Alli, the same way I had never watched a romance with a heroine who looks like Simone Ashley until last season. That's sad to admit! It seems pretty basic. So I appreciate that Shonda Rhimes is changing the game with her diverse casting policy. I have so much admiration for her. This was easily the best episode of the first four. My only real criticism is that some scenes were cut off abruptly in a slightly jarring way, but I believe that complaint is made about every season of this show. I loved getting a look inside Cressida's "welcoming" home where she is coming under severe pressure to find a husband. I was actually rooting for her in this episode, and I'm enjoying her friendship with Eloise. I hope she and Eloise can stay friends beyond this season. I'm afraid that she's either going to ditch Eloise once she finds a husband, or else Eloise is going to drop her once Eloise and Penelope eventually reunite. Penelope looked lovely. And when she and Colin laughed together at the end of their carriage ride, it was the nicest moment they've shared all season. This episode also provided the most insight we've ever had into Colin Bridgerton. That's not saying much, but I want to acknowledge it because it may be all the character work Colin gets for the rest of the show!

She tells him in this episode that she overheard those words.

The styling for Cressida is impressively hideous. (Sleeves like furniture! The Medusa hair!) I guess they're trying to hide the actress's natural beauty so she's always styled like she came straight from the Capitol in The Hunger Games. Speaking of hair, what was that one musician hiding under his ridiculous wig? 😄 I wasn't really feeling this episode. I think my enjoyment of the show relies heavily on the appeal of the main romance, and I'm not excited about Colin/Pen. I want to be! But their romantic development was all in Colin's facial expressions in this episode, as he felt lust, confusion and jealousy. And unfortunately, I don't find Colin charming or charismatic so his facial expressions aren't going to achieve very much on their own. He's more appealing when he's being a warmly chatty friend. As someone watching an episode a week, let me reassure all you binge-watchers: watching one episode a week isn't doing the show any favours. Bridgerton is proving too insubstantial for weekly viewing. It's a mess of sub-plots, most of them only semi-engaging at best, and a single episode doesn't develop any one of those sub-plots enough to make you more invested in it. So I'm most invested in Eloise/Penelope, because both of them have been main characters for three seasons, both actresses are good, and they had a fantastically dramatic breakup last season after two seasons of friendship. There's a new showrunner this season, right? I don't know how much to make out of that. Like, I loved season two. But I often found Edwina, Kate's sister, fake, stilted, and full of forced cheer. This season, I find a lot of the show to be like that. I want to see more realness, more warmth and intimacy. It didn't help that this episode had hardly any scenes set at home; it was almost all set at various social occasions where everyone was kind of performing.

Sweet ending to this episode. But forget Pen and Colin for a minute... The most improved character so far this season is Lady Cressida Cowper! I'm glad the show decided to humanise her. (I would watch a Cressida season; she's not bland.) Penelope slipped up when she told Colin that Lady Whistledown had to write about them because otherwise it would be suspicious. Yikes, Pen! That's going to come back and haunt you. The Colin threesome scene was all a bit too... Littlefinger's brothel on Games of Thrones. I half expected a drunk Tyrion to appear. Colin will never be my favourite Bridgerton, so I don't expect to enjoy this season as much as last season. But I'm ever hopeful that the show can surprise me and make a strong season of it. And so far, Pen/Colin is a nice, low-key, friends to lovers romance. However. I do wonder if there's actually more passion and drama in the Pen/Eloise relationship and storyline? I like this whole bit where they're estranged but they still care about each other.

I enjoyed it by the end but I thought this episode had a very slow start. I can't see it pulling in new viewers, and it seemed like that wasn't the intention either. It had little in the way of action or excitement or anything to dazzle. But Francesca is a breath of fresh air. I like that Eloise is a little different from how she was last season and that Colin has grown up some. Is everyone binge-watching all four episodes this weekend or spreading them out over the coming weeks? I plan to spread them out; we'll see if I can stick to the plan! 😀

That's a part of it; the strike ended in early November and I'm sure Netflix wanted to do more than a month of promotion for a new season of this show. But I'd also bet that, as a result of the strikes, the Netflix cupboard is looking a little bare this year, in terms of the desired exciting line-up of shows and movies that would draw in new subscribers and hold onto current subscribers. So there's a need to more carefully ration out the shows and movies they do have in the meantime, especially their heavy-hitters like Bridgerton.