anamika

Just heard the news. There's a plot synopsis/summary here and details on new cast members. https://www.shondaland.com/inspire/shondaland-bridgerton-behind-the-scenes/a46095958/bridgerton-season-3-premiere-date/ The plot being so similar to season one means Luke Newton's character will be following in Rege-Jean Page's Simon's footsteps on the show. I am hoping this goes more in the direction of a romcom than season one, less drama more comedy in terms of finding Penelope a partner - Nicola does comedy so well.

I feel like the show wants us to root for Nan and Guy because they get together in the unfinished novel and the '95 miniseries. But Theo comes across as a nice fellow and didn't Guy want to marry her for her money in the first place? Is it a love triangle? Seadon is such a repulsive worm and the actor plays him perfectly. I find the stories of Lizzy/Jinny, Conchita and Mabel/Honoria more interesting than Nan's tbh.

So I enjoyed this and maybe it's because Shonda Rhimes wrote this herself, the characters were better fleshed out, three dimensional and complex compared to the Bridgerton verse. The show was better served from the tight focus on it's central characters instead of the bazillion side plots of Bridgerton. Charlotte and George had enjoyable, fun chemistry and Lady Danbury is a stand out for me. She deserved better. The costumes, the dances, the love story- yeah, there's a reason this show is popular. I just wish they went with colour blind casting instead of this 'Great Experiment' and some middling racism that whitewashes a period of slavery and genocide against black and brown folks. Why is the racism necessary when it does not contribute much to this story? I think tackling George's mental health issues gives us enough story as is without Augusta being take aback by Charlotte' skin colour. Unlike the fictional duke and viscount of Bridgerton, this king ruled over colonies where horrors where inflicted on the indigenous people. When these characters talk about their line living on, I am reminded of how the monarchy is a racist institution that build it's wealth on the blood and destruction of the former colonies. Watching this was frustrating in that respect, that Charlotte and George were actual people, no matter the fictional white washing of the evils of the monarchy.

Looks like promotion has started.

Journalists when Phoebe Dynevor is like 50 and holding an Oscar: " Do you think the Duke will be back on Bridgerton?" 🤦‍♀️ Also this show is poorly planned. It's called Bridgerton and yet 50% is about the Featheringtons and Lady Whistledown. It's written more like an Anthology for each couple which then makes it weird for the missing siblings in future siblings' love stories. Considering it's been renewed for 4 seasons, I wonder if they will simply start combining characters and couples for season 4 and 5 and be done with it. I honestly can't see many of these actors being back in the seasons for the two youngest siblings.

I don't there is going to be much of Kate or Anthony either. It's already going to be crowded with Colin/Pen, Francesca's story of possibly meeting and marrying her husband and set up for either Benedict (meeting Sophie) or Eloise. So yeah, no Daphne to be expected. And without Simon and no recasting, her popping up without her hubby and Anthony's good friend is not going to look good either.

Very likely Daphne is not around in season 3

some Deets. https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a41402503/queen-charlotte-bridgerton-release-date-cast-plot/ First episode listed on imdb: Queen to be

New Still! ngl, I am more excited for this than Bridgerton season 3. The cast is starting to do some promo so hopefully we get a trailer or premier date soon.

A little Bridgerton season 3 snippet on one of the UK morning shows

First look at the young Lady Danbury

First Look released for Tudum!

Just learned that Bailey has been cast in Wicked which has apparently started filming? He's also in Fellow Travelers which is filming till December. I am guessing he is just doing cameos in Bridgerton at this point. I wonder if this is still happening...

Do you know if we are getting a separate forum thread for the Queen Charlotte spin off or will be discussing episodes in this one? Thank you!

Pen/Colin seems to be a favorite among book readers. They have their fans. Unfortunately, I am in the same boat as you and finding it hard to dig up any excitement for Colin and Penelope and their story next season. I feel like I have been overexposed to them at this point. Nothing new and novel about characters and show (season one) or an exciting new dynamic (Anthony/Kate) to look forward to. Colin is boring. Penelope is an all-round terrible friend profiting off gossip that includes her best friend and the man she loves. The Pen/Colin story arc we look to be getting seems to be another version of Daphne/Simon with Colin trying to get Pen a husband. Additionally not a fan of the jealousy trope at all. I didn't like it when Pen was throwing angry looks at Colin whenever he was talking to another woman and I am not going to like it when Colin does the same next season. I am going to watch next season mainly for the Kate/Anthony crumbs, the older ladies - Violet, Lady Danbury, Portia - being delightful, Benedict making faces in the background and hopefully Francesca ushering in new story arcs and fun new character dynamics.

Honestly, I felt season 2 was a vast improvement over season one because Kate was such a relatable and adult female lead on an equal footing with the male lead. I am not a fan of the naive heroine getting lessons from the Rake romance trope. Daphne's naivety and then ultimately finding out what Simon was doing, and then planning and engaging in a non-consensual sexual act made me pretty much dislike the character. On the other hand, Kate just beating Anthony at everything while he fell in love with her is the best part of their romance for me. The guy falling for a girl who is better than him at everything is something I love. I guess it's just personal preference? Plus, these two got married because they wanted to get married and just Anthony making sure this was what Kate wanted - issues of consent being very important - and Kate being equally feral for Anthony. I like that it was Kate who took the first step whenever they kiss or go at it. That she's fully into it - just the way she's caressing his head and holding him. I like how Kate had slutty Anthony on his knees... What little they gave us of Kate and Anthony was wholly enjoyable with a lot of humor and tension. I thought they did the enemies to lovers stuff well. If I have any complaints it's that they should have delved more into Kate's backstory and gave her trauma issues the same importance as Anthony. Instead of pointless cousin Jack subplots and the umpteenth version of Penelope going to the printers, they could have actually spend time fleshing out the female lead of the season. I still find it baffling that Penelope got the flashbacks and Kate didn't in Kate's season! Mary was completely sidelined in favor of Lady Danbury. And the Edwina-Kate relationship took a hit. This show had two charismatic actors with great chemistry and good acting chops and the showrunners decided that they should instead spend more time on the Featheringtons. Baffling.

So the plot for season 3 has been released. Looks very much like The Duke and I part Deux.

Fellow Travelers is shooting till December and Bailey is already in Toronto for filming. I don't know how long Bridgerton will film this time around. Last season production started in March, cast started filming in April and it ended in November. They also had two shutdowns due to Covid (I think July there was almost no filming because of a shutdown). Nicola Coughlan also filmed season 3 Derry Girls only in late October when S2 was almost done, while filming for Fellow Travelers will run concurrently with Bridgerton season 3. Filming this season is definitely going to be easier and faster I would think with not much of a lot of restrictions that were in place last season. That said, given that there are no strict quarantine rules in place (IMO there should be considering Covid is on the rise again) this time around, Bailey should be able to fly back and forth between Toronto and the UK and do both shows simultaneously. He can show up for the big family scenes and some Kate/Anthony scenes. I also feel like there should be more Kate in general considering that the show, and Anthony, made such a big deal about how his wife and the future Viscountess would be in charge of his siblings and presenting his sisters to society. Waiting to see if Simone Ashley is announcing any new projects. Season 3 filming pics spoiler:

Happy for the actors moving onto other shows, but yeah, it's disappointing that there's not going to be a lot of Kate and Anthony in season 3. Honestly, I have been expecting this from interviews with the new showrunner. She put Anthony and Kate at the same level as Daphne. I don't think we will be getting much from them. I think Francesca (Probably why the role was recast), Benedict and Eloise will be the secondary characters getting the big plots along with Polin. I wouldn't mind this so much (Their season is done) if the show had focused properly on it's season 2 leads instead of pointless Featherington side plots and LW drama. The writing for Kate especially left me wanting more for the character in season 3. I wouldn't mind if Kate got more scenes than Anthony - with Violet and Eloise and just running things for the Bridgertons. Oh well. It is what it is. At least after this season, hopefully there is less of the Featheringtons going forward.

Rege-Jean has confirmed on his instagram that he is not coming back to the show. Honestly, the tabloids should just leave him alone. The guy has moved onto bigger things and is very clearly not interested in reprising his role in Bridgerton. If the show really needs the duke they will simply recast the role like they did with Francesca. Or they will make it a running gag about the Duke being away somewhere whenever Daphne shows up baby in hand. Or they will just show the back of his head in shots.

From an Italian interview JB did for Variety Luke and Nicola posted pics from what seems to be beginning of prep for filming S3 With the new showrunner, Jess Brownell. They all seem very excited.

I doubt this is true, but I wouldn't mind seeing these two in scenes once again. Their chemistry was 🔥 Only fair that we get some Kate/Anthony and Daphne/Simon since Featheringtons, Marina and Pen/Colin took up plot time in both seasons.

So looking at the timeline, it's when Anthony sees Kate and Dorset together in episode 5, that he totally gets that the marriage is not going to work and it's a bad idea. It's also when Violet notices that he is unhappy with Edwina. Then we get the whole scene in the study where Violet encourages him to break off the engagement. Anthony tells her this is not possible because Edwina does not want to break off the engagement and he's duty bound to marry her now. We then get the Sheffield's dinner and Anthony sees an opportunity to end the engagement. He thinks that Violet and Lady Danbury could end it in such a way as not to harm Edwina's reputation, but Edwina would think it's because of the Sheffield dinner. He pretty much even explains to Kate why his marriage to Edwina is bad - that he would be emotionally cheating on Edwina with Kate if the marriage goes through. This is where my problem with Kate starts. I can understand Anthony - at the end of the day, he is not invested in Edwina's happiness. He's known Edwina only for the duration of the season. He selected her as his future bride after just one dance and a few questions. Edwina is like the Lord Berbrooke Anthony selected for Daphne last season - unmessy and uncomplicated, with whom he can have a simple family life with no problems like love entering the picture. However, Kate IS invested in Edwina's happiness. She wants the best for her little sister because she loves her dearly. So just because Edwina tells her that she loves the Viscount, Kate is going to go along with this farce and doom her sister to an unhappy marriage? This would be the point where ideally Kate should have explained the situation to Edwina and given Edwina the choice. Would Edwina have been happy with Kate when told the truth? No. She would have been angry and betrayed. But atleast she would have been given the agency to make the decision given all the facts instead of having Kate and Anthony do that for her. So instead Kate persuades Anthony to go ahead with the marriage for her sake. And therefore for the audience to understand where Kate is coming from and why she is doing this, we needed to understand Kate's trauma and how her sense of self is intertwined with serving her family due to a misguided feeling of having to earn her place with them. Kate feels like she does not deserve love or happiness or marriage, that Edwina should get what she wants - Anthony - and that it's her duty to see that this happens no matter what. As for Anthony pursuing Kate after breaking it off with Edwina: