anamika

This is why I wanted Kate's backstory so much. Her character really got shafted in the season in which she was the lead. Instead we got pointless cousin Jack scenes having dinner with the Cowpers etc. Kate should have got flashbacks defining her relationships with Mary and Edwina and losing her father when young. I have no idea why they did not use that scene in the library during the thunderstorm for Kate's backstory. Anthony's flashbacks and his complex relationship with Violet goes a long way in making us understand his abandonment issues and why he was so messy with Sienna and later with Edwina. We needed the same for Kate.

Discussions around Eloise remind me of the ones around Arya Stark in GOT. Where the 9 year old went 'Eww boys!' and the fandom decided she would never marry, have no romance or love life and is all about that single life even after she grows up. Eloise is in a Historical romance series. It's a given she will find love and marriage and the right man will come along one day and sweep her off her feet. Which man is the question. I find it interesting that Theo is most likely coming back for season 3 while Sienna didn't. No news yet on anything Benedict. The Benophie fans will riot if Benedict gets pushed to season 5.

Luke Newton posted some BTS of "S2 rehearsals with the bros 🤺" on twitter/instagram. https://twitter.com/lukenewtonuk/status/1531026197118844928 Adjoa Andoh on Kelly Clarkson said a character from someone's past maybe turning up. Nicola also compares Penelope to Walter White 😂 Calam Lynch who plays Theo refused to say whether he was or was not coming back in an interview and from his smiles it looks like he maybe returning. Looks like unlike Sienna, Theo may have a larger role.... If the show is determined to do Eloise/Philip, I honestly wouldn't mind if George Crane turned up alive. It's war after all. There's a lot of historical romance out there where dead soldier turns up alive after many years and everyone thought them dead. George comes back and Marina finally gets her happy ending!

The problem is that Marina is already a tragic character. As others have pointed out, unlike in the books, Marina is not some unknown entity. Her story and the ending to that story is already sad. Her going out that way in an already tragic tale just makes it worse. And tbh, Penelope getting her HEA with Colin and death for Marina would not be fun to watch for me personally.

I think Ruby Barker is an amazing actor. She brought a desperation and sadness to the character in season one that made her wholly sympathetic. I am not wed to the books and I honestly wouldn't mind, if Ruby can do it, to have Marina/Philip instead of Eloise/Philip - two people caught in the forced marriage trope falling in love. Parallel that with Eloise/Theo or introduce a new girl/guy for Eloise and make her bi. Have both stories in one season. I cannot imagine show Eloise with Philip. Anyways, I wish Ruby all the best and hope she comes out of this happy. She seems glad to work on Bridgerton and I hope the Bridgerton producers, cast and crew continue to support her.

Taking this to the non-spoiler discussion because I am not sure where to discuss the actors...

Oh sure, I am certain there was a lot of pressure on cast and crew to live up to the hype of season one especially when their break out star left the show and a lot of fans were saying they were no longer going to watch the series or hoping that the show fails because the story only works with the hot duke etc. I am talking more in terms of acting? As in Bailey understood the assignment and gave it his all in both seasons. As in the assignment being historical romance hero. As in forbidden love and yearning and unresolved sexual tension and longing stares. I thought Bailey proved he could do this with Kate considering how intense and passionate Anthony/Siena was. There was a reason a lot of book Kate/Anthony fans were disgruntled about this show only relationship because of how much chemistry there was with them. I am yet to get that sense of intensity with Colin. As I mentioned earlier, I am not even getting fun friendship chemistry between Colin and Pen in season two like I did with Anthony and Simon in season one. Again, this could be due to the writing. For example, Simon was written as so repressed that there was not a lot emoting that Page could do. I didn't totally buy into his passion for Daphne. On the other hand, I can believe that Anthony is barely restraining himself with Kate. Just the way he looks at her, the jaw clenching, the near kisses, the low talking. As good as an actor Page is, Bailey was able to match him in season one. Luke Newton has been unable to step up the same way in two seasons - mostly because the writing has majorly failed him. Luke Thompson as Benedict has been given more build up and emotional beats to follow Bailey's Anthony as a romance hero. As @Kirsty said, Colin's going to be almost a new character, a blank state next season. He needs a lot of good writing, needs to build up a good friendship chemistry with Pen first and then turn that into smouldering romantic passion. That's a tall order and no easy task, which is my point. As an aside, I found this bit from an EW interview funny. I hope Luke Newton addresses any comparisons with the same humor 😂!

I don't know who it was who first said this, but Jonathan Bailey is able to bring to the screen descriptions that romance writers have long used on the page. We now know what it means when someone writes -'His eyes darkened with passion'! It's no wonder he is being compared to romantic heroes from Darcy to Heathcliff. Bailey also brings an intensity and passion to the character that gives him chemistry with pretty much every other character. There were many folks shipping Anthony/Siera in season one and disappointed that this was a doomed relationship. Bailey is therefore a tough act to follow and there will unfortunately be comparisons for whomever is the lead next season. Poor Luke Newton. I can't imagine the pressure.

Reading these discussions made me realize how much they didn't write for Colin and why he feels so lackluster as a character. Benedict-Eloise have their special sibling relationship. Anthony-Daphne have their close relationship. Anthony and Benedict are close brothers. Eloise has her friendship with Penelope. Benedict with his art group and Madame Delacroix. Violet dragging Anthony every chance she got over two seasons and their complex mother-son relationship. Violet looking to Benedict to look after his siblings. Violet's relationships with Daphne and Eloise. Anthony and Simon's friendship was 🔥. Honestly I was missing the Duke this season solely for his friendship with Anthony. Theirs is the kind of friendship chemistry I want for Polin. I was shipping Simon/Anthony more than Simon/Daphne last season 😁. That scene in season one where they throw barbs at each other about their fathers? Phew! Meanwhile Colin has been there mainly as an object of Penelope's pining. He's always filmed from her POV. And yet we don't see what it is about him that she finds attractive. As @katha mentioned, being oblivious seems to be his main character beat and that's not attractive. The relationship with Marina was once again more about Pen and LW. I hear that book Colin is different and that his characterization/personality has been given away to other characters. I am also confused why they did not give Colin an actual character arc last season if they knew Polin was season 3. At least this time around it's not the female character who is getting shortchanged in terms of characterization and story so that's something. I like that Penelope is the more important character, but I hope her romance story is also sexy and fun and entertaining and for that her love interest needs more depth. Colin needs a lot of scenes with Violet, Anthony, Eloise etc. next season. Does anyone know if Will Mondrich is coming back? Maybe they can build a friendship between Colin and Will and Colin can hang at Will's new establishment. Maybe he tries his hand at writing. I have no idea what his character arc is going to be next season because of how much of a blank slate he is. The writers have their work cut out for them. Hopefully the new showrunner is upto the task. Nicola seems excited so there's that. I wonder what Lady Danbury will be doing next season.

I actually enjoyed Pen and Colin in season one and thought they had fun chemistry. For some reason that turned into negative chemistry in season two for me. No idea why. Maybe it just came off that way compared to all the heat that was Kate/Anthony. I do think better writing for Colin should go a long way in making him a romantic hero. Instead of sending him off to Marina last season, they should have simply spend more time on Pen and Colin being friends. For a friends to lovers trope romance there should at the least be good friendship chemistry and these two are currently even lacking that. Nicola appeared on the Bridgerton podcast and was critical of Penelope's actions. Looks like the writers will tackle this in the narrative. Nicola also mentioned how Penelope has 'Portia’s voice in her ear' and influenced by her family in her behavior. And suddenly Penelope has become more interesting for me. I wouldn't mind if they explore the Pen/Portia relationship. I have a feeling that season 3 is going to be more Pen's season than Colin's. She has the more interesting and complex story. They really haven't given Colin much story wise.

As someone who is South Asian and more specifically Indian, I doubt the writing for Kate had anything to do with her Indian background considering how messy it was - from her name (never heard of Kathani) to the different mix of languages she was using to even the pronunciation of Sharma. It's Sharma like Sherpa or circa or purple. Not Shaaarma. There was just so much lazy writing with respect to the Sharmas. I am ignoring it because I am seeing the world of Bridgerton as a fantasy world where race is not a factor and therefore there is no actual correlation to Kate's Indian heritage. Rather I think Kate's dedication to family is a parallel to Anthony's dedication to his. They are both putting family over their own happiness, they both think they should sacrifice for family when their family really does not expect this from them. Honestly, I don't have much of an issue with Kate being apologetic because I do think she was wrong in taking away Edwina's agency and making decisions for her rather than telling Edwina the whole truth. I would have loved it if Anthony too had apologized to Edwina. What's worrying with Penelope is that similar to Daphne and unlike with Kate and even Marina, the narrative either seems to ignore what they did (Daphne) or tries to justify it (Penelope). Penelope's actions being framed as if she had no choice and being sad and crying for throwing Eloise and Marina under the bus is not enough for me. All the interviews so far after the announcement has focused only on Polin and maybe that's why no one has brought up Lady Whistledown. It will be interesting to see how they tackle it now that Eloise knows. I am sorry, but if they end up writing Eloise apologizing to Pen I will throw things 😂. Plus, I wonder how LW is going to continue into season 4. I also thought this was a rather poor answer from the new showrunner Jess Brownell Disappointing. If they made race a non-issue in the fantasy world of Bridgerton, couldn’t they have done the same for sexuality. It would have been so refreshing for a LGBTQ+ regency romance in the Bridgerton setting where the character’s sexuality is as much of a non-issue as a character’s race. All that secret yearning and near touching of hands, not because they are not straight, but because of a character swearing off love or some such reason typical romance novel reason 😂. I know book fans would dislike it but I really wish Benedict was bi. One season out of 8 wouldn’t be too much to ask would it? Or maybe have it as a side plot. Such a wasted opportunity.

Agree. Even in season one Anthony was held accountable for his actions with respect to Daphne and Berbrooke. He realized he was wrong, learned from it and when the Prince wanted to propose left it upto Daphne on whether she wanted to accept. That's some nice character growth. There is nothing empowering or feminist about Daphne's sexual assault or Penelope's writing which hurts other women in a patriarchal society. Marina almost killed herself! Meanwhile Kate is written as feeling remorseful all the time and Marina turned into a Polin Shipper - cheer-leading for the girl who screwed up her life. Agree. As much as I love Polly Walker (Atia of the Julii will always be a fave), there was just so much cousin Jack and Featherington plot because they needed to give the actress something to do. Unfortunately this meant that Mary, Mary's relationship with Kate and Kate flashbacks got shafted. In Kate's season her family should have been the focus not another white family in the Featheringtons. I think that is partly a lot of the frustration I am seeing with this announcement for Polin season 3. Penelope and the Featheringtons ate up so much time in season 2 that could have been used for Kate and the Sharmas, when Featherington drama could have been done in season 3 which was coming up next anyway. I think the show can make up for this by giving Kate more story time, including delving into her past, in season 3. I am looking forward to seeing the Violet/Kate dynamic the most. Hoping we are done with the Featheringtons next season. I will miss the hilarity of Prudence and Portia, however it should be enough if they show up in guest spots after season 3. Moving forward hopefully the female love interests ( not referring to Penelope who already has a ton of development) - also get fleshed out and given flashback backstories like the male love interests. More tidbits:

Characters being oblivious seems to be the trend for this show. Look at Edwina!! I don't know if anyone has seen My Mad Fat Diary here but Penelope needs a classroom lesson from Danny Two Hats on how to get out of the friendzone 😂! There was this post on reddit about how oblivious Colin is during the wedding sitting next to Daphne and Violet who both seem angry that Anthony is getting married to Edwina while Colin was probably looking forward to the cake.

It’s weird that Colin gets so much criticism for not seeing Penelope as a romantic prospect. Something I noticed after the announcement of their season is so many posts talking about how Colin treats Penelope like shit or how Colin needs to eat his words and they can only like him if he apologizes to Pen etc. I mean, the guy is allowed to just see her as his friend!! It’s not some great crime that he is not as attracted to her as she is to him. If the tables were turned and it was the guy pining after the girl would we criticize her for not reciprocating? Colin is boring and lacks charisma, however I think it’s unfair to hate him for only seeing Penelope as a friend. Meanwhile Penelope pretty much ruined Marina (someone Colin loved even last season), dragged Eloise down and even gave Daphne a hard time in season one. Penelope made a decision to deliberately write gossip about his sisters and hurt them. If there’s anyone in the wrong here it’s Penelope, not Colin. It’s baffling he’s getting shat on about being a terrible guy who has to earn Penelope’s love 😆 Nicola mentioned yesterday that the important lesson Penelope needs to learn is to value herself and put herself first. Which is all well and good and I agree. However what's also important is that she acknowledges the harm she did to good friends with her gossip rag and I don't see that being mentioned anywhere. I sincerely hope they don't brush that aside or justify her actions next season. Whether I find the character likeable and root for Colin/Pen to get together depends on how they write her next season. Anthony was not a nice guy in season one with his treatment of Daphne (the arranged marriage to Berbrooke) and Sienna. However, they more than made up for that with how much Kate dragged him and humbled him and beat him at everything while he fell in love. Plus Jonathan Bailey is a talented actor able to inject the nuance and vulnerability into the character despite what can be shoddy writing and make the audience like him. Nicola Coughlan needs to do the same. The writing for this show is not always great and I think both Nicola and Luke Newton need to bring their A game next season. I think it can be done. It should be done.

Looks like Colin/Penelope is next. ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Will Focus on Penelope and Colin’s Love Story, Stray From Book Order Stop the Press: ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Will Spotlight Penelope and Colin It makes all kind of sense for it to be Colin and Penelope next. They can work with the cast they already have instead of having a new cast member (Sophie) who has to then stick around and be contracted for the rest of the seasons. With Colin/Penelope done, the rest of the Featheringtons can leave. They must be running out of plot and writing in order to give an actress of Polly Walker’s calibre something to do. The Featheringtons do provide the humor, however I am not sure how much plot they can get considering the cast and side characters are getting bigger. They can then focus on Eloise/Philip and introduce Sophie next season ahead of Benedict’s story in season 5.

‘Bridgerton’ Season 2 Overtakes Season 1 in Netflix’s All-Time TV Rankings

I think the problem specifically for Edwina was not that Anthony was not passionately, deeply in love with her. As she told Kate, she was not expecting that. The problem was that Anthony was passionately, deeply in love with her sister. And that's the issue. Could she marry a guy who doesn't love her now, however it could happen in the future because he's nice, the family is nice, he's a viscount etc.? Sure. Could she marry a guy who's deeply in love with her sister? No. Like, how is that even possible? How could anyone even be remotely happy living with a man whose love is reserved for her sister? It's absurd and Kate and Anthony were all kinds of wrong for going through with it. Anthony in the beginning and Kate later on when she pushed Anthony to do it even when he was talking about how his honor was hanging by a thread etc. etc. That's the point. That's why Edwina's justifiably angry and hurt and resentful. She trusted her sister so much that she couldn't see what was happening right in front of her. I can understand where Kate and Anthony were coming from and the past trauma and sense of responsibility that defines their actions. However I can also understand Edwina's anger and hurt and where she was coming from in her response to them.

We don't know if this is just about Luthor do we? As per Nadia Turner, the showrunners made changes in the writing after she pointed out that the only black characters were baddies. Just like Kyle was supposed to hand over his wife to Morgan Edge and take away her agency in the decision and Kyle making metoo jokes which were all changed after the writer pointed out the sexism in this writing. I am going with believing the black writer in all this. He's the fire chief? lol. I thought the whole story with his family and Sarah stems from him drinking? Sarah acts like the child of an alcoholic, is disillusioned and scolds her mom for giving her father second chances. He gets angry at not getting a job and binge drinks, missing his daughter's recital. And no one knows? The firefighters don't want him around because he vouched for Morgan Edge and not because he's an alcoholic who could potentially endanger their lives in a risky job?! Again, they got fooled by Edge and so did Kyle. They wanted jobs and so did Kyle. So, 1. Blaming Kyle so much as to paint graffiti on his walls and wanting him gone? I don't see it. and 2. the optics of the Asian family yelling at and blaming Kyle irrationally for choices they made while the white lady comes out and tells them they are not to blame does not look good. If the Phan family is still around, I hope they get better writing and more agency in season 2 than just as plot devices and pawns to be manipulated.

It's bad writing for the show's only Asian characters and family. They are never given any agency and often written as emotional and irrational. Starting with Tag who bullies Jordan, gets powers, blames and attacks Jordan for it and is carted off somewhere. Then Emily who is basically a pawn, gets manipulated by Edge and then blames Kyle. And then her husband yelling at Kyle in front of everyone. It's a plot that makes no sense and portrays these characters as emotional, irrational, angry. And hey here's the very reasonable Lois Lane come to tell the Cushings that they are not to blame after the Asian family yelled at them and left. Keeping in mind that a black staff writer in this show was fired for pointing out the sexism and racism in the writing and still not being compensated for the work she did and that they made several changes after she pointed out that there should be black characters in the show who are not villains. So that's my point. Give these characters agency and let them own their choices. Kyle is a known alcoholic. I don't even know how he is still a firefighter. But the idea that these townspeople trusted his judgement so much, that they got their brains altered because he vouched for Edge is so ludicrous. It's was a plot point injected in there so that the Cushings would have something to do and lead to an equally silly scene of them dancing around and washing the paint off while everyone else was worried that Superman was going to kill them all.

I mean, yeah we can come up with irrationality as a reason for many plot points, but Kyle and Lana could have easily countered those accusations with rationality. The townspeople think so highly of Kyle - a guy who likes his alcohol - that they got into Edge's weird machine to get their brains biologically altered because Kyle vouched for him? Without even checking with Kyle on this? That was their choice. And it's not like Lana did not try to keep Emily away or Lois barged into their meeting and told everyone that Edge is a baddie - they didn't want to listen at that point because they were as desperate as Kyle for those jobs. Again, something that Kyle and Lana can easily bring up. It just seems like a badly thought out plot point to give the Cushings something to do this episode. And if they are going to use this to push Kyle to do something bad, then yeah. And that removing the graffiti scene really felt out of place in this episode, along with the missing daughter that they remembered by the end.

Well, that was anti-climatic. Still liking Wole Parks as John Henry. Hope he sticks around. I liked his response to dorky Clark being superman lol. And the hammer smash of Supes was good. Nice to see Diggle, but he was pointless. Better this show stay out of the arrow verse. The Kyle drama made no sense. All those townspeople also fell for Morgan Edge's charm and willingly went into brainwash chambers. Why they pissed off at Kyle? Jon continues to give pep talks to everyone. I wonder if they will give the character anything else to do. I did like his convo with John Henry Irons. I would sign up for John Henry and Jon Kent saving the world in the RV with cool weapons and armor suits. The actor who plays Jordan is the weakest link - hopefully he improves next season.

So Sam Lane just packed up all his men and anti-Kryptonian weapons and left the Kents to fend for themselves? What the hell general Lane? Why was everyone so chill when Edge and his henchwoman was still out there? And Edge took back the eradicator? Why is Edge more powerful than Superman? Initially I thought it may have been because of Supes using up a lot of energy earlier for the Krypto-people, but I recall Edge beating him up during their first meeting as well. Yeah, Edge's dad looks appropriately evil. Personally, I found the first half rather boring considering it's a story we have seen several times in different iterations and this version with Hoechlin and Tulloch wasn't anything special. So Kyle seems to be on a redemption arc but I get the feeling something is going to derail his apology tour. Glad John Henry is coming back.

I did wonder why Clarke just didn't take her to meet her first born. One of the reasons for why Edge is doing all this is to see his mother. Wouldn't Lara be more persuasive on why this is wrong than Clarke. Plus, why didn't Edge just download her consciousness into someone in the first place - what was he waiting for. I would think his mother, that he waited so long to meet would be the first person he would bring back. Either these are just plot holes or there's more to this story.

Not a fan of the show using the usual crap 'ticking time bomb' scenario to justify torturing Krypto-Kyle. The military using torture is even worse considering the connotations. Do the writers realize that Jonathan is only 14? He's like the most level-headed character in this show and seems to be the shoulder everyone cries on. Let him be bratty and impulsive like Sarah and Jordan. Though after his speech to Sam about trusting family in the last episode, he's back to doubting whether his dad can go evil on this earth because of his Kryptonian family. So Lara's sunstone crystal was stolen and that's why only Holo dad was present to help Superman. She doesn't seem to care for her first son as much as she does for Kal-el though. Still have no idea how human bodies develop powers just because Kryptonian consciousness are downloaded into them. I guess we just have to go with it.

Yeah, but we don't know what exactly Lois and Clark told them because the scene was cut there. For example did Lois tell them about Kryptonians being downloaded into humans when we don't know when Lois even discovered all that. Information gets passed around between characters off screen. Lead is really good with soundproofing and is used for soundproofing rooms. Which begs the question, how did Lois hear Jonathan's call for help from the lead lined RV in the barn all the way to the house?