- [Mina] This video is brought to you by
Squarespace, an all-in-one platform for building a brand and growing your business
online. Hello, my beautiful doves. My name is Mina Le and on this channel I talk about
fashion, media, and the culture. And today I thought I would do a review video of "Bridgerton"
season three because I haven't done one of those in a while. Spoilers I didn't love it, which is
actually devastating as a "Bridgerton" season two truther. I even read the book "Romancing
Mr. Bridgerton" in anticipation for this season, which honestly I didn't even like either. So we'll
get into that in a bit. I just realized when I was prepping my script that I haven't actually made
a movie or TV show review in a really long time, at first to stand in solidarity with the Hollywood
strikes last year, but the strikes have been over for a bit now and I just got into this rhythm of
writing more like research dense videos, and I feel like once I started exclusively making these
kind of research videos, it was harder to be like, okay, now I'm gonna do something fun and a little
brainless. But you know, I've covered "Bridgerton" season one and two in the past, so I thought I
would continue with season three and see how it feels to reintroduce these kind of videos back on
the channel. "Bridgerton" season two aired March, 2022, so it's been two years. Obviously the
strike put the release of season three on pause, and because of the aftermath, Netflix
is slowly rolling out their shows, breaking apart one season into two. The first
aired in May and the second aired in June. Let's quickly recap what happened last season so that
we're all on the same page because once again it's been a while. Anthony Bridgerton, AKA Hot,
sexy yearner, head of Household, Viscount Anthony Bridgerton gets married to ultra babe, gorgeous,
beautiful Kate Sharma. There's stories sort of like enemies to lovers, eldest child syndrome,
selflessness, and unlike season one's Daphne and Simon story, they're pretty chaste until the
end, building up the sense of like sexual tension throughout the season. This is my preferred model
as a period drama enthusiast. I love a slow burn, but I know that "Bridgerton" entered the zeitgeist
as this like sexy raunchy bodice ripper show, so I noticed that people who loved season one
didn't really vibe with season two and vice versa. As for the other characters, the most important
info from season two that I'll be referring to in this video is that Colin Bridgerton comes back
from traveling abroad at the start of the season, Queen Charlotte accuses Eloise Bridgerton of being
Lady Whistledown and basically threatens to ruin her life. Penelope Featherington, who is actually
Lady Whistledown, decides to write something scandalous about Eloise to save Eloise from the
Queen's spite. Eloise finds out the truth and ends the friendship, feeling betrayed that Penelope
has kept this pretty large thing a secret, and also that she's exposed her secrets to the ton and
while she's already down, Penelope cannot catch a break. She overhears her crush Colin saying to
a group of bros that he would never court her, - I would never dream of
courting Penelope Featherington, not in your wildest fantasies, five. - And that's what you missed on "Bridgerton"
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first purchase of a website or a domain. I loved season two so much as I said, I thought it
was the perfect amount of frivolous fun, drama, steamy romance, and so I was genuinely
really excited about season three. However, if you weren't aware, the "Bridgerton" series is
based on the books that each center of Bridgerton siblings love story. The first two seasons
follow the first two books, but season three skips over Benedict's story to the fourth book,
which centers Colin, the new "Bridgerton" show runner Jess Brownell explained the decision.
"We've been watching Pen's crush and seeing how oblivious Colin is to it the past two seasons.
That's a dynamic that you can only play out for so long before something has to change. This really
felt like the right time to lean into what's been set up with them. On the Benedict side, he's
such a fun character, and such a fan favorite that we are really excited to play with him for a
little bit more and let him have more fun before he settles down. So the love trope that Colin and
Penelope are supposed to play into is the friends to lovers trope. But the problem is that because
of the structure of the show, there's really not a lot of friendship we get to witness between the
two of them leading up to this season. It more or less felt like Penelope had a school girl crush
on Colin and he was just mainly oblivious to it. - I was not exactly lonely on my travels. I
did begin a real conversation with someone, someone I had known for a very long time, myself. - Yourself? - Most of their interactions were also
chaperoned or interrupted by Eloise. - And I finally found you. - You always do. - You've been back a matter of
hours yet you're already in my way. - Penelope apparently wrote
him letters during his travels. - You read and replied to more
of my letters than anyone else. - I suppose I did. But we don't read the
correspondences between them either, so there's not that much to work with. Each season has just
been so focused on developing the storyline of the main couple that the other characters aren't given
much space to develop their own relationships, which was fine for seasons one and two because
Daphmon and Kanthony were not slow burn friends to stories, but for Polin there's a palpable
history that we the audience are missing. - Do you remember when we first met. And you were so
very charming. And I think I know why. Because we were children. I honestly think they should
have kept on with Benedict's story for season three and then during his season intersperse
more Penelope and Colin with Colin being a bit more emotionally mature and receptive to
Penelope's interest in him so that we can like start seeing the vision of them as a couple.
But let's get into the play by play of this season. At the beginning of season three, Eloise
has completely dropped Penelope as a friend, moving on with Cressida Cowper, the
ton's resident mean girl. This is like a major diss because Cressida has also been
bullying Penelope for the past two seasons. - How convenient. - [Mina] Colin has been traveling
again and returns as this Casanova, which makes absolutely no sense because he already
went traveling last summer. Like if anything, this should have been his first time traveling,
but I'm like, what's so different about Greece round two? He's been there before, came back
still as a pastel colored goof. What's changed about this trip in particular? It's also a little
cringe how much they try to pitch this new Colin to us. His first scene is him changing his
shirt so we get a good look at the material to say the least with his brothers saying
stuff like traveling has changed you so much. - I must know who are you? What
have you done with our brother? - To imply we're about to see him be out of
character for this season, but it's fine, just roll with it, because Greece. Colin also
gets essentially Netflix's version of a fan cam, basically a montage that puts him in the
best light possible as this charming, flirty eligible bachelor that all the girls in the
ton are swooning over, the pirate esque duster, new tan, and hairdo obviously help. We also
see him in these like random threesomes out of brothel that I think were supposed to read
as him being like sexually experienced. I also think because some of the criticisms from
season two was the lack of raunchiness, they were try to cram in some extra sex while
the audience waited for Pollen to get together. - Same time tomorrow? - Perhaps. - Either way these scenes were so
unwatchably bland. Yeah, I was just, I was cringing. So I think it's like really
obvious. I don't love what they did with Colin's character. I think his suave devil
may care attitude recalls Simon in season one, which we already had. Like we already have
this male, this type of male character, this archetype. ♪ Nasty girl, nasty ♪ And also
I didn't even buy it, especially because in the past seasons we've seen Colin be like goofy,
gullible, kind of awkward compared to Anthony and Benedict. ♪ And let the cat and toads go round
♪ ♪ And then the cat, and then the cat ♪ And by the fourth book Colin is pretty insecure and
is undergoing an existential crisis about the meaning of his life. So I honestly would've
loved for them to explore that side of his character instead of like remolding him into
what they think women want a leading man to be. - I oiled my way right in, that was an olive joke. - As for Penelope, she decides she's
going to use her Whistledown money to get a new wardrobe because she's tired of being
single and wearing yellow and can we blame her? - I do not wish to see a citrus color ever again. - [Mina] She debuts her new jewel toned green
dress at the ball with period drama leading lady, aka incredibly historically inaccurate long
hairdo and she stuns. I also love like you can see some like copper within the green dress,
like there's a lot of dimension in the dress, which brings out her hair color really
nicely, but unfortunately for her, even though there's this outward glow up, she's still
incredibly awkward. So even though some suitors come to her, she basically chases
them away with her personality. - What a striking gown you have on you. - You as well, my Lord, not not the gown part. - As just a costume note, I really don't like the
sheer gloves, which feel very early 2010s prom and I think cheapens the whole look. And also I don't
love the bold glamour filter makeup, which again, it's giving 2010s, like over the past year
or so, I feel like makeup trends have skewed towards clean beauty, which is actually really
in line with regency period typical makeup. So going for something simpler would actually be
both appealing to modern and traditional beauty standards. In an interview with Vulture costume
designer, John Glazer justifies this decision by saying it's Penelope's first attempt at something
new. So it was a little off and not quite right, it was too far out of her comfort zone. So
I get it's supposed to be a little too much, but I think this was just way too much. We could
have achieved the same effect just by the dress color alone because we never see Penelope wearing
a color this bold or mature ever again. Anyways, I don't really wanna talk too much about the
costumes because Bridgerton likes to do their own thing. Clearly the show's designers
have always taken creative liberties, but I noticed this season the costumes skewed
way more Disney fantasy for some reason. Like Cressida Cowper's outfits were super maximal
and tackier than they've ever been in the past. Like she's fully giving Cinderella's
evil stepsister and I understand her costume journey is supposed to represent her
increasing desperation on the marriage market, but some of these silhouettes were cartoonish
to the point of distraction. It also doesn't really make sense that her dad would let her
go to balls wearing these outfits in the first place since every time he's on screen
he's like super rigid and controlling. - You are not to be seen with
that Bridgerton girl any longer. - I mean, look at their home. This is not a
home that supports the puffy sleeve agenda. - It's more like a more
Mausoleum in here, isn't it? - Colin Bridgerton also looks like Captain
Hook from "Once Upon A Time." Assistant costume designer, Dougie Hawks said of Colin's
look, "I wanted to make him daring, dashing, and dangerous. Those were the three elements I
wanted to bring into his costume." None of these things are what I associate with Colin Bridgerton,
and so maybe it's partially the costumes, but maybe it's partially also the story because he
ended up just reading to me as like a cosplayer. I wasn't buying it. Glazer told Essence something
interesting about the overall direction in the season's costumes. "So the audience has
watched the show and we didn't have to hold to each family's color palette as much as
we did before. Now we can expand our colors, we can expand our textures, we can help to enhance
the characters without using certain colors that aren't correct for them. So we were able to design
things that were more in tune with the actual person and the character that they were showing
us." I'm fine with the color palettes changing and the incorporation of more textures, but I do think
they went a little too crazy and maximalist, they were just so many flowers and bows and it made
everything look so much tackier like they just raided Joanne's Fabric or like Michael's Craft
Store or something. And also again, if they wanted the costumes to read more modern, fashion has
been skewing minimal with quiet luxury and slinky nineties silhouettes coming back. So pairing
down like the trimmings and extra elements would actually look better to our eyes right now, then
you know, whatever was going on here, this stuffy tweeds Spencer and Francesca wears in particular
haunts me in my sleep. I also don't think that all the costumes necessarily reflect the characters
that well anyway. For example, Eloise like, don't get me wrong, I did really like some of
Eloise dresses aside from the, thank you Norman, aside from the droopy muffs that looked like bath
towels that she was carrying around. But you know, I really loved her more men's wear adjacent looks
in previous seasons, which felt more in line with her character. She claims that she's undergoing a
conformity phase at the beginning of the season. - Perhaps my tastes have changed. - But it doesn't really make sense
because at the same time she keeps swearing off marriage. So why conform
if you still don't wanna participate. - And can you imagine all the spare time there would be if we did not always
have to think about marriage? - The costume designers are probably just
following along with the script they were given, so I can't blame them, but this whole Eloise
makeover made very little sense to me. Also doesn't happen in the books, so they just
threw that in there. I will say that I did f heavy with Queen Charlotte's wigs, which
I thought were delightfully over the top and fun in a way that corresponds with her character,
especially the ice sculpture one. It still drives me crazy that she's wearing 30-year-old fashion
trends as a monarch, but I digress. You know, we can't win with everything. So back to the
story. The first few episodes are Colin taking on Penelope as a "She's All That" project.
He's going to teach her how to snag a husband. - I'm the perfect person to practice on. You
don't have to be embarrassed, you know me. - I thought these lessons would take up more of
the show because theoretically they're a good opportunity to build up the intimacy between the
two of them, but the lessons end pretty quickly after like one intimate moment. Again, the pacing
of the show was just driving me crazy. Also, because they're friends, I would've loved
to see more casual banter between the two of them. Instead, their conversations
are mostly like serious and dramatic, especially in the second half of the show. Also,
I should add, the reason he volunteers to teach Penelope is because he feels guilty
that she overheard him dissing her. - I overheard you, telling everyone how you
would never ever court Penelope Featherington. - Which by the way, he never really
addresses why he did that. Like in the books, Penelope is actually 28 and Colin is 33
by the time they get together. So she's been on the shelf for a while. She's like
actually verging into spinster territory. - I'm 27 years old, I have no money, and no
prospects. I'm already a burden to my parents. - And the thing that she overheard him say was
years ago, so it's like excused as just him being immature and silly at the time. Also in the
books leading up to that moment, his mother had been pressuring him to get with Penelope and
he's tired of hearing about it because he is not ready to be married and he's venting not
to some random guys that he's friends with, but to Anthony and Benedict. But in the
show, because they rushed the timeline, I feel like it's harder for me to believe that
he can go from, I would never court this girl, to I would die for her, I love her so much,
that quickly. There's a pivotal moment when Penelope reads his travel diary and he gets
flustered and upset and accidentally cuts his hand trying to take it back. Penelope
then wraps his hand at a bandage and the leads to this tender moment between the
two of them. The scene happens in the book, but it's also a little different. So in the
show, the passage Penelope reads is quite sexual. - [Speaker] In those moments, alone, as my fingers
trace freckles from cheek to collarbone. In the book she reads a poetic G-rated passage. I get
that "Bridgerton" has a horny reputation to uphold, but I also think that changing the content
of the passage can make it seem like Colin was embarrassed she read something so sensual when the
point is that she literally just read his writing period, which he doesn't think is very good. He's
very insecure about it. This is such a major issue for Colin in the book. It actually drives his
dislike for Penelope's Lady Whistledown project. He doesn't care about like gossip or whatever.
He's just jealous that Penelope has the balls to publish her writing and he doesn't. - Loser.
- But the show scraps the writing insecurities probably because it felt lowkey misogynistic
in the book and it was annoying that Colin's problems are like all made up in his head, like
he has the capabilities to publish his writing, but he just won't. It's not interesting and it
doesn't make him sympathetic to audiences either. I think what they could have done to update
the story for 2024 sensibilities is to make him more awkward as well. Like he clearly did
care about external validation because that's the reason that's implied in the show, why he
was insulting Penelope among his guy friends. I think this could have been like a nice
coming of age story for the both of them, but because Colin does his growing off camera
while traveling, this sees it as mostly Penelope's story with Colin as like a one note
side character. He also virtually always has the upper hand of the relationship like he's
privileged as a rich desirable man. His family is wonderful and supportive and for the
majority of the show, Penelope has always been the one pursuing him. So the relationship
feels really imbalanced with Penelope and us basically just waiting for Colin to
finally admit himself that he's interested in her. - Because I love you. - Are you sure? - Are we sure? As Catherine Van Arondonk
writes in her review of the show for Vulture, "Colin has ample resources, the social standing to
survive a scandal and almost no responsibilities. He's the most desired bachelor of the season. He's
doing great. So when the inevitable fallout of Penelope's secret identity finally reaches Colin,
the betrayal and sadness that should feel equal on each side instead feels obnoxiously lopsided.
Ideally, when two romantic leads clash, the audience should be able to sympathize with
both parties understanding whatever perspective is keeping them apart, even if they'll clearly work
it out. But because Colin has so little growth over the course of the season, the viewer is
mostly waiting for him to get over himself." Also, Penelope has done so much for Colin like writing
him letters and telling him he's so talented, - Your writing, it's very good. - So when she dares to advocate for herself
for once with her Whistledown column and he antagonizes her, it feels annoying,
controlling, borderline misogynistic. - Are you going to stop publishing? - I do not know. - Let us get through this wedding and then
we will decide what this marriage will be. - Get away from her! - By the way, I think I should clarify. I
don't really fuck with the overlooked woman pining over a hot man trope. It's actually
more annoying in the book because every time it shifts to Penelope's POV, it's her moping
about how Colin couldn't possibly love her. It also takes a lot longer in the book for Collin to
realize he's in love with Penelope. But you know, we're in simp boy summer low key with
"Challengers" and the please, please, please video being strong in the zeitgeist.
So yeah, I'm just really not in the mindset to see a woman yearning harder for a man than
he does for her, you know? I did cry like a faucet though when Penelope asked Colin to kiss
her because I'm a human and I have feelings. - But I am nearly on the shelf and I have never
been kissed and I'm not certain I ever will be. - But Penelope, we deserve better. To raise
the stakes, we introduce Lord Debling, who is this dashing wealthy lord who loves
nature and he takes a liking to Penelope. - Well done. - For being a fool? - For stepping away from the herd. - And also sort of looks like a teddy bear graham
cracker. He also doesn't care about gossip and also would smash. I really liked Lord Debling.
I thought he was so sweet and honestly I liked his scenes with the Penelope more than Collin's
scenes with Penelope. I'm sorry, shoot me. Lord Debling saved her from getting knocked over by
a hot air balloon that was pretty swoon worthy. - Miss Featherington. - He's chivalrous, he's multifaceted, and he's
a man who knows himself. We can't say the same about Colin Bridgerton. Apparently the reason why
Colin takes so long to recognize he loves Penelope is because he expects love to feel like getting
struck by a lightning bolt. So he asked his mother for advice and she tells him that her relationship
with his father was actually a friendship first. - But I thought you believed the best
foundation for great love was friendship. - Indeed I do. It is how your father and I began. - But then when she's giving
advice to her daughter Francesca, she tells her that her relationship
was surprising and forceful. - You know, when I first met your father, I
could barely speak my own name. I was so taken by him I thought that that is what love must be
like for everyone. Surprising, forceful, quick. - Like what is the truth Violet? So in my
opinion, repression, because you're trying to uphold your family reputation and decenter your
own needs and wants, a la Anthony Bridgerton. Incredibly based romantic, sexy. Repression,
because you have no emotional intelligence, incredibly lame. Lord Debling's existence
is literally only to make Colin jealous. I'm serious he literally disappears after
Penelope and Colin get together. Like what happened to him? Like is he still single? Is he
still looking? The pivotal moment is that Colin sees Debling and Penelope together at the ball
and he interrupts them mid-dance and botches the entire proposal because he just can't stand the
idea that Penelope is gonna marry someone else. - You cannot marry that man. - And then he f'ed her in the horse carriage
afterwards as if that's supposed to make up for it. Maybe I'm just old, but nothing about
this was romantic to me, it was sexy, sure, but definitely not romantic. Like Brittany
Broski mentioned this on her podcast. It's like when your ex comes barking back, only
when he finds out you're with a new man, like it's too late. Also, could we not have
publicly embarrassed everyone by throwing a tantrum in the middle of a dance? Like could
we not have confessed our feelings later in private like civilized people? That's the
first half of the season. The second half deals with the Lady Whistledown persona.
Eloise puts pressure on Penelope to tell Colin, who for no justifiable reason has a
newfound sworn hatred of Lady Whistledown. - I will make sure it is her life that is ruined. - I say not justifiable because he didn't actually
care about Lady Whistledown the previous seasons and also he's a man like why do you as a man
care so much about gossip stay in your business? - You did not read Lady Whistledown. - I do not. - Colin finds out says he'll never forgive her. - I will never forgive you. - But still marries Penelope anyway because
he is a man of honor. And then the next few episodes are whiplash of him going back
and forth between being in love and then being annoyed. Like they would literally fight
and then I guess he would get lost in her eyes or something and then start making out with her. - You've been putting yourself in danger,
living this double life all along. - But then they'd be back to being tense again the
next day with him sleeping on the sate. Speaking of, I know his back must feel crazy after sleeping
on that sate, like his legs are definitely hanging off the arm. Can we not afford anything else in
this Bridgerton household? Can we not afford a longer couch? Queen Charlotte fueled by her one
sided beef also announces that anyone who can unveil Lady Whistledown will receive 5,000
pounds from her. Cressida Cowper, desperate for money to get away from her oppressive
father, claims to be Whistledown herself. - Today I bring you much gossip from about
the many lands near and far, far and wide. She publishes a letter just to prove it and it
is scathing towards the Bridgertons because this follows a fight between her and Eloise and you
know, she was feeling, I guess a little upset. - [Speaker] Perhaps the family
confuses love with lust. - And also Cressida's mother has one
side of beef with the Bridgertons, but Penelope who hates Cressida cannot
rest with her taking the credit and therefore writes a letter as well just to
say Cressida is in fact not Lady Whistledown. - [Speaker] And I cannot tolerate a lie. - Queen Charlotte then suspects Whistledown
is one of the Bridgertons because the second letter came out to discredit
all the anti Bridgerton claims. - Only when the Cowper girl
publishes lies about this very family suddenly Whistledown rushes to print. - Which continuity wise doesn't make
sense because Lady Whistledown has published scandalous things
about the Bridgertons before. - [Queen] Is this new character the
real him or simply a ploy for attention. - So logically doesn't make any sense. In the
final episode at the ball, Penelope unveils herself, apologizes for some of the things that
she's written and promises to do better with her pen. Queen Charlotte forgives her, allows her
to keep writing, because there's literally no other way for the plot to go. Colin and
Eloise also forgive her. I don't know, it just felt like a cop out, like it didn't feel
rewarding for me as a viewer. Also in the book it's actually Colin who devises the plan to reveal
Penelope as Lady Whistledown in front of the ton, but he introduces her with this like heartfelt
speech about how proud of her he is that catches Penelope off guard and reaffirms her love for
him. I guess they wanted Penelope to have the agency to put herself in the spotlight, which I
can respect, but the unfortunate thing is like the relationship suffers because of that.
Cressida then gets shipped off to her aunt in Wales and we skip ahead in the future where
Penelope and her sisters have all given birth to new babies and Colin has published his book.
Penelope also continues to write Lady Whistledown, which doesn't make logistical sense since the
only reason she was able to overhear so much gossip in the first place is because people
didn't care about her. Like now that everyone knows she's Lady Whistledown, who is going to
say anything scandalous with her around? I'm also wondering if Nicola Cochlan, I learned
that's how her name is pronounced the other day. I apologize for previous mispronunciations,
but I wonder if she'll be contracted to provide Lady Whistledown's voiceover every
season now instead of Julie Andrews - [Penelope] As we begin this
next part of our journey- - And like I obviously want the most success
for Nicola because I'm obsessed with her and if you haven't seen "Derry Girls," you absolutely
need to run, don't walk. So I obviously want her career to blow up even more and for her to like do
other projects outside of Bridgerton. But I think without Lady Whistledown or Penelope in this
case, the show loses its structure completely. Like every episode is bracketed by voiceovers
from Lady Whistledown that explained to us, the audience, what's going on in the show. Lady
Whistledown was also a major part of the series' initial marketing. It would just be really strange
to introduce a new format without her, but I guess you know, we'll have to wait and see. The main
problem with the season for me, aside from my own romance taste veering away from the polytropes and
Colin's entire character annoying me, is that they broke away from the format of centering the main
couple and instead tried to do the whole ensemble cast format by going back and forth between many
different stories, which would've been okay if the stories were interesting, but many of them
were not. For example, the Madrich family finds out their son has inherited the Kent estate
and they basically undergo non-real problems, aka the woes of adjusting to rich people life.
It's just incredibly boring and unnecessary. It would've been different if the ton was more
judgmental about their status change and there was like an actual struggle to be accepted, but
all their problems like exist in their own heads. And while I love Anthony and Kate, they also
sort of just exist as fan service in the season. At the end of the show they announced they're
going to India, but Kate says she's pregnant, and I think that's like a crazy idea to go on a
months long journey by ship as a pregnant woman in the 19th century. It also doesn't make any
sense because Anthony is a Viscount. So he's in charge of managing the Bridgerton estate and he's
also pretty hardass about it. So it's also like out of character for him to be like, okay, bye for
the next several years. I don't live under a rock, okay, like I'm sure the India plot line is
literally just to serve as an out for the actor so they don't have to come back while still giving
the audience an explanation for why they're gone. Because when Reggie Jean Page left the show, it
was kind of off putting for fans since there was like no reason for him to be absent. Phoebe
Dynevor also didn't show up in season three, which I'm not gonna lie, I knew she wasn't
coming back ahead of time, but it was still really distracting for me that Daphne Bridgerton
was not at her brother or sister's wedding, especially when she allegedly lives like not
too far away. I also wanna clarify that I don't fault any actor who decides not to return.
A cameo every now and then would be lovely, but I can understand why it's difficult going from
like number one on the call sheet to a guest spot. Any good agent would be like, you're not doing
that, especially if there's other projects that are trying to cast you that might conflict with
Bridgerton's production schedule. I actually clocked this when I first heard the direction
that "Bridgerton" was taking with centering new characters each season. It's just like a recipe
for actors to leave and I wonder how it's going to affect the show's viewership in the future. Like
it's sort of emotional whiplash to see characters that you spent hours investing in just disappear
completely. I wonder if this is why the series has taken a more ensemble approach so that we can
start emotionally attaching to side characters in the case of the main ones leaving. So this is
not to say that I don't like an ensemble format, like I did really enjoy the Gilded Age and I think
that is like a perfect example of an ensemble story because every character gets like a lot of
spotlight and there's not one story that really dominates, but I think it'll be difficult for
"Bridgerton" to adjust to that because all their marketing is literally about the main couple.
You know, even despite the season giving Pollen less screen time than the previous couples, like
all the marketing was about Pollen. But anyway, back to other things I didn't like in the plot,
Lady Danbury's brother Marcus is introduced to become Violet Bridgerton's new boo, which is
fine, but then there's this like low stakes drama between Lady Danbury and Marcus that's not
properly fleshed out and just takes up screen time. Benedict gets swept into a twosome and then
a threesome unleashing his bisexual awakening that everyone in the audience already saw coming. This
was fun, I love to see that queer representation, but lowkey it wasn't spicy enough, like not enough
tension, not enough taboo, not enough anything. Sorry, my standards are just really high now.
Like "Challengers" was just hot off the press. - I'd let her f me with a racket. - So in the wise words of Tasha Duncan, come on.
I realize this review has been very negative and I don't wanna completely pan the season, like there
were a few plot lines I did like. For example, I liked that Cressida Cowper's character gets
fleshed out more. In the book, she's just like a run of the mill one dimensional villain.
Her original story is that she gets married, but her husband turns out to be poor, which is why
she's after money now. In the show, she's trying to get money to break away from her terrible
family and live independently. This new arc makes her way more sympathetic to the point where
I actually got annoyed with Eloise just dropping her as a friend, and that scene when Colin didn't
understand that she's not as privileged as him. - You take for granted that you will
always have your family support. - Actually, Colin pissed me off a lot during
the scene because his character is giving, I don't care about a woman's struggles unless
I'm attracted to them. Like Anthony, god tier. - I'm a gentleman. - Anthony is the type to make sure his wife's
friends make it all home safely. Colin, I'm not so sure about. In the end Cressida did I
get shipped off to Wales, so that was sort of like an anti climactic end to her story. I do feel
like she might come back in a later season as a new evolved person, but you know, that to me again
feels a little lazy. It's once again using travel as a way to develop a character without having to
actually write that development. But who knows, maybe we'll follow Cressida in Wales. I also
really love Portia Featherington a lot and her changing relationship with Penelope over this
season. Previously, Portia had overlooked Penelope and made jabbing remarks at her expense. So it
feels really rewarding to see her struggle with saying the right thing now. Like even when she
says something hurtful, you see the remorse and confusion in her face like she thought she was
helping, but clearly she didn't. But finally, Porsche and Penelope learned to understand
each other, which I think is, you know, really touching. I really enjoyed their scenes
together. I also was very interested in Eloise and Penelope's dynamic this season. Like this
was the love story I was actually most invested in. It was lovely to see the nuances of how
Eloise still cared for Penelope all season. - Oh, how mortifying. I'm so clumsy.
I thought we did not like Penelope. - What you did was cruel and unnecessary. - But just like wasn't ready to forgive her until
the end. And if I'm allowed to speak, they should have been the endgame couple. Like it goes back
to that quote I read earlier about how like it's ideal for in a conflict between a romantic
couple, like even if they're wrong in some way, it's important for the audience to understand each
person's position. And for Colin and Penelope, we don't really understand any of Colin's
decisions, but for Eloise and Penelope like that is the perfect conflict where it's like these
two girls like hurt each other so much where you can see why the friendship is not working out
between them, but you still want it to work out because they still like love each other deep
down. All in all, I watched the whole thing, so I liked it enough and I get it's hard to follow
the Magnum opus of Kanthony. I also think that because of the two year break between seasons two
and three, there were plot points that I didn't remember and had to look up, which kind of took me
out of it. For example, the whole cousin Jack scam that was referred to multiple times had completely
left my short term memory storage. Also, the fact that Penelope wrote about Eloise's friendship
with Theo in Lady Whistledown, which was the whole reason for their fallout is only hinted at, I feel
like that should have been like reestablished more firmly because I feel like when you take such
a long break between seasons, it's difficult to expect everyone to remember all the plot points
covered before and it's also unrealistic to expect everyone's going to rewatch the previous seasons
in preparation for this one. Like there's just too many TV shows, there's not enough time, like
people are not gonna do that. Apparently season four also won't be coming out for another two
years, so I'm hoping that they'll keep this all in mind. For now I am planning to keep watching
because Benedict is one of my favorite characters. - Does the lady return your affection? - Not yet. And she would've
done if it were not for the- - The sister. Do you do this every night? - Oh, did you come to admonish me? - [Benedict] I only need to- - He's got the leading man's sauce. ♪ You want it
♪ ♪ Ride it ♪ ♪ Let's do it ♪ But I'm not gonna lie, I do get turned off by long breaks because
it ruins the momentum of the show, like I just want shows to go back to a yearly format. Like
is that too much to ask? Let's not get fancy. I don't need CGI or wigs with moving swans in
them. I just want consistency and that's why "The Bear" will always come up top. Anyway, this
is the end. Let me know in the comments what you thought about "Bridgerton" season three, if you
agreed with me or disagreed with me or anything, love to hear it. Thank you all so much for
watching and I'll see you next time. Okay, bye.
