Hello, Bridgerton fans and/or Bridgerton hate-watchers! Summer is ending for the ton, and everyone is leaving their country estates for the hustle and bustle of a new London season. Netflix is being extremely…classless, we’ll say, and only giving us the first four episodes of an already short season! It was a slow work day, and I totally did NOT binge these episodes on the company dime, no sir…
But in any case, if I HAD, then we can now chat about “Polin”. Please join me in the comments with YOUR thoughts, because almost no one I know in IRL watches this, and who is Lady Whistledown without someone with whom to engage in idle gossip??
My (spoilery) thoughts are laid out per episode, so read each section with caution until you’re caught up!
Episode 1: “Out of the Shadows”
- I am watching this season for Nicola Coughlan, as she is an absolute delight on and off the screen. Luke as Colin is…there. (He needs his real-life beard on the show if they want me to pretend he’s sexy.) He doesn’t do it for me like Jonathan Bailey last season, but I am rooting for Pen to get what she wants, even if it’s not MY thing.
- Colin is certainly laying it on THICK as he relays his extended holiday escapades: “Were I to tell you even the tiniest adventure, well…I’d be forced to marry you.” 🙄
- Benedict’s giggle and eyebrow raise are adorable:
- I am SO CURIOUS about what percentage of the show budget is dedicated to flowers. The flowers literally carpeting the stairs at Lady Danbury’s Four Seasons ball. The outside of the Bridgerton house! In people’s hair! This show is always a feast for the eyes!
- LOL to Lady Featherington commenting to her daughters on Penelope’s gorgeous dark teal gown whilst wearing herself the blandest dark gray number: “If she wants to wear such a melancholy color, that’s her prerogative.”
- Call me melancholic then, because Penelope’s first glow-up look is SO GORGEOUS. The beading on the bodice, the glittery see-through black gloves, her cat-eye makeup. Stunning! Even Colin has to immediately take a drink when he sees her, because dude is THIRSTY.
- The internet didn’t care enough to make a gif of this, so I did it myself. Penelope trying to flirt by awkwardly blathering on about her love of reading…she is our people.
- I’m loving all the sad, longing looks Penelope and Eloise send to each other when they aren’t looking. Nothing is as bad as a fight with your bestie!
- Anthony and Kate smolder in every scene!!! (But especially this one.)
- At least for now, it seems like they’ve totally abandoned the plot of the actual Polin book, which I hated with a fiery passion, and thank the queen’s whacky wigs for that!
Episode 2: “How Bright the Moon”
- So Colin got “wordly” by having threesomes with prostitutes. Lovely… And by lovely, I mean GROSS, COLIN, GROSS. Surely there was a better way to convey that he’s trying on this “rakish persona” that doesn’t suit him without him resorting to prostitutes.
- I don’t approve of all of Penelope’s actions on the show, but Eloise is singularly annoying and one of my least favorite characters (though she has looked great this season). They put her with Cressida so she’d have someone to gossip to since Pen is unavailable, and this tickles me because the things they put on this poor actress are HEINOUS.
- Eloise!!! You tell Colin to keep his lips zipped, re: helping Penelope, but then YOU go and broadcast it to Cressida and the entire ballroom!! Like, you DO recall your ex-BFF was an eavesdropping fiend at these events, because people don’t know how to keep their mouths shut, right??
- The mere hint of the book plot with Penelope telling Colin his travel writing is “soooo good.” is making me nauseous.
- The milquetoast sisters Featherington having zero clue on how to be intimate with their husbands is the only Featherington plotline I’ve enjoyed in all 3 seasons. Lady Featherington’s annoyance at their incompetence is hilarious.
- When Pen gets outed for using Colin’s help, like, I feel kinda bad for her, but…you did plenty of other people dirty as Lady Whistledown, soooo…maybe not that bad. Her gazing out the window dress and pose were GORGEOUS though.
- The cheek of Eloise immediately assuming it was Cressida when she may as well have been using a bullhorn at the ball earlier. Get dragged, El.
- Ah, the old “Kiss me because no one else will!” ploy. That was a well-shot kiss! Nicola is giving it her all.
Episode 3: “Forces of Nature”
- HA after Colin wakes up from his sex dream, I’m realizing Colin and circa-2010-me apparently have the same decorating aesthetic (globes, maps, wood tones, and dark, moody colors) (I’m lying; it’s still 2024 me too).
- I appreciate the nods we’re getting to Lady Danbury and the Queen’s friendship from Queen Charlotte’s show. I’d also like more Lady Danbury and Violet discussing life outside of Francesca. Also, Benedict and Lady Danbury is a BFF pairing I didn’t know I wanted, but now I need MOAR of these sassy friends.
- Cressida, as she’s thinking about topics to bond over with the Lord Naturalist: “I love a good fur!” Eloise, reaching out to put a hand on her arm. “Oh, I would not tell him that.” Bahahaha. And WHAT IS that fa-noodle hairstyle??
Eloise: “Oh, I would NOT tell him that.”
- I’m glad the Mondriches finally realized they can (almost) do anything they want, especially when that housekeeper said they had to sleep in separate rooms. We’ve all read PLENTY of romance novels where no one STAYS in their bedrooms… But also, why are they here? What is this plot? I do not care; give me more of the actual romance.
- Ooooh, jump this hot man’s bones, Lady Bridgerton! Let him tend to your garden!
- And, Francesa, jump THAT man’s hot bones.
- Speaking of, Hannah Dodd as Francesca is so pretty! I was wondering if she was supposed to playing at her secretly gay or aromantic to set up her future season, but once Lord Kilmartin appeared, I can see it’s more about her just being very particular. I haven’t read her book, but based on the synopsis it seems they’re sticking to that storyline.
- The people of Bridgerton are as subtle as a brick to the back when they ask oblique questions but then stare directly at who they’re thinking of. I can’t imagine who you’re asking about, Colin!
Episode 4: “Old Friends”
- LOL the Queen and her valet – “You can read from all the way back there?”
- Jeezy-creezy, Eloise, READ the (library) ROOM, and don’t make shitty jokes at your supposed friend’s expense about being married off to an old dude. (Also, is anyone else getting potential gay vibes off this “friendship”? If they aren’t going to make Benedict gay, I think Eloise has a good case for being bi.)
- This stupid show has me rooting for freaking Cressida to get her own season so she, too, can get a patented Bridgerton glow-up and stop looking like a Glinda from Oz reject.
- Maybe I just don’t remember much about Colin from past seasons because he’s dull, but I don’t think they’re conveying the “Colin decided to act like all his shitty friends but now he’s bored of not getting to be a soft boy” angle I think they’re going for that successfully. Far be it from me to wish more of the book plot into play, but at least all his frustration from that came from a place of him feeling inadequate as the third rich son no one expected anything from, and he wanted to “matter” (as I type it I feel like they’re giving that plot to Benedict based on what he said in the first episode).
- Lady Featherington’s disdain on Pen holding out for love: “This is the very reason why I’ve discouraged you from reading!” She’s so much funnier to watch in these smaller doses.
- Okay, that carriage scene was pretty HOT. Him fixing up her dress after was cute. I still find it hard to see what Pen sees in Colin, even in that scene, but I don’t blame him for being unable to keep his hands to himself; she looks great.
Overall Thoughts:
- Once again, Shondaland did not give us nearly enough scenes between our actual couple. I assume more is coming, but there were a lot of missed opportunities to show Colin seeing Pen in a new light, instead of one single sex dream. And I don’t know how much faith I have in them to fix this in the next four episodes, especially after the dearth of Kanthony scenes last season. Did Shonda / the writers forget this is a ROMANCE show, not a drama a la The Gilded Age? Stop giving me irrelevant side-plots!
- I complain it was “only” four hours, but sometimes I look back on those four hours and think, “What even happened?!” Missed opportunities. What keeps me coming back, I guess, aside from my continual request for more historical romance on TV, is the show is always beautiful to look at. But, seriously, room for improvement with the scripts and pacing!!
- Predictions: Polin will get married and have some sexy scenes in one episode, then the Lady Whistledown truth will come out, and since he’s now stuck with her, Pen will have to grovel to freaking Colin of all people for three episodes. He’s going to be all self-righteous about it. (Book Colin was such a turd about Whistledown, y’all.)
Share your thoughts below! What are your predictions for Part II?
Colin will definitely be a turd about Whistledown when he finds out, but he will also be way more justified about it in the show, because Penelope is sort of terrible. I like her because Nicola Coughlan is so great, but she’s objectively really mean! But hey, the show has somehow made me feel bad for Cressida, which I wouldn’t have thought possible, so I’m sure they can turn me around on Penelope if they try.
As far as Colin goes, he’s objectively more hot this season, but I still am not really attracted to him on the show. He’s much cuter in interviews, which makes me feel like Colin just might not have a great personality. The threesome with prostitutes scene made me roll my eyes so hard, that’s not the way to get me to like him, show.
I love the quiet guy and Francesca vibing, they’re so cute together. I’m rooting for them. I also am hoping Benedict will have a good storyline this year, because I really like that actor. And can Anthony and Kate come back soon? I miss them.
Oh totally agree!! Pen is definitely much more pointed in her Whistledown column on the show, so I do think Colin will have a right to his anger (I still have residual Colin hate for his book, lol, I can’t forget it).
Yes, Luke IRL seems lovely and fine (and MUCH cuter with the beard) but Colin is still a total drag, even with his supposed new-found charm. The prostitute stuff as SO unnecessary. I’m supposed to want THIS for Pen? Yuck.
It seems like A&K will be back for some (hopefully ALL) of the second part of the season from the trailers. I’m not sure I trust that they know what to do with Benedict at this point. They’re gonna have to massively change his book-plot, too, because the goofy Benedict they’ve created is nothing like the dickwad from his storyline.
i just think they did not good enough job at making Colin interesting. like at all.
Agreed! He spends so much time just…staring and looking befuddled.
Hear, hear on the not enough actual scenes between the leads of the season. Other people ar all well and good, but this isn’t (supposed to be) a show about them!
This is the first season where I haven’t cared that much, but it’s just because I don’t like Colin.
They had the opportunity to give us more of his inner life and actually give him a personality and time with Penelope and they squandered it. I feel like everyone online is more into Lord Debling, likely because we actually learned stuff about him!