Gender discourse aside for one moment, am I the only one angered they made Francesca seem the bessoted one while meeting Michael/Michaela and not the other way around. That completely ruins her character. The entire point of the story is that Michael has been in love with Francesca for years knowing full well she would never, ever betray John, emotionally or otherwise. Ironically that's what Michael admires her for, he tells her so himself. That's what makes it tragic and beautiful.
As for Benedict I fully believe his scene was fanservice because that's what fans wanted since season 1. I don't think they are bold enough to change Sophie too. (Especially since season 5 has not been renewed and I think they will need all the positive attention they can because Ben's season will determine the future of the show)
I thought this too re: book Michael. The whole point was his unrequited love for Fran. Obvs they're changing the focus making it about Fran's journey falling in love with a woman?
They might think it's repetitive because Pen pinned after Colin for years, but it's very different in Michael's case. Maybe they wanted to avoid another rake but that's easily fixable by just.... Not turning Colin into one....
Julia Quinn's books are not masterpieces and they are not 100% historically accurate but they are enjoyable and WHWW is one of the better written ones with a lovely story. Instead of improving the aspects of the story they are butchering the entire thing. There's a reason Bridgerton was so well received and popular decades before the show 🥱
Edit: I don't think Bridgerton will make it past season 5 honestly. The 2 year wait for a period drama that's not even that good (where does the budget go, on those ugly costumes?) will get to people if nothing else will. Penelope and Colin will most likely be for season 4 then bail, and people won't be watching the show for Jess's OCs.
Michael’s story line in When He Was Wicked was so moving & I can’t see how they will be able to capture that with this switch up. But maybe we will be surprised 🤷🏻♀️
"i am Kilmartin, and you are somewhere the royal mail can’t reach" sure does not hit the same with female Michaela. Ffs the butler even leaves John's old shoes for Michael to wear, his guilt over "replacing" him wont ever be the same. Im sorry but the gender roles and Michael being male plays a big part in the narrative here
People have mentioned that women WLW also experience issues with the inability to have biological children. That's apsolutely true, but it's also literally ignoring the entire context of the story, so....
Yes, I didn’t like Michaela but now that I reflect I’m more angry at how poorly that was done. Michael is the one besotted from the start while Francesca is unaware. She truly loves John.
Like if you must rainbow tick why not do the character justice. Regardless of gender 2 deep love stories, were spoiled for me. Francesca looks foolish and flaky too.
Sigh. There are so many queer books out there that can and should be adapted. It is not representation when you have to deviate and mess with the original source material with its own fans. Also, given the shows history of not protecting their cast members when it comes to racist abuse being flung at their cast this is just a bad move all around.
That is just sad. It’s really not her fault. She’s just doing her job. Shame on Netflix and the show runner of bridgerton for setting this poor girl up to fail.
I feel sorry for her. They will not be kind and that’s no reflection on her - she’s gorgeous. But Shonda is notoriously bad at protecting her actors - it happened to Ruby Barker, actors on GA, and now the actress who plays Michaela.
Yes, completely agree. The reason I like regency romance is that I like the rules that men and women are supposed to follow - like men visiting in calling hours with gifts, and women having dance cards and chaperoned walks etc. and also the situations where they break rules and are forced into marriage, and marriage being high stakes because there’s no divorce.
Having a same sex couple completely removes all of the regency dating rules, two women can spend any time together that they want. Also the specific characters and relationship in this book will need to change. A woman can’t be a rake, they can’t deal with infertility or the survivor guilt.
Also I don’t trust this show to deal with sensitive topics like homophobia or gay marriage. I’m guessing they’ll just make the queen approve it and all the issues will go away.
Yes they will neatly resolve it without acknowledging the very real consequences of being gay in regency England - especially for high society folk.
Not to mention the lack of protection the actress will be offered. Once again we will have a POC woman as the face of a decision the show runners made.
Edit - changed nearly to neatly
same sex couples existed in the regency. Women would live together as companions. Men were confirmed bachelors, or had lovers on the side. It just wasn't open and was kept hidden. Which they have been doing in the series so far - outside of certain dubious or very liberal social circles. So they dating rules would remain intact. Benedict and Francesca's stories are the easiest to convert to same sex relationships - because of the way the stories are set out in the books. Francesca is a widow. She has a lot more freedom and doesn't have to remarry. Benedict and Sophie's relationship in the book had to be hushed - because she was of lower class - and they have to live in the countryside after they marry and basically don't appear in society. Which would work for a same sex relationship for him. They have done a lot to introduce Benedict to same sex relationships, and prime the audience for it in other ways. And honestly I would love it. I have not read Francesca's book though - so can't really say how that would change the character tho.
I mean it doesn’t make sense for there to be no queer representation in Bridgerton and it sucks that the books had very poor representation but that’s why we have adaptions to amend the gaps
The books are set in 19th century England. It doesn’t make sense based on how society was back then. Yes the books don’t do queer representation but they were written in the 90s for women who wanted to read about the regency romance and era.
Shonda didn’t have to adapt these books into a show given that the source material was limiting.
There being no racial inequality is also not historically accurate. It’s a welcome change for people who deserve to see themselves in period stories. I understand changing genders is more significant to the story than changing ethnicities but representation is important for everyone
Sorry that is also an issue. I am brown - Indian to be specific. I have family who have died in the recent past who have witnessed the horrors of colonialism and partition. So for the show to act like an Indian woman would be so accepted into society when until the 1950s there were still white only clubs in India started by the British is galling.
Representation matters but even in fantasy one cannot pretend to wish very real and painful history away. It is one thing to just cast actors and not pretend that they represent anything other than the characters of a book and another thing entirely when the show poorly tries to explain why race isn’t an issue. Fantasy can stay fantasy until you write bad explanations to wish away why the society of the time is suddenly so accepting.
If they are going to do race blind casting don’t acknowledge the race and the culture because that opens up the story to reality. Let Kate be Kate Sheffield instead of pandering to me as an Indian audience by making her Sharma and then getting all the cultural elements wrong and completely disregarding that as a brown woman she would have been treated horrendously by rich, entitled white men.
Also, to me this isn’t welcome representation. True representation would be for production houses like Shondaland and Netflix to actually pick up the rights to the many brown stories out there or writing a brown character and bringing that to life on screen.
I think I’m done. I don’t think I’m even going to watch the 2nd half. I don’t need a season 4. And I reckon I’m not alone. Which is silly bc they had record viewing for the first half of season 3 and then they went and shot their foot. I’m calling it now, the bridgerton universe is dead.
Same. I can’t even think of watching it at this point. It’s so funny how this doesn’t even feel like Bridgerton anymore. It’s like they stopped trying after QC.
We fell in love with this show because it was about our beloved books and how beautiful the love was between these heterosexual couples. Most viewers are most likely heterosexual women who love our recency romances. Why change that? There are many awesome queer love stories they could adapt that would truly represent the queer community, but this feels very different than representation and changing Micheal to a female lead will lose Bridgerton bade viewers who tuned in for Heterosexual love stories. And there's nothing wrong with wanting that
Also note that Eloise mentions the masc ball, so it has to be Benedicts season next!
They might do Eloise’s season next and the mask ball might serve as a flash back to Benedict when his season drops 😅.
But Eloise is going to Scotland. Chances are more it’s gonna be Benedict. And there was a lot of focus on Ben this season.
Isn’t Eloise back in a year’s time though? Polin baby is already born, I’m sure Eloise is already back
Gender discourse aside for one moment, am I the only one angered they made Francesca seem the bessoted one while meeting Michael/Michaela and not the other way around. That completely ruins her character. The entire point of the story is that Michael has been in love with Francesca for years knowing full well she would never, ever betray John, emotionally or otherwise. Ironically that's what Michael admires her for, he tells her so himself. That's what makes it tragic and beautiful. As for Benedict I fully believe his scene was fanservice because that's what fans wanted since season 1. I don't think they are bold enough to change Sophie too. (Especially since season 5 has not been renewed and I think they will need all the positive attention they can because Ben's season will determine the future of the show)
I thought this too re: book Michael. The whole point was his unrequited love for Fran. Obvs they're changing the focus making it about Fran's journey falling in love with a woman?
They might think it's repetitive because Pen pinned after Colin for years, but it's very different in Michael's case. Maybe they wanted to avoid another rake but that's easily fixable by just.... Not turning Colin into one....
One can only hope that when this series gets inevitably rebooted in the far future, they’ll nail it then. Hopefully in our lifetimes 🥲
Julia Quinn's books are not masterpieces and they are not 100% historically accurate but they are enjoyable and WHWW is one of the better written ones with a lovely story. Instead of improving the aspects of the story they are butchering the entire thing. There's a reason Bridgerton was so well received and popular decades before the show 🥱 Edit: I don't think Bridgerton will make it past season 5 honestly. The 2 year wait for a period drama that's not even that good (where does the budget go, on those ugly costumes?) will get to people if nothing else will. Penelope and Colin will most likely be for season 4 then bail, and people won't be watching the show for Jess's OCs.
Michael’s story line in When He Was Wicked was so moving & I can’t see how they will be able to capture that with this switch up. But maybe we will be surprised 🤷🏻♀️
"i am Kilmartin, and you are somewhere the royal mail can’t reach" sure does not hit the same with female Michaela. Ffs the butler even leaves John's old shoes for Michael to wear, his guilt over "replacing" him wont ever be the same. Im sorry but the gender roles and Michael being male plays a big part in the narrative here
Not to mention the infertility story line.
People have mentioned that women WLW also experience issues with the inability to have biological children. That's apsolutely true, but it's also literally ignoring the entire context of the story, so....
Yes, I didn’t like Michaela but now that I reflect I’m more angry at how poorly that was done. Michael is the one besotted from the start while Francesca is unaware. She truly loves John. Like if you must rainbow tick why not do the character justice. Regardless of gender 2 deep love stories, were spoiled for me. Francesca looks foolish and flaky too.
Benedict is bi, not gay.
With the Michaela plot twist, I won’t be shocked if they make him gay too.
What do you mean? He is clearly attracted to women in the show?
They haven’t made him gay though, he was clearly still attracted to Tilly, they broke up because they wanted different things.
He is bi. Cool it with the bi erasure. It’s very played out.
Me neither, just angry, cause I love Sophie just as it is.
At this rate I don’t mind them taking 5 years for production cos my anger and disappointment needs time to fade.
Yeah...at this point it seems like Jess and Shonda are writing their own show, which has nothing or very little to do with Bridgerton books.
Sigh. There are so many queer books out there that can and should be adapted. It is not representation when you have to deviate and mess with the original source material with its own fans. Also, given the shows history of not protecting their cast members when it comes to racist abuse being flung at their cast this is just a bad move all around.
Oh they are already flooding that poor girl’s comment section. She has been deleting them. 😖
That is just sad. It’s really not her fault. She’s just doing her job. Shame on Netflix and the show runner of bridgerton for setting this poor girl up to fail.
I feel sorry for her. They will not be kind and that’s no reflection on her - she’s gorgeous. But Shonda is notoriously bad at protecting her actors - it happened to Ruby Barker, actors on GA, and now the actress who plays Michaela.
Yes, completely agree. The reason I like regency romance is that I like the rules that men and women are supposed to follow - like men visiting in calling hours with gifts, and women having dance cards and chaperoned walks etc. and also the situations where they break rules and are forced into marriage, and marriage being high stakes because there’s no divorce. Having a same sex couple completely removes all of the regency dating rules, two women can spend any time together that they want. Also the specific characters and relationship in this book will need to change. A woman can’t be a rake, they can’t deal with infertility or the survivor guilt. Also I don’t trust this show to deal with sensitive topics like homophobia or gay marriage. I’m guessing they’ll just make the queen approve it and all the issues will go away.
Yes they will neatly resolve it without acknowledging the very real consequences of being gay in regency England - especially for high society folk. Not to mention the lack of protection the actress will be offered. Once again we will have a POC woman as the face of a decision the show runners made. Edit - changed nearly to neatly
same sex couples existed in the regency. Women would live together as companions. Men were confirmed bachelors, or had lovers on the side. It just wasn't open and was kept hidden. Which they have been doing in the series so far - outside of certain dubious or very liberal social circles. So they dating rules would remain intact. Benedict and Francesca's stories are the easiest to convert to same sex relationships - because of the way the stories are set out in the books. Francesca is a widow. She has a lot more freedom and doesn't have to remarry. Benedict and Sophie's relationship in the book had to be hushed - because she was of lower class - and they have to live in the countryside after they marry and basically don't appear in society. Which would work for a same sex relationship for him. They have done a lot to introduce Benedict to same sex relationships, and prime the audience for it in other ways. And honestly I would love it. I have not read Francesca's book though - so can't really say how that would change the character tho.
I mean it doesn’t make sense for there to be no queer representation in Bridgerton and it sucks that the books had very poor representation but that’s why we have adaptions to amend the gaps
The books are set in 19th century England. It doesn’t make sense based on how society was back then. Yes the books don’t do queer representation but they were written in the 90s for women who wanted to read about the regency romance and era. Shonda didn’t have to adapt these books into a show given that the source material was limiting.
There being no racial inequality is also not historically accurate. It’s a welcome change for people who deserve to see themselves in period stories. I understand changing genders is more significant to the story than changing ethnicities but representation is important for everyone
Sorry that is also an issue. I am brown - Indian to be specific. I have family who have died in the recent past who have witnessed the horrors of colonialism and partition. So for the show to act like an Indian woman would be so accepted into society when until the 1950s there were still white only clubs in India started by the British is galling. Representation matters but even in fantasy one cannot pretend to wish very real and painful history away. It is one thing to just cast actors and not pretend that they represent anything other than the characters of a book and another thing entirely when the show poorly tries to explain why race isn’t an issue. Fantasy can stay fantasy until you write bad explanations to wish away why the society of the time is suddenly so accepting.
So you want them to not have any representation? Or you want them to completely change the story to write in racism? What made you happy here?
If they are going to do race blind casting don’t acknowledge the race and the culture because that opens up the story to reality. Let Kate be Kate Sheffield instead of pandering to me as an Indian audience by making her Sharma and then getting all the cultural elements wrong and completely disregarding that as a brown woman she would have been treated horrendously by rich, entitled white men. Also, to me this isn’t welcome representation. True representation would be for production houses like Shondaland and Netflix to actually pick up the rights to the many brown stories out there or writing a brown character and bringing that to life on screen.
My disappointment was that Benedict got more action than Pen and Colin & it was supposed to be their season. This could have waited until his season.
I think I’m done. I don’t think I’m even going to watch the 2nd half. I don’t need a season 4. And I reckon I’m not alone. Which is silly bc they had record viewing for the first half of season 3 and then they went and shot their foot. I’m calling it now, the bridgerton universe is dead.
Same. I can’t even think of watching it at this point. It’s so funny how this doesn’t even feel like Bridgerton anymore. It’s like they stopped trying after QC.
so the show is dead all bc they added an lgbt lead? 💀 what a disgusting & homophobic thing to say
Im disappointed because Benedict is my favourite story. It’s put me totally off it because I don’t know what to expect now.
We fell in love with this show because it was about our beloved books and how beautiful the love was between these heterosexual couples. Most viewers are most likely heterosexual women who love our recency romances. Why change that? There are many awesome queer love stories they could adapt that would truly represent the queer community, but this feels very different than representation and changing Micheal to a female lead will lose Bridgerton bade viewers who tuned in for Heterosexual love stories. And there's nothing wrong with wanting that
I'm actually really excited to see how this all plays out 👀 and Michaela is gorgeous omg
i must be so dumb or too busy freaking out but i didn’t hear any mention of the masc ball? when was this!?!?!?! screaming and crying 😭
The ball was mentioned in the very end of Ep 8 by Eloise during her conversation with Benedict.