Diandra Reviews Bridgerton Season 3: Polin Is Rising
The first 6 episodes of Bridgerton Season 3 feel like the most grounded of the notoriously lustful series. For the past 2 seasons, Bridgerton has smacked women like an erotic, Jane Austen novel: Mr. Darcy After Dark. While this season had its sensual exploits, it was not always via its main couple. In fact, Kate and Anthony gave us more love-lust than our two leads. Instead, Bridgerton´s S3 couple questions whether friends can become lovers, especially when we have the tendency to put an image with our friends.
Colin comes back from France acting like he got a psyche degree in sex. He’s fit, with perfectly coiffed hair, and a devilish smirk that says ¨Yup! I’m the fave customer at your local brothel.¨ He’s quite debonair to the chagrin of Penelope, whose Hey Arnold! Helga level of crushing on him, feels humbled. Before Colin was the smart, sensitive kid that, like Penelope, felt slightly isolated by the high society he was born into. Now, he’s the bachelor of the season, while Penelope is reaching Bridget Jones´ level of spinster. Frankly, I liked to see her/ Lady Whistledown reveal a feeling we imagined there but never quite saw on display: bitterness.
You cannot write a gossip newspaper about the people you grew up with and their escapades if you do not feel bitter towards them. Penelope may play quiet and feeble, but Whistledown knows how to get down. The opposing sides of Penelope are fascinating and Nicole Coughlin plays how the same person, if bullied enough, can go from thoughtful to reckless. Yet, as women we understand. Colin (Luke Newton) may feel isolated or disconnected from society, but he is not scrutinized or purposefully ostracized quite like Penelope. He just feels the upper echelons are superficial, while she gets their superfluous commentary. His inability to understand the experience of someone he claims to be falling in love with, might be why the couple will not, exactly, be deemed a favorite.
In terms of casting, sets, and instances of pure, scintillating, and VERY GUHSY romance, Bridgerton cannot be beat. It consistently serves and truly is a comfort, cozy show for many. Banal and intriguing enough to stay re-watchable in between the 3 years it takes to get a new season. Yet, what makes Colin and Penelope stand out is that its first two couples were so cosmic versions of standard tropes: how hate turns to love, how fascination turns into connection, and how desire can turn to devour. We have not, necessarily, felt that with out leads, in part, because their relationships from friend to fiancé feels slightly rushed. I needed more unpacking, and to see that AHA moment where Colin realizes Penelope is the ying to his yang: not a sexy, pastry eater, as one scene would have it.
While the chemistry of our main couple is palpable,I wanted more passion and sex for them, especially in terms of ¨curvy girl¨ representation. Colin falls for her mind, that is clear, but Penelope is STUNNING, and I feel like the latter season is going to be her realizing that. Beyond society and Colin and Eloise’s judgements, lies a woman whose confidence was broken because her beauty was deemed ¨ugly´or ¨too smart.¨While there is no Bridgerton without the main couple landing together, I am excited for Part II to show how Penelope embraces her beauty and power fully, and without any compromise to becoming a Bridgerton, which, again, is why I think this season is definitely likable but slow to love. Colin embodies a real reckoning for a lot of women dating: the man that has it all ¨figured out¨ and claims to be open, while judging and shutting down the journey of the very woman he claims to love. It is going to be really interesting to see how he reconciles that the very thing he loves about Penelope is the very thing he sabotages: her power.
