June 10, 2024 • 54 mins
My Dear Readers (I mean listeners, you get it)
Welcome to a surprise episode of Psychocinematic, where we cast all serious topics to the wind and focus on what makes us feel safe and protected right now from a world falling apart - trashy, romancey, sexy, gossipy Bridgerton. But did you think I would NOT have disability and mental illness representation to discuss? THINK AGAIN - as usual it is inescapable.
Join me solo as I discuss all the disability and mental illness representation we have seen thus far, who we hope has a gay storyline, and who of the Bridgerton world could be coded neurodivergent. Also, the incredulity of turning Pitball into the soundtrack of the obligatory peak h0rny scene.
Content warning: sex, some ableism, some swears.
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NOTE: This podcast is not designed to be therapeutic, prescriptive or constitute a formal diagnosis for any listener, nor the characters discussed. The host is not representative of all psychologists and opinions stated are her own personal opinion, based on her own learnings and training (and minimal lived experience). Host and co-hosts do not have the final say and can only comment based on their own perspectives, so please let us know if you dispute any of these opinions – we are keen for feedback!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steph Psychocinematic (00:02):
I would like to start today's recording
by acknowledging the traditionalowners of the land that I am
sitting on today, the Wurundjeripeople of the Kulin nation. And
I'd like to pay my respects toelders past, present and
emerging who look after thisland and remind everybody that I
am sitting on stolen land, alleyes on Rafa. Free Falestine.
(00:24):
and hello everyone.
My dear readers! I'm here withan episode for you a little
earlier than I expected, andit's just me today, so let's see
if we can make it through a fulllength episode with just me
talking at myself. But you knowwhat? It's been a of a year. For
(00:44):
me, it's been a of a year formost people. I don't know anyone
in my life who isn't having ayear, and that's pretty enough
of the slandering of the year,but what I thought was a good
little distraction from theshitness was to focus on a movie
(01:05):
or TV show that is just purelyescapism content, but with a lot
of talking points that fall inline with the psychocinematic
focus, and that is bridgerton.Bridgerton season three, if you
don't know what I'm talkingabout, you must be hiding under
a rock, or you're a child, inwhich case, listen to a
(01:26):
different podcast. I have toadmit that I have guilty
pleasures, and most people do,and bridgerton is one of them.
Well, when I say guiltypleasure, I don't feel guilty
about it at all. I am very, veryhappy to express my love for a
trashy TV show or movie, andthat is one of them. So first of
(01:47):
all, why bridgerton? Why arepeople drawn to bridgerton so
much? What is it about this showthat every season that comes out
is automatically in the top fiveor the number one of Netflix
shows, I feel like, firstly,it's a bit of a sensory a
sensory smorgasbord, in a sensethat is probably the wankiest
(02:10):
thing I've ever said. But thereare so many elements of the show
that's just visually appealing,audibly appealing, the language
in the show, the characters,yeah, mostly the costumes. Let's
be honest. I love watching thecostumes each episode. And I
guess a little one of the sortof novelty factors of bridgerton
(02:32):
when it came out was that itturned pop songs, rock songs,
modern day songs, into Regency,classical pieces and dance
numbers, which at first waslike, Ooh, this is kind of cool,
I guess. And then I think thenovelty wore off and it was a
little bit cringe. But I have toadmit, I did enjoy hearing the
(02:54):
initial songs, indie songs aswell. For example, hearing
'Dancing on my own' by Robyn ina string quartet was pretty
cool, but it's not it does. Itdoesn't always land. But look
props for giving it something abit different.
I think when it comes to thestoryline, essentially, we love
(03:14):
gossip. I'm someone who cannothelp but be drawn to gossip, and
sometimes that can be a problem,but it's so it's much easier and
safer to enjoy fake gossip orgossip about somebody you've
never you've never met, neverwill meet, which is why podcasts
such as Normal Gossip are soenjoyed and beloved. If you
(03:37):
haven't listened to NormalGossip, please do so. And then
there was the show which, Ithink this is kind of the 2020s,
version of Gossip Girl, whichwas great, because we could
enjoy the gossip of people whoare truly terrible. So, you
know, we could enjoy watchingthe toxic mind games,
manipulation and, first worldproblems of truly entitled,
(04:01):
rich, awful people, and alsoenjoy their fashion as well,
keeping in mind that the poorestperson in Gossip Girl was the
most up of them all. Sorry aboutthat. Spoiler alert. but
essentially, it's pure escapism.We get our sort of dopamine rush
of that gossip when it is allabout relationships and
(04:23):
scandals, and also, I guess,that secret, hidden mystery of
what is going on, what is thebackstory of this character? Why
will they not commit why willthey not pick a wife? Why will
they not have children? What'sgoing on, and it's all fake and
it's all dramatic and sort offantastical. Because, you know,
(04:45):
the world of bridgerton doesn'texist, will never exist, has
never existed. And I say thatmainly because it's a society
which is based in a real place,London, but that race is. Not an
issue. Maybe it has been anissue in the past, but history
has been rewritten so that theQueen of England is a black
(05:06):
woman and people can have veryesteemed, hierarchical titles
from a range of differentcultures and backgrounds. And
that is, sadly not the case, butI think it is something that is
refreshing about the genre. Imyself am not a person of color.
I'm a white, cis woman. I'm veryprivileged, and I'm checking
(05:28):
that, but I I'm assuming, andfrom what I've read, I guess
it's quite reclaiming to seepeople of color being able to be
represented in those Regencypieces, in positions of power
and positions of wealth and highsociety. So it's nice to see
that. I wish we saw more ofthat, having said that, there
(05:49):
are definitely flaws tobridgerton. Is it feminist? No,
is it? Is it queer? Only codedmostly apart from in Queen
Charlotte? And do we need tomarry? You know, the coming out
debutantes and the need forwomen to secure a partner?
(06:11):
Obviously, that is a big part ofthe storyline between some of
the main protagonists,particularly in this season. But
I just also hate it. So, youknow, it is quite that women
have to marry in order to getaway from their toxic family in
the land of bridgerton, as isthe case for Penelope. And I
(06:31):
guess you know that's where,where that comes from in terms
of Regency in the past. But youknow, there's so much plays with
reality here. Wouldn't it benice if that? I don't know.
Maybe we could work with that alittle bit more. But you know,
at the same time, the plot ofthe show is who's gonna marry
who and how well are they gonnamarry and who's gonna be paired
(06:52):
with who. And it's a verysimple, escapist way, after a
long day to process your verylong day. I don't think it's a
coincidence that in the world welive in now, where there is just
constant trauma and death andmurder and displacement and
(07:13):
destruction of a range ofcommunities across the world. Of
course, I'm referring toPalestine and Gaza, but also
Sudan and Congo, of course, thewar in Ukraine, and I'm sure
there's so many others that Ihave neglected to mention, the
global financial crisis. We, alot of us, you know, our Netflix
(07:35):
subscription is our luxury, andthat's all we really have. I
know for me, particularly, beinga single person with a single
income living in an apartmentalone apart from my son, I have
had to tighten those pursestrings, and it's not fun. So
(07:56):
being able to escape into theworld of bridgerton, it's it
feels comforting. It feels likea place of refuge where, imagine
if your biggest problem was whatkind of flowers would be at the
ball tonight. And, oh, I don'twant to have to talk to that
gentleman who you know is veryrich but very ugly. I want to
(08:17):
marry for love and sort ofconvenience, like, oh, to have
those conundrums when you'rejust making sure you're eating
and all those things.
So let's have a brief history ofthe seasons and the
representations that we saw. Iguess we had the first season of
(08:42):
bridgerton where the Duke andDaphne came together. That was
the first Bridgeton series wherewe were trying to figure out
what kind of series this was. Ithink what was interesting about
bridgerton, because I watched itwhen Casper was like, one, I
don't know, he was pretty young,and I'd start watching it with
him in the room and be like,Yep, no, this, this is fine. And
(09:04):
then as it got a little bit morehated, a little bit more oh, I
don't think I can watch thiswith my son in the room anymore.
So, you know, kind of was alittle bit of a surprise. Oh,
this is kind of porn. I'll watchthis later. And I think that was
kind of a bit cheeky and funabout bridgerton. I think it's
(09:25):
pretty well agreed that we allfound the Duke extremely
attractive. I'm a straightwoman, so I don't particularly
find Daphne attractive. And I'mnot sure if she's you would call
her, like, hot or but the sceneswere very and we very much
(09:45):
rebelled in that. And that wasprobably just around, like we
were still in the midst oflockdown. So I think, you know,
it was kind of like Tiger King.Everyone was like, have you seen
bridgerton? So it was a reallygood start for the series. Is.
But I guess the plotline for theDuke was that, you know, I
haven't rewatched the firstseason, so I'm just going this
(10:06):
by memory, the Duke's name beingSimon, played by rejoin page.
Very attractive man,unfortunately, has not come back
since season one. They fall inlove with one another and marry,
but with the Duke having toldDaphne that he can't have
children, and because, as wealso see in the season, the
(10:27):
understanding of is very limitedat this time, even though they
can get very hot and heavy withDaphne doesn't realize that he
actually can have children, andhe's just choosing not to. But
once she does discover this, itobviously creates tension, but
what we find out is it seemslike he doesn't want to pass on
the Hastings name due to areally up father who is quite
(10:52):
cruel, quite abusive to him, andthat his father really only
wanted an heir to continue thefamily name. So Simon's response
to the cruelty of his father,the fact that his mother died in
childbirth, Simon decides hedoesn't want to continue the
Hastings Family, and that's whyhe said that he can't have
children. Obviously, things andwell, as a child, it's conceived
(11:17):
and born. Because this is amental health podcast and
disability podcast for lookingat mental health issues. It is
very clear that the Duke hassome significant Complex PTSD,
which, in true bridgertonfashion, is managed much quicker
than you would ordinarily manageif this was a real life
(11:37):
situation in that Simon falls inlove, talks it through, and is
cured of his PTSD, but it alsokind of, I guess, explains his
aloofness and his treatment ofDaphne. Initially, he obviously
has closed himself off torelationships and connections,
but that is changed when hefinds someone who's willing to
(11:59):
love him for who he is, oh,conditional love is broken with
unconditional love.
Then we move on to Season two,which is the story of Antony, or
Anthony the Viscount, and KateSharma falling in love. And just
like in the first season, thereis, of course, barriers to them
(12:21):
expressing their love and beingin love, and it comes from two
levels of trauma. So thebackstory with Kate being that
her father married again to LadyMary, who treated Kate as if she
was her own, and then her fatherdied, Kate is quite a mother
figure to her half sisterEdwina. However, she's not
(12:46):
considered part of the family.So Should she wed there would be
no dowry, I think, whereas hersister Edwina is entitled to a
dowry if she marries because sheis related by blood to the
sheffields, which is thegrandparents. Very confusing.
(13:06):
I'm not even sure if I'm talkingabout the right people, but that
is the sort of backstory Katedoesn't think she's entitled to
love because her focus is reallyjust on giving her sister what
she wants and what the familyneeds. And then, of course,
Anthony, we very viscerally See,in many ways, how he watched his
father die tragically ofanaphylaxis after being stung by
(13:31):
a bee, and felt obviously theweight of the responsibility of
that happening and not beingable to stop it, as well as then
being sort of responsible forthe household, because his
mother, Violet was pregnant withhis younger sister, and was even
asked at a point whether to keepthe mother or the Baby Alive due
(13:55):
to the difficulty of the birth,the breach birth, so him being
thrust into the role of Viscountand of patriarch of the family,
and all the pressure thatinvolves was obvious, and also
that trauma, that traumaresponse of that very hot scene
where him and Kate get close forthe same time because Kate's
(14:16):
been stung by a bee, but youkind of see the panic. It's a
well acted scene, and you know,I could watch it over and over
again because it's panic, but italso invokes vulnerability and
intimacy between them. So Iguess, you know, they're kind of
trauma bonded, in a way, becausethey see themselves very
similarly as reluctant heads ofthe family and having to put
(14:38):
everybody's needs above theirsdespite looking gorgeous. So we
have that kind of eldest child,parentification, trauma,
complex, trauma, shame andguilt, mental health processes
going on.
Then we have Queen Charlotte abridgerton story, which I am
actually hoping I get to do afull episode on, because. Doors.
(15:00):
It is very, very clearly amental illness story, a
disability story as well, apsychosocial disability story,
bingo, where we are introducedto Queen Charlotte as a young
girl who is betrothed to KingGeorge and King George as we
(15:20):
know as Mad King George. Soessentially, Charlotte and
George get to know each otherquite well, fall in love with
each other, but they do thendiscover that there is a secret
about King George, and there'ssome interesting behavior and
the decline of his well beingthat Charlotte experiences. And
(15:41):
then we discover that George isquote, unquote mad, and the
palace very much tries to hidethat from the rest of the world.
We also see King George try toaccess a range of really
horrible, not helpful treatmentsto try and cure himself. And she
intervenes with this. It'spretty brutal. And, you know,
(16:05):
it's not the best depiction of amental illness. It's probably,
you know, a look at what itwould have been like to have a
mental illness like that at inRegency era, in Victorian times.
And it is based somewhat inhistory of King George the Third
being historically known forhaving some psychological
issues. What they actually are,I think, is debatable the way
(16:29):
they sort of portray KingGeorge's illness in bridgerton.
I think it's supposed to be likesome sort of schizoid disorder,
schizophrenia, psychosis.However, there are definitely
some inaccuracies of how thatwould be portrayed based on what
we see in the show. So yeah, Idon't think we know exactly what
(16:51):
it was, but what I have got hereis a Screen Rant article which
you know isn't the is probablynot the most empirical article
that I could refer to, but justfor a bit of an overview,
according to historical accountsof King George the Third in IRL,
his illness included symptomslike convulsions, frothing at
(17:13):
the mouth, ramblingincoherently, bouts of
depression, and later in life,the loss of hearing, vision,
Memory and ability to walk. Andthen, after the death of his
daughter, Princess Amelia,George, sank into a deep
depression, which he neverrecovered from. There is there
was a prevailing theory thatKing George of the third had
(17:34):
porphyria, or porphyria, whichis a rare liver disorder, and he
was exposed to arsenic, whichcontributed to the worsening of
the symptoms. But there has beenconflicting theories in recent
years, even though there's lotsof documentation about the
porphyria. So apparently, in thelast decade or so, historians
have posited that King Georgethe Third instead, had a
(17:57):
combination of bipolar disorder,chronic mania. Mania is a
symptom of bipolar disorder anddementia, and that would kind of
probably explain hisdeterioration in his later
years. And apparently, Dr PeterGerard of St George's University
of London said the porphyria, orporphyria theory, is completely
dead in the water. This was apsychiatric illness. I guess we
(18:20):
don't know. Do we? You know,back in the early 1800s there
wasn't any understanding ofpsychiatric illness, but yeah,
it's very interesting. And Ithink Queen Charlotte, I'm not
sure how well it did compared tothe other series, but you know,
it's more of a spin off. I thinkwhat intrigued people was, you
(18:41):
know, the parallel between thisperson portrayed in bridgerton
and the real King George. But,yeah, I think that there's
definitely a podcast episodearound that, if I can get around
to it, and if by the time I do,bridgerton is still relevant,
I'm sure it will be.
bridgerton season three. Taglinebeing, even a wallflower can
(19:02):
bloom. And what we love aboutthis season already, no matter
what happens in the season, evenif you don't care about
bridgerton or like bridgerton,you have to admit that it is
refreshing to have the maincharacter of a series that is
deeply popular, bit trashy, verybeautifully portrayed. Be a
(19:27):
person who is plus size. It mademe very excited. It's made
everybody very excited. And notonly is she plus size, she's not
a little bit plus size, she'sgenuinely plus size. She's hot.
She has autonomy and agency. Inthis season, she's the main
character. She is Lady, spoileralert, she's Lady whistledown,
(19:51):
and she's Nicola Coughlin, whois a Goddess. I love her.
Obviously, she's the talk of thetown at the moment. But if you
haven't seen anything else,she's in definitely watch dairy
girls. Dairy girls is worthwatching from beginning to end,
because you kind of get into theheadspace of it, like it's very
fast paced. Also watch Big mood,which is probably a podcast
(20:13):
episode's worth as well. Bigmood portrays someone with
bipolar disorder in a veryhonest, vulnerable way, and she
does it so brilliantly, I feellike she's in other things. But
anyway, definitely watch thosetwo things. She's been a, you
know, she's been around for awhile, and she's just so
fantastic, such a great actress,and just perfect in this role.
(20:36):
And we see her bloom. And evenif you just watch this series,
just for just for Nicola. It'sworth it. It's worth it. So
let's talk about what happens inthis season. So I'm going to
talk about the first fourepisodes, probably quite
briefly, but more focus on whatwhat I want to talk about,
(20:56):
because it's just me here, but Iguess to catch us up to what we
see in the first four episodes.Essentially, there's been some
stuff that went down last seasonin terms of the featheringtons,
which is penelope's family. Theywere in quite a bit of debt
because Lord featherington uptheir finances. I'm not really
(21:18):
sure. I don't pay as muchattention to the financing
stuff. I'm sure none of us do.We just want to get to the hot
parts. Lady featherington'scousin Jack starts scamming
everybody to try and get themback into the green but then
Lady featherington scams himback and sends him off with a
promise to secure some money ifthey can provide an heir. So she
(21:44):
marries off penelope's oldersisters to others older sisters,
I think, to these dudes who theykind of treat like dogs, like do
what I want. It's kind ofrefreshing. And Penelope is
getting a little bit jack of allof this, and decides that she
needs to find herself a husbandso she can get away from her
(22:06):
family. And you can see, like, Ikind of like, in some way, the
character of penelope's mother.I'm forgetting her name. What's
her name? Portia featherington,apologies there. I kind of like
Portia as a character, becauseshe's a bit sassy and, you know,
a bit manipulative a bitconniving. She reminds me of my
(22:27):
mom a little bit. But, you know,you know, in a way, that I kind
of respect that from her. Andshe's got good she's got good
lines, but she's awful toPenelope, just truly terrible, I
guess, how you love a mum, butshe's also terrible to you,
understandably, Penelope islike, I've got to get out of
here. The only way I can do thatis to marry someone and say
(22:48):
that's her plan for this season.Having said that, as we all
know, she is lady whistledown.And what happened last episode
was that Eloise discovered shewas Lady whistledown, or more,
put two and two together becauseof the fact that she, in the
last season, went on a bit of ajourney to try and uncover who
(23:11):
Lady whistledown was, and thenfell in love. But I would say
it's like because, as we allhope and pray. Eloise is gay.
she ends up becoming close to acommoner from the from the rough
parts of London, Theo, I can'tremember exactly what happened,
(23:32):
but like whistledown exposesthat, so she throws...
whistledown throws Eloise underthe bus so as to throw them off
the scent, because Eloise isaccused of being lady
whistledown by the Queen, whichputs Penelope in awful position
where she doesn't want Eloise toend up with this accusation. But
in order to stop this, she needsto write something horrible
(23:55):
about her. So she was kind ofbetween a rock and a hard place.
and once that was kind ofuncovered, Eloise figured out
finally that Penelope was Ladywhistledown, and they have not
been friends ever since then. Soyeah, there's been a bit of a
hiatus of Lady whistledownswriting. And then also, to add
(24:20):
lot development, Colin hasgrown, and Colin and Penelope
have been friends for some time,and it's very clear Penelope as
mad feelings of love for Colin,crushing hard on Colin. And
Colin has returned again fromoverseas, a bit of a Baroque
he's looking a bit more rimaround the face. He's blossomed
(24:44):
a little bit himself. And I'msurprised. At first I was like,
oh, no, phone Colin. Thatattractive. But by the end of
the season, by the end of thatcourage scene, yeah, I could go
for Colin. He's all right, yeah,I'm all right with that. So,
yeah. I think bridgerton does areally good job of making people
attractive in many ways, in mostways. So Yes, Colin.
(25:10):
Colin enters the picture, andPenelope ends up asking Colin
for some support, some help andhow to get a husband, and Colin
offers to give her someassistance with that. I'm not
really sure what Colin'squalifications are, what his
whole like? Why? I guess he'shelping out a friend and wanted
(25:30):
to show her that he cared abouther. But you know, why ask?
Obviously, don't ask your mum.Don't ask your sisters. But why
Colin? Why not? Like Daphnehelped Anthony a lot, and
Penelope and Kate Sharma, Ithink got along quite well. Why
not talk to them about it,although Kate's probably busy
having with her husband anyway,that is where we're at this
(25:54):
season. That is the plot. And ofcourse, just like with Daphne
and the Duke and the pretendingto be in love, but then they
were in love. It's another oneof those very popular, you know,
Pygmalion type plot lines where,let's give you a glow up. This
is what'll help I'll teach youhow to fall in love with
someone, and then, oh my god,we're falling in love. How many
(26:15):
rom coms Has this happened? Likemost, is some variation of that
theme. So, but, you know, welove it. We live for it. Like,
yes, it's predictable, and weknow what's gonna happen, but
that is safe right now. Thatfeels safe. Predictability is
safe. So just watching itblossom is just like, I know
(26:35):
where this is going, and I'mhere for it. We also have a few
other plot lines going on,including a few things I want to
touch on. Firstly, Eloise isgay. This is my query. Like
Eloise is so different fromeverybody else in bridgerton, in
(26:56):
her family, she's not interestedin finding a lover. She doesn't
like societal expectations. Shealmost joins a union last
season. She's a feminist thatdoesn't make someone gay, but
she clearly doesn't seem to havean interest in men or boys apart
from Theo. And I feel like thatwas maybe just that he was in
(27:16):
the same wavelength as her,because I think she I'm not the
only one. It's everywhere herand Cressida stuff, I feel like
there's a vibe there. Don't youthink there's a vibe there, and
the way she's so, you know, Ifeel like Penelope was kind of
her, her gal, that, you know,she felt safe and comfortable
(27:37):
with. And you know, if Penelopewanted to make things more, I
think she'd be totally cool withit. Penelope is not gay, though,
so you know, I hope that shedoesn't find someone. I hope
that she is the lesbian of theseason, and I really want that
to be a storyline. But is it acop out if Eloise ends up
dating, or at least being inlove with a woman, or should we
(27:59):
want her to be an asexual queen,or should we want her to be just
a feminist icon who's just like,you know, the Clementine Ford of
bridgerton, who's just like,let's not marry men. Just be
that icon who's against thestructure of society and those
expectations on women. Maybethat's all she should be, and to
make her gay would be a cop out.What do you think? Like is, if
(28:22):
there's anyone who has genderstudies behind them or some
sociology experience, can, youknow, give me some vibes? What
do you think? Because the onlyI've, I've always thought that
Benedict was going to come outas gay, because he was always
like, you know, who's in thatsort of arty world, which was
kind of paid for him, but hefelt like he belonged there, and
(28:45):
he was painting naked bodies.But, you know, he didn't seem to
like find love within that. Andhe's sort of a floater, and he
doesn't really know what he'sdoing. And then, you know, I was
hoping he would have the gaystoryline, but it seems that he
finds love in what's like adivorcee who, you know, sort of
seems to be coded as an olderwoman, but she's probably not
(29:08):
much older than him. She justkind of dresses a little bit
more maturely, and has beenmarried before, which I like. I
love that storyline. I like it,but yeah, really thought he was
going to be gay, but the onlygay storyline we've had so far
is brimsley in Queen Charlotte,which was a lovely storyline,
really heartbreaking. And I feellike they could only introduce
(29:31):
the gay character in QueenCharlotte because it wasn't
bridgerton Main. It was prequelspin off bridgerton. So maybe
they're just testing the watersand they don't want to go in too
deep, but like we will be sohere for it plays like you don't
even have to show them havingThat will be enough to see them,
(29:51):
you know, close to each other,like we see in all those pre
emptive scenes with Anthony andKate Sharma. Maybe we'll see
more. In the next four episodes,and then we potentially have
some disability representationin this latest season. So
firstly, I do need to justmention briefly that there is a
(30:14):
character in bridgerton who's ina wheelchair and who seems to
have a really good banter withPenelope. I was like, oh,
there's a hot guy in awheelchair. Could this be
something? Could she be the onethat she's kind of, you know,
tossing up between and then hegets wheeled away. It's like,
oh. I was like, Oh, here we go.Here we go. We get some
(30:38):
disability representation, somegood disability representation.
There's some vibes. Oh no, he'sbeing wheeled away by somebody
else. So autonomy, no. And ofcourse, would be of the time.
You know, we're not necessarilygoing to see an inclusive
society in bridgerton. Itclearly isn't. There's a lot of
(30:59):
staircases, but it was a bitdisappointing.
and then we have someneurodivergence. So many people
have highlighted the fact thatFrancesca is so deeply coded as
autistic in how she completelyengages with the world, there
(31:20):
are so many signs that she'slikely autistic. I mean,
firstly, she's very introverted,shy. Doesn't want to really come
out. Isn't that interested inthe whole fancifulness of it?
Does want to get married. Butyou know, what she's after isn't
(31:41):
necessarily what her mum and hersisters are after. She is
looking for something quitedifferent. And then we see her
hyper focus her special interestbeing the piano, LA, or the
piano, and that is very muchwhat takes up her time. So she's
very, very heavily invested inthat interest to the point that
(32:04):
when they're walking down thestreet and she hears, well, I
guess, music as a whole, whenthey're walking down the street
and they she hears the violinplaying some music, that's all
she can focus on. And they'retrying to have a conversation,
and she's just pointing out allthe reasons why the arrangement
is all wrong in the violin. Soshe's very much attuned to that
(32:27):
sensory experience of music to apoint that it's above all else.
And she's very, very perceptive.So quite a big skill of hers is
music. She meets Lord Kilmartin,another very attractive man. And
you know, all the attractiveSee, what I think I love about
bridgerton is the attractivecharacters also have attractive
(32:50):
personalities, not just looks,whereas, you know, the
attractive other sort ofcharacters that are obviously
like, yeah, they're goodlooking, that aren't, you know,
very nice, yeah, I just don'tfind myself attracted to them,
and maybe that's just me,because I'm a bit of a
demisexual. It's not all aboutlooks for me. There has to be a
personality there, too. I'm sureI'm not the only one, but yes,
(33:10):
she meets John Kilmartin, andshe's drawn to him much more so
than everyone else, and he isclearly unique in himself, and
they sit in silence. They do notwish to speak, and they are both
quite comfortable in thatsilence. She looks at him, she
(33:32):
looks away. He looks at her. Helooks away. They are
communicating. They are deeplycommunicating, but they are not
using words, and so much goes onin those few moments where
they're sitting there in silencetogether, and everyone's like,
What the What is going on? Butbetween them, it will make it
(33:54):
all make sense. And I think it'sa very obvious sign that how
Francesca and and kilmartin'sbrains work are very in tune
with each other and verydifferent from the common folk
of bridgerton. And I guess ontop of that, the previous
conversation that I mentionedabout the arrangement of the
(34:14):
violin being just horrible toher, and she conveys that to
John Kilmartin, and, you know,explains why it's horrible. And
he immediately leaves so socialcues, and not so not so much
social cues, but socialnormities aren't really
followed. He just leaves, Irishexits and then writes up an
arrangement for her that shewould prefer, and he gives it to
(34:37):
her at the ball, and she justleaves, just like, well she
asked for permission first,because she's been trained to
mask, but yeah, she does leavethe ball and goes to play it.
It's their communication. Theircommunication is through music
and silence. So noise andsilence, that's how they
connect, and it's beautiful.Cool. I love it. Obviously, I
(35:02):
can't see any anything butcoding happening rather than
canonizing the autism experiencein bridgerton. But I do love
seeing a neurodivergent personfind another neurodivergent
person. I'm sure there'll bebumps along the road, but yeah,
it's nice to see that storyline,and it's nice to see that it's
(35:22):
being supported and embraced inthe storyline. Obviously, I
think, as I just mentionedbefore, you can see how Francesc
has probably learned to maskmore than John Kilmartin has.
Even though, you know, he doeshave a lot of the social
niceties in place, he's alsowilling to just walk away and
leave when he just, you know,has that need to whereas it's
(35:42):
more necessary for Francesca tosort of follow those norms of
society, especially living in afamily like the bridgertons and
being one of the youngerchildren, whereas obviously Lord
kilmartin is, you know, probablyhigher on the hierarchy in his
family. So interesting. I didlike that. But I also wondered,
are there other characters inthis season that could be
(36:05):
considered neurodivergent,particularly Lord debling. Lord
debling, he comes across as,again, someone who's very
focused on his interests. Aboveall else, he also has the means
and the privilege to explorethose interests beyond anything
else. You know, he goes onexpeditions. He's a person who's
(36:28):
focused and obsessed withnature, and that's all that
occupies his time, so much sothat he doesn't really care to
marry for love. He could maybebe someone who is asexual,
aromantic. He really just wantsto continue with his life, with
his adventures, all theconversation he has that brings
him joy is around nature. That'sall he wants to talk about. He's
(36:51):
very polite and respectable, buthe's very honest and he's very
open to say, here for love, Ijust want to settle down so I
can so you can focus on thehome, and I'll carry on with my
business and what I want to do.So, you know, I quite liked that
that was explored in arespectful way. I think he's a
(37:11):
good person, and he just tellsyou what he wants. And of the
time that they were in that wasexpected that a man would marry
and a woman would not reallyhave much say in what life would
look like. But, you know, hegave Penelope an hour and he was
honest with her, like, this iswhat I'm looking for in a
partner. And she said, Yeah,okay. And then he was like, You
(37:33):
seem pretty into that callingguy. And she's like, No. He's
like, Yeah. So that was thescene. I just completely
replicated the scene. So, yeah,you know, I think there's a case
that could be sad for Lorddebling being a bit
neurodivergent. And having saidthat, you could probably make a
(37:54):
case that Penelope could be alittle bit neurodivergent as
well. When I say a little bitneurodivergent, you're either
neurodivergent or you're not,but I'm just, I'm just
interpreting a fictionalcharacter. There's a lot of
things you could extrapolatefrom a character. So yeah, this
is just where my mind goes. Sothat's why I'm not saying she's
(38:15):
definitely this or definitelythat, but I do think that
Penelope isn't like her sisters.She's not like a lot of the
people at bridgerton. A lot ofthat probably comes from that
she doesn't see herself asattractive. But having said
that, like yes, Penelope is aplus sized girl at the time in
(38:35):
Regency, time that was seen asmore attractive having curves
was more embraced and seen asthan being thin and not having
curves. So I would find itinteresting if we were to look
back, because there's so manyproblems with looking back and
how it would have been in reallife, but I do think that
(38:57):
Penelope would have been seen asa pretty attractive, desirable
woman in the early 1800s andRegency time. So yeah, I think
that you could probably make acase that Penelope being a bit
different isn't just because ofher looks, or at all because of
her looks, maybe about how she'streated by her mum, but her
interests are very focused onwriting and reading. She's very
(39:20):
introspective, and that's whyshe's drawn to focusing on the
world around her and writingthose things down. She's a
listener. She fades into thebackground. She notices the
details, she picks up on whateveryone's saying. She's very
attuned to the world around her,and that is what she focuses her
time doing. So you know, thatreads neurodivergent to me, in
(39:42):
that focus inwards, the tendencynot to sort of fit in and to
process things a little bit moredifferently than everybody else,
and for the entrance to be a bitmore restricted in that focus.
So you know Penelope, and sheexpresses that she's very unlike
her sisters. She doesn't feelthe same as everybody else. She
finds a lot of things morefrustrating and irritating than
(40:03):
other people. And having saidthat, do we think that Eloise
could potentially have someneurodivergence in her? She sees
things differently, maybe someADHD even like her mind is very
she needs a lot of stimulationand focus. She finds all of this
stuff around looking pretty andgetting her husband dull and
(40:26):
boring. She needs entertainment.She wants to be doing more
important things. She wants tofocus in on more important
things that she considers moreimportant. She can also be
slightly impulsive, the way shekeeps going to the rough side of
the tracks to find Theo and notquite so considered about how
that puts her in a vulnerableposition. He's been accused of
(40:47):
saying too much and being alittle bit too brash and not
fitting in with society's normsquite so much. She's also got a
very funny sense of humor, andshe's the type of woman that, if
she had the had the means shecould start a revolution. Very
intelligent. These are mythoughts. What do you think?
Please let me know I could becompletely over reading some
(41:08):
things. But isn't that what I doevery day?
So I think I've pretty muchtouched on most of the plot of
the first four episodes. Youknow, there's some stuff there
that's a little bit more boring,but essentially, we've got
Francesca finding some mutualattraction in Kilmartin. She's
the diamond of the season, Ibelieve, excited to see where
(41:31):
that goes. We've got Eloise,who's forged a new friendship
with Christina, who was seeing alittle bit more vulnerability.
She's thinks she's unmarriable.She's always been a bit of a
particularly to Penelope, butwe're kind of seeing the other
side of her, as Eloise starts toform a friendship, and appears
to be enjoying that friendship.But you know, there are some
(41:54):
mismatching there, where, youknow, Eloise starts to talk
about the things that she'sinterested in, and then
Christina's like, Lord Deblingsfree now bye. But also that
scene was like, you know, Eloiseand Cressida. Could there be
something there? You know, alsothe fact that Eloise is the only
friend that has ever called uponCressida. And obviously,
Cressida doesn't have a lot offriends. Is that some subtext
(42:16):
there? Perhaps, anyway, we'llsee what happens there. But
obviously Eloise and penelope'sfriendship has been paused, and
that will come to light soon asto where that goes, because the
main plot point being the lovestory that has brought us all
here is Penelope and Colin. SoPenelope has always had feelings
for Colin, and Colin was alwaysseen her as a friend, and we
(42:40):
famously remember him saying tosome of his friends, I would
never date Penelope. Andobviously Penelope overhears
that, but Colin does valuePenelope as a friend, and
they've had a long enduringfriendship, so he obviously
offers to help her, and thatcontinues until it becomes a
little too much for them,because it's clear that without
(43:04):
realizing it, Colin starts todevelop feelings for Penelope.
Part of this process is Penelopedoing a major glow up again,
Pygmalion style, strictlyballroom style, all of those
films. And you know, it doessuck that that's what needs to
happen for her to find someoneworth marrying, and also for
Colin to pay attention. Doingher hair in a way that makes her
(43:24):
look a little bit more andchanging her color scheme to
green rather than citrus, littlesimple changes can make you look
a little bit more alluring. Butyou know, it's all about
Penelope and who she is, sothat's a bit disappointing. But
damn, she looks good. It's veryseductive, and it works clearly.
So eventually it's very clearthat colin has fallen into
(43:49):
feelings with Penelope, so hecomes between her and Lord
debling, who look like they'regoing to be a match. And then we
get to that iconic scene in thecarriage, which I have seen a
few times now. And I think whatis so hilarious about that scene
is that it starts with, you'veprobably got it in your head
right now, a classical quartetversion of, *badly signs* give
(44:13):
me everything tonight. Giveme... *laughs* Pitbull. It's a
pitbull song. Like, when I thinkof romantic scene, do I think of
Pitbull? Of course, I don'tthink of Pitbull. They start
playing orchestra, quartetversion of Pitbull, Pitbull!!
(44:33):
And maybe that's the, maybethat's the funny thing, getting
felt up in a carriage toPitbull. It's giving getting
felt up in an Uber to Pitbullbeing spewed out of the speakers
of the Uber. I guess that is atranslation to how that would
happen in today's world, exceptthey haven't been drinking
alcohol. They've been drinkinglemonade, and this is indeed an
expression of pent up desire andlove for each other. But somehow
(44:58):
the Pitbull works. Somehow. Itworks in the orchestra, and like
well done Pitbull, I neverwanted to hear or see from you
ever again, but you've made it,man, you really have done a
great job. Congratulations.
So we get that scene. It's so sosensual, it's so hot. And, you
(45:19):
know, I feel weird talking aboutthings that are hot. It's not
something I do often on thispodcast. You know, don't read
too much into it as a nowseparated person, but it's just
so well done, like, you know,you can't you can't deny, even
if you hate this show and youyou think it's trash, it's such
a good scene of that intimacyand that charged energy, and
(45:41):
they both play it so well, youcan't help but feel a little
turned on by it. There's been alot of jokes about, you know,
Colin's two fingers as he walksin and presents Penelope his
fiancee afterwards. And I haveto admit that, you know, the
last line of, well, for God'ssakes, Penelope, you're gonna
marry me or not, is a little bitcringe, is a little bit cringe,
(46:04):
but it was a great climax,literally and figuratively, to
this first half of season three.And I gotta say, I was here for
it. I enjoyed it. And you know,the tension pre that was quite
cute and nice. You know, youimagine the butterflies, you
imagine the rush of tingles?Yeah, it's quite sweet to watch.
(46:26):
But next for episodes, there'sobviously going to be some drama
to work out, because we'll soonfind out that they are engaged,
betrothed, and she will wantPenelope to tell Colin that she
is lady whistledown, and Colinis not a fan of Lady
whistledown, and we wantPenelope to succeed, but we also
(46:47):
she's the Dan Humphreys of thisseries. And Dan Humphries was a
creep, and they somehow got whathe wanted at the end of it was,
which is wild. But what do wewant for Penelope? Like,
obviously, it's gonna have tocome out, but we also want more
seasons of bridgerton, right? Ormaybe this will be the end. I
doubt it. There'll be spin offs.This is too much of a good thing
(47:09):
for Netflix to just take away.So where are things gonna go? I
don't know. Maybe I just loveNicola Coughlin too much to
separate her from the character,but I I'm really rooting for
Penelope, and I think she'sgenuinely, ultimately a good
person. Good people do terriblethings sometimes, and I think
that ultimately she deserveshappiness. So how will that
(47:32):
look? Will she need to comeclean and Colin be in on it? Or
will she need to keep it toherself or pass the baton over
to somebody else, whichcertainly has been the case with
other unnamed secret characters.I'm thinking A from Pretty
Little Liars. By the way, if youhaven't already and you like
(47:55):
Pretty little Liars, you shoulddefinitely listen to the podcast
Call An Adult, which is a PrettyLittle Liars recap podcast. It's
hilarious, hosted by Ashley Apapand Hayley, her co host, I
forgot her last name. I'm verysorry, Hayley, anyway,
sidequest. I just don't knowwhere things are gonna go. There
(48:16):
are a few options. I can'timagine Penelope just outing
herself as Lady whistledown,because that would have to end
the series, unless a second ladywhistledown comes out. It could
be a bit like DesperateHousewives, how at first they
were looking for who did a crimeseries, and then there was a new
(48:37):
crime and new people moved in.We had to work out what the
backstory was there, you know,will there be another mystery to
work out? I don't know, but I dohope that we get some more gay
storylines, please. I hope thatwe explore more neurodivergence
in Francesca, and maybe even wesee some accommodations being
(48:58):
made for a neurodivergence likeher and her new husband and
maybe their kids and how theysee the world a bit differently,
and that's accepted andencouraged and accommodated for.
Wouldn't that be lovely? And Iwant to see unnamed disabled
suitor come back. I want him tohave a storyline like, okay,
you've introduced you've dangledthe carrot. Let's see more
(49:21):
please. I really want to see allof that. One thing I do not want
anymore is club hits. Or do Iclub hits turned into orchestral
quartet tunes. I do. I I don'tknow. I do want more Yeah, I
think, I think we can all agreeto that more scenes, please. I
think we're gonna get them. Andyou know what? You know, I'd
(49:44):
like there to be, maybe it's notchriseda, but I'd like there to
be some more alignment withEloise's criticisms of society.
I think there needs to be moreof that and playing that out a
little bit more. Maybe she couldbefriend a spinster. See how. It
goes, maybe an older gay couplewho are just, you know, aunts,
just just besties. I think thatwould be cool, but that would
(50:07):
probably be for another season.
Yeah, I think that's all I haveto say. But what I would like to
do next episode is get a guest.I know who I'd like to invite
on, but I'm not sure if theywill be king. So we'll see. To
talk through some of the thingsI brought up today in a little
bit more detail from some morelived experience and
professional experience. And,you know, look at the next four
(50:31):
episodes. What happens based onwhat we were predicting. And,
yeah, go into what we see in alittle bit more detail. All
being well, you should belistening to this before the
next four episodes have beenreleased, I'm gonna give it my
best. I have a flight to catchtomorrow, solo, kidless, so
hopefully I can get that editedand out to you as soon as
(50:53):
possible. And I'm reallyinterested in your thoughts as
well. So please send me yourthoughts on our Instagram page,
the Facebook group is stillthere, but I've kind of let it
dwindle a little bit becausethere's really not much to
report. But I really appreciateyou all listening, and I hope
(51:13):
that I've been engaging. I'vereally just been gas bagging at
you, so I hope this has been anenjoyable listen, and I really
hope to be back with some moreregular episodes. As soon as I
can, I'm starting to get thecreative juices flowing again,
which means really just pointingthem into a more strategic
(51:37):
direction by scheduling in someepisodes and planning ahead. So
hopefully that happens, andyou'll hear from me with some
more episodes, not just aboutbridgerton, before the end of
the year, but as usual, likesubscribe all of the things tell
your friends about this podcast.Oh my goodness. I need to also
say that we reached 20,000downloads yesterday, which is a
(52:01):
surprise when I haven't beenreleasing episodes. So a
wonderful surprise, and I hopewe're all traveling as best we
can while the world burns aroundus in the most horrific ways and
free Palestine.
*plays Pitbull's song "Give MeEverything"
(52:21):
like no one wants to f*** tothis song, or even fingerf*** to
this song like this doesn't makeme feel seggsy? I can't even
handle this during like aworkout. Ergh.
I would like to start today's recording
by acknowledging the traditionalowners of the land that I am
sitting on today, the Wurundjeripeople of the Kulin nation. And
I'd like to pay my respects toelders past, present and
emerging who look after thisland and remind everybody that I
am sitting on stolen land, alleyes on Rafa. Free Falestine.
(00:24):
and hello everyone.
My dear readers! I'm here withan episode for you a little
earlier than I expected, andit's just me today, so let's see
if we can make it through a fulllength episode with just me
talking at myself. But you knowwhat? It's been a of a year. For
(00:44):
me, it's been a of a year formost people. I don't know anyone
in my life who isn't having ayear, and that's pretty enough
of the slandering of the year,but what I thought was a good
little distraction from theshitness was to focus on a movie
(01:05):
or TV show that is just purelyescapism content, but with a lot
of talking points that fall inline with the psychocinematic
focus, and that is bridgerton.Bridgerton season three, if you
don't know what I'm talkingabout, you must be hiding under
a rock, or you're a child, inwhich case, listen to a
(01:26):
different podcast. I have toadmit that I have guilty
pleasures, and most people do,and bridgerton is one of them.
Well, when I say guiltypleasure, I don't feel guilty
about it at all. I am very, veryhappy to express my love for a
trashy TV show or movie, andthat is one of them. So first of
(01:47):
all, why bridgerton? Why arepeople drawn to bridgerton so
much? What is it about this showthat every season that comes out
is automatically in the top fiveor the number one of Netflix
shows, I feel like, firstly,it's a bit of a sensory a
sensory smorgasbord, in a sensethat is probably the wankiest
(02:10):
thing I've ever said. But thereare so many elements of the show
that's just visually appealing,audibly appealing, the language
in the show, the characters,yeah, mostly the costumes. Let's
be honest. I love watching thecostumes each episode. And I
guess a little one of the sortof novelty factors of bridgerton
(02:32):
when it came out was that itturned pop songs, rock songs,
modern day songs, into Regency,classical pieces and dance
numbers, which at first waslike, Ooh, this is kind of cool,
I guess. And then I think thenovelty wore off and it was a
little bit cringe. But I have toadmit, I did enjoy hearing the
(02:54):
initial songs, indie songs aswell. For example, hearing
'Dancing on my own' by Robyn ina string quartet was pretty
cool, but it's not it does. Itdoesn't always land. But look
props for giving it something abit different.
I think when it comes to thestoryline, essentially, we love
(03:14):
gossip. I'm someone who cannothelp but be drawn to gossip, and
sometimes that can be a problem,but it's so it's much easier and
safer to enjoy fake gossip orgossip about somebody you've
never you've never met, neverwill meet, which is why podcasts
such as Normal Gossip are soenjoyed and beloved. If you
(03:37):
haven't listened to NormalGossip, please do so. And then
there was the show which, Ithink this is kind of the 2020s,
version of Gossip Girl, whichwas great, because we could
enjoy the gossip of people whoare truly terrible. So, you
know, we could enjoy watchingthe toxic mind games,
manipulation and, first worldproblems of truly entitled,
(04:01):
rich, awful people, and alsoenjoy their fashion as well,
keeping in mind that the poorestperson in Gossip Girl was the
most up of them all. Sorry aboutthat. Spoiler alert. but
essentially, it's pure escapism.We get our sort of dopamine rush
of that gossip when it is allabout relationships and
(04:23):
scandals, and also, I guess,that secret, hidden mystery of
what is going on, what is thebackstory of this character? Why
will they not commit why willthey not pick a wife? Why will
they not have children? What'sgoing on, and it's all fake and
it's all dramatic and sort offantastical. Because, you know,
(04:45):
the world of bridgerton doesn'texist, will never exist, has
never existed. And I say thatmainly because it's a society
which is based in a real place,London, but that race is. Not an
issue. Maybe it has been anissue in the past, but history
has been rewritten so that theQueen of England is a black
(05:06):
woman and people can have veryesteemed, hierarchical titles
from a range of differentcultures and backgrounds. And
that is, sadly not the case, butI think it is something that is
refreshing about the genre. Imyself am not a person of color.
I'm a white, cis woman. I'm veryprivileged, and I'm checking
(05:28):
that, but I I'm assuming, andfrom what I've read, I guess
it's quite reclaiming to seepeople of color being able to be
represented in those Regencypieces, in positions of power
and positions of wealth and highsociety. So it's nice to see
that. I wish we saw more ofthat, having said that, there
(05:49):
are definitely flaws tobridgerton. Is it feminist? No,
is it? Is it queer? Only codedmostly apart from in Queen
Charlotte? And do we need tomarry? You know, the coming out
debutantes and the need forwomen to secure a partner?
(06:11):
Obviously, that is a big part ofthe storyline between some of
the main protagonists,particularly in this season. But
I just also hate it. So, youknow, it is quite that women
have to marry in order to getaway from their toxic family in
the land of bridgerton, as isthe case for Penelope. And I
(06:31):
guess you know that's where,where that comes from in terms
of Regency in the past. But youknow, there's so much plays with
reality here. Wouldn't it benice if that? I don't know.
Maybe we could work with that alittle bit more. But you know,
at the same time, the plot ofthe show is who's gonna marry
who and how well are they gonnamarry and who's gonna be paired
(06:52):
with who. And it's a verysimple, escapist way, after a
long day to process your verylong day. I don't think it's a
coincidence that in the world welive in now, where there is just
constant trauma and death andmurder and displacement and
(07:13):
destruction of a range ofcommunities across the world. Of
course, I'm referring toPalestine and Gaza, but also
Sudan and Congo, of course, thewar in Ukraine, and I'm sure
there's so many others that Ihave neglected to mention, the
global financial crisis. We, alot of us, you know, our Netflix
(07:35):
subscription is our luxury, andthat's all we really have. I
know for me, particularly, beinga single person with a single
income living in an apartmentalone apart from my son, I have
had to tighten those pursestrings, and it's not fun. So
(07:56):
being able to escape into theworld of bridgerton, it's it
feels comforting. It feels likea place of refuge where, imagine
if your biggest problem was whatkind of flowers would be at the
ball tonight. And, oh, I don'twant to have to talk to that
gentleman who you know is veryrich but very ugly. I want to
(08:17):
marry for love and sort ofconvenience, like, oh, to have
those conundrums when you'rejust making sure you're eating
and all those things.
So let's have a brief history ofthe seasons and the
representations that we saw. Iguess we had the first season of
(08:42):
bridgerton where the Duke andDaphne came together. That was
the first Bridgeton series wherewe were trying to figure out
what kind of series this was. Ithink what was interesting about
bridgerton, because I watched itwhen Casper was like, one, I
don't know, he was pretty young,and I'd start watching it with
him in the room and be like,Yep, no, this, this is fine. And
(09:04):
then as it got a little bit morehated, a little bit more oh, I
don't think I can watch thiswith my son in the room anymore.
So, you know, kind of was alittle bit of a surprise. Oh,
this is kind of porn. I'll watchthis later. And I think that was
kind of a bit cheeky and funabout bridgerton. I think it's
(09:25):
pretty well agreed that we allfound the Duke extremely
attractive. I'm a straightwoman, so I don't particularly
find Daphne attractive. And I'mnot sure if she's you would call
her, like, hot or but the sceneswere very and we very much
(09:45):
rebelled in that. And that wasprobably just around, like we
were still in the midst oflockdown. So I think, you know,
it was kind of like Tiger King.Everyone was like, have you seen
bridgerton? So it was a reallygood start for the series. Is.
But I guess the plotline for theDuke was that, you know, I
haven't rewatched the firstseason, so I'm just going this
(10:06):
by memory, the Duke's name beingSimon, played by rejoin page.
Very attractive man,unfortunately, has not come back
since season one. They fall inlove with one another and marry,
but with the Duke having toldDaphne that he can't have
children, and because, as wealso see in the season, the
(10:27):
understanding of is very limitedat this time, even though they
can get very hot and heavy withDaphne doesn't realize that he
actually can have children, andhe's just choosing not to. But
once she does discover this, itobviously creates tension, but
what we find out is it seemslike he doesn't want to pass on
the Hastings name due to areally up father who is quite
(10:52):
cruel, quite abusive to him, andthat his father really only
wanted an heir to continue thefamily name. So Simon's response
to the cruelty of his father,the fact that his mother died in
childbirth, Simon decides hedoesn't want to continue the
Hastings Family, and that's whyhe said that he can't have
children. Obviously, things andwell, as a child, it's conceived
(11:17):
and born. Because this is amental health podcast and
disability podcast for lookingat mental health issues. It is
very clear that the Duke hassome significant Complex PTSD,
which, in true bridgertonfashion, is managed much quicker
than you would ordinarily manageif this was a real life
(11:37):
situation in that Simon falls inlove, talks it through, and is
cured of his PTSD, but it alsokind of, I guess, explains his
aloofness and his treatment ofDaphne. Initially, he obviously
has closed himself off torelationships and connections,
but that is changed when hefinds someone who's willing to
(11:59):
love him for who he is, oh,conditional love is broken with
unconditional love.
Then we move on to Season two,which is the story of Antony, or
Anthony the Viscount, and KateSharma falling in love. And just
like in the first season, thereis, of course, barriers to them
(12:21):
expressing their love and beingin love, and it comes from two
levels of trauma. So thebackstory with Kate being that
her father married again to LadyMary, who treated Kate as if she
was her own, and then her fatherdied, Kate is quite a mother
figure to her half sisterEdwina. However, she's not
(12:46):
considered part of the family.So Should she wed there would be
no dowry, I think, whereas hersister Edwina is entitled to a
dowry if she marries because sheis related by blood to the
sheffields, which is thegrandparents. Very confusing.
(13:06):
I'm not even sure if I'm talkingabout the right people, but that
is the sort of backstory Katedoesn't think she's entitled to
love because her focus is reallyjust on giving her sister what
she wants and what the familyneeds. And then, of course,
Anthony, we very viscerally See,in many ways, how he watched his
father die tragically ofanaphylaxis after being stung by
(13:31):
a bee, and felt obviously theweight of the responsibility of
that happening and not beingable to stop it, as well as then
being sort of responsible forthe household, because his
mother, Violet was pregnant withhis younger sister, and was even
asked at a point whether to keepthe mother or the Baby Alive due
(13:55):
to the difficulty of the birth,the breach birth, so him being
thrust into the role of Viscountand of patriarch of the family,
and all the pressure thatinvolves was obvious, and also
that trauma, that traumaresponse of that very hot scene
where him and Kate get close forthe same time because Kate's
(14:16):
been stung by a bee, but youkind of see the panic. It's a
well acted scene, and you know,I could watch it over and over
again because it's panic, but italso invokes vulnerability and
intimacy between them. So Iguess, you know, they're kind of
trauma bonded, in a way, becausethey see themselves very
similarly as reluctant heads ofthe family and having to put
(14:38):
everybody's needs above theirsdespite looking gorgeous. So we
have that kind of eldest child,parentification, trauma,
complex, trauma, shame andguilt, mental health processes
going on.
Then we have Queen Charlotte abridgerton story, which I am
actually hoping I get to do afull episode on, because. Doors.
(15:00):
It is very, very clearly amental illness story, a
disability story as well, apsychosocial disability story,
bingo, where we are introducedto Queen Charlotte as a young
girl who is betrothed to KingGeorge and King George as we
(15:20):
know as Mad King George. Soessentially, Charlotte and
George get to know each otherquite well, fall in love with
each other, but they do thendiscover that there is a secret
about King George, and there'ssome interesting behavior and
the decline of his well beingthat Charlotte experiences. And
(15:41):
then we discover that George isquote, unquote mad, and the
palace very much tries to hidethat from the rest of the world.
We also see King George try toaccess a range of really
horrible, not helpful treatmentsto try and cure himself. And she
intervenes with this. It'spretty brutal. And, you know,
(16:05):
it's not the best depiction of amental illness. It's probably,
you know, a look at what itwould have been like to have a
mental illness like that at inRegency era, in Victorian times.
And it is based somewhat inhistory of King George the Third
being historically known forhaving some psychological
issues. What they actually are,I think, is debatable the way
(16:29):
they sort of portray KingGeorge's illness in bridgerton.
I think it's supposed to be likesome sort of schizoid disorder,
schizophrenia, psychosis.However, there are definitely
some inaccuracies of how thatwould be portrayed based on what
we see in the show. So yeah, Idon't think we know exactly what
(16:51):
it was, but what I have got hereis a Screen Rant article which
you know isn't the is probablynot the most empirical article
that I could refer to, but justfor a bit of an overview,
according to historical accountsof King George the Third in IRL,
his illness included symptomslike convulsions, frothing at
(17:13):
the mouth, ramblingincoherently, bouts of
depression, and later in life,the loss of hearing, vision,
Memory and ability to walk. Andthen, after the death of his
daughter, Princess Amelia,George, sank into a deep
depression, which he neverrecovered from. There is there
was a prevailing theory thatKing George of the third had
(17:34):
porphyria, or porphyria, whichis a rare liver disorder, and he
was exposed to arsenic, whichcontributed to the worsening of
the symptoms. But there has beenconflicting theories in recent
years, even though there's lotsof documentation about the
porphyria. So apparently, in thelast decade or so, historians
have posited that King Georgethe Third instead, had a
(17:57):
combination of bipolar disorder,chronic mania. Mania is a
symptom of bipolar disorder anddementia, and that would kind of
probably explain hisdeterioration in his later
years. And apparently, Dr PeterGerard of St George's University
of London said the porphyria, orporphyria theory, is completely
dead in the water. This was apsychiatric illness. I guess we
(18:20):
don't know. Do we? You know,back in the early 1800s there
wasn't any understanding ofpsychiatric illness, but yeah,
it's very interesting. And Ithink Queen Charlotte, I'm not
sure how well it did compared tothe other series, but you know,
it's more of a spin off. I thinkwhat intrigued people was, you
(18:41):
know, the parallel between thisperson portrayed in bridgerton
and the real King George. But,yeah, I think that there's
definitely a podcast episodearound that, if I can get around
to it, and if by the time I do,bridgerton is still relevant,
I'm sure it will be.
bridgerton season three. Taglinebeing, even a wallflower can
(19:02):
bloom. And what we love aboutthis season already, no matter
what happens in the season, evenif you don't care about
bridgerton or like bridgerton,you have to admit that it is
refreshing to have the maincharacter of a series that is
deeply popular, bit trashy, verybeautifully portrayed. Be a
(19:27):
person who is plus size. It mademe very excited. It's made
everybody very excited. And notonly is she plus size, she's not
a little bit plus size, she'sgenuinely plus size. She's hot.
She has autonomy and agency. Inthis season, she's the main
character. She is Lady, spoileralert, she's Lady whistledown,
(19:51):
and she's Nicola Coughlin, whois a Goddess. I love her.
Obviously, she's the talk of thetown at the moment. But if you
haven't seen anything else,she's in definitely watch dairy
girls. Dairy girls is worthwatching from beginning to end,
because you kind of get into theheadspace of it, like it's very
fast paced. Also watch Big mood,which is probably a podcast
(20:13):
episode's worth as well. Bigmood portrays someone with
bipolar disorder in a veryhonest, vulnerable way, and she
does it so brilliantly, I feellike she's in other things. But
anyway, definitely watch thosetwo things. She's been a, you
know, she's been around for awhile, and she's just so
fantastic, such a great actress,and just perfect in this role.
(20:36):
And we see her bloom. And evenif you just watch this series,
just for just for Nicola. It'sworth it. It's worth it. So
let's talk about what happens inthis season. So I'm going to
talk about the first fourepisodes, probably quite
briefly, but more focus on whatwhat I want to talk about,
(20:56):
because it's just me here, but Iguess to catch us up to what we
see in the first four episodes.Essentially, there's been some
stuff that went down last seasonin terms of the featheringtons,
which is penelope's family. Theywere in quite a bit of debt
because Lord featherington uptheir finances. I'm not really
(21:18):
sure. I don't pay as muchattention to the financing
stuff. I'm sure none of us do.We just want to get to the hot
parts. Lady featherington'scousin Jack starts scamming
everybody to try and get themback into the green but then
Lady featherington scams himback and sends him off with a
promise to secure some money ifthey can provide an heir. So she
(21:44):
marries off penelope's oldersisters to others older sisters,
I think, to these dudes who theykind of treat like dogs, like do
what I want. It's kind ofrefreshing. And Penelope is
getting a little bit jack of allof this, and decides that she
needs to find herself a husbandso she can get away from her
(22:06):
family. And you can see, like, Ikind of like, in some way, the
character of penelope's mother.I'm forgetting her name. What's
her name? Portia featherington,apologies there. I kind of like
Portia as a character, becauseshe's a bit sassy and, you know,
a bit manipulative a bitconniving. She reminds me of my
(22:27):
mom a little bit. But, you know,you know, in a way, that I kind
of respect that from her. Andshe's got good she's got good
lines, but she's awful toPenelope, just truly terrible, I
guess, how you love a mum, butshe's also terrible to you,
understandably, Penelope islike, I've got to get out of
here. The only way I can do thatis to marry someone and say
(22:48):
that's her plan for this season.Having said that, as we all
know, she is lady whistledown.And what happened last episode
was that Eloise discovered shewas Lady whistledown, or more,
put two and two together becauseof the fact that she, in the
last season, went on a bit of ajourney to try and uncover who
(23:11):
Lady whistledown was, and thenfell in love. But I would say
it's like because, as we allhope and pray. Eloise is gay.
she ends up becoming close to acommoner from the from the rough
parts of London, Theo, I can'tremember exactly what happened,
(23:32):
but like whistledown exposesthat, so she throws...
whistledown throws Eloise underthe bus so as to throw them off
the scent, because Eloise isaccused of being lady
whistledown by the Queen, whichputs Penelope in awful position
where she doesn't want Eloise toend up with this accusation. But
in order to stop this, she needsto write something horrible
(23:55):
about her. So she was kind ofbetween a rock and a hard place.
and once that was kind ofuncovered, Eloise figured out
finally that Penelope was Ladywhistledown, and they have not
been friends ever since then. Soyeah, there's been a bit of a
hiatus of Lady whistledownswriting. And then also, to add
(24:20):
lot development, Colin hasgrown, and Colin and Penelope
have been friends for some time,and it's very clear Penelope as
mad feelings of love for Colin,crushing hard on Colin. And
Colin has returned again fromoverseas, a bit of a Baroque
he's looking a bit more rimaround the face. He's blossomed
(24:44):
a little bit himself. And I'msurprised. At first I was like,
oh, no, phone Colin. Thatattractive. But by the end of
the season, by the end of thatcourage scene, yeah, I could go
for Colin. He's all right, yeah,I'm all right with that. So,
yeah. I think bridgerton does areally good job of making people
attractive in many ways, in mostways. So Yes, Colin.
(25:10):
Colin enters the picture, andPenelope ends up asking Colin
for some support, some help andhow to get a husband, and Colin
offers to give her someassistance with that. I'm not
really sure what Colin'squalifications are, what his
whole like? Why? I guess he'shelping out a friend and wanted
(25:30):
to show her that he cared abouther. But you know, why ask?
Obviously, don't ask your mum.Don't ask your sisters. But why
Colin? Why not? Like Daphnehelped Anthony a lot, and
Penelope and Kate Sharma, Ithink got along quite well. Why
not talk to them about it,although Kate's probably busy
having with her husband anyway,that is where we're at this
(25:54):
season. That is the plot. And ofcourse, just like with Daphne
and the Duke and the pretendingto be in love, but then they
were in love. It's another oneof those very popular, you know,
Pygmalion type plot lines where,let's give you a glow up. This
is what'll help I'll teach youhow to fall in love with
someone, and then, oh my god,we're falling in love. How many
(26:15):
rom coms Has this happened? Likemost, is some variation of that
theme. So, but, you know, welove it. We live for it. Like,
yes, it's predictable, and weknow what's gonna happen, but
that is safe right now. Thatfeels safe. Predictability is
safe. So just watching itblossom is just like, I know
(26:35):
where this is going, and I'mhere for it. We also have a few
other plot lines going on,including a few things I want to
touch on. Firstly, Eloise isgay. This is my query. Like
Eloise is so different fromeverybody else in bridgerton, in
(26:56):
her family, she's not interestedin finding a lover. She doesn't
like societal expectations. Shealmost joins a union last
season. She's a feminist thatdoesn't make someone gay, but
she clearly doesn't seem to havean interest in men or boys apart
from Theo. And I feel like thatwas maybe just that he was in
(27:16):
the same wavelength as her,because I think she I'm not the
only one. It's everywhere herand Cressida stuff, I feel like
there's a vibe there. Don't youthink there's a vibe there, and
the way she's so, you know, Ifeel like Penelope was kind of
her, her gal, that, you know,she felt safe and comfortable
(27:37):
with. And you know, if Penelopewanted to make things more, I
think she'd be totally cool withit. Penelope is not gay, though,
so you know, I hope that shedoesn't find someone. I hope
that she is the lesbian of theseason, and I really want that
to be a storyline. But is it acop out if Eloise ends up
dating, or at least being inlove with a woman, or should we
(27:59):
want her to be an asexual queen,or should we want her to be just
a feminist icon who's just like,you know, the Clementine Ford of
bridgerton, who's just like,let's not marry men. Just be
that icon who's against thestructure of society and those
expectations on women. Maybethat's all she should be, and to
make her gay would be a cop out.What do you think? Like is, if
(28:22):
there's anyone who has genderstudies behind them or some
sociology experience, can, youknow, give me some vibes? What
do you think? Because the onlyI've, I've always thought that
Benedict was going to come outas gay, because he was always
like, you know, who's in thatsort of arty world, which was
kind of paid for him, but hefelt like he belonged there, and
(28:45):
he was painting naked bodies.But, you know, he didn't seem to
like find love within that. Andhe's sort of a floater, and he
doesn't really know what he'sdoing. And then, you know, I was
hoping he would have the gaystoryline, but it seems that he
finds love in what's like adivorcee who, you know, sort of
seems to be coded as an olderwoman, but she's probably not
(29:08):
much older than him. She justkind of dresses a little bit
more maturely, and has beenmarried before, which I like. I
love that storyline. I like it,but yeah, really thought he was
going to be gay, but the onlygay storyline we've had so far
is brimsley in Queen Charlotte,which was a lovely storyline,
really heartbreaking. And I feellike they could only introduce
(29:31):
the gay character in QueenCharlotte because it wasn't
bridgerton Main. It was prequelspin off bridgerton. So maybe
they're just testing the watersand they don't want to go in too
deep, but like we will be sohere for it plays like you don't
even have to show them havingThat will be enough to see them,
(29:51):
you know, close to each other,like we see in all those pre
emptive scenes with Anthony andKate Sharma. Maybe we'll see
more. In the next four episodes,and then we potentially have
some disability representationin this latest season. So
firstly, I do need to justmention briefly that there is a
(30:14):
character in bridgerton who's ina wheelchair and who seems to
have a really good banter withPenelope. I was like, oh,
there's a hot guy in awheelchair. Could this be
something? Could she be the onethat she's kind of, you know,
tossing up between and then hegets wheeled away. It's like,
oh. I was like, Oh, here we go.Here we go. We get some
(30:38):
disability representation, somegood disability representation.
There's some vibes. Oh no, he'sbeing wheeled away by somebody
else. So autonomy, no. And ofcourse, would be of the time.
You know, we're not necessarilygoing to see an inclusive
society in bridgerton. Itclearly isn't. There's a lot of
(30:59):
staircases, but it was a bitdisappointing.
and then we have someneurodivergence. So many people
have highlighted the fact thatFrancesca is so deeply coded as
autistic in how she completelyengages with the world, there
(31:20):
are so many signs that she'slikely autistic. I mean,
firstly, she's very introverted,shy. Doesn't want to really come
out. Isn't that interested inthe whole fancifulness of it?
Does want to get married. Butyou know, what she's after isn't
(31:41):
necessarily what her mum and hersisters are after. She is
looking for something quitedifferent. And then we see her
hyper focus her special interestbeing the piano, LA, or the
piano, and that is very muchwhat takes up her time. So she's
very, very heavily invested inthat interest to the point that
(32:04):
when they're walking down thestreet and she hears, well, I
guess, music as a whole, whenthey're walking down the street
and they she hears the violinplaying some music, that's all
she can focus on. And they'retrying to have a conversation,
and she's just pointing out allthe reasons why the arrangement
is all wrong in the violin. Soshe's very much attuned to that
(32:27):
sensory experience of music to apoint that it's above all else.
And she's very, very perceptive.So quite a big skill of hers is
music. She meets Lord Kilmartin,another very attractive man. And
you know, all the attractiveSee, what I think I love about
bridgerton is the attractivecharacters also have attractive
(32:50):
personalities, not just looks,whereas, you know, the
attractive other sort ofcharacters that are obviously
like, yeah, they're goodlooking, that aren't, you know,
very nice, yeah, I just don'tfind myself attracted to them,
and maybe that's just me,because I'm a bit of a
demisexual. It's not all aboutlooks for me. There has to be a
personality there, too. I'm sureI'm not the only one, but yes,
(33:10):
she meets John Kilmartin, andshe's drawn to him much more so
than everyone else, and he isclearly unique in himself, and
they sit in silence. They do notwish to speak, and they are both
quite comfortable in thatsilence. She looks at him, she
(33:32):
looks away. He looks at her. Helooks away. They are
communicating. They are deeplycommunicating, but they are not
using words, and so much goes onin those few moments where
they're sitting there in silencetogether, and everyone's like,
What the What is going on? Butbetween them, it will make it
(33:54):
all make sense. And I think it'sa very obvious sign that how
Francesca and and kilmartin'sbrains work are very in tune
with each other and verydifferent from the common folk
of bridgerton. And I guess ontop of that, the previous
conversation that I mentionedabout the arrangement of the
(34:14):
violin being just horrible toher, and she conveys that to
John Kilmartin, and, you know,explains why it's horrible. And
he immediately leaves so socialcues, and not so not so much
social cues, but socialnormities aren't really
followed. He just leaves, Irishexits and then writes up an
arrangement for her that shewould prefer, and he gives it to
(34:37):
her at the ball, and she justleaves, just like, well she
asked for permission first,because she's been trained to
mask, but yeah, she does leavethe ball and goes to play it.
It's their communication. Theircommunication is through music
and silence. So noise andsilence, that's how they
connect, and it's beautiful.Cool. I love it. Obviously, I
(35:02):
can't see any anything butcoding happening rather than
canonizing the autism experiencein bridgerton. But I do love
seeing a neurodivergent personfind another neurodivergent
person. I'm sure there'll bebumps along the road, but yeah,
it's nice to see that storyline,and it's nice to see that it's
(35:22):
being supported and embraced inthe storyline. Obviously, I
think, as I just mentionedbefore, you can see how Francesc
has probably learned to maskmore than John Kilmartin has.
Even though, you know, he doeshave a lot of the social
niceties in place, he's alsowilling to just walk away and
leave when he just, you know,has that need to whereas it's
(35:42):
more necessary for Francesca tosort of follow those norms of
society, especially living in afamily like the bridgertons and
being one of the youngerchildren, whereas obviously Lord
kilmartin is, you know, probablyhigher on the hierarchy in his
family. So interesting. I didlike that. But I also wondered,
are there other characters inthis season that could be
(36:05):
considered neurodivergent,particularly Lord debling. Lord
debling, he comes across as,again, someone who's very
focused on his interests. Aboveall else, he also has the means
and the privilege to explorethose interests beyond anything
else. You know, he goes onexpeditions. He's a person who's
(36:28):
focused and obsessed withnature, and that's all that
occupies his time, so much sothat he doesn't really care to
marry for love. He could maybebe someone who is asexual,
aromantic. He really just wantsto continue with his life, with
his adventures, all theconversation he has that brings
him joy is around nature. That'sall he wants to talk about. He's
(36:51):
very polite and respectable, buthe's very honest and he's very
open to say, here for love, Ijust want to settle down so I
can so you can focus on thehome, and I'll carry on with my
business and what I want to do.So, you know, I quite liked that
that was explored in arespectful way. I think he's a
(37:11):
good person, and he just tellsyou what he wants. And of the
time that they were in that wasexpected that a man would marry
and a woman would not reallyhave much say in what life would
look like. But, you know, hegave Penelope an hour and he was
honest with her, like, this iswhat I'm looking for in a
partner. And she said, Yeah,okay. And then he was like, You
(37:33):
seem pretty into that callingguy. And she's like, No. He's
like, Yeah. So that was thescene. I just completely
replicated the scene. So, yeah,you know, I think there's a case
that could be sad for Lorddebling being a bit
neurodivergent. And having saidthat, you could probably make a
(37:54):
case that Penelope could be alittle bit neurodivergent as
well. When I say a little bitneurodivergent, you're either
neurodivergent or you're not,but I'm just, I'm just
interpreting a fictionalcharacter. There's a lot of
things you could extrapolatefrom a character. So yeah, this
is just where my mind goes. Sothat's why I'm not saying she's
(38:15):
definitely this or definitelythat, but I do think that
Penelope isn't like her sisters.She's not like a lot of the
people at bridgerton. A lot ofthat probably comes from that
she doesn't see herself asattractive. But having said
that, like yes, Penelope is aplus sized girl at the time in
(38:35):
Regency, time that was seen asmore attractive having curves
was more embraced and seen asthan being thin and not having
curves. So I would find itinteresting if we were to look
back, because there's so manyproblems with looking back and
how it would have been in reallife, but I do think that
(38:57):
Penelope would have been seen asa pretty attractive, desirable
woman in the early 1800s andRegency time. So yeah, I think
that you could probably make acase that Penelope being a bit
different isn't just because ofher looks, or at all because of
her looks, maybe about how she'streated by her mum, but her
interests are very focused onwriting and reading. She's very
(39:20):
introspective, and that's whyshe's drawn to focusing on the
world around her and writingthose things down. She's a
listener. She fades into thebackground. She notices the
details, she picks up on whateveryone's saying. She's very
attuned to the world around her,and that is what she focuses her
time doing. So you know, thatreads neurodivergent to me, in
(39:42):
that focus inwards, the tendencynot to sort of fit in and to
process things a little bit moredifferently than everybody else,
and for the entrance to be a bitmore restricted in that focus.
So you know Penelope, and sheexpresses that she's very unlike
her sisters. She doesn't feelthe same as everybody else. She
finds a lot of things morefrustrating and irritating than
(40:03):
other people. And having saidthat, do we think that Eloise
could potentially have someneurodivergence in her? She sees
things differently, maybe someADHD even like her mind is very
she needs a lot of stimulationand focus. She finds all of this
stuff around looking pretty andgetting her husband dull and
(40:26):
boring. She needs entertainment.She wants to be doing more
important things. She wants tofocus in on more important
things that she considers moreimportant. She can also be
slightly impulsive, the way shekeeps going to the rough side of
the tracks to find Theo and notquite so considered about how
that puts her in a vulnerableposition. He's been accused of
(40:47):
saying too much and being alittle bit too brash and not
fitting in with society's normsquite so much. She's also got a
very funny sense of humor, andshe's the type of woman that, if
she had the had the means shecould start a revolution. Very
intelligent. These are mythoughts. What do you think?
Please let me know I could becompletely over reading some
(41:08):
things. But isn't that what I doevery day?
So I think I've pretty muchtouched on most of the plot of
the first four episodes. Youknow, there's some stuff there
that's a little bit more boring,but essentially, we've got
Francesca finding some mutualattraction in Kilmartin. She's
the diamond of the season, Ibelieve, excited to see where
(41:31):
that goes. We've got Eloise,who's forged a new friendship
with Christina, who was seeing alittle bit more vulnerability.
She's thinks she's unmarriable.She's always been a bit of a
particularly to Penelope, butwe're kind of seeing the other
side of her, as Eloise starts toform a friendship, and appears
to be enjoying that friendship.But you know, there are some
(41:54):
mismatching there, where, youknow, Eloise starts to talk
about the things that she'sinterested in, and then
Christina's like, Lord Deblingsfree now bye. But also that
scene was like, you know, Eloiseand Cressida. Could there be
something there? You know, alsothe fact that Eloise is the only
friend that has ever called uponCressida. And obviously,
Cressida doesn't have a lot offriends. Is that some subtext
(42:16):
there? Perhaps, anyway, we'llsee what happens there. But
obviously Eloise and penelope'sfriendship has been paused, and
that will come to light soon asto where that goes, because the
main plot point being the lovestory that has brought us all
here is Penelope and Colin. SoPenelope has always had feelings
for Colin, and Colin was alwaysseen her as a friend, and we
(42:40):
famously remember him saying tosome of his friends, I would
never date Penelope. Andobviously Penelope overhears
that, but Colin does valuePenelope as a friend, and
they've had a long enduringfriendship, so he obviously
offers to help her, and thatcontinues until it becomes a
little too much for them,because it's clear that without
(43:04):
realizing it, Colin starts todevelop feelings for Penelope.
Part of this process is Penelopedoing a major glow up again,
Pygmalion style, strictlyballroom style, all of those
films. And you know, it doessuck that that's what needs to
happen for her to find someoneworth marrying, and also for
Colin to pay attention. Doingher hair in a way that makes her
(43:24):
look a little bit more andchanging her color scheme to
green rather than citrus, littlesimple changes can make you look
a little bit more alluring. Butyou know, it's all about
Penelope and who she is, sothat's a bit disappointing. But
damn, she looks good. It's veryseductive, and it works clearly.
So eventually it's very clearthat colin has fallen into
(43:49):
feelings with Penelope, so hecomes between her and Lord
debling, who look like they'regoing to be a match. And then we
get to that iconic scene in thecarriage, which I have seen a
few times now. And I think whatis so hilarious about that scene
is that it starts with, you'veprobably got it in your head
right now, a classical quartetversion of, *badly signs* give
(44:13):
me everything tonight. Giveme... *laughs* Pitbull. It's a
pitbull song. Like, when I thinkof romantic scene, do I think of
Pitbull? Of course, I don'tthink of Pitbull. They start
playing orchestra, quartetversion of Pitbull, Pitbull!!
(44:33):
And maybe that's the, maybethat's the funny thing, getting
felt up in a carriage toPitbull. It's giving getting
felt up in an Uber to Pitbullbeing spewed out of the speakers
of the Uber. I guess that is atranslation to how that would
happen in today's world, exceptthey haven't been drinking
alcohol. They've been drinkinglemonade, and this is indeed an
expression of pent up desire andlove for each other. But somehow
(44:58):
the Pitbull works. Somehow. Itworks in the orchestra, and like
well done Pitbull, I neverwanted to hear or see from you
ever again, but you've made it,man, you really have done a
great job. Congratulations.
So we get that scene. It's so sosensual, it's so hot. And, you
(45:19):
know, I feel weird talking aboutthings that are hot. It's not
something I do often on thispodcast. You know, don't read
too much into it as a nowseparated person, but it's just
so well done, like, you know,you can't you can't deny, even
if you hate this show and youyou think it's trash, it's such
a good scene of that intimacyand that charged energy, and
(45:41):
they both play it so well, youcan't help but feel a little
turned on by it. There's been alot of jokes about, you know,
Colin's two fingers as he walksin and presents Penelope his
fiancee afterwards. And I haveto admit that, you know, the
last line of, well, for God'ssakes, Penelope, you're gonna
marry me or not, is a little bitcringe, is a little bit cringe,
(46:04):
but it was a great climax,literally and figuratively, to
this first half of season three.And I gotta say, I was here for
it. I enjoyed it. And you know,the tension pre that was quite
cute and nice. You know, youimagine the butterflies, you
imagine the rush of tingles?Yeah, it's quite sweet to watch.
(46:26):
But next for episodes, there'sobviously going to be some drama
to work out, because we'll soonfind out that they are engaged,
betrothed, and she will wantPenelope to tell Colin that she
is lady whistledown, and Colinis not a fan of Lady
whistledown, and we wantPenelope to succeed, but we also
(46:47):
she's the Dan Humphreys of thisseries. And Dan Humphries was a
creep, and they somehow got whathe wanted at the end of it was,
which is wild. But what do wewant for Penelope? Like,
obviously, it's gonna have tocome out, but we also want more
seasons of bridgerton, right? Ormaybe this will be the end. I
doubt it. There'll be spin offs.This is too much of a good thing
(47:09):
for Netflix to just take away.So where are things gonna go? I
don't know. Maybe I just loveNicola Coughlin too much to
separate her from the character,but I I'm really rooting for
Penelope, and I think she'sgenuinely, ultimately a good
person. Good people do terriblethings sometimes, and I think
that ultimately she deserveshappiness. So how will that
(47:32):
look? Will she need to comeclean and Colin be in on it? Or
will she need to keep it toherself or pass the baton over
to somebody else, whichcertainly has been the case with
other unnamed secret characters.I'm thinking A from Pretty
Little Liars. By the way, if youhaven't already and you like
(47:55):
Pretty little Liars, you shoulddefinitely listen to the podcast
Call An Adult, which is a PrettyLittle Liars recap podcast. It's
hilarious, hosted by Ashley Apapand Hayley, her co host, I
forgot her last name. I'm verysorry, Hayley, anyway,
sidequest. I just don't knowwhere things are gonna go. There
(48:16):
are a few options. I can'timagine Penelope just outing
herself as Lady whistledown,because that would have to end
the series, unless a second ladywhistledown comes out. It could
be a bit like DesperateHousewives, how at first they
were looking for who did a crimeseries, and then there was a new
(48:37):
crime and new people moved in.We had to work out what the
backstory was there, you know,will there be another mystery to
work out? I don't know, but I dohope that we get some more gay
storylines, please. I hope thatwe explore more neurodivergence
in Francesca, and maybe even wesee some accommodations being
(48:58):
made for a neurodivergence likeher and her new husband and
maybe their kids and how theysee the world a bit differently,
and that's accepted andencouraged and accommodated for.
Wouldn't that be lovely? And Iwant to see unnamed disabled
suitor come back. I want him tohave a storyline like, okay,
you've introduced you've dangledthe carrot. Let's see more
(49:21):
please. I really want to see allof that. One thing I do not want
anymore is club hits. Or do Iclub hits turned into orchestral
quartet tunes. I do. I I don'tknow. I do want more Yeah, I
think, I think we can all agreeto that more scenes, please. I
think we're gonna get them. Andyou know what? You know, I'd
(49:44):
like there to be, maybe it's notchriseda, but I'd like there to
be some more alignment withEloise's criticisms of society.
I think there needs to be moreof that and playing that out a
little bit more. Maybe she couldbefriend a spinster. See how. It
goes, maybe an older gay couplewho are just, you know, aunts,
just just besties. I think thatwould be cool, but that would
(50:07):
probably be for another season.
Yeah, I think that's all I haveto say. But what I would like to
do next episode is get a guest.I know who I'd like to invite
on, but I'm not sure if theywill be king. So we'll see. To
talk through some of the thingsI brought up today in a little
bit more detail from some morelived experience and
professional experience. And,you know, look at the next four
(50:31):
episodes. What happens based onwhat we were predicting. And,
yeah, go into what we see in alittle bit more detail. All
being well, you should belistening to this before the
next four episodes have beenreleased, I'm gonna give it my
best. I have a flight to catchtomorrow, solo, kidless, so
hopefully I can get that editedand out to you as soon as
(50:53):
possible. And I'm reallyinterested in your thoughts as
well. So please send me yourthoughts on our Instagram page,
the Facebook group is stillthere, but I've kind of let it
dwindle a little bit becausethere's really not much to
report. But I really appreciateyou all listening, and I hope
(51:13):
that I've been engaging. I'vereally just been gas bagging at
you, so I hope this has been anenjoyable listen, and I really
hope to be back with some moreregular episodes. As soon as I
can, I'm starting to get thecreative juices flowing again,
which means really just pointingthem into a more strategic
(51:37):
direction by scheduling in someepisodes and planning ahead. So
hopefully that happens, andyou'll hear from me with some
more episodes, not just aboutbridgerton, before the end of
the year, but as usual, likesubscribe all of the things tell
your friends about this podcast.Oh my goodness. I need to also
say that we reached 20,000downloads yesterday, which is a
(52:01):
surprise when I haven't beenreleasing episodes. So a
wonderful surprise, and I hopewe're all traveling as best we
can while the world burns aroundus in the most horrific ways and
free Palestine.
*plays Pitbull's song "Give MeEverything"
(52:21):
like no one wants to f*** tothis song, or even fingerf*** to
this song like this doesn't makeme feel seggsy? I can't even
handle this during like aworkout. Ergh.
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