Romance Movies & Series

I was watching an old promo video where the cast of Bridgerton guess Regency-Era Dating Rules and it appears Penelope & Colin have broken literally all of them! I wanted to make a list of all of the ways they've completely ignored society rules for one another. Please add more in the comments below if you can think of them...

• You are not allowed to call each other by your first names unless you are engaged. (But apparently cute little nicknames like "Pen" are totally kosher.)

• You can never be alone together. (Colin Bridgerton should be wearing a scarlet letter considering he is literally throwing money at the help to be alone with her!! Chasing down her carriage!! Pushing her into the Bridgerton Drawing Room while his family is busy!!)

• You cannot reject a man's offer to dance unless you are otherwise engaged. (Penelope told Colin she didn't want to dance with him after he fumbled the bag so badly... queen.)

• You are not allowed to write correspondence to one another if you are not engaged. (My girl Penelope was single-handedly creating a quill shortage in season two because she was writing to Colin so much. When she stopped writing to Colin, he had to take up journaling and brothels.)

• Hand holding is forbidden. (Colin "Come With Me" Bridgerton is a physical touch and words of affirmation boy, so sorry.)

What others have they broken?!

editing to say: I am not accusing the writers of being careless with the Regency era etiquette, I feel like they've done a good job outlining society rules. I think Pen and Colin are constantly breaking the rules because they grew up as best friends and I think it's very sweet, which is why I am looking for more rule-breaking! I am pro-rule-breaking in this context

There are so many scenes that made me appreciative of Nicola's acting. There is so much heart in her portrayal of Penelope- one of the most compellingly multi-layered and intriguing female characters in the Bridgerton universe. And two scenes in particular really touched me.

In this scene, we see how stoic she is writing disparaging comments about herself in her column until a silent tear streams down her cheek. It also shows her duality as a character. She is a ruthless business woman and at the same time a hopeless romantic and in this scene, it's as though the jaded, business woman side of her is taking over. The irony is also that she has so much power as Lady Whistledown, but her metaphorical sword in this scene becomes double-edged and stabs her back. She essentially seals her own destiny as a spinster (in her eyes) and succumbs to her biggest fear: living at the whims of her family.

And in the willow tree scene, she is trying so hard to push back her own emotions. The only reason she is doing a better job at it than Colin is because she had years of training. And she is trying so hard to hold her head high and does not even dare to entertain the thought that the kiss could have meant something to him. She is being a really brave soldier here and you can feel her gratitude when she thanks him for his kindness.

At the end of the day, I'm really grateful that the job of portraying Penelope Featherington fell in Nicola Coughlan's hands.

There's an idea that Penelope knew what Colin was doing in the carriage or knows more about sex than her sisters because she reads romances but I really don't think that's true. Romance novels don't always meet smut even today, and Penelope is reading romance novels back in 1815. I think she's reading Jane Austen novels like Emma, the "silly romance" as Colin calls it (Colin totally read it which is why he knows about it, I won't be convinced otherwise). The type of love stories Penelope would be reading would be just about the sentiment and emotion of love, not really about anything physical, let alone truly descriptive outside of vague euphemism. Colin was more descriptive in his journals than a Jane Austen novel is, and he's still using more flowery language about tracing freckles than an explicit fanfic on AO3. I don't think Pen was getting her sex ed from Pride and Prejudice.

There are smutty novels from the era she could've gotten her hands on, like Fanny Hill, but those aren't considered love stories. I also don't think that she would've told Lord Debling outright that she enjoys reading love stories if love stories automatically equalled smutty books. She's embarrassed to mention it, but because she's afraid it makes her look vapid, not because it makes her look thirsty. Although leaving his wife for 3 years safe in the knowledge that she has a stockpile of smutty romances to keep her company rather than a handsy brunette totally platonic best friend sounds like something he'd be ok with.

I was on a transatlantic flight and super excited that And Just Like That S2 was available. I don't have HBO and only see clips on reels. I am not sure which episode it was, it started with each of the four main characters exiting the bathroom in sexy bed clothes and walking to their partner in the bedroom. Good start. I should have stopped then.

I don't remember much after that except I thought the dialogue was bad and wondered about the writers, until... The scene I most clearly remember is Miranda and Che in the bedroom. Miranda is trying to figure out how to put on a strap on contraption while Che laughs at her, and then Carrie calls and goddam if fucking Che doesn't PICK UP THE PHONE ARE YOU JUST FUCKING KIDDING ME? And then she puts the phone on speaker WHAT? And Carrie knows what they are doing and doesn't have to utter sense to say, I gotta go. This is the same Carrie who wouldn't talk about her sex life with Big because, well, why not?

In that moment, I hated Che with every ounce of my being because she proved herself to be selfish and awful and just a terrible person overall. I stopped liking Miranda AND Cynthia Nixon because as an executive producer of the show, she has authority and yet she permits THIS fucking drivel bullshit, And Sarah Jessica Parker -- I just can't even. She just doesn't fucking care. Also an exec producer pulling in millions per episode. Carrie is supposed to be Miranda's best friend and this is how she treats her?

Why are these women not concerned about the scripts? DO THEY EVEN HEAR THEMSELVES?

And finally, people like to comment that we aren't supposed to discuss looks, but on this show, it's all about looks. Why why why does SJP have the makeup people pull her hair back so tight in the stupid pony tail bun thing? And the clothes? NO ONE IS WEARING THAT SHIT.

Yes, I AM agitated. I loved SATC. The Carrie/Big relationship mirrored one of my own, except the part where they got together in the end. This entire show is just a big disappointment.

I think the show should end by panning in on Samantha playing with a dollhouse with all of the characters, putting them in stupid clothes and making them do and say stupid things, and laughing aloud, a lot, before she puts her toys away and walks out with a beautiful man as the door closes behind her. And Just Like That.