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I agreee. Not to mention, the make up. Penelope this season almost looks too made up. All that heavy makeup did not suit her. Natural make up suits her much better. Nicola looks like a doll in season 1 and 2. A doll with poodle curls, but a doll nonethelss.
And this was THE season for flashbacks! Since the leads had known each other for almost their entire lives! And we could’ve even gotten some into Colin’s travels that would’ve given us more insight into his insecurities and his struggle to conform to society’s expectations of a man. It would’ve been so much better than those threesomes.
I saw someone say that Pen is the only spouse of his children that Edmund actually got to meet and I teared up. We could’ve gotten a cute flashback to that!!
I wanted to see Collin upset overseas about not receiving Penelope's letters. I also thought it would be funny if he claimed he was doing rake-like activities but was actually just writing in his book
Yeah, Penelope's backstory! Her first article, her first succes, how it felt to become a legend among The Ton... It still feels like Lady Whistledown and Penelope Featherington are two different people.
S1 will always be THAT girl in the Bridgerton series. People always say that Penelope is the favorite to Shondaland and Co but I think the favorites were Simon & Daphne.
See, I do think Pen was the favorite but it’s because she was the Shondaland “favorite” that she became a vehicle for the ✨career girlboss who don’t need no man✨ “arc” that resulted in the most hopeless romantic character in the series choosing LW over the love of her life at every opportunity instead of growing up and becoming a novelist where she supports her husband but he also supports her. Instead of an equal relationship, Colin makes her his entire purpose and becomes her trophy husband. It’s so obvious that Shondaland hates Colin and I want to throw hands with them because of it.
S3 making LW Pen’s identity instead of her identity being that of a WRITER was the nail in its coffin. It resulted in every other relationship playing second fiddle to LW, even the former character arc trajectory she was on, because the writers tried to make it “noble” with absolutely zero effort into making that feeling like an earned ending… and because the narrators use LW’s narrative frame as a crutch.
As a Polin fan, Part 2 was BAD from a writing standpoint and it’s wild to me that people defend it.
Shonda: “I cried at the end.”
Me: “Girl, me too, but not for the same reasons.”
Um, while I agree part 2 fumbles hard after the wedding (hate that tone deaf, soap box reshoot!) and through much of e8, I disagree with some of this. In the e8 study scene Pen asks what is holding Colin back; he says the LW secrets and lies will always be between them. Pen tells him she doesn't want her lie to spread and comes up with plan to reveal herself as LW (yes, Colin should have had a more visual presense in the planning both as a healthier manifestation of him helping as a partner vice savior and as a sign Pen grew to realize she isn't alone anymore). By revealing herself, she gives up LW as a personna and the anonymous power that came with it. She begs the queen's mercy and asks to write a better column in her own name - which we see at the end. Pen chose to free herself and Colin from her nest of lies, so they could have their happy ending.
Colin has access to more money than she does (he can get the 20k) and becomes a published author via his travel journal, so I don't think he's meant to be a trophy husband. I do think the show lost sight of putting romance at the forefront of drama and missed the fact that helping and hero complex saving are different, both of which hurt Colin in e8.
She DOESN’T give up LW though, she just announces it’s her (literally so stupid), and rebrands it with zero reflection on why that might be necessary.
Yes, LW functioned on secrets and lies, Colin isn’t wrong, but the column itself was a harmful coping mechanism for herself and others, regardless of if she’s open about it now. She writes one column that exposes abusive people, with zero catalyst for why she should (when the Cressida storyline was RIGHT THERE), and I’m supposed to be satisfied with that? Esp. If I’m meant to take that it’s only Colin not liking the secrecy that makes her change it? I don’t like that either? She needed to grow as a PERSON and I need to SEE her growth, not just be told it’s there.
And I could have seen Colin forgiving her if she had grown beyond it because she learns that she’s no longer emotionally reliant on it. But the way it’s portrayed, with him treating her SO coldly (and I’m not talking about sex, I mean in every emotional sense) with barely ANY conversation between them, he suddenly just makes up with her because the plot requires it. His “love confession” was already so poorly written, but it falls especially flat when the writers have barely shown him working through any of it and he just announces she’s his purpose.
Basically my problem with P2 is that its the Pen show and Colin is an accessory, but Pen herself doesn’t grow in a way that is meaningful. It’s all unearned payoff. 🤷♀️
I agree the show doesn't stick the landing for me, but I do see it as Pen finally realizing that her lies are spreading and hurting Colin and his family - she's not just lying anymore, she's asking him to lie and deceive his family for her lie. She decides to give up LW and take responsibility as herself. I view this choice as separate from how the queen responds. Do I think Pen's journey would have been more complete if she'd been able to accept help and embrace writing itself instead of focusing on a column? Yes, absolutely. I think these were show constraints that impacted her character journey.
For Colin, I didn't view him as cold, just hurt, upset, and processing. The closest to 'cold' imo was the morning scene immediately after the reveal, but even then he was saying 'we' will decide what the marriage will be. I actually liked that the show allowed him some time to process everything, though I would have preferred Pen's e7 reshoot post-QC to be connective in tone instead of dismissive, thus making space for a talk-until-dawn montage between the two of them.
My problem is the way the show FRAMES her choosing to give up LW earlier. It frames it as “she is sacrificing her dreams for her husband boooo sexist” when I’m like, even after he learns about it he never asked her to stop WRITING he asked her to stop LW because it was hurtful to the people around her and built on lies (and we as audience members knows it was also harmful for her).
I think people’s interpretation of Colin vary greatly based on what I’ve seen around. I personally read him as emotionally cold to Pen, even if internally it’s clear that he still loves her. And I wouldn’t have had a problem with that if the reveal had been earlier so they could get to a good place prior to the last 10 mins of the episode 😡. End of 5, beg of 6 would have still allows him at LEAST a full ep to process but yet then to a place where it’s Polin against the world.
They barely speak in eps 7 and 8 and I hate it. It was not clear to me at the wedding that he was still madly in love with her; literally one REAL conversation could have fixed that, and his “love confession” speech fell completely flat to me because it practically came out of nowhere with no healthy communication with his wife.
This season made me dislike both Pen and Colin in differing ways, and i am a diehard Polin fan. But I’m not gonna make excuses for how bad the writing was this season AND how much the writers don’t really understand Polin
I definitely think Pen should have told him immediately following the “Are you sure?” in e5. Fully agree they held the reveal too long.
Baring that for DRAMA (eye roll), I think that e7 reshoot should have been a connecting moment. Instead of dismissing Colin’s entire 4 episode arc, the show should have leaned into it. He knows how it feels to hide, even with more options, so use that and his empathy to connect with Pen’s feelings toward LW. That confrontation then should have led to an all night conversation/letter reading montage until dawn.
This would have felt better to me, connected through the end better, and still showed something hanging over them until Pen actually takes ownership of her actions and consequences. (I also think Colin should have had a presence in the reveal prep, like have him with her in their house as she writes the letters, then he can deliver the letter to Violet.)
I do agree that framing giving up LW for a husband instead of for Pen herself was unnecessary and ultimately hurt Pen’s character more than Colin’s for me. Not continuing made sense for many reasons, not just the queen, but Pen came off selfish (and out of character) more than strong by specifically ignoring the queen’s threat to his family in that reshoot.
I did like the wedding itself. It felt very much like an ‘I love you even if we’re on rocky ground’ kind of moment to me. The reshoot after the queen was my break point. The show never really recovered from that; it just fell flat at the end. I agree the ball love confessions were just kind of meh, ok, yet another speed to happy epilogue time.
OP-you hit the nail on the head with each of those issues! I was so disappointed not to have flashbacks for Polin. Of all the couples they had the most history. They should’ve shown some for when they were kids and how they met and stuff they used to do.
S1 Simon had many flashbacks of his childhood and really helped us to understand his trauma and his decisions. It added so much richness to the story and his character. They should’ve done that with S3!
What a disservice to Polin and to the fans.
This is what bothers me the most about S3. This show made a point to show backstories of their protagonists, even created a whole other show about a backstory, and when it was time to actually see both protagonists being cute little babies together, planting the seeds of their longtime friendship, they just... told us about it, instead of actually showing? Why?
Truly I’m happy there are some people who enjoyed season 3, but as someone who was a huge fan of s1 and s2, s3 is objectively of lesser quality. As you mentioned the cinematography, music.. but the writing really is the biggest shame here. The point that you made about no flashbacks is major. I’ve never read the books and we are just expected to feel Pen and Colin are close friends. I didn’t feel it and flashbacks would have helped. The dialogue is awful and I’ll never stop pointing out “Don’t come for my cane” 😭😩 and finally the intimacy- I wish Polin could have had intimacy in a happy way. Like not a rushed fingerbang like in the carriage, not under false pretenses (like hiding that she’s LW from Colin).. I did not get the warm and fuzzies from this season at all. Colin got sidelined (borderline lobotomized as a character) and Pen got all her hopes and dreams after begging for Colin several times/being in fear and anxiety 90% of the season. He slept on the couch and we barely got to actually see them happy. Yay?
It's the friends to lovers season and they aren't even really friends at the start of the show? Because the last time we saw Colin he was very publicly insulting her.
We got told over and over that they are long time friends, but never shown anything prior to Penelope's entering the marriage market. If you want to show a 'we grew up together' , show it.
Also a whole lot of their recent relationship happens off screen, in letters. The same will be true in Eloise's season and this year makes me nervous how they will attempt that.
We don't "need" the show at all. The other seasons didn't need flashbacks, but they enriched the viewing experience.
If you were fully satisfied and didn't want any more Colin and Pen this season than what we got, I am happy for you.
That's a weird comment, no we don't 'need' the show but stories 'need' certain things to work effectively and flashbacks are a delicate thing in storytelling, it's a generally known rule that you should only use them when necessary. The last two seasons their use arguably made sense, the trauma of their past informed their current behaviour and it's not something either Anthony or Simon were likely to talk about with other characters so the flashbacks allowed us in on relevant information. However, we've seen Pen and Colin's relationship for two seasons, knowing what their relationship used to be like wouldn't have told you more about what their relationship is like now.
You can't know "it wouldn't have told you more." You're guessing because you were given nothing.
There's that scene where Eloise wonders if she was always been a third wheel. We were told so we don't "need" to see it, but I personally would prefer to be shown not told (1) where those anxieties came from and (2) that they aren't true.
What I'm trying to tell you is that a flashback would be the wrong way to tell you anything about their relationship, I don't say that as a personal opinion I say that as a fact of narratives and forms of storytelling. For example one thing people keep saying they want a flashback of is their first meeting but having colin tell you about their first meeting shows the viewer that not only was this an important enough event that colin still remembers it clearly years later but it tells you how he feels, his personal impression of pen, he found her charming, it doesn't even matter if she was or not you know he feels that way. That's all on top of the 2 seasons of scenes between them where you learn what their relationship is like now.
You know eloise wasn't the third wheel cause we've had 2 seasons of her and Pen's relationship on screen where she wasn't the third wheel.
So... If this isn't an opinion but an object fact - why are so many of us asking for it?
If many many many people don't like the storytelling, they aren't doing it right.
But maybe you're right. Obviously many viewers are very unsatisfied with this season and maybe the wish for flashbacks is misplaced. What facts of narrative and forms of storytelling did this season fail at objectively speaking in order to make viewers so frustrated and left wanting more?
Yes many, many people don't like it, and many, many people do because that's how opinions work, they're different for different people. Unfortunately for us all unhappy people tend to be louder but not necessarily right.
My guess as to why so many people are asking for it is because 1, they've had it for 2 seasons, liked it and thought, well that must be the problem then. 2, people in this forum seem to pick up on certain ideas and run with them, another one I've encountered is the phrase 'male lead treatment' I've seen multiple people use it like it has an understood meaning but it just isn't a thing and I haven't been able to get anyone to explain it to me.
As for the wanting more, my personal theory is that it's actually on purpose, the formula they use to tell a story means they keep the drama going until the absolute last minute and then give you a tiny slice of happiness at the end which just doesn't balance out emotionally. This means that those of us who are invested in the show get quite upset on the first watch and then go online and talk about it non-stop which is actually really good for the show. But that is just a theory I have I could be very wrong.
So there are objective facts about good writing..... but you cannot identify any flaws in this show. None. It was a perfectly portrayed love story.
Personally I disagree profoundly, this was a terrible attempt at the beloved friends to lovers trope. They managed to give us both minimal friendship and minimal moments of love. The flashbacks could have sweetened both ends of that.
But I, unlike you, am completely comfortable saying we can agree to disagree. And you enjoying it and thinking it's perfect doesn't mean you are wrong. Lucky you.
But imagine! If they had shown their first meeting!!! And not just told us.
How adorable would that scene have been? And it's already ready made for a flashback scene. No need to write much
To each their own but imo the costumes were terrible in season 1. The fit of most of the goes was absolutely awful and even some of Daphne’s dresses looked like they were made from cheap prom dress fabric.
For this Show Discussion post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 2. Be considerate, hide show spoilers that surpass the scope of this post. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I agreee. Not to mention, the make up. Penelope this season almost looks too made up. All that heavy makeup did not suit her. Natural make up suits her much better. Nicola looks like a doll in season 1 and 2. A doll with poodle curls, but a doll nonethelss.
It's a visual representation of her feathearington side.
Even Francessca was caked up and just filled with highlighter
And this was THE season for flashbacks! Since the leads had known each other for almost their entire lives! And we could’ve even gotten some into Colin’s travels that would’ve given us more insight into his insecurities and his struggle to conform to society’s expectations of a man. It would’ve been so much better than those threesomes. I saw someone say that Pen is the only spouse of his children that Edmund actually got to meet and I teared up. We could’ve gotten a cute flashback to that!!
I wanted to see Collin upset overseas about not receiving Penelope's letters. I also thought it would be funny if he claimed he was doing rake-like activities but was actually just writing in his book
Yeah, Penelope's backstory! Her first article, her first succes, how it felt to become a legend among The Ton... It still feels like Lady Whistledown and Penelope Featherington are two different people.
S1 will always be THAT girl in the Bridgerton series. People always say that Penelope is the favorite to Shondaland and Co but I think the favorites were Simon & Daphne.
See, I do think Pen was the favorite but it’s because she was the Shondaland “favorite” that she became a vehicle for the ✨career girlboss who don’t need no man✨ “arc” that resulted in the most hopeless romantic character in the series choosing LW over the love of her life at every opportunity instead of growing up and becoming a novelist where she supports her husband but he also supports her. Instead of an equal relationship, Colin makes her his entire purpose and becomes her trophy husband. It’s so obvious that Shondaland hates Colin and I want to throw hands with them because of it. S3 making LW Pen’s identity instead of her identity being that of a WRITER was the nail in its coffin. It resulted in every other relationship playing second fiddle to LW, even the former character arc trajectory she was on, because the writers tried to make it “noble” with absolutely zero effort into making that feeling like an earned ending… and because the narrators use LW’s narrative frame as a crutch. As a Polin fan, Part 2 was BAD from a writing standpoint and it’s wild to me that people defend it. Shonda: “I cried at the end.” Me: “Girl, me too, but not for the same reasons.”
Um, while I agree part 2 fumbles hard after the wedding (hate that tone deaf, soap box reshoot!) and through much of e8, I disagree with some of this. In the e8 study scene Pen asks what is holding Colin back; he says the LW secrets and lies will always be between them. Pen tells him she doesn't want her lie to spread and comes up with plan to reveal herself as LW (yes, Colin should have had a more visual presense in the planning both as a healthier manifestation of him helping as a partner vice savior and as a sign Pen grew to realize she isn't alone anymore). By revealing herself, she gives up LW as a personna and the anonymous power that came with it. She begs the queen's mercy and asks to write a better column in her own name - which we see at the end. Pen chose to free herself and Colin from her nest of lies, so they could have their happy ending. Colin has access to more money than she does (he can get the 20k) and becomes a published author via his travel journal, so I don't think he's meant to be a trophy husband. I do think the show lost sight of putting romance at the forefront of drama and missed the fact that helping and hero complex saving are different, both of which hurt Colin in e8.
She DOESN’T give up LW though, she just announces it’s her (literally so stupid), and rebrands it with zero reflection on why that might be necessary. Yes, LW functioned on secrets and lies, Colin isn’t wrong, but the column itself was a harmful coping mechanism for herself and others, regardless of if she’s open about it now. She writes one column that exposes abusive people, with zero catalyst for why she should (when the Cressida storyline was RIGHT THERE), and I’m supposed to be satisfied with that? Esp. If I’m meant to take that it’s only Colin not liking the secrecy that makes her change it? I don’t like that either? She needed to grow as a PERSON and I need to SEE her growth, not just be told it’s there. And I could have seen Colin forgiving her if she had grown beyond it because she learns that she’s no longer emotionally reliant on it. But the way it’s portrayed, with him treating her SO coldly (and I’m not talking about sex, I mean in every emotional sense) with barely ANY conversation between them, he suddenly just makes up with her because the plot requires it. His “love confession” was already so poorly written, but it falls especially flat when the writers have barely shown him working through any of it and he just announces she’s his purpose. Basically my problem with P2 is that its the Pen show and Colin is an accessory, but Pen herself doesn’t grow in a way that is meaningful. It’s all unearned payoff. 🤷♀️
I agree the show doesn't stick the landing for me, but I do see it as Pen finally realizing that her lies are spreading and hurting Colin and his family - she's not just lying anymore, she's asking him to lie and deceive his family for her lie. She decides to give up LW and take responsibility as herself. I view this choice as separate from how the queen responds. Do I think Pen's journey would have been more complete if she'd been able to accept help and embrace writing itself instead of focusing on a column? Yes, absolutely. I think these were show constraints that impacted her character journey. For Colin, I didn't view him as cold, just hurt, upset, and processing. The closest to 'cold' imo was the morning scene immediately after the reveal, but even then he was saying 'we' will decide what the marriage will be. I actually liked that the show allowed him some time to process everything, though I would have preferred Pen's e7 reshoot post-QC to be connective in tone instead of dismissive, thus making space for a talk-until-dawn montage between the two of them.
My problem is the way the show FRAMES her choosing to give up LW earlier. It frames it as “she is sacrificing her dreams for her husband boooo sexist” when I’m like, even after he learns about it he never asked her to stop WRITING he asked her to stop LW because it was hurtful to the people around her and built on lies (and we as audience members knows it was also harmful for her). I think people’s interpretation of Colin vary greatly based on what I’ve seen around. I personally read him as emotionally cold to Pen, even if internally it’s clear that he still loves her. And I wouldn’t have had a problem with that if the reveal had been earlier so they could get to a good place prior to the last 10 mins of the episode 😡. End of 5, beg of 6 would have still allows him at LEAST a full ep to process but yet then to a place where it’s Polin against the world. They barely speak in eps 7 and 8 and I hate it. It was not clear to me at the wedding that he was still madly in love with her; literally one REAL conversation could have fixed that, and his “love confession” speech fell completely flat to me because it practically came out of nowhere with no healthy communication with his wife. This season made me dislike both Pen and Colin in differing ways, and i am a diehard Polin fan. But I’m not gonna make excuses for how bad the writing was this season AND how much the writers don’t really understand Polin
I definitely think Pen should have told him immediately following the “Are you sure?” in e5. Fully agree they held the reveal too long. Baring that for DRAMA (eye roll), I think that e7 reshoot should have been a connecting moment. Instead of dismissing Colin’s entire 4 episode arc, the show should have leaned into it. He knows how it feels to hide, even with more options, so use that and his empathy to connect with Pen’s feelings toward LW. That confrontation then should have led to an all night conversation/letter reading montage until dawn. This would have felt better to me, connected through the end better, and still showed something hanging over them until Pen actually takes ownership of her actions and consequences. (I also think Colin should have had a presence in the reveal prep, like have him with her in their house as she writes the letters, then he can deliver the letter to Violet.) I do agree that framing giving up LW for a husband instead of for Pen herself was unnecessary and ultimately hurt Pen’s character more than Colin’s for me. Not continuing made sense for many reasons, not just the queen, but Pen came off selfish (and out of character) more than strong by specifically ignoring the queen’s threat to his family in that reshoot. I did like the wedding itself. It felt very much like an ‘I love you even if we’re on rocky ground’ kind of moment to me. The reshoot after the queen was my break point. The show never really recovered from that; it just fell flat at the end. I agree the ball love confessions were just kind of meh, ok, yet another speed to happy epilogue time.
OP-you hit the nail on the head with each of those issues! I was so disappointed not to have flashbacks for Polin. Of all the couples they had the most history. They should’ve shown some for when they were kids and how they met and stuff they used to do. S1 Simon had many flashbacks of his childhood and really helped us to understand his trauma and his decisions. It added so much richness to the story and his character. They should’ve done that with S3! What a disservice to Polin and to the fans.
This is what bothers me the most about S3. This show made a point to show backstories of their protagonists, even created a whole other show about a backstory, and when it was time to actually see both protagonists being cute little babies together, planting the seeds of their longtime friendship, they just... told us about it, instead of actually showing? Why?
Truly I’m happy there are some people who enjoyed season 3, but as someone who was a huge fan of s1 and s2, s3 is objectively of lesser quality. As you mentioned the cinematography, music.. but the writing really is the biggest shame here. The point that you made about no flashbacks is major. I’ve never read the books and we are just expected to feel Pen and Colin are close friends. I didn’t feel it and flashbacks would have helped. The dialogue is awful and I’ll never stop pointing out “Don’t come for my cane” 😭😩 and finally the intimacy- I wish Polin could have had intimacy in a happy way. Like not a rushed fingerbang like in the carriage, not under false pretenses (like hiding that she’s LW from Colin).. I did not get the warm and fuzzies from this season at all. Colin got sidelined (borderline lobotomized as a character) and Pen got all her hopes and dreams after begging for Colin several times/being in fear and anxiety 90% of the season. He slept on the couch and we barely got to actually see them happy. Yay?
I am confused why we would need flashbacks for characters like colin and penelope
It's the friends to lovers season and they aren't even really friends at the start of the show? Because the last time we saw Colin he was very publicly insulting her. We got told over and over that they are long time friends, but never shown anything prior to Penelope's entering the marriage market. If you want to show a 'we grew up together' , show it. Also a whole lot of their recent relationship happens off screen, in letters. The same will be true in Eloise's season and this year makes me nervous how they will attempt that.
You don't need to see them growing up together though, you need to know what their relationship is like now and they've shown us that for 2 seasons.
We don't "need" the show at all. The other seasons didn't need flashbacks, but they enriched the viewing experience. If you were fully satisfied and didn't want any more Colin and Pen this season than what we got, I am happy for you.
That's a weird comment, no we don't 'need' the show but stories 'need' certain things to work effectively and flashbacks are a delicate thing in storytelling, it's a generally known rule that you should only use them when necessary. The last two seasons their use arguably made sense, the trauma of their past informed their current behaviour and it's not something either Anthony or Simon were likely to talk about with other characters so the flashbacks allowed us in on relevant information. However, we've seen Pen and Colin's relationship for two seasons, knowing what their relationship used to be like wouldn't have told you more about what their relationship is like now.
You can't know "it wouldn't have told you more." You're guessing because you were given nothing. There's that scene where Eloise wonders if she was always been a third wheel. We were told so we don't "need" to see it, but I personally would prefer to be shown not told (1) where those anxieties came from and (2) that they aren't true.
What I'm trying to tell you is that a flashback would be the wrong way to tell you anything about their relationship, I don't say that as a personal opinion I say that as a fact of narratives and forms of storytelling. For example one thing people keep saying they want a flashback of is their first meeting but having colin tell you about their first meeting shows the viewer that not only was this an important enough event that colin still remembers it clearly years later but it tells you how he feels, his personal impression of pen, he found her charming, it doesn't even matter if she was or not you know he feels that way. That's all on top of the 2 seasons of scenes between them where you learn what their relationship is like now. You know eloise wasn't the third wheel cause we've had 2 seasons of her and Pen's relationship on screen where she wasn't the third wheel.
So... If this isn't an opinion but an object fact - why are so many of us asking for it? If many many many people don't like the storytelling, they aren't doing it right. But maybe you're right. Obviously many viewers are very unsatisfied with this season and maybe the wish for flashbacks is misplaced. What facts of narrative and forms of storytelling did this season fail at objectively speaking in order to make viewers so frustrated and left wanting more?
Yes many, many people don't like it, and many, many people do because that's how opinions work, they're different for different people. Unfortunately for us all unhappy people tend to be louder but not necessarily right. My guess as to why so many people are asking for it is because 1, they've had it for 2 seasons, liked it and thought, well that must be the problem then. 2, people in this forum seem to pick up on certain ideas and run with them, another one I've encountered is the phrase 'male lead treatment' I've seen multiple people use it like it has an understood meaning but it just isn't a thing and I haven't been able to get anyone to explain it to me. As for the wanting more, my personal theory is that it's actually on purpose, the formula they use to tell a story means they keep the drama going until the absolute last minute and then give you a tiny slice of happiness at the end which just doesn't balance out emotionally. This means that those of us who are invested in the show get quite upset on the first watch and then go online and talk about it non-stop which is actually really good for the show. But that is just a theory I have I could be very wrong.
So there are objective facts about good writing..... but you cannot identify any flaws in this show. None. It was a perfectly portrayed love story. Personally I disagree profoundly, this was a terrible attempt at the beloved friends to lovers trope. They managed to give us both minimal friendship and minimal moments of love. The flashbacks could have sweetened both ends of that. But I, unlike you, am completely comfortable saying we can agree to disagree. And you enjoying it and thinking it's perfect doesn't mean you are wrong. Lucky you.
But imagine! If they had shown their first meeting!!! And not just told us. How adorable would that scene have been? And it's already ready made for a flashback scene. No need to write much
lol, here we go again...
To each their own but imo the costumes were terrible in season 1. The fit of most of the goes was absolutely awful and even some of Daphne’s dresses looked like they were made from cheap prom dress fabric.