SPOILERS BRIDGERTON SEASON 4 - Benedict’s story

[IWantToHibernate]

I couldn’t see a thread so thought I would start one.

The first 4 episodes drop on Netflix tomorrow (29th Jan). We will then need to wait until 26th February for the other 4.

We all know it’s not a realistic period drama but it’s great escapism and I’m looking forward to binging the first 4 eps.

Is Benedict described as gurning and generally pulling faces all the time?

Watching him eat breakfast after leaving the horses and how she could possibly feel anything sexual for him is beyond me.

The book has the scenes at the cottage which are so much funnier. I wanted to see Sophie wearing his clothes because her were wet.

Lady Danbury features more in Hyacinths book but otherwise only pops up occasionally. No Mondriches and no queen.

Unnecessary side characters(Mondrichs, Lady Tilly etc), no Viscount or Viscountess in their own home. Ridiculous plot chages.
I liked S1 and S2 series Benedict(book Benedict was appalling), not sure why he seems so goofy and unsexy now.
The books in general were not great, Julia Quinn has written better.

Lady Danbury was definitely part of Colin and Penelope’s story as she was the one to give the reward for Lady Whistledown.

Ah yes. My least favourite book so I misremembered! Im rereading them atm starting with my favourites so will get to that one eventually. Currently on To Sir Phillip, with love and hoping for Eloise to be series 5.

If anyone is curious about the books they pop up for 99p on kindle fairly regularly.

@mogtheexcellent I am hoping it’s Eloise for Season 5. I like her story.

Claudia Jessie is 36, Hannah Dodd is 30. I'm convinced they'll do Eloise next. Although in some ways it would be interesting if they really took some time with Eloise to explore what it looks like to be a non-ingenue single woman in a society so focused on marriage. They've started to do a bit of that already... but mainly in a way that looks like they're setting her up for realising she doesn't actually want to be in that position. So, I think it will be her, and that they'll continue to develop Francesca's story during Eloise's season but not move on to the actual romance with Michaela until it's F's turn. I'm trying not to do spoilers, but there's a fairly major plot point for F that they could be working with during Eloise's season. I don't think they'll want to rush it.

I’m not a fan of Eloise’s story. I find the character quite irritating in the series and Phillip is awful in the book. Easily one of the most unlikeable characters. He’s almost a sex pest.

I would have preferred for them to have changed hers to a lesbian love story over Francesca’s. In the books Francesca and John have a pure love, and while she discovers a different sort of passion when he dies with Michael, she doesn’t forget the love she had for John. The series has changed this completely by making her attracted to a woman and having issues with ‘pinnacles’ presumably due to having a (male) husband.

They should have killed off Phillip and paired Eloise with Marina.

Sir Phillip is the very definition of the ‘ick’. If someone on mumsnet came on here and described his behaviour they would be told to LTB.

I haven't read the books - but personally what you're describing feels like what we're seeing on screen to me? A pure, loving marriage between Francesca and John, but setting her up to discover a different sort of passion, and a different side to herself, with Michaela. I don't personally feel the 'pinnacles' issue necessarily implies she isn't sexually attracted to John, to me it fits with her personality and the fact that she is fairly demure and controlled and it doesn't immediately come naturally to her to let go in that way. (And honestly, it's not exactly unheard of for male-attracted women to struggle to have orgasmic sex with men they love and are attracted to).

I sort of get why so many people feel it should be Eloise to have a same-sex romance, because probably the openly gay people they have met are likely to be the people who are more comfortable with being outspoken and against the grain. But being gay or bi is such a random thing, it doesn't just happen to people with a particular kind of personality.

I don’t know, my interpretation re. Francesca is that she’s just not into it with John because she’s a lesbian. It’s been obvious since the start of their story there is no spark there, and yet she had an immediate attraction when she met Michaela. Of course many heterosexual women also can’t ‘pinnacle’ in that situation but they are doing the storyline alongside her obvious attraction to Michaela it seems connected. In the book, Francesca didn’t even look at Michael in that way while John was Alive (or even for a long time after he died). I’m sure they are building up to her achieving her ‘pinnacle’ with Michaela.

Eloise is so anti marriage and its convention and at the moment, seems to favour the spinster route. I’m sure there were actual lesbians at that time who became spinsters rather than have to marry a man.

But regardless of that, the Phillip in the book just doesn’t seem to be someone TV Eloise could abide.

I think they’re going to need to start compressing multiple book stories into series. It will run out of steam before they get to make all 8. All for them covering Francesca’s story in this episode and the next. I do regret that they seem to be abandoning her fertility struggles as a major driver of what she does.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they combine Francesca and Eloise’s stories. To be honest I can barely remember Gregory and Hyacinth’s stories and I think the Bridgerton effect may have worn off by the time they get to that point in 5 years or so. There’s only so many slow burn romances that all follow the same basic plot the audience will stick with.

I would be happy with an Eloise and then Francesca series, and then another prequel (hello Violet and Edmund?)

Politely: do straight women understand how they sound to queer women when they're like 'yeah we've had four full seasons of stories focusing on our experiences, but we don't want you to have even one about yours, so I hope they just squash that around a couple of straight women's stories?'

@CaragianettE have you read the books? The pain of infertility and fear of childlessness is really sensitively shown in Francesca's book, and that isn't a story they've told yet in the show. I was hoping they would, that's all.

For those interested Benedicts book is 99p on kindle at the moment. Also the audiobook is also 99p, not sure about hearing the sex scenes being read out though!

here

I listened to the audiobooks free on the Libby app (free with Library membership)

Really enjoyed watching this

it is cheesy but still entertaining

Less than a week for Part 2.

I have next Thursday off.
So, expect Spoilers at 11am 🤣

The best example I can think of in this approximate period is Emma Lyon, who was dirt poor and making her way in the world as an actress, artist’s model and the mistress of rich young men. When one of the young men needed to get married, he sent Emma off to live with his uncle Lord William Hamilton, English Ambassador to the Royal Court in Naples. To everyone’s astonishment, Lord Hamilton married Emma, making her Lady Hamilton (more famous as Nelson’s mistress). This was completely socially unacceptable in London, but Emma did well in Naples, becoming a close friend of the Queen.

Readers of Georgette Heyer will know of the Gunning sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who arrived in London from Ireland in the 1750s and despite having no money were famous beauties who married into the upper eschelons of the nobility. But that was uncommon enough to be memorable!

(on topic, I have watched the first 4 episodes and this has held my attention the most since S1 - absurdities aside, I think Benedict and Sophie have great chemistry and I’m interested in how its resolved)

Violet is one of my favourite characters, but considering she and the late sainted Edmund were clearly at it like rabbits to have had 8 children, she really failed her daughters with providing nil knowledge about sex.
I know Daphnes ignorance was pivotal to the plot, but she could have given Francesca a few hints.

I got the impression that Francesca had found her pinnacle on her own when she approached John all pink and giggly

BTW my favourite quote from this thread was Benedict looked rough because "he had a tough paper round"

The Gunning sisters were the grand daughters of Viscount Mayo so not exactly working class maids.... They were poor but their beauty would not have given them entree to aristocratic circles - only their birth could do that. Their beauty did however mean that their relative povery was overlooked.

I’m not sure it follows that just because a woman had lots of kids (and sex) that they would be comfortable discussing sex with anyone else law, even their daughters. Many women , especially in those days, would still be coy and prudish.

My grandmother was born in the 1920s and had 7 pregnancies. But She was very prudish about anything to do with sex and never spoke about it to her children/ daughters. I remember her once having an outburst about how ‘disgusting’ oral sex is.

Apart from my thrupple relationship prediction for the boring couple and cousin, my bet is Lady Danvers is going to be the one to die. She is ill, knows it already, but is hiding her debility with sheer will and strength of character. This is why she's so set on returning home and trying to set the queen up with a successor for her role. The queen will be heartbroken and apologise once she realises her cruelty to her friend,.