SPOILERS Rivals Season 2 🥳

[Blossombunnyy]

On Disney in May 15th 2026

Who's excited?

I can't wait the trailer looks so good.

Of course they may still sleep together a bit later.

Are they really pausing for the (mutters) football or is it to do with people doing the Dis plus free sign up to binge watch 😂 Don't they realise that this is just what we need to get us through all the dull football nonsense...because even though it's all on late we know there will be hours and hours of crap chat about the game with a ball all day on the tv...I think I'll be doing a rivals rewatch!

@anxietyispartofme I don’t like Taggie & Rupert together. Her character acts too childlike which puts me off.

6 months 🤯

Doubt it’s for the football, why would that affect it. And even if it was, it would be back on at the end of July.

I think it’s to get people to subscribe again, I’ve only subscribed for 3 months to watch so I’ll have to renew

@MrsJamin

I didn’t notice them during the show but my aunt had those!

I didn’t notice them in the episode but my Granny had this set. My cousin has it now. I feel like I should go round for a cup of tea.

@anxietyispartofme

Am I the only one who finds Taggie a bit annoying?

I've not seen the television series (although plan to get sorted with Disney) but I find her bloody annoying in the books.
She's so wet.
And, according to the book narrative, seems to spend her time shyly waiting in doorways, shifting from foot to foot - which makes her sound like she wants to pee, imo.

They are. It’s literally in the title 😉. I think those of us who set an alarm for 8am are keen not to spoil it for others too early so we refrain from major spoilers early doors - especially those that deviate from the book.

@TheLemonOtter Agree that Caitlin is not well cast. I think she looks too old. She was my teenage self's favourite character in the book.

@Netaporter I was second guessing myself because I thought it was a spoiler thread but the last few posts made me question myself 😆

It’s explicitly a spoilers thread - I don’t think anyone can complain!

Just finished. Massive deviation from the book. But what an episode.

Clare Rushbrook is amazing. What a performance.

Ditto Katherine Parker & David Tennant.

But Clare Rushbrook deserves all the plaudits.

I don’t mind a spoiler - so I hope your concern that wasn’t on my behalf binliner! I like finding out what you all think before I catch up.

I wouldn’t say I’m disliking it, it’s definitely had its moments, but season 1 gave me so much joy and this one… hasn’t in the same way, it’s felt slower and more repetitive. I don’t think the week by week release it’s helping, to me it’s the kind of thing you want to be able to binge when you’ve had a long week, not be released in dribs and drabs.

David Tennant has really stood out to me in the last two episodes, to me he’s just on a different level to the others as an actor.

All the Taggie tradwife stuff is making me cringe, especially ‘oh Rupert’s kids love her she’s a fairy princess whereas they can’t stand Cameron the career bitch’. But Bella McClean is so so pretty.

Have they actually killed off Monica? I want to believe this show is smart enough not to bury its gays, especially when she hadn’t even really got out the gate with Enid.

To me too much of it has felt like rehashes of stuff from Season 1.

Spoilers are fine @binliner . Some of us were being less explicit this morning just in case anybody saw the thread before the episode! It was such an unexpected ending - I was still expecting Rupert to say Monica was in a coma or something - in readiness for a future Monica/Lady Enid reunion. What a bloody shame!!

@CaragianettEyes that’s it! ‘Tradwife’, you’ve hit the nail on the head. That’s just the description I was looking for.

A great cook (tick)
Loves and is great with all the kids in Rutshire (tick)
Doesn’t want a corporate career (tick)
Modest and shy with men (tick)
Doe-eyed look under eyelashes (tick)
Selfless and looks after the whole family before herself (tick)

Will her death make Tony less ruthless do we think?

Episode 6 was the best acting I've seen in a TV series for ages. Such a shame we don't get to see Monica enjoy a new lease of life. I just watch Rupert and think he is way too old for Taggie, the actress who plays her is very beautiful.

I think Maud may go off with Tony

I can comfort Declan 😁

That was the point of Taggie, she was innocent and wholesome. No one else is.

I've been forced (!) to reread all the books. Just to see where the plots diverge. Of course.
Not watched latest episode yet, as DH around, but sad to hear about Monica- im sure in the books she (eventually) ends up with Dame Enid and all her labradors. (Only reread up to TMWMHJ)
The books have been a guilty pleasure of mine since I was a teenager. I love the way Jilly writes, so much humour. And I love the animals being major characters. Really enjoying the series so far, great acting (although took me a while to get past Rupert not being blond! And now Perdita isn't blonde either!) But definitely keeps the spirit of the books! Hope they do Polo, it was one of my favourites

Well now I am sad. She was wonderful and I wanted her to have her happy ending. Here's hoping Fred and Lizzy manage it at least.

So indeed they’ve ‘killed the gays’: depressing trope. However good the performances.

Mum (anti Jilly’s writing of women) says book Taggie was a stereotypical, very young ‘innocent’. Little nuance. They’ve made the character a bit older to make it less problematic, and perhaps the actor being older again and that they have stuck with the stereotypes for her makes it jarring.

I have a theory that Monica isn’t really dead - she’s asked Rupert to say she is so she can go off and live quietly with Enid and not have to go through a nasty divorce from Tony (because he would be nasty). After all, we never actually saw Monica’s accident.

I’m not being entirely serious with that theory but I do think it’s slightly odd that we never even saw a shot of the car accident from a distance or anything. I also just think it’s a real shame if they have killed her off because she was a great character.

I’m going against the grain here but I was a bit disappointed with that last episode. Don’t get me wrong, the acting was incredible and there were some very moving moments. However what I’ve been enjoying about Rivals is the fun in each episode, the slight campness, the comic set pieces like the sports event and that farcical dinner party. That episode didn’t have any of that. All the other episodes I’ve wanted to watch again immediately but I don’t have any real desire to go back and watch that again soon (although I will in due course as I rewatch the series).

Rivals has had dramatic elements in episodes before but always balanced with more light hearted events/characters so I hope it goes back to that in the next episodes, whenever we get them!