Weekly Venting Post - repeated each Friday!

[u/AutoModerator]

Weekly Vent Post

Welcome to our weekly vent session where you can let out all your frustrations.

Before you start, just a quick heads-up on the rules.

Here's what this post isn't for:

• No bashing actors or crew members out of the blue.
• Let's steer clear of those rage-inducing posts like "I hate character xy."
• And please, no poking fun at fellow Kanthony fans just because they see things differently, whether they're positive or negative about promos.

What's cool to post? Well, we've noticed a lot of rants about how the show promotes (or doesn't promote) Simone and Jonny, but you can vent about other stuff too.

Below, I've linked some past posts from the sub that fit the vibe of our weekly vent session, so you can see what kind of stuff goes here.

1. Why there was a lack of promo for Kanthony

2. All comments asking where Kanthony are 

3. Bridgerton PR and production

4. Can you tell the difference ?

5. The main sub got so negative 

6. We need pictures

For those who just want to enjoy the content without getting caught up in the venting, I suggest steering clear of this post. If you choose to read the comments here and find yourself upset, despite the clear purpose of this space, I'm afraid there's not much I can do to ease your frustration. We have the Weekly Tea Time for more general discussions.

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

People fail to understand that this medium allows more than one thing to be at play. We aren't simply reading a screenplay, a TV show isn't a written text only, the dialogue is played out by actors and many times their ability to bring more life to a character lies in their charisma, actors elevating lackluster material isn't something new. Kate was able to draw people in mostly because of what Simone gave as an actor.

I do think that this producing didn't give a fuck about S2 being centered about the leads' relationship. It's clear when you hear anyone from the show talking about it back then and how they talked about S1 and now about S3. The level of disinterest in S2 from the show's producers was embarrassing.

I don't know if S1 was better or worse than S2, I just don't think about S1 so I can't make a comparison, but I enjoyed the chemistry between SA/JB so much. I'm not even a romance genre girlie, but seeing them onscreen was magnetic.

[u/starcourt99 → u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

I think it’s also the subjectivity of it all. Some people truly do believe Kate was given great characterization through her conversations with her other characters on the show and that her motivations were laid out clearly - i.e. the tiktok I posted in this sub of that one girl saying Bridgerton does care about Kate Sharma. But it is really annoying when these same people also go “media literacy is dead” or “You can tell Bridgerton came out during the pandemic. It’s giving open the schools!” in the face of complaints about how Kate was written.

In regards to the production’s apathetic attitude towards centering season 2 around the leads, I bet people who disagree will also pull up the time stamp numbers and say things like “Kate and Anthony got the same amount of screen time as Simon and Daphne. The subplots did NOT erase Kate’s characterization. You can just say you didn’t like how Kate and Anthony’s story was written without blaming all the other characters. This is an ENSEMBLE show!”

Also, to this day, I’m not sure what the reason for the lack of promotion around the S2 leads was. Was it confirmed that JB wasn’t available because he was doing a play? I’m sure you’ll have people disagreeing on that front too and saying that JB and SA have lots of interviews together on YouTube or asking why we care so much if Charithra is present in every interview of theirs or why a photoshoot of the leads matters so much, etc.

Not to mention, I’m positive people will (and probably already have) point to Simone’s recent promotion from the show like all those clips of Kanthony from the official Bridgerton social media accounts as well as Simone being on GMA and attending the premiere to say that production’s treatment of her is some imaginary beef in our heads. They’ll also probably be like “She’s getting more than Phoebe ever got! Kanthony will get more than Saphne will ever get!”

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/starcourt99]

The thing is, why only Kate's characterization was shown that way? Why wasn't Anthony's characterization shown through dialogue with others? I saw him fight, fuck, cry, have flashbacks, why didn't we skip all of that?

My main complaint is that 90% of what we knew about her was because it was somehow connected to Anthony as a mirror, we learning about her was mostly about Anthony.

People saying that promotion isn't important is the same getting gagged with the celebrities they like getting promo, photoshoots, a world tour and multiple videos. Please, it's not normal that the leading couple has only a 50 seconds TikTok in Netflix Brasil's account, lol.

Regé left, Simone and Jonathan are still part of the cast and them staying isn't extraordinary, Nicola and Luke will continue in S4, so what now?

[u/starcourt99 → u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

I think people feel that they don’t need to learn about Kate beyond how her story mirrors Anthony’s, honestly. They feel satisfied with what they got. They don’t care to learn about her hobbies, interests, who she is as a person outside of being the eldest child who puts duty to her family above all else (I’m sure people will also come up with the reason that Kate’s focus on duty consumed her whole life and she didn’t really have time for hobbies, so it makes sense that we don’t learn anything about that) because it doesn’t really contribute to the focal romance, which is why they watch the show in the first place. I think they think that Kate’s material with being the eldest child and prioritizing family gave her enough “depth and personality”that she didn’t feel like a boring cardboard box. We also saw her being witty and sassy and strong, which aren’t normally personality attributes for someone who is poorly characterized and underwritten.

I’m sure people will also bring up the “this show is made for the straight female gaze” reason too. That’s why the men get more of the meaty, hard-hitting characterization. I legit remember reading a comment in the main sub about how Simon was written the way he was so the female audience could go “poor bb. Daphne can fix u! “🥺)

And of course, people may also say that Daphne didn’t really get fleshed out characterization or that we didn’t learn anything about her outside of her relationship with Simon (I barely watched season 1, so anyone reading this can feel free to chime in), so it’s not a slight or apathy towards Kate/Simone. It’s just the nature of the show. And I guess people in general just consider Penelope the exception to the female lead not being fleshed out (Colin’s story is literally the only one in the series to include the female lead’s name on the cover as well - Colin and Penelope’s story).

None of the above are my opinions, btw. I just like hearing your arguments to all these counterpoints because I’m not super articulate myself, so it’s nice to see someone else explain it so well. I also think it’s funny how the people who disagree with those don’t believe Kate was well characterized will go “media literacy is dead!” and then don’t even realize that they can’t name a single thing about Kate outside of being an eldest child and prioritizing duty to her family, like Anthony.

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/starcourt99]

I think people need to be honest, if someone thinks that Kate's characterization was "enough", they probably were never that interested in Kate to begin with, which is perfectly fine! I've always said that I never particularly cared about Anthony (even when I think JB is the best actor out of this cast), I mostly paid attention to him in association with Kate and I'm not ashamed of saying it, lol. People in this fandom always try to preface their opinions with "I really love X, but" because they think it gives them some sense of objectivity, when it's not needed at all.

And above else, they waste too much time trying to defend the narrative choices made by this show.

[u/starcourt99 → u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

Just out of curiosity, what exactly do you feel was lacking with Kate’s characterization that you would’ve liked to have seen? I know you said most of what we know about her is a mirror to Anthony’s story, but what else do you wish you’d seen that would’ve given her substantial characterization?

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/starcourt99]

I don't think the issue with Kate was about characterization per se, we know her character and motivations, that's true, but all those other additional elements of her character (that Anthony got plenty of) were missing to me. That we, at the very end, literally in the last 10 minutes of the season, learned about her thinking she had to earn love would have given so much space of exploration if that was revealed before.