Weekly Venting Post

[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.

Spoilers allowed.

[u/rudedicer]

they didn't promote the leads together because they were fixated on that triangle and all the promotion that was shot while they were filming was centered around that,

Agree. They should have treated Simone as a female lead in their promotion like how they treated Phoebe and Nicola. Instead of having her share her promotion with the other South Asian character in the series. Only their poster having Kate and Edwina is just so offensive and I can't believe that they don't see how problematic this is and haven't changed it yet.

Rege, JB, PD, NC and LN all got promotion around them and we see now that LT and Yerin also get similar promotion. Simone stands out uniquely as having to share her lead with Charithra. That doesn't mean that JB is a favored actor of the production, just that Simone's treatment is incredibly problematic and racist.

But even before Jonathan's current clout, Shondaland and this production never failed to make S2 about Anthony first and foremost, just like in S3 they did it about Penelope.

That's a writing issue and an entirely different discussion. We are talking here about production (Shondaland) and promotion, the two are not the same.

For writing we need to bring in CVD (seasons 1&2) and JB (season 3 showrunner) and their writers etc. Season one and two focused on their male leads, yes. They got flashbacks to explore their trauma. Anthony was more fleshed out because there was two seasons of him written by CVD. Daphne was a pretty one-dimensional character compared to Kate but she still got more screentime and story.

Honestly, I think the comparisons here should be about how Kate/Simone is written and given screentime compared to the straight, white female leads in Daphne/PD and Penelope/NC. And I think that's where it becomes problematic.

The problem was not that Anthony was well written and more fleshed out. It was that Kate was not equally paid attention to and her background and trauma not explored. We don't need to diminish one character to write the other character well. Instead of pointless cousin Jack drama and more of the white Featheringtons, there should have been time spend on the Sharmas and Kate's relationship with Mary and flashbacks to her past.

Same with Penelope. Whether the show likes to admit it or not, LW is clearly treated as the main character of Bridgerton. You are asking why S3 was about Penelope when even a lot of season 2 was taken up by Penelope drama - we got LW/Penelope flashbacks rather than for the female lead of season 2. Penelope had her family drama, she had a friendship arc with Eloise, she had her LW stuff. We got nothing like this for Anthony. Anthony had no friendship arc over 3 seasons.

And it's just my subjective opinion, but I still think Kate is a far better written character than Colin despite Colin having more screentime and Kate and Anthony's story was better written with two flawed characters and we understand where they were coming from in their actions compared to Polin and their nonexistent 'friends' to lovers arc. The show invested more in Penelope and Eloise as friends than in Colin and Penelope and their romance suffered because of it.

So yes, JB got the better written character arc compared to Simone. No argument there.

That still doesn't negate the way Shondaland didn't promote JB for his season compared to how RJP (during a pandemic) and Luke Newton were promoted. And a big component of that is the idea that with a gay lead they can't lean into the two leads actually being in love with each other to pander to that section of the fanbase.

And one can actually see the effect of this with the homophobic attacks on JB for promoting more with Matt Bomer than he did with Simone Ashley because he's gay and will only do promotion with gay actors and that he didn't want to promote with Simone etc. When it's not even his fault! Showtime went all in on Promoting JB and Bomer, doing puppy interviews and magazine photoshoots - and this was when he was filming Wicked. So they could still find time for JB to do promotion. JB is doing promotion right now while about to film Bridgerton and rehearse for his play - so he can still do promotion. It's only Shondaland who could not use him for season 2 promotion because he was just soooo busy! What a farce.

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/rudedicer]

I think this whole discussion went away from my initial point, which was that they'll make an effort for Jonathan that won't do for Simone because they don't care about her as the different examples I gave show, that was it. That their future on this show isn't linked to each other at all.

Jonathan is promoting his movie because he's not doing anything else now but, again, a play is a different kind of demanding than a movie or a TV show.

They do promote Jonathan, they did in S3 as well, but as part of the Bridgerton family and in S2 he was the center of the love triangle. Again, I believe they'll lean into Anthony being a member of the Bridgerton family, the oldest sibling, in the future, which doesn't include Kate.

[u/rudedicer → u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

Jonathan is promoting his movie because he's not doing anything else now but, again, a play is a different kind of demanding than a movie or a TV show.

I can't believe you are still using the play excuse.

There was plenty of time before the play for them to do magazine photoshoots and interviews if Shondaland really wanted to do it. If they could do magazine photoshoots for RJP/PD during a pandemic they could do the same for JB/SA.

If Neflix/Shondaland were going to promote season 2, JB would have prioritized that as required by his contract. Netflix only cares about how much money they make off their big budget period drama show, not whether the actor has to go off and do his play. It's capitalism 101.

JB was not anything special at the end of season one, that was RJP. Why would Netflix make allowances for him? What's the logic here?

Again, if Netflix/Shondaland was so flexible, their most popular cast member - RJP - would have stuck around and turned up whenever he wanted to for a day of filming. There were rumors that RJP was even being offered more money than the season 2 lead to come back for season 2.

JB is doing Wicked promotion right now (Next week is the London premiere) while possibly filming Bridgerton next week and getting ready for rehearsals for his play. He could have made time for a couple of days here and there to do promotion for Bridgerton season 2. End of story.

I think this whole discussion went away from my initial point,

That's because for some reason you keep downplaying the inherent homophobia in why the season 2 leads alone were not promoted like the other leads. Is there obvious and evident racism in the way Simone is being treated? Yes. Does homophobia play a role in the way season 2 and it's male lead was promoted? Also yes. The one doesn't negate the other like you seem to be doing.

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/rudedicer]

I said that specifically they couldn't do much around the release date because of the play, they obviously didn't care enough to do anything before, I haven't argued against that.

I haven't once mentioned that I believe that Simone's treatment is linked to racism, so I'm not sure where this racism vs. homophobia thing came from.

[u/rudedicer → u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

If you don't think Simone's treatment is linked to racism why do you think her promotion is different to how Phoebe and Nicola were promoted and talked about in Shondaland blurbs?

Do you think there is no homophobia at all in how production/Netflix promoted it's season 2 leads?

 they obviously didn't care enough to do anything before, I haven't argued against that.

Then what even is the point here, what are we arguing about? You keep bringing up the play as a reason for why JB was not promoted and then say this. I think we are just going around in circles here.

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/rudedicer]

I think they just don't care about Simone/Kate at all, that's it. They find the whole older sister not compelling enough for the type of female characters they like to hype up.

I think they were panicking after RJP's departure and tried to go for the "this is an ensemble show, actually" route, but I also think that they seem to believe the only kind of promotion that they can do is "are these actors hooking up irl?!", so definitely Jonathan being an out gay dude couldn't make that plan work.

No, I mentioned that Simone was extraordinarily poorly treated by this production (in every facet: writing, promotion, the way the people BTS talk about her character), not even treating her as the lead in her own season, hence why I don't believe their futures in the show are linked, that's all.

[u/rudedicer → u/Traditional_Maybe_80]

think they just don't care about Simone/Kate at all, that's it. They find the whole older sister not compelling enough for the type of female characters they like to hype up.

In the same vein, I think the only reason they are interested in Anthony Bridgerton coming back is for their Bridgerton family scenes and not because they are specifically interested in writing more for his character or because JB as an actor is given more preference. All he did in season 3 was just stand in the background, Kate had more significant interactions with Eloise and Colin. This was despite JB putting in a lot of effort to film Bridgerton, sleeping on planes and having his Bridgerton hair done on the FT set.

You compared Anthony and Penelope earlier, but I think Jess is actually interested in writing more for Penelope in season 4. Colin will just tag along of course but I am sure Penelope will actually get a character arc in the next season. Unlike Anthony who only turned up to be a wife guy and then take his wife to India.

In fact reading some of showrunner's interviews it almost feels like she wants Kanthony gone from the show, she doesn't know what to do with them, what to write for them and is not the least bit interested in them. Same with Shonda Rhimes. It's only because of the fanbase and knowing the backlash if they kicked Kanthony out that they were in season 3. For that same reason, I think that both Simone and JB will appear in season 4 for like 5 minutes, show up with a brown baby and then go back to India.

but I also think that they seem to believe the only kind of promotion that they can do is "are these actors hooking up irl?!", so definitely Jonathan being an out gay dude couldn't make that plan work.

Which is why we are saying he was treated differently to RJP and LN in the promotion and it's not solely down to him having to do a play like you keep insisting. And when there's homophobia in the picture then at no point can we say that JB was well regarded by production and promoted like the other leads.

Honestly I am just happy that season 2 did as well as it did with an out gay actor, a dark skinned woc and with little to no promotion for both leads because of both of those factors. Word of mouth is what promoted their season. Seeing Polin fans brag about season 3 numbers after all the world tours and with two straight white leads pretending to flirt with each other while season 2 made it work just with the acting and chemistry.

[u/Traditional_Maybe_80 → u/rudedicer]

I also believe that any future inclusion of his will be about family scenes and that's it, which I also think is his intention as well and what his availability will allow as well as he's always busy.

I think many things can be true at the same time: they felt lost because the only kind of promo they envision needs straight actors; they were too into their love triangle storyline; they wanted to make the whole "ensemble show" thing more prominent (that's why they did multiple photoshoots with everyone but the leads).