![]() The metrics are “is it worth my time?” “Is it entertaining me?” “Am I pissed enough to respond?” If something doesn’t prove to be one or all of those things within the first few words, generally we move on. Not to mention how poised we all are to be offended. It’s the posture most of us walk around in all the time, with which we approach everything: price tags, newspapers, social media posts. There is room in all writing, all art, all the world, for scrutiny. ![]() I want to invite us all to be gentle readers. In this moment I’m moved to reclaim it as something more literal. This puts me in mind of those old-timey pieces addressed “Dear gentle reader.” Surely it was a nod of respect, referring to the reader as a gentleperson/woman/man. It is so essential to have safe people around our creations, at least to begin with. Naturally I will pick people who are likely to do this regardless of my requests. This is a vulnerable new creation that needs to be handled with care. Mostly I want to know how it impacts them, or if it does.Ībove all, I’ll ask that they be gentle, please. That they don’t compare it to the great literature they’ve read (after all, I have no training, no degrees, no academic grounding whatsoever in what ‘good writing’ is-and anyway, this isn’t written in that spirit). I’ll ask that they only point out anything that is glaring in its ignorance or obtuseness or confusion. Thinking about how I’m going to frame it, a few requests come to mind. If you’re looking for a love story with endless drama, unmatched chemistry and stunning wardrobes, this season of “Bridgerton” is a must-see.I’m finishing up something I’m hoping to publish and, as part of the process, will soon send it out to a few folks to read. While this season showed improvement in its handling of race, it’s still not enough to be the show’s main draw. They give viewers the same slow-burn, period piece romance that was featured previously, but with a bit less of the hyped up horniness - a welcome change. ![]() The new episodes of “Bridgerton” are a much needed redemption from those of the last season. Of course, it is not expected that every detail from one season follows into another, but this change feels purposeful and - similarly to how this storyline was dealt with in the first season - not very thoughtful. However, this storyline is completely ignored in the recently released episodes. In the first season, Benedict (Luke Thompson), the second eldest Bridgerton brother, had an ambiguous relationship with a married, gay artist, which threw his morality into question. While I have no complaints about the racial diversity this season, the show’s creators seemed to have done away with what little LGBTQ+ representation they had. … It seemed really beautiful and respectful.” “But I think the way they portrayed it was really nice because they were together as a family. “I definitely think in other media in the past, that’s made by Western directors, it’s portrayed as really messy and really dirty,” Maahi said, referring to the ceremony. Maahi Jaiswal ’24 spoke highly of the portrayal of a traditional wedding practice called a Haldi Ceremony, in which women rub turmeric on their skin. Though there are times when they express their distaste for London - often portrayed by Kate’s hatred for English tea - the show depicts the two girls and their mother using traditional South Asian practices, and the representation is refreshing. Enter Kate and Edwina Sharma (Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran), two sisters from India who have come to London for the courting season in order to marry off the youngest sister to a “respectable” man. The second season, however, takes more care in exploring the narratives of its characters of color. The first season of “Bridgerton” used colorblind casting and relied on insufficient justifications to explain the historically inaccurate racial diversity of London’s wealthy social scene, as the show suggested that racism ended when the king married a Black woman, making her queen. This season approaches race differently than the last. Through Anthony’s journey to wed, viewers are introduced to new characters and new schemes, all with the same “Bridgerton” magic. Set in the early 1810s of England’s Regency era, this season turns its focus from Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), the eldest sister of the Bridgterton family, to Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), the family’s eldest son. However, the recently released second season has flipped my perception of the show, so much so that I’ve even been recommending it to anyone I can. At the beginning of 2021, I wrote a review of the first season of “Bridgerton” in which I expressed that I was less than impressed with the series.
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