Flawed and free

[kateknowsdramas]

There's a lot I haven't done for her. I haven't made her happy yet.

[saphrontip]

When I tell you this man had me gagged with his performance, Yoo Yeon Seok, the actor that you are ❤️

[dramashii]

Baek Sa Eon wearing his wedding ring.

WHEN THE PHONE RINGS (2024)

[saphrontip]

Giggling and kicking my feet

[liveasbutterflies]

I won't hold back anymore.

When the Phone Rings (지금 거신 전화는) 2024

[saphrontip]

Need Yoo Yeon Seok as a soldier or raw agent or something along the lines in a kdrama, the world needs to see those biceps in full display.

[dazzlingkai]

“Because you said to call back only when there’s a corpse”

YOO YEON SEOK & CHAE SOO BIN as BAEK SA EON & HONG HEE JO WHEN THE PHONE RINGS 지금 거신 전화는 (2024) dir. Park Sang Woo

[saphrontip]

This drama has successfully pulled me out of my kdrama slump, the tension is so so thickkk.

[softzindagi]

see the problem with reading amazing polin fic is the fic is always ALWAYS better than the show. I’m obsessed.

so here are some of my recent favs if you all wanna read them:

Ruin by Sea_Dragonfly (Penelope gets caught with a suitor and Colin comes to save her from her ruin. )

Attachment by lixabiz (A take in the season synopsis, Colin helps Penelope with finding a husband.)

Affection by lixabiz (post Season 2, Colin grovels for Penelope’s forgiveness after she never responds to his many letters.)

Making It Up As We Go Along by LazyTuesdayMorning (Penelope gets stuck in a rainstorm on the way to Aubrey Hall and Colin finds her.)

The Temptation of one Penelope Featherington... by LazyTuesdayMorning (Penelope is staying at Aubrey Hall with the Bridgertons in the off season. Passion ensues.)

edit: new ones below from original post

Thus Will Shine The Dawn by bluemountainbayou (podt season 2, Penelope is attacked in Mayfair and Colin is faced with the very real possibility that he could have lost her.)

Discovering Duty by annasometimeswrites (post season 2, Colin comes back from abroad to a sadder and angrier Penelope. Scandal ensues when Colin follows a drunk Penelope back to her room and someone sees.)

among the wildflowers by talkfast (short marriage of convenience with no mention of whistledown.)

Call Off Your Ghost by Trisky107 (Another post Season 2 fic, where Pen asks Colin to let go of her so she can move on.)

Dancing Around the Truth by WeepingFromACedarTree (A sick fic, Colin takes care of Penelope when the season ends and neither family is there for the off season.)

You Are The Only Thing In Any Room You’re Ever In by gowingowingone ( Post Season 2 fic, where Colin comes home and slowly realizes his feelings for Penelope after she stops answering his letters.)

The Rules of Propriety by romanticblossom (Synopsis of Season 3 based, Colin is faced with the fact that everyone knows what he said about Penelope at her mother’s ball, months after the fact. He resolves to help her, but honor comes in the way when he kisses her, quite unexpectedly.)

One Single Thread of Pink (Tied Me to You) by wasteddarlinglover (Penelope can see the string of fates, a gift to most feels like a curse.)

Freeing You by jentothenuh (Colin and Penelope have been married for two years, which was arranged, and Penelope asks for a Divorce.)

By Tomorrow’s Light (You Will Not See My Face) by lindsey_grissom (A fix it fic for season 3, Penelope does tell Colin she’s Whistledown at their engagement ball before running away.)

These were all fantastic, all are regency era. Please go and read and leave comments!

[saphrontip]

Now that the Polin season is over and I am finally back to being a casual viewer, I have to admit that I am not particularly excited for anyone else's story to unfold. It has to be studied how Eloise went from being one of my favourite characters to someone I simply do not care about anymore. Benedict has been shagging through the three seasons and Idk how his romance would feel any different with his beloved whoever that turns out to be. I am sure they will do just fine but hoping the next seasons remain as crowded as Polin's was. I want a flurry of storylines, subplots, and a meagre amount of screen time for the leads. It would be an icing on the cake to watch married Polin onscreen but I no longer trust the writers with anything so I shall keep that expectation guarded. Guess, I am just bitter in that way. Let's make the show a perfect ensemble moving forward if we are at it.

[saphrontip]

It has not been long since I jumped onto the Nicola Coughlan bandwagon but if there is one thing I've learnt about her it's that she regulates whatever you see or know of her. For a person who is chronically online and also does not shy away from sharing a part of her life on social media, it is surprising to me how little we actually get to know about her personal life. In these past months, I know about her close friends but nothing about her dating history, there are rumours but baseless. She is sitting on the information and the heavens may fall but it would not be revealed.

I have always preferred knowing less about celebrities. I like the illusion of seeing them through their craft, judging them through their interactions but when all is said and done I prefer not to know about their personal lives. One of the reasons I have begun to admire Nicola is this stronghold she maintains and as it turns out her popular friends are also complicit in keeping that privacy. As someone who was convinced Nic was 20 at most when I first saw her in Bridgerton, this press tour has taught me that she is a woman in her own right, a woman with wits, intelligence, humour and strong opinions.

Whatever it is that we get to know of Nicola in the future, hope it happens with her consent.

[saphrontip]

I have seen a lot of discourse on Luke Newton and his supposed behavioural patterns post the Bridgerton part 2 release. Obviously, there is no denying that he was quick to dissociate himself from Bridgerton and his co-star. I am not into celebrity culture nor do I get whipped by chemistry but had been an avid supporter of Polin since I first saw Bridgerton. The early promo release gassed me up and I did find myself enjoying watching them together in interviews. They came across as a good team and that is where the fun ends. While one may argue about the lack of appreciation and reciprocation on Luke's part, I do give him a lot of grace for carrying the world tour with ease. I can only imagine as an introverted, anxious person myself how difficult it must have been for him to navigate. Nicola, obviously is a dream co-star. That being said, I did find myself questioning him for his stunt but later came to an understanding as to why he would be so quick to dissociate.

When you think of it, he did not really get enough to do with his character. In the first part, the rake part was hardly convincing, it looked cheap, the wig looked cheap, and the winks and faces looked tasteless. The first part was him yearning and the second part was him sulking. There was not enough source material for him. I have to credit Luke for managing to deliver with the bare minimum. He gagged me with his performance, it was subtle, nuanced, and very articulate. His confession at the last ball and his anger at the lady whistle down reveal deserve much more recognition. Luke also had his task cut out as he braced to romance an unconventional leading woman in his first romantic role. For how many times do we see a short woman being an object of desire on our screens. I defy you to find anyone who could have done it better than him. Nicola and Luke both deserve their share of appreciation for breaking that cycle and being a changemaker. But all of it was washed down by homophobia and constant complaints of lack of Polin. This season looked like a filler, more of Fran's story than Polin's.

I have not been in the fandom culture but have been here for a month to understand that the fandom has never really been kind to Colin. To be a victim of hatred and constant nagging because of the inability of people to dissociate actors from characters must be awful. He has been at the receiving end of this hate for the longest time and when the time came for his redemption, he was given nothing to work with. I am sure Luke knows it, and so does Nicola. One of the reasons why Nicola highlights he has no ego must be the way Luke owned Colin without complaints. As an actor, you can only have so much say in the creative process but no one is dumb enough to point out the problem. The lack of exploration of Colin's character sows the seed of hatred for Luke. Sad but it's the truth. The man, therefore, said enough and has been trying to move on. I do not blame him.

I am currently on the Nicola Coughlan bandwagon and can't help but appreciate Luke for being there as a beacon of soft masculinity. A lot of what I say is purely an observation, there is no right or wrong. I speak for myself when I say that I would be bitter had I been at his place. So much of investment in the past six years only for receiving tidbits in the name of screentime. It is unfair on so many levels and one has to look beyond one's biases to understand this.

[cringycat24]

I fucking hate that short, brushed up wig, it's like they didn't even try. I hate that I can tell which ones are reshoots because of the wig and because of the change in Luke's face. He looks older and his voice and inflection changed a tad bit. Ugh. I hate that I'm being insufferably pedantic about it.

But I am also thankful that we already got Polin season and their story already done with. The show can now go up in flames for all I care, get cancelled, get better, whatever. I already got what I want 😂

[saphrontip]

Hard agree! I was invested in this story for so long only for this season to leave me underwhelmed. That being said, I also hope Luke and Nicola can move on to bigger and better things. Good if they come back but better if they don't considering the serious injustice meted out to their characters and their criminally limited screentime.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[saphrontip]

Nicola Coughlan uploading the wedding dance video might just be the ultimate fan service a celebrity could ever do because nobody understands how much I dreaded the unnecessary cut and overcrowding during their dance and how much I longed for it to be a little longer. If she was not my favourite celebrity already, she might have cemented that position just now.

I LOVE HER FOR THIS. She knew we needed this.

[saphrontip]

Setting aside all the major disappointments, why is it that I don't see Colin kissing Penelope's forehead even once in the 8ep run?? Sure, with that height difference between the two, the sluttiest thing to do was to go for forehead kisses and I happen to see none of them. I don't understand this? There is no plausible explanation. One such kiss could have added so much warmth to their relationship. It's the little things that matter, I am not even complaining about the lack of smut, simply a warm hug, a forehead kiss?? Fumbled the ball and how!!

[saphrontip]

I have not found it in me to do a rewatch of season 3 just to understand the season as a whole. I was seething in anger when I tried doing so. But the brain rot is real, I've been to work, engaged myself in other hobbies and very randomly in a day I am reminded of the utter nonsense that everyone in the Bridgerton team served us. It feels like a disrespect to me as an audience. The marketing of Bridgerton is very couple-specific, you emphasise it's a love story, a romance of two people, and you put these couples on aggressive press tours only for me to walk into the show to find an overabundance of irrelevant subplots. I did go in with some expectations and it has bitten me wildly. This is not to say that Luke or Nicola were failing in any parameter but the more I think of it the more I realise that the makers used their season as a filler, to be able to build thousands of stories for other characters and pay little to no heed to the leads. We can do closer analysis to find goodness in the mess but if that good and happy things have failed to translate on the screen, what is the purpose? Bridgerton is simple, it's a love story, it's romance, its not gothic, thriller, suspence or mystery, it needs to stay true to its nature.

I remember being utterly frustrated by the Ross and Rachel storyline when I began to watch friends. An epic friends to lovers trope but which also turned more toxic as the seasons went on, it was upon the writers. Penelope and Colin was upon the writers as well and they have managed to butcher it. All of this contributes to making it a difficult watch. The editors, directors, showrunners, producers need to sit back and introspect heavily upon this.

[saphrontip]

Someone at Netflix knew Nicola Coughlan was pure gold when they were setting her up for these extensive press tours. She totally sold the show and excelled at it. She is funny, smart, witty, kind, generous, educated, aware and a smart orator. She commands attention and drives focus, even when she is repeating the same story 100 times over she tells it differently every time. When she speaks you would want to listen to her. And it does not happen every day to me that I get enamoured by a celebrity. I can't wait for what she brings out in future. I am sure the industry is taking notes and giving her the cake that she rightfully deserves.

[saphrontip]

I've seen some bizarre take on Colin's entrapment comment and Penelope's girlbossing as if dividing the Polin admirers into two. How can you love Penelope and hate Colin or vice-versa? You can't pit one against the other. In all fairness, Colin was justified in his anger at Pen, he had all the rights in the world to sulk, tear up, be mean or even reconsider marriage. Penelope did hide an ugly truth from him, the Penelope I knew would have fought the world if it meant she could keep Colin closer, to be Penelope is to love Colin. She did it in her own way in the show. Penelope went out of her way to reassure Colin of being enough, of loving him for simply who he was, appreciating him for his kindness and empathy.

Both of them had their fair share of ups and downs, rights and wrongs but in no circumstance did they ever stop loving each other. It is rather unfortunate to see people rattle on Colin when all I saw was his struggle to resonate with the double life of his wife, to make peace with Lady Whistledown and Penelope being one. How could anyone expect him to be rational? He could have been worse but Colin kept his composure, kept his distance, kept looking after her and kept loving her regardless. This is COLIN BRIDGERTON, MY FAVOURITE MAN in a fictional world. Media literacy is dead and projecting your own life experience to treat a soft male lead as the villainous one will only take you so far. If anything we need more of these representations in mainstream media.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[saphrontip]

The world as a unit is not talking enough about Colin's monologue in the mirror scene and I need people to get up and appreciate Luke Newton for that sultry, raspy, low-textured voice he used as we see Colin cascading pen's hair, chasing her cheekbones and lips and bosoms. It's freaky, it's sexy, it's sensual and the scene DELIVERS.

GENIUS in every sense of the word.