POLLIN Pt. 1

Bridgerton fans, this week's blog is for you. This week we’re doing a comparison of Julia Quinn’s Romancing Mr. Bridgerton and the Netflix third season which just released the first four episodes today! Did I not sleep to watch all four episodes after my son goes to bed? Maybe. We don’t need to talk about it. 

Spoiler notice: this blog post will contain spoilers from both the novel and Netflix series. 

Let’s start with the novel, RMB. It’s not particularly my genre of choice but every now and then I pick up a novel like this one and I was surprised how enjoyable I found it. It follows Penelope Featherington for the most part and she is an excellent protagonist. She’s witty, she’s intelligent and she’s so over her status quo. 

What I really enjoyed about the novel is that it really focused on Penelope and Collin without much else going on to distract from the budding romance. I’ve read so many where the side plots take over and I find myself screaming in my head get back to the main people! But that is not the case. 

The Netflix series does do this but that’s to be expected. It doesn’t follow the novels to a T and I was very surprised at how much it is different from RMB. Our main couple is Penelope and Collin but we also get a focus on Francesca’s debut year as well along with the lives of our already established well-known Bridgertons. 

And honestly, the Netflix production of the series is always so beautifully made and the acting is fantastic, so I have no complaints…except for maybe two. 

I’m not a huge fan of the fighting between Eloise and Penelope. Though I think Netflix handles it well, I much prefer the easy friendship between the two and the relationship that Penelope has with the Bridgerton family as a whole. 

The second is the possible Cressida redemption arc. I don’t like her and from the novel, I don’t think the readers are meant to. And I love a good redemption arc if it’s believable and realistic and very painful for the person involved and Cressida’s storyline does not fit that description. Of course we know from RMB that she’s responsible for threatening to be Lady Whistledown and demands Penelope pay her a large sum in order to keep her secret, but we’ll have to wait for part two of the Netflix series to see if they are staying novel compliant. 

The only thing that would even possibly get me to see her in a different light is if she had a romantic entanglement with one of the Bridgertons and if you have seen the series then you know who I mean! Which, that would completely go against one of the novels as the novel they end up with someone completely different so I’m not confident this plot line could happen. Regardless, while I can somewhat understand some of her issues, that doesn’t excuse her behavior. 

She’s cruel and selfish, and instead of offering sympathy and support especially when she didn’t have many friends herself, she chose to intentionally cause harm to her fellow female peers. I don’t feel sorry for her. 

The humor in both, particularly the Netflix series, is top notch. I was laughing out loud multiple times and some of them were pretty ugly. You can tell that there’s a lot of love for the story itself and both versions do well at conveying that story. However, I’ll wait until part two comes out to give my final verdict on which series did it better, until then, write on and I’ll see you next time!