Tea at No. 5

the sisterly relationship was weird bc Kate was really playing more of a maternal role but the show also didn’t want to Mary to be seen as an absent mother. (they had no idea what to do with Mary and that is so obvious in the first episodes). they sacrificed so much of the Sharma relationship to make Kate and Anthony mirrors. and what’s worse is that they didn’t even bother to properly explore the new dynamics of the sharma family or explore Kate’s different personality and trauma. i never got the vibe that either sister really new each other at all and that’s largely bc i don’t think they really knew themselves. sorry this got long!

I think you're referring to the tags on this post, which were (please mind the awful grammer):

#kate & edwina#bridgerton#kate sharma#edwina sharma#the viscount who loved me#of my favourite bits of the book and I honestly get teary everytime#*one of#the fact that we didn’t get an equivalent scene in the show#instead most? all? of their conversations after episode one centred on anthony is something i’ll hate these writers for forever#naaaah the way a white man came between these two sisters will never not infuriate me#jfc i will never be over the way they completely butchered kate & edwina#and the sharmas as a whole#WHERE WAS THE KATE AND EDWINA LOVE STORY YOU KEPT GOING ON ABOUT BECAUSE IM STILL WAITING TO SEE IT#soulmates my arse

They really didn't have a conversation that wasn't somehow related to Anthony after episode one, did they? It's so bleak jfc. When they released the posters for this season, and they had Anthony in the middle of Kate and Edwina, I was pissed off for so many reasons, but one of the main ones being this white man was shoved in the middle of these two South Asian sisters. I remember telling someone that if I hadn't read the book and didn't know about Kate and Anthony, that main poster would have turned me off watching season two, because it's the last thing that I would want to watch. It was so fucking reductive, but I guess it was a good indication that the storyline was going to be as well.

You are absolutely right that they didn't know what to do with Mary, they wasted her character (and Shelley Conn), as she was basically a non-entity for the for the first five/six episodes,?

Tbh, I didn't necessarily mind that they tilted it to make Kate and Anthony mirror each other even further, it's just infuriating because they altered the Sharma family dynamic so drastically when they didn't need to. You could have had Kate take on the mantle of being the de facto head of family, but still have Mary trying to emotionally support both her daughters, like she does in the books? The Sharmas could have still had a bond similar to that of the Sheffields in the book, with both Mary and Edwina knowing what Kate really wants, but Kate struggling to admit it to them, and them not neccesarily knowing why she struggles. Kate seemed so lonely on the show, for no reason, because even Anthony had Violet and Daphne in his corner encouraging him to choose happiness and love, because they could see that marrying Edwina was not what he truly wanted. On the show, Mary and Edwina thought that what Kate craved most was freedom and independence, and returning to India, when that wasn't it at all.

I just…I feel like Kate and Edwina's (and Mary's) relationship on the show had next to none of the warmth that we see in their book relationship? You never really got the sense that they understood the other better than anyone else. Edwina's line in episode eight where she says Kate "does not know herself" pisses me off, because actually, Kate knows who she is and what she wants, she's just been too scared to admit it and really go for it because a) she doesn't think she's deserving of it or done enough to earn it, and b) she doesn't want to open herself up to a similar heartbreak like she suffered when her father died. It takes Mary telling Kate that she deserves to be happy, and that she doesn't owe people things in return for being loved, for Kate to actually admit what she wants.

Despite the flaws in Bridgerton Season 1, the pacing is astute, giving the core romance ample time to develop, sail, crash, and recover. It might not be unusual for the climax to occur more than halfway into the season, but when all we have are eight episodes to work with, it’s abysmal to have characters act as plot devices as opposed to equal players, steering the story entirely off course instead of riding the clear road ahead of them.

It’s hard, frankly, to enjoy most of what occurs in Bridgerton’s “An Unthinkable Fate” because, as mentioned in “Victory,” the looming shadows that dim Kate and Anthony’s spark mar the moments that would’ve otherwise been a sight to behold. This is the kind of episode that should’ve either never occurred or one that should’ve come earlier. In the words of Violet Bridgerton, “time is of the essence.” The episode features an even more awkward family dinner than what we witness in “Swish,” secrets coming to the surface, and decisions that could’ve been better orchestrated.

Anthony spontaneously smiling when he is with Kate

BONUS:

Perhaps the spectators might take pity on me. I was on the dance floor days after a terrible injury to the head. Perhaps I needed someone to steady me. Make sure I was all right. Perhaps you were the first person I found.

“I will stop!”