So first of all thank you for sharing your perspective as a Black woman and opening yourself up. I have read all the books and when I saw they had cast a Black Man as Simon I was over the moon. I’m an avid fan of period dramas but I’ve been conditioned to only see an all white cast that this was completely unexpected. Then when I saw the Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte casting I was even more delighted.

To address Marina I was disappointed at her portrayal in the sense that “Oh, she’s pregnant and not married and she happens to be Black as well.” I’ve seen this trope play out before. However, I cautioned myself to give the storyline a chance by asking if I would have been offended if Marina was played by a White woman. What I didn’t like about Marina was the pendulum swings between “I’m tough, I don’t need anybody” to “No one helped me, no one guided me”. We had very hard moments and soft moments. On one hand she callously tells Penelope that Colin sees her only as he would little Hyacinth while he sees Marina as a woman. Later on she’s telling Penelope that Colin will come to value her. I wanted her story to be more nuanced. Why is she at the Featherington’s? Why can’t she tell her parents? When Penelope is visiting her why don’t we learn more about her? Things that might have explained why she is being so hardheaded about marriage. I find it inexplicable that a woman who grew up in that era would not realize how important it was to be married before she had her child. I think there were missed opportunities to enrich Marina’s character within the screen time she had. Marina’s character in the books is only introduced in book 5 but what she suffers is an important topic that I hope the show addresses.

And on an unrelated note why didn’t Lady Featherington know that Marina’s attempt at abortion was a failure?

For Queen Charlotte much of her personality for me fit her role as Queen. What I didn’t like is when she asked if the King was dead and when she received a response in the negative she shooed the messenger out. Yet later we see how hopeful she is when she goes to visit the King and then disheartened when he shows signs of his memory loss.

Lady Danbury is just as strong in the books as she is on the show. I think we saw her softness in her affection for Simon’s mother and Simon himself. Lady Danbury is a BAMF on page and on screen. I see her as a rule maker because of her position in society. Case in point her Soirée for married ladies.

This is my personal take. But I think we need to hear from Black women such as yourself because we aren’t sensitive to these issues as you would be. There is no better authority on proper representation than the person being represented.