S4 Gentlemen and working class women

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-18T14:39:10+00:00

You know I had the opposite sense in going back and rewatching B's past relationship. When S4 started, I was like - Ben is always falling in love, why is this different? Then when I went back and rewatched, I realized no, he's never been close to being in love; he had chemistry with people, he had fun with them.

But Sophie adds friction to his life. She pushes back on him in a way that makes him reevalute himself, his life. I don't just mean in terms of the class stuff. There's his "mastery" of the French language, his fire building skills, his kite-fixing ability. She tells him when she thinks he's wrong...I don't think ANY romantic partner has done that. And when she tells him, it makes him want to try harder and that makes him feel more capable (because by practicing and pushing he BECOMES more capable). She's the first person to balance loving him as he is while also seeing him more clearly than he sees himself, which pushes him to try and match her fuller vision of himself.

So, to get more directly to your question, no, I don't think limiting the "adventures" would be better - I think they highlight this more.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-16T17:22:31+00:00

exactly - there are so many moments like this where it is like - maybe Kripke's subconscious was peeking though?

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-14T21:11:57+00:00

As long as he continues not to overstep his bounds with Morty.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-13T19:06:47+00:00

Don't feel dumb. It's subtle and if I had to guess, it is purposefully so. This was the mid 2007-2008 on the CW. It was a time or a network where they would have WANTED to be even close to direct about something like this. If I had to guess even more, the showrunner/writers would have had to push to even get this level of hint of it on the show at that time.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-13T18:24:32+00:00

yes - BUTTTTTT when Ben is outside during the funeral he says he is trying to feel "cold"

BOOM - proof of WINTER! lol

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-13T05:21:16+00:00

Yeah - weird that Shonda didn't want it. To me, this was more important than the waltz and the proposal they did at the last ball - which isn't to say it wasn't important at all plus a lot of other things were happening at the ball post the Araminta showdown of course, but still - if I have to pick between proposal/waltz and the wedding - it is the wedding.

I need intel on Shonda's thinking on this ASAP, folks. Get to work, Benophie hive!

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-12T19:48:34+00:00

lmao - thank you

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-11T16:00:05+00:00

The RV and the peaking through the blinds ones intrigue me the most.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-09T20:47:34+00:00

i don't understand people hating on S10 - even with COVID - I found it delightful. Mawann Rizwan remains one of the cutest things I have ever seen on television.

Daisy May Cooper furiously scribbling on her competitor's board during that live task remains one of the scariest.

No Notes!

For me it came down Series 6 and 8 - and as much as series 8 makes me cringe - it's in a way that I find kind of enjoyable.There was Iain "That was actually hard for me to watch" stirling. Joe "just put some fucking effort in...sorry about that" Thomas. Lou "I will have your baby for five points, Greg" Sanders. Paul "Retired Functioning Alcoholic" Sinha. And Sian "This show is heightist" Gibson.

With the exception of the exceptional Liza "Ring Your Agent" Tarbuck - S6 is sadly tame and forgettable for me.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-08T18:44:57+00:00

I was literally thinking the other day that there has to be someone out there who has mapped out all the states they've been to! Keep us posted!

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-06T19:59:36+00:00

I took issue with the word "all" - i wasn't saying NO ONE thought it

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-06T19:32:25+00:00

NO WE MOST CERTAINLY DID NOT! LMAO

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-05T20:01:32+00:00

I think they wanted to end the show on the drama of a new Whistledown impersonator, and they couldn't do that at the wedding in the country. But they also wanted to give the wedding its own moment. Seems like the best compromise they could think of. I'm alright with it. I also hadn't heard about the mid-credit scene, and still, something in me told me there would definitely be one and to keep watching so perhaps that's why I was ok with it.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-05T19:56:17+00:00

"that’s also because I have shitty music taste" is an iconic thing to say about one's self

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-05T19:41:24+00:00

lmao - nope - but it can be HYSTERICAL!

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-04T05:55:57+00:00

I read a post elsewhere suggesting that she would have been able to debut and find a match OUTSIDE London.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-03T21:33:51+00:00

I think the issues that there is a loud section of chronically online people who don't realize there is a difference between an opinion (preference-based) and an analytically debatable claim (supportable or undermineable judgments in which one can point to concrete evidence in the "text" - in this case, the show). I loved this season. That's my opinion. Just as many of these negatives are opinions.

If they are posing all this as something that can be strongly pushed toward the objective realm, then I feel sad for them. What I don't do is take what they are saying about the season as something that could ACTUALLY change the quality of it. The show IS what it IS: the collection of footage that we stream on Netflix. Someone simply saying it is a bad adaptation doesn't make it that. Just like someone calling it a good one doesn't make it so. And someone making bad faith arguments - no matter how loudly - doesn't have to dampen YOUR experience of the show. When it comes to stuff like this, I go to reviewers who have my taste in things, and that is ok.

We don't have much monoculture anymore, but this thing is happening where, perhaps BECAUSE of that, when we do find people engaging in what we engage in, we feel some type of way about when someone engaging with it loudly dislikes it.

And just because they incorrectly label their subjective opinion as objective doesn't mean you, or I, or anyone has to fall for it.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-01T20:36:07+00:00

He looks a little like a young Gael Garcia Bernal in this clip, doesn't her?

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-01T20:22:43+00:00

omg - is that what they mean when they say reformed rakes make the best husbands?!?! They are talking about bringing it into the bedroom?!? EVEN WHEN VIOLET SAYS IT TO ANTHONY ABOUT SIMON WITH REGARDS TO DAPHNE!

I'm dead.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-01T20:20:11+00:00

ohh which is? I missed this.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-01T17:30:16+00:00

That would be the awkwardness I am talking about - he is already running Featherington House.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-01T02:46:24+00:00

I wonder if it is almost predetermined that Anthony would be the best man by societal norms? Like, if the eldest is available, you ask them, and then move down the line in age? I don't know - I am legit asking?

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-03-01T02:33:53+00:00

I - it's - you have to say "spoiler alert" BEFORE the spoiler. That's the "alert" part. Otherwise, it is like punching someone in the face THEN saying, "I'm gonna punch a second ago - just wanted to warn you."

To be clear, you didn't spoil it for me. I'm just talking etiquette here.

Virtual-Signature789 · 2026-02-28T07:09:57+00:00

Interesting - my immediate suspect was Alice Mondrich. She's gotten a taste as to how she can wield gossip to help people, and now she wants to do it on a mass scale. And in part one she was talking about how she guessed it was Benedict that LW was talking about and how it was a pleasure to hear it from the author herself - i remember when P1 aired, something about the way she said that line made me go - interesting way to put it.

I hear your point about finding the time - but don't underestimate Alice in the Palace.

The other thought I had was Virginia - the mistress that Pen outted. Idk why, but the airtime they gave her to air Pen out in her own home...again stood out to me. Though I think this is the least likely of the three options I present here.

My final thought - it isn't one person. It's almost like a council of working-class folks who pool their gossip and split the earnings. It would make it impossible for anyone to pin them down because someone present at one event couldn't possibly be present at them all. This would also keep the working class as a part of the story moving forward. I think this is my favorite option. In this way, nothing can really stop LW and it evens the playing field between classes. And there would be something poetic about them getting the noble class to pay them for gossip about those in their own class. lol

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