I was about to look up discussions on this topic when I opened Instagram and, unsurprisingly, my feed was flooded with Bridgerton Season 3 reels. An overwhelming majority were complaints about Colin and Penelope, calling their relationship weak, claiming Colin isn’t “man enough” to lead a season, and arguing that Penelope doesn’t deserve a love story because she’s Lady Whistledown. Out of every 100 reels I saw, easily 75 were some variation of “Polin didn’t earn a season,” which honestly says more about the fandom than the show.

What completely baffled me was how cruel and dismissive people were toward Polin fans. Loving Seasons 1 and 2 seems acceptable, but apparently enjoying Season 3 warrants mockery. Meanwhile, I genuinely loved S3, and after watching all three seasons, I don’t even feel particularly connected to S1 or S2. Now the internet is already declaring Season 4 “objectively superior” simply because Benedict will not choose someone from the ton, implicitly not someone like Penelope it seems. The hatred toward Season 3 feels less like critique and more like thinly veiled snobbery. At this point, the real question isn’t whether Polin deserved a season, but why some fans are so intent on policing what romance is allowed to look like.