Watched Bridgerton with Eva and Jenn.

[conuly]

That show is fun if you turn off the part of you that notices any problematic elements.

I didn't realize going in that it was a fake dating plot, though. Every time I see one of those I want to yell at the participants - fake dating never works! (Or, it does, but you know what I mean.)

I guess in this case our protagonists have a reason for being totally ignorant of genre conventions, but still. What I want to see is a two people going into a fake dating plot with the honest (if secret) goal of ending up with the person they're ostensibly not into. Whether they end up together or then decide they're better as friends and end up happily hooked up with somebody else is beside the point, I just want people to go in, eyes wide open.

*********************

Jellyfish Build Walls of Water to Swim Around the Ocean

How the placenta evolved from an ancient virus

We Know Almost Nothing About Giant Viruses

How the feminist passion for Artemisia Gentileschi’s life story risks overwhelming her artistic talent

These pharaohs' private letters expose how politics worked 3,300 years ago

The Record Keepers’ Rave

The most famous unknown artist in the world

The Chef Recreating 18th-Century Recipes From a Thrift-Shop Find

Please enjoy this dinosaur demolition!

The U.S. Could Make New Cars a Lot Less Deadly

Interesting legal issue caused by the slow roll-out of same-sex marriage in different jurisdictions.

The Quest to Unearth One of America’s Oldest Black Churches

These spiders may sew leaves into fake shelters to lure frogs to their doom

Her Best Friend Was Her Secret Stalker

'Lazy,' 'Money-Oriented,' 'Single Mother': How Union-Busting Firms Compile Dossiers on Employees

Now it's sinking in: Wednesday's Capitol Hill riot was even more violent than it first appeared (We dodged a bullet, barely - and I'm sure there's more on their way.)

The Insurrectionists Would Like You to Know That They’re the Real Victims

How U.S. agencies' trust in untested software opened the door to hackers

School Shooting Drills Have Gone Virtual

The inside story of how Trump’s denial, mismanagement and magical thinking led to the pandemic’s dark winter

“Nobody” Hurt, “Just a Perp,” Say Officers After NYPD Shot and Killed Man in His Own Home

Comments

[baranduin]

I enjoyed it though I liked the earlier parts better. The more it concentrated on the main pair the less interesting I found it. So much sex. I was happy to see who Lady Whistledown was. She and Eloise are my favorite characters. I hope, if it comes back for a second season, the show focuses on them a lot.

[conuly]

Although I'm also happy to find out Eloise = Whistledown (which, among other things, means that she has an independent and hidden source of money), it does create an odd characterization gap - is she a knowledgeable gossip who, from the beginning, can comment knowingly on people's babies not looking very much like their named fathers and about men ditching their babies and babymamas without any support? Or is she a naive and ignorant child who is genuinely shocked and needs to go to outside friends to find out about how an unmarried woman could have a baby?

[baranduin]

Penelope, not Heloise, though I'd love to see them team up. But that's a good point about Whistledown and an income. What could Penelope have access to.

[conuly]

Yes, you're right, it's Penelope, the redhead. God, I keep fritzing when it comes to her name, I don't know why.

[baranduin]

I never managed to distinguish between the Bridgerton brothers.

[conuly]

NEITHER COULD WE. We know there's the asshole one, the probably gay artist, and the sweet one who's going on the grand tour - but never, ever could tell one from the other on screen. (And the little one. We could tell him apart from the others.)

[baranduin]

It's the hair.

[conuly]

Yeah.

[sallymn]

I'm planning to watch it when it gets here, it sounds like candy TV.

[conuly]

It mostly is.