On the seventh day of Bridgerton, Netflix gave to us a Polin promo and baby announcment.
Yesterday's contribution was a short video of Jess Brownell talking about S4, if you wish to see it you can view it on Shondaland and Bridgerton's socials. Today we got a promo short for Penelope and Colin as well as an announcement for their baby, who will be named Elliot Bridgerton, Lord Featherington.
Video credit: Netflix
As with the promo shorts we have seen for Benedict, Sophie and Benophie, these take place in front of an Autumnal floral arrangement. There is nothing stand out about Colin's costume in this, it is a standard dark suit and white shirt. Penelope is in a Green and Gold dress with blue flowers, her hair is partially up, which is much better than her having it fully down for a lot of season 3, which is a style that was mostly worn by sex workers and children, which Penelope was neither. It is also interesting to note that Penelope's make-up is toned down from last season, which looks a lot better on her. Overall I like this new look on Penelope and actually think that it is a better 'glow up' for her than her season 3 'glow up'.
This is a short promo to show Penelope and Colin in their honeymoon phase of wedded bliss, and like all the shorts we have received so far there is no LW voiceover, just music. One thing to note is that this background actually looks better for both Colin and Penelope than the background in their season, it certainly complements their look a lot better and as the colours are warmer it doesn't make the promo look as harsh.
Image Credit: Netflix
Shortly after the promo short was posted Bridgerton then posted an official baby announcement for Polin's baby. Before I look at the baby announcement itself, I will say that my first thought was Why? Bridgerton have never made a big deal about the babies previously, we saw Auggie Basset briefly in season 1 at his birth, and then again in season 2 where we also saw a brief moment with one of Marina's twins. We haven't seen Edmund, Kate and Anthony's baby, at all, and definitely no announcement. The optics on this are - at present - not great for Bridgerton or Netflix. There are 5 days left of the 12 days of Bridgerton, so it will be interesting to see if we see anything announced for Edmund, or not, in this period.
On to the announcement itself, it begins with some platitude about the Bridgerton family continuing to grow, which is an odd thing to say when the show has been actively writing out Bridgerton family members. In the second paragraph etiquette goes awry for the Bridgerton writers, it refers to Mr Colin Bridgerton and Mrs Penelope Bridgerton, which is not how they would have been referred to in any formal announcement. The correct way to refer to them would be Mr and Mrs Colin Bridgerton. A small thing, but it could indicate contempt for the time and place they are setting the show.
Finally, the announcement creates confusion around the child's status. The end of paragraph 2 refers to Elliot as the heir to the Featherington title, however, in the final paragraph he is called Lord Elliot Featherington. Now, the Featherington title is a Barony, so therefore children and heirs have no right to be called Lord, so if the child is the heir then the correct address would be Master Elliot Bridgerton. If the child is the title holder, then he is not Lord Elliot Featherington, but rather Elliot Bridgerton, Lord Featherington.
This announcement comes across as lazily written showing contempt for the time and place that the show is set in - Regency England, something that was seeping into the writing and show in season 3 with mistakes in titles, and attempts at trying to be cleverer than the writers are.
