This article contains details about Season 3, Part 2 of Bridgeton.
Julia Quinnauthor of the Bridgeton book series on which the popular Netflix series is based, recently spoke out about a plot change that was revealed in the Season 3 finale. However, her comments have done little to calm angry fans.
In the statement, posted to Instagram on June 25, Quinn supported showrunner Jess Brownell’s decision to steer Francesca Bridgerton into a queer storyline by gender-swapping popular character Michael Stirling.
While this isn’t the first time an author has spoken out about the differences between his source material and its film adaptation, it is a rare instance of an author defending such a deviation, especially when it comes at the expense of his dedicated fanbase.
In the book When He Was BadFrancesca Bridgerton is madly in love with her husband, John, and is devastated when he tragically dies of a brain aneurysm. Years later, she falls in love with his cousin, Michael Stirling, and marries him.
In the Netflix adaptation, Francesa, shortly after her wedding (and a seemingly disappointing kiss at the altar), appears to fall in love at first sight with John’s now-female cousin, Michaela.
Disappointed fans say the change undermines the depth of Francesca and John’s relationship, and also erases a key storyline involving infertility, miscarriage and childbirth after child loss.
Hardcore fans of the book were so angry about the change that they created a petition begging the showrunners to “honor the original spirit of the book.” Bridgeton books, and give Michael Stirling his rightful place in Francesca’s story.”
This isn’t the first fan community to be disappointed with the way their favorite books are brought to life.
Michael Bronski, a professor of media practice and activism/women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Harvard University, says fans can develop an intense connection to fiction because of Freud’s “pleasure principle.”
“We all watch movies/TV or read books because we enjoy it, and most of us live lives where we feel like we’re not enjoying it enough,” Bronski told Yahoo Entertainment via email.
“So if this emotional connection that viewers/readers experience leaves them feeling emotionally satisfied/rewarded in ways [that] “What they do not often experience in their daily lives is that they become very attached to the object that gives them pleasure,” he wrote.
According to Bronski, who is also the author of A Strange History of the United Statesand changing any aspect of that relationship — a plot twist, a character change, a new ending — results in an emotional experience for viewers deeply attached to the original material.
“When heterosexual viewers watch Bridgeton “People who are emotionally invested in the plot and have romantic (and probably sexual) fantasies about these characters can feel completely betrayed by a gender transition. The show’s writers have betrayed their very pleasurable romantic and sexual fantasies in a profound way,” Bronski said.
“Of course queer viewers might find this delightful and wonderful,” he added. “Especially because queer relationships, while increasingly common, are still rare in TV shows and movies.”
“I am touched by your deep involvement with the characters in the ‘Bridgerton’ world”
In her Instagram post, Quinn stood by the plot change, asking fans to give her and the team at production company Shondaland “some trust.”
According to Quinn, Michael’s gender transition came about after much discussion between her and Brownell. “I needed more information before I gave my OK,” she wrote.
Still, fans remained unmoved by Quinn’s words.
“This is beyond disappointing. I’m queer and I like that they want to represent the LGBTQ+ community, BUT they should be creating new characters to give them that storyline, NOT CHANGING an important character that everyone in the fandom loves,” one fan wrote in the comments.
“You brought a touching story of infertility, miscarriage, heartbreak and miracle babies that we all love and need more recognition for,” another fan said.
Brownell, in an interview with Teen Vogueexplained how Michaela came about. “The first time I read Francesca’s book, I really identified with it as a queer woman. … [Quinn’s] book is very much about [Francesca] feeling different, and not really knowing why. In the book I think a lot of it has to do with her just being an introvert, but as a queer woman, a lot of my queer experiences, and I think a lot of my friends’ [experiences have] was about that feeling of feeling different, and navigating what that means.”
As for how fans would feel about the change, Brownell said, “The fan base is not a monolith, and you can never please every side of the fan base.”
Sohinee Roy, a professor of English at North Central College in Illinois who previously taught a course on race relations, racial status representation, and gender roles within the Bridgeton In this series, the adaptations represent more than just the source material.
“An adaptation is never a replica of the original text. It’s the adaptation’s interpretation of the original text,” Roy told Yahoo Entertainment. “It always reflects not only the ideologies of the adaptation, but also the historical context in which the adaptation takes place.”
Roy also noted that Michael’s gender transition is just one of many deviations from the series’ source material.
“Bridgeton the show is very different from the books. The Colin-Penelope story unfolds very differently than in the books. Eloise doesn’t discover Penelope’s identity. Queen Charlotte doesn’t appear in any of the novels. I could go on and on about the many ways the show differs from Quinn’s novels. So it’ll be interesting to see which rejections confuse fans the most.”
‘Adjustments are always a difficult matter’
While it’s not the first time a film adaptation has taken artistic liberties with the source material, Quinn’s statement is a rare example of an auteur defending such a deviation.
Robinne Lee, author of The idea of younow a Prime Video adaptation starring Anne Hathaway, spoke of her shock when she discovered that filmmakers had given her story a Hollywood happy ending — one they hadn’t previously told her.
“Adaptations are always difficult because books are much more cerebral and you read the characters’ minds. It’s difficult to convey the characters’ minds in a film, so there will be changes,” Lee said. Weekly entertainment.
“Hollywood is going to do what they are going to do. … You hope they stick to what you wrote, because it meant something to you, but you also have to think about the box office and the viewers and what their audience wants to see.”
George RR Martin, author of the Game of Thrones series, is another author whose novels differed greatly from their film adaptations — and not always to his liking.
“Everywhere you look, there are more and more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and ‘make them their own,’” he wrote in a blog post on Not a Blog in May.
“No matter how great a writer is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone who thinks he can do it better, who wants to pick up the story and ‘improve’ it. … But they never make it better. Nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of every thousand, they make it worse.”
As for Quinn, the author wrote in her Instagram post that while there will be two versions, each version will have its own benefits.
“I think we’ll end up writing two stories, one on paper and one on screen,” she wrote, “and they’ll both be beautiful and moving.”
