Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Brenda is just...it's like when they wanted to replace Mrs McCarthy, they realized that they now needed two actors or actresses.
They'd gimped along without Felicity, (Lady Montague; I refuse to give in to Lady Felicity) via guest appearances and all that for what, 3 seasons? But once Mrs. McCarthy left, she took all the Mrs. McCarthy-ness with her and they needed to build something back in, so they built in the (very slightly smarter) Secretary (?--not really sure WTH she does), for that part and they built in Brenda to be this very ODD character, which is part nag, part "bad girl trying to walk the straight path' and yes, OMG, that accent is abominable. Sure, she could hardly show up with an accent right out of Roedean, Cheltie's or Moreton, but hell...did it have to be that bad? ugh.
Sound taps, I guess, for another one. Sigh.
Hitch
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What kills me is that Lady F, Mrs. M, and Bunty were way more interesting, independent, smart, and realistic than Devine and Brenda. The latter two are so horribly retrograde, it's straight-up insulting. 🤮🤮 S10 and 11 have a real problem with female characters, and these two are symptomatic of the rot. (When a suspicious number of episodes end with the nuance-free villain being a woman deprived of motherhood/love, that's a major red flag. 🤬
FB's new creators have been hyping how "refreshed and updated" the show is now, but Devine is a fake empty shell of quirkiness who's about nothing but showing-off and nailing Sullivan as second hubby. And Brenda--she has no believable inner life, and Devine constantly condescending to her is horrible. There were ways to replace the previous characters, but since the show is apparently determined to be some oh-so-cute dumbed-down pantomime these days, no hope of that.