Are Polin like Rachel and Ross? Bridgerton's Luke Newton sure thinks so!

Bridgerton season 3 is closing in on us. The season focused on the romance between Colin Bridgerton and Penelope Featherington has the fandom buzzing. Everyone wants to know how the two best friends will find their way to love particularly after their relationship soured due to Colin's comments in the season 2 finale.

Obviously, he will recover from that faux paus, but he'll have to do so by becoming Penelope's "mentor" in the arena of courtship and flirting. We already know one suitor is going to be Lord Debling, an eccentric member of the ton in search of a wife, who takes a shine to Penelope. But the fleshing out of this romantic wingman trope does mean we're in for a treat with season 3 as the franchise will be doing something it's yet to do--a romcom friends-to-lovers plot.

Bridgerton star Luke Newton spoke to this shift in an interview with Bustle when he was asked whether he drew inspiration from books (besides Romancing Mister Bridgerton) and movies:

"When we were shooting, I kept watching rom-coms. We wanted to have a rom-com element within season 3, because we’d never explored that previously. It was always the enemies-to-lovers [plot]. It was nice to have those comedic moments of two people being goofy around each other. When you know someone as well as Colin and Penelope [know each other], you can’t put a wall up and pretend to be someone.

We always reference how Colin and Pen are like Ross and Rachel [from Friends], because it never works out at the right time. They keep just missing each other. It’s so fun to play the different versions, of when someone is ready to commit and the other isn’t."

The deep dive into the classic storytelling genre is to be expected. Penelope is a wallflower coming into bloom, and Colin is a younger Bridgerton who has come-of-age and is maturing just like she is. This is a romcom gold mine ripe for the picking. The record scratch of Newton's comment, however, is his likening of Polin to the iconic (but divisive) romance between Ross Gellar and Rachel Green from Friends but the comparison does work at its bare bones.

In the world of Bridgerton, Penelope is the Ross to Colin's Rachel. She's been in love with her best friend's sibling for years only for him to be completely oblivious. Now, in season 3, Colin is going to realize the love that's always been right in front of him, but Penelope will be trying to move on and stop hoping for something she'd overheard him say wasn't going to happen. Cue Colin, in the midst of helping her charm the men of the ton, awakening to the possibility that his feelings for Penelope might not solely rest in the realm of the platonic.

It's a tale as old as time, it's just coming with a side of spice and less back and forth than Ross and Rachel went through. While Polin won't start the season on the same page, it is expected that they'll have their destined ah-ha moment that ends the pining for them both and thrusts them into the joie de vivre of love.

Bridgerton season 3 part 1 premieres May 16 on Netflix. Part 2 will make its debut on June 13. For more coverage on the franchise, check out our sister site Netflix Life! Stay tuned to Hidden Remote for all things TV, streaming, and movies.