Bridgerton season two review
Is it really worth the hype?
*Spoiler alert*
Bridgerton is back for a second season and is serving sex, corsets and courting rituals in the 1800s. Season 2 is based on the second book in the Julian Quinn book series, produced by Shondaland and created by Christ Van Duesan. Season 1 was a straight hit, becoming one of Netflix’s most-streamed shows as well as becoming a guilty pleasure for most (myself included). If you are not familiar, the season followed Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) on her debutante and her struggle in wanting to marry for love. The story centres mainly around Daphne’s angst and lust but stumbles upon love too. The accumulation of tension amounted to a pinnacle when Daphne’s love interest The Duke, Simon Bassett (Regé-Jean Page) finally accepts his parentage and starts a new family with Daphne. The sex scenes are relatively prolific for a period drama and focus on the women’s pleasure. Personally, I felt this necessary to explore the plot. I also appreciated the subtleties and naturalistic styles that can be ascertained in TV when it comes to expressing intimacy in relationships.
Season two has already celebrated successes. Forbes reported that after its premiere on Friday 19th March, by Sunday it had become Netflix’s most-viewed series on the streaming service. This made it the most successful premiere of an English-Language TV series. In fact, Netflix reported that just over 193 million hours of the show had been watched in that time, as well as the series becoming №1 in 92 countries.
Despite this success, I am not entirely convinced that this season is better than the last- and I am not the only one. I particularly appreciated Jack Seale’s review of the series for the Guardian. I mainly agree with his opinions on the lack of intimacy felt between the new protagonist Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and his love interests. In fact, it is a drawback of the classic love triangle storyline- it’s predictable that the one favoured the least will end up being the one chosen to make a dramatic effect. This is especially the case when combined with the ‘haters to lovers’ trope which makes it all the more predictable. Even more so, I felt that Anthony’s responsibilities and stubbornness set him back in terms of the story that he could convey. For instance, in season one Daphne did not have responsibilities to carry on the family name and could enjoy courting. It would have been enjoyable to see Anthony relinquish some of this stubbornness early in the season so the relationship he has with the Sharma sisters (Charithra Chandran, Simone Ashley) could be developed deeper.
What does the creator think about what the critics have to say? In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Chris Van Dusen says that:
‘We never do a sex scene for the sake of doing a sex scene… [The] longing looks and the finger touches and the hand grazes… What we talked about in the writers room a lot was the things that sometimes you don’t see, that are a lot sexier than the things you do.’
The interview also touches on how it has to be noted that the narrative is now exploring a different kind of love than in the first season. Perhaps implying that the two seasons should not be compared in terms of intimacy and romance. Although it was an enjoyable show overall, I feel as though it did not live up to the high expectations that were placed upon the show.
There was certainly a spark missing, but with potentially 8 more seasons to go, we can only hope for more original choices in terms of plot.
