In their review for this new season, The Telegraph ran with the headline “Bridgerton replaces bodice-ripping raunch with toned-down Austen-esque sexual longing” and I couldn’t possibly convey it better myself. Any pre-conceived ideas about the highly popular Netflix show Bridgerton you may have based on the provocative reputation of the show’s first season, cast them aside. Because they have just gifted us with eight hours of one of the most exhilarating love stories I have ever seen put to screen.
Based on the 2000s series of novels, Bridgerton was initially pitched as taking the 1800s Regency period English setting ala Jane Austen, but infusing it with the catty melodrama and salacious, sex-driven narratives of contemporary teen dramas ala Gossip Girl. The show’s unique structure, based on the books, is that it follows the Bridgerton family. And with there being eight Bridgerton siblings, each season focuses on the love story of a different sibling. This allows the show to distinguish the seasons from each other and make them somewhat self-contained. Other notable aspects of the show which were essential in its immediate popularity include its now famous use of music, in how it takes modern pop songs and turns them into orchestral covers which fit into the period setting, which is honestly genius. And additionally, its inclusion of a literal Gossip Girl-esque figure with the pen name ‘Lady Whistledown’, who anonymously writes a column exposing the gossip and secrets of our protagonists and the other members of the high social society they function in.
Despite its immense popularity, I didn’t watch the first season of Bridgerton upon its initial release during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. My sister and others I know did however, and I remember asking them about it as well as seeing so much conversation surrounding it online. As I was exposed to it this way, it’s not that I thought I wouldn’t enjoy the series, because I am a fierce fan of period dramas. But I was told that it wasn’t essential viewing or particularly elegantly made, and the concept didn’t intrigue me enough for me to watch it. I soon forgot about it when the global hype died down.
It was actually over a year later, only when the second season was recently released, when I was informed by my sister that watching the show had now become an absolute necessity because of what she claimed to be an exceptional second season. So, my entire perception of Bridgerton is incredibly fresh, as I literally binged both seasons back-to-back only in the last week or so.
The first season is exactly what I had expected it to be. Consistently entertaining and with a romance that I was invested in, but fairly unsophisticated and not complex or thought-provoking in any way. I think they got very lucky with their casting for Daphne Bridgerton and her love interest Simon, landing two charismatic leads who have a lot of chemistry, but it’s surrounded by a lot of rather meaningless fluff in the B-plots. And even that central romance, despite how engaging it is in the first half of the season, is wasted too quickly and wears a little thin by the final few episodes. One of the most memorable aspects of the season, for better or worse, is obviously its famously brazen sexuality, as it essentially follows a young woman having her complete sexual awakening as she falls in love. It dominates a lot of the season. And while I’m not against an exploration of such themes and the sex montage around a giant Regency period mansion set to an orchestral cover of Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams is undeniably pretty iconic, I think the provocative sexual nature of the show distracted from how it is otherwise unrefined and a little simplistic in its storytelling, though ultimately still enjoyable.
Season 2 is entirely different.
While the surrounding B-plots still provide a share of the mindless fluff of the first season, the romance that season 2 is built around is a tightly restrained, gorgeously agonizing, deeply passionate romantic epic of unbelievable potency. Removed from the somewhat juvenile melodrama of the first season’s on-and-off steamy love affair, the season 2 love story does what I once believed to be the impossible – it reaches the same unforgettable levels of meticulous and exhilarating slow-burn period romance as Joe Wright’s Pride & Prejudice (2005). I never thought I could adore a period romance as much or that it was even possible for one to be as good as Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in Wright's adaptation of the Jane Austen classic. But alas, the relationship between Anthony, the eldest Bridgerton sibling, and newcomer Kate Sharma completely enveloped me with such maturity and an intricate execution to the agonizingly slow entanglement that is painstakingly built between our leads over eight episodes.
The basic narrative setup of the season is as tragically dramatic in nature as you’d expect. To give you only as much setup as the trailers do; Anthony Bridgerton, the Viscount, is tasked with marrying this social season. Having closed himself off to ideas of love and romance due to past trauma and a failed relationship, he views the endeavour entirely logistically. He aims only to find an intelligent, sophisticated woman who he believes will make the perfect Viscountess and mother to his children, unconcerned with having any romantic feelings towards his potential wife. From this procedural pursuit he becomes betrothed to Edwina Sharma, the social season’s ‘diamond’ who is young and innocent with delicate features and a sweet disposition. On paper she is by all accounts the ideal partner. However, despite becoming Anthony’s rival as she is fiercely protective over her sister, it is Edwina’s older sister Kate - fierce, stubborn, strong-willed and unconcerned with marriage – who awakens something deep within Anthony from their very first encounter, even if they are both in stern denial of this for a long time. The way the season is being marketed with this storyline is as a classic ‘enemies to lovers’ arc but it’s so much more than that.
In the grand tradition of Jo March and Elizabeth Bennet, and frankly in contrast to the somewhat frustrating writing of a naïve Daphne Bridgerton in season 1, Kate Sharma is a wonderfully iron-willed female lead in her rebellious put fiercely loyal and capable nature. She is incredibly empathetic even while being frustratingly stubborn. Kate’s genuine selfless wish for her sister to have an ideal life and find happiness makes watching her and Anthony wrestle with their complicated feelings for each other absolutely agonizing. The only thing as strong as her attraction to Anthony is her fear of jeopardizing her sister’s future.
In season 1 of the show, Anthony Bridgerton is frankly quite unlikable. He exists primarily as a guardian figure for Daphne, being the head of the Bridgerton family after their father’s death years ago, who must guide her through the process of finding a husband. But his overbearing, toxicly masculine ‘protectiveness’ over Daphne is completely chauvinistic and off-putting. I never would have predicted him to be a character I could love so deeply. But alas, season 2 unpacks lingering trauma under the surface and far more adequately depicts an emotionally repressed man who is capable of incredible sensitivity beneath his hard exterior. The show skilfully morphs this once disagreeable character into one who makes an incredibly compelling lead for this season.
The truth at the core of the season that may not be immediately evident, is that these two are incredibly similar to each other. And it is this which makes the hot-headed, bitter duo fit the enemies part of ‘enemies to lovers’. Because of course it is an incredibly difficult thing to meet someone so similar to yourself who forces you to hold a mirror up to your own characteristics and flaws, and interrogate the more disagreeable parts of your persona a little closer.
The pair are like magnets, innately drawn to each other from their very first encounter, unable to stay away from each other, yet consistently forced apart by both their situation and their own stubbornness. It’s the very embodiment of a slow burn, and you really have to be prepared for just how slow the burn feels at times. The measured pacing constantly teases you with the most miniscule interactions between the pair. However, it is exactly that which makes the season so utterly exhilarating. As we watch this undying connection between the pair evolve and their masks of hatred slip, the show turns the most subtle of moments - stolen stares in crowded rooms, hands brushing against each other – into some of the most exhilarating moments of profound romance and sensuality you will ever witness.
The first season of Bridgerton takes the easiest shortcut to making a period piece sexy by literally just filling it with scenes of overt sex, achieving eroticism in an incredibly obvious way and creating the reputation the show now has as being incredibly salacious and obscene. And again, I’m not even inherently against that because who cares if you want to add sex to 1700s/1800s regency period pieces, The Favourite (2018) does it masterfully and some of the scenes in Bridgerton’s first season are very well executed as far as sex scenes go in conveying romantic intimacy. However, the second season, which completely strips this back and has almost no sex scenes at all (key word: almost), does something far more impressive, and what I find to be far more narratively exhilarating. Removing the act itself from the equation, it restrains the attraction between our leads, and therefore turns subtle moments into extremely sexy evocations of passionate sensuality. There are single lines of dialogue or moments of closeness without any physical touch, which are so successful in conveying intense attraction and intimacy between Kate and Anthony. It’s far more romantic in this depiction of forbidden love than any overt sex scene could be.
I’ve mentioned it already but there are multiple key moments throughout the season of their hands, as they steal any chance that they can to touch each other to the point that I would say it’s a vital motif. I’ll admit that nothing is as utterly brilliant as the hand flex in Pride & Prejudice (if you know you know), but as Anthony takes her hand to gentlemanly assist her but then strokes her fingers for an extra second before dropping it, as they linger in each other's touch for far too long as he hands something back to her, or any of the other countless hand-related moments of intimacy they share, including once when their pinkie fingers come milometers away from meeting as he walks by her, but don’t even actually touch (!!), the unspoken but overpowering intimacy and deep attraction between them is so commanding.
With the incredible obstacles in the way of the pair’s romance and the considerable consequences at stake from the high-profile engagement Anthony is cemented in with her sister, the stakes of this season just feel so much higher than the tiring melodrama of Simon and Daphne. It’s why the burn is so slow and so thrilling while feeling so precarious. However, make no mistake, while the agonizing slow burn meticulously built up from stolen moments of fleeting intimacy is completely intoxicating, I don’t want to give off the impression that it never goes beyond that. Because, without spoiling, the patient journey is so worth it for the payoff, and the moments of emotional climax we do get are utterly enchanting.
While Sex Education’s Simone Ashley is a fantastic addition to the show and beautifully portrays Kate, I do think major props for so much of the incredible emotional weight of the season should be credited to Jonathan Bailey who gives a wonderfully effecting and deeply evocative performance that he didn’t get to show with Anthony in the first season. There are single shots of Anthony just looking at Kate which are so profoundly communicative of love and desire in a way that is honestly overwhelming.
Also, because the musical aspect of the show is now so famous in its orchestral covers of pop songs as I mentioned, I have to highlight that this season’s soundtrack was even better than the first. While nothing will ever be as utterly captivating and perfect as the use of Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams in season 1, there are many moments which come close. Madonna’s Material Girl over the first ball of the social season and Harry Styles’ Sign of the Times used during a wedding are both great. However, Robyn’s Dancing On My Own employed for an important and impassioned dance during a ball is just perfect. And my personal favourite of the season happens when I absolutely lost my mind as, during a tense, angsty argument in the woods at a pivotal point in the season, Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know is utilised, a genius music choice.
I’d love to say that the show is perfect in its entirety but as I said, some of the filler around the main narrative is still a little irritating at times (the neighbouring family to the Bridgertons, the Featheringtons, are most consistently the source of this and whenever it cut to their antics I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and wait till we were back with the Bridgertons) and while this season is an improvement with a higher budget, I wish the show would step up its production value and technical quality a little. However, none of that is significant to me in reality. Because Anthony Bridgerton and Kate Sharma in their intensely passionate, intricately constructed and heartachingly intimate enemies to lovers slow burn of all slow burns, make for one of the most profoundly romantic and nail-bitingly exhilarating love stories I have ever seen put to screen.
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