Bridgerton 2: Even Better than the First

Bridgerton is a little off the beaten track of the science fiction/fantasy and detective/police fiction I usually review here, but as I pointed out in my review of the first season, Bridgerton is a kind of alternate history, and besides, it's superb television anyway.

Indeed, I liked the second season, up on Netflix for nearly a month now, and sitting atop the list of Netflix all-time most popular English-language series (i.e., greatest number of viewers) even more than the first.  There was less explicit sex than in the first season, but the narrative was more profoundly moving, and the secondary stories were handled very well, especially the Whistledown, which is arguably the primary story, the one which will apparently run through every season.

The star crossed lovers who eventually get it right are Anthony and Kate.   I almost always think in these kinds of stories that it takes too long for these true lovers to eventually get together.  In this case, Kate's half-sister Edwina is what gets in the way.  I think it took her far too long to see how deeply Anthony loved and longed for Kate, but Edwina's almost marriage to Anthony was a great scene, and her recovery -- the way Edwina began to set everyone straight, including the Queen herself -- was satisfying and good to see.

Indeed, Edwina's transformation from child-pawn to determiner and controller of events is one of the best elements of this season of Bridgerton, and exemplifies its fundamental tenet of women as the ultimate controllers of the events of men.  The Whistledown narrative brings home this point in another way.  It was good to see that story progress, concluding for now with at least two other people -- Delacroix and Eloise -- knowing Whistledown's true identity, even if Eloise never wants to talk to Penelope (Whistledown) again, which surely won't last.

Eloise and her printer proto-boyfriend could well be the centerpiece of the next season, and will likely have that role in some subsequent season in any case.  Penelope isn't getting much joy from Colin, and it's difficult to say where that will go, in part because Colin's feelings for Penelope are unclear, maybe including even to himself.

The acting, as always, was excellent.  Jonathan Bailey as Anthony and Simone Ashley as Kate were well up to their leading roles, and even Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte upped her game.

See you back here whenever Season 3 is on Netflix.

See also Bridgerton: Alternate Austen

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Bridgerton: Alternate Austen

My wife and I binge-watched Bridgerton the past two nights, and loved it.  She's a devoted Shonda Rhimes fan, and has watched and is watching everything she's done on network television.   I can take or leave these shows, and usually leave them.  But I'm also a big Jane Austen fan, and enjoy historical drama, so I gave Bridgerton a try.

It does have a lot in common with Jane Austen's novels, taking place in the Regency era in England, but it has a bold alternate history element: people of color are in the aristocracy, including Simon aka the Duke of Hastings (one of the two leading characters) and Queen Charlotte.  Actually, historians have been debating for at least fifty years about whether Charlotte had African ancestry -- see the 1761 portrait by Allan Ramsay -- so that part of Bridgerton is more aptly described as controversial history not alternate history.  But Simon's character, along with other secondary characters in Bridgerton, is clearly alternate history, which is a plus in my book.

The other way in which Austen's novels differ from Bridgerton -- based on the series of best-selling novels by Julia Quinn over the past twenty years (which I haven't read) -- is the hot sex between Simon and Daphne Bridgerton that lights up several episodes.  Simon's lust for Daphne, which he has to mediate with his vow (to his father) not to have children, in age in which the withdrawal method is by and large the only way to do that, is one of the fulcrums of the narrative, and is presented just short of graphically but effectively on the screen.  And I'll say that the acting of both Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne and Regé-Jean Page as Simon was superb across a wide range of tempestuous and profound emotions,

The other notable element in Bridgerton is Whistedown (voice by Julie Andrews), a Regency gossip columnist who stirs the pot with her all-too-savvy reports.  Her true identity is not revealed until the very end, and though my wife and I pretty much guessed it, it was still fun to see this played out.

The secondary characters and stories were well done, the cinematography was just gorgeous, and I'm glad there's a second season already in the works.   Check back here in 2021 for the review.