đ¸ BRIDGERTON SPOILERS đ¸
Every so often I will find something that either angers or enthralls me so greatly that I feel suddenly inspired to fill my desolate tumblr with my musings and unsolicited opinions concerning said thing.
I will let you decide whether it is anger or enthrallment this time around.
If today were two years ago (give or take) this would perhaps be a post in which I sung the showâs praises for its fantastic writing and uncanny ability to gracefully navigate so many historical inaccuracies. But it is not.
Instead, I am here to lament. Not because I did not like the newest season. No, this is far worse. I did not care about the newest season.
Frankly, the third season of Bridgerton filled me with such an immense dread because I felt we sat at a tipping point, wherein a show I so adored would either fall over the edge and plummet into a freshly dug plot reserved for Netflix shows whose third seasons mark their downfall (read: Sex Education and, perhaps controversially, Stranger Things) or right its wrongs and rediscover its footing.
But this season? This season filled me with an enduring and unbelievable sense of apathy.
I went in expecting absolutely nothing, prepared for writing that left nothing for the reader to discern on their own and jarring stylistic decisions. Instead, I was given slightly better styling (credit where credit is due), as the gaudy eyeshadow and exaggerated acrylics seem to have been put aside for now, and writing that was arguably less convoluted than the third seasonâs, but soâŚempty.
Now, it may be that I am reading too far into all this because of my love for the show. But I do think an ailment present in a fair few Netflix shows has befallen upon Bridgerton.
Netflixâs acute awareness of everyoneâs terribly fickle attention spans.
I am aware the âsecond screeningâ conversation may be somewhat tired, but I do think it is pertinent and more multifaceted than one might initially assume.
There is also the issue of overpopulation. Something Bridgerton had initially done well was ensuring that, despite their vast number of characters, the focal point was always the main couple. If they needed to remove characters, they did. And they did it seamlessly. However, the cracks started to show last season, when we spent more time on Francesca and Cressida Cowper, than we did on Penelope and Colin. We ran into this issue again, this season.
It was as if the writers did not know which B Plots were actually worth the audienceâs time and which werenât.
I do not care about Francescaâs âpinnacleâ. I do care about Eloise and Hyacinthâs relationship (but even that should not take away from the main coupleâs love story). I do not care what Anthony and Kate are doingâ though, there is something to be said by how strange it was that they showed up randomly for a little while and then werenât present for Lord Kilmartinâs funeral (where their presence would have made sense). And yes, you can theoretically argue that they were there so Benedict could realise he wanted a family (and knew he couldnât have one publicly with Sophie), but I would like to remind you that Penelope also has a son, who they could have easily used to help Benedict come to his same epiphany.
I do not care. Show me things that matter. Things that will come together, things that actually affect the main plot, so that all aspects can come together in a satisfying conclusion.
The most apparent symptom of this disease, however, is one we are seeing become increasingly more common within our media. And that is the propensity for shows and movies to include entire monologues wherein they explain the entire plot of the show. Infuriating.
We saw this time and time again across the forth season, both very obviously (like when Sophie explains to her friend Alfie absolutely everything thatâs happened thus far), and slightly more subtly, like the Whistledown monologue. These I particularly did not like because they took the place of actually showing up Penelopeâs character growth. We as the audience can sort of gather she doesnât like writing the column now that everyone knows who she is, but thereâs so much more they could have done. Where was the emotion? Outside of that small moment with Virginia (Lord Hiscoxâs mistress), there wasnât any. We are just told she feels this way. Multiple times.
The same phenomenon occurred with Lady Danbury, but I do believe her instance was distinct from Penelope, being another complication that comes with this illness: Everything happens too early.
Matt Damon went on Joe Rogan fairly recently to discuss his and Ben Affleckâs movie âThe Ripâ, revealing that Netflix asked them to put an explosion at the beginning to instantly captivated the audienceâs attention (along with explain the plot two or three times throughout the movie).
We saw this with Bridgertonâs new season. Firstly, with the aforementioned Lady Danbury monologue, which was extremely out of place as she just decided to essentially explain her entire character arc arbitrarily. This stood out to me, personally, as a very obvious attempt to keep the audience captivated by essential sparking those Total Drama Recap type questionsâ Will Lady Danbury leave? What is she going to do now that the queen has said ânoâ?
Secondly, (and perhaps you, my readers, will find me quite nitpicky for this one) there was Sophie and Benedict kissing in the first episode. Not only did this decision make no narrative sense, it makes no sense in the larger context of Bridgerton, where they previously made a big deal out of kissing and touching. Narratively, the decision was clunky. If they were trying to make Benedict a truly âreformed rakeâ, would it not have been better to have him refrain from physicality? Would it not have been more interesting if he and Sophie had not kissed until later, so that tension could build between them? Would it not have been better to let him (and her) dream of this, but letting it remain an impossible dream?
They tried, at one point, to make it seem like the Lady in Silver was something of a fairy tale, with Benedict saying she was ânever realâ, but this concept would have worked much better if there was an aspect of intangibility. He never kissed the Lady in Silver, but he kissed Sophie. Sophie is real, the Lady in Silver isnât. I think that this simple detail would have better shown Benedict learning to love. Real and practical, without the artistry and grandiosity. There might have being something in creating an ache in Benedict in that he loved someone he could not have twice.
And finally, perhaps the most frustrating thing this entire season, related to the aforementioned lack of tensionâŚdrum roll, please.
Nothing. No stakes at all whatsoever. Look, I understand that this is supposed to be a nice, feel-good romance show. I do. Honestly. But that is not synonymous with hollow.
Up until this point, the Bridgerton seasons have been rife with conflict and tension. There were actual problems that prevented the main couple from getting together, secrets that kept the audience wondering how they would work through this. This time around?
Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
Which is not to say they didnât set up for a season that could have had lots of drama, they did and they did it well, it was just the fear of making their audience wait and stew in their temporary discomfort as things slowly get sorted out.
The fact that Sophie hid being the Lady in Silver from Benedict was a complete non-issue. In that horribly rushed scene where his whole family finds out he was in love with a maid also revels that this a complete non-issue (strange, considering the uproar when Eloise was found with someone of the lower classes in an earlier season). The wager between Penelope and the Queen apparently meant nothing, since it was brought upâŚmaybe thrice (even tat may be generous) and neither one of them made any effort to ensure their victory. Even Sophieâs fatherâs will, the fact she was on it and this was hidden from her, was mentioned twice throughout the whole season and fully solved in ONE EPISODE. Along with the larger issue of Sophie being a maid, which was justâŚaccepted by the queen, I guess.
The dynamic between Araminta and Sophie, the fact that she had stolen from her and impersonated nobility, could have created stakes. There was so much that could have been done: Some aspect of blackmail if one of her daughterâs found out first, maybe one of the girls could have, at least temporarily, made Benedict believe she was the Lady in Silver, so he was constantly hanging around their house, maybe Araminta could have used this fact to threaten Sophie. All of this potential that was ruined by how quickly Araminta just kicked Sophie out (which I would go as far as to argue is inconsistent with her characterization, which portrayed her as some clever and cunning woman).
I apologise for how quickly my eloquence has fallen away, but I feel a sincere incandescent rage at this need to fulfill the audienceâs desire for instant gratification. Problems are solved as quickly as they are introduced, rendering them null and void. Let the audience suffer! We need to feel some sense of tension and dread for the story to mean anything!
This is all to say that I am very tired of Netflix pandering to people who do not actually care about their shows. I know that this statement is reductive and there is a larger conversation the attention economy to be had, but I truly reject this phenomenon of studios creating content for people to be watching passively. It is simply a selfish, capitalist adaptation that turns a widespread issue into a way to make profit at the expense of art and good writing. More than that, I believe this style of writing only contributes to the issue: You are awarding the people who have one eye on their phones as they watch your show, your writing, your art, by making content that is catered to them.
We as viewers need to demand more. There is no excuse for bad writing.
Oh, I have so much more to say, but I know you are all very busy people, as am I. However, if you do so enjoy my musings, I will be talking more about this on my substack!
Please forgive my shameless plug as well as thisâ I am now realisingâ ridiculously long post, and a beautiful day, lovely people.
