Since it debuted on Christmas Day 2020, this spenny period drama has always looked like a box of French macarons: colourful, cute and easy to binge. Now, perhaps because it’s become one of Netflix‘s biggest hits – seasons one and two rank in the streamer’s all-time Top 10 – this third season is being rolled out in two parts. The first four episodes land today (May 16), followed by another four on June 13. In fairness, this allows plenty of time for your blood sugar to stabilise in the interim.
Though Bridgerton now has a new showrunner – Jess Brownell, a longtime writer who takes over from creator Chris Van Dusen – it’s still a reassuringly familiar confection. For the most part, anyway: Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is initially ambivalent about the Regency London social season that provides the show’s opulent backdrop and breakout star Jonathan Bailey appears only fleetingly. In episode one, his character Lord Anthony Bridgerton and wife Kate (Simone Ashley) swan off on an extended honeymoon, but only after Bailey has gamely delivered a cunnilingus gag.
So far, this season isn’t as steamy as the sexually-charged first, but Bridgerton can still make you blush. There’s lots of chatter about the mechanics of intercourse that you wouldn’t get on Downton Abbey and even ménage à trois scenes set in a brothel. Of course, Bridgerton also feels more forward-looking than many costume dramas because it’s more racially diverse and less in thrall to historical accuracy. The show is known for its classical covers of modern pop songs – this time around, hits by BTS (‘Dynamite’) and Nick Jonas (‘Jealous’) hits get the string quartet treatment.
The main will-they-won’t-they romance of the season plays out between witty wallflower Penelope Featherington (Derry Girls‘ Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), a nice guy who’s come back from Europe with swagger. When Colin offers to help Penelope’s marriage prospects by giving her one-on-one “charm lessons”, it isn’t hard to work out which grand London boulevard Bridgerton is taking us down. Still, they’re a fun couple to watch: Newton succeeds Bailey as the show’s MDP (Most Dashing Player) and Coughlan sells even the most clichéd bits – Penelope looking glumly out a window, for example – convincingly.
There are also soapy subplots about one family coming up in the world and another scrabbling to keep its fancy mansion. Based on a series of blockbuster novels by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton may be more playful and progressive than most shows of this ilk, but it still relies on tired tropes like the need to beget a male son and heir. Thankfully, even at its cheesiest, it’s a treat to look at. Queen Charlotte’s brilliantly ridiculous wigs are set off by Rosheuvel’s scene-stealing facial expressions: her bored and haughty look is particularly meme-able.
If you don’t have much of a sweet tooth, this still won’t be the show for you. But if you’re craving an early-summer pick-me-up, you’ll devour these warm and watchable episodes in one scrummy sitting.
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‘Bridgerton’ season three part one is streaming now on Netflix