Gentle reader, it’s high time for another season of long-game courting, unrequited desire, and merciless gossip in the Ton, as Bridgerton promenades back onto Netflix. Following two tremendously popular and deeply horny seasons, Shondaland’s Regency smash promises more lusty dalliances, knife’s-edge social plays, a veritable dessert menu of impeccable outfits, the show’s signature string pop covers, and a dynamite new leading couple who’ve waited their damn turn.
Bridgerton Season 3: Part 1 plays to its established strengths under new showrunner Jess Brownell, finally letting mainstays and fan favourites Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) take the lead. And while the series gets slightly dry with somewhat benign supporting narratives, what we’ve seen of Season 3 is still brimming with suppressed desire and social scandal. It’s sure to delight longtime fans earnestly awaiting their seasonal dose of crushing hard in polite society.
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix
In Season 1, the Ton’s fine purveyor of scandal Lady Whistledown (who we’ve known for while now is Penelope) declares, “The brighter a lady shines, the faster she may burn.” Penelope has endured just out of the spotlight, embodying the slow-burn game the show is known for, all the while yearning for her beloved Colin despite his consistent friend-zoning. But in Season 3, Pen steps into the light herself, all at the risk of catching aflame — and Coughlan is truly magnificent navigating this tension within.
Nicola Coughlan is Bridgerton‘s diamond.
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix
Having heard Colin’s scornful comments about the prospect of romancing her at the end of Season 2, Pen is looking elsewhere for love. She’s fallen out with her best friend Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) over her Whistledown moonlighting and remains overlooked by her Featherington family. Penelope attempts to overcome her social isolation by amping up her search for a husband, but while she’s more than adept at eviscerating members of society with her pen, real conversations with potential suitors prove awkward and discombobulating.
Coughlan is genuinely hilarious in such scenes as she scrambles to channel the eloquence of her literary pseudonym. Simultaneously, we watch Coughlan expertly attempt to quash Penelope’s sheer panic over the Ton finding out her secret identity. Coughlan’s acting prowess is well-proven, from teenage theatricality in Derry Girls to dramatic complexity in Big Mood. But unlike these characters, Penelope doesn’t have the luxury of emotional outbursts, with Coughlan wielding subtle indications of anger, butterflies, or stone cold fear, all while maintaining the requisite 19th-century decorum. And above all, Coughlan’s an exceptional romantic lead, as we’re arm-in-arm with her amid cross-room yearning, secret midnight trysts, and ultimately, unbridled carriage-based passion.
Meanwhile, deemed “the prize of the season,” Colin’s newfound rakish “proportions” are swooned over by the Ton, with fan-waving women gathering around him at every turn. Shirts have little chance of remaining on Colin Bridgerton this season. Newton perfects Colin’s vanity and newly dashing bravado without making an ass of the character — a fine line indeed to walk when you’re delivering lines such as, “My stories from abroad are not suitable for such tender young ladies.”
Together, Coughlan and Newtown create an incredibly concupiscent and complex tension between our two leads, playing the ultimate long game that could crumble at any minute with the truth.
Eloise gets lost against Polin romance.
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix
In Bridgerton‘s furious race between “marriage-minded misses,” Season 3 also makes time to examine how patriarchal society pits women against each other with such competition. As Eloise says to frenemy Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen), “Society does not seek to forge affections between ourselves.”
While Season 2 of Bridgerton was an ode to sisterhood, the complexities of female friendship (and friendship breakups in particular) is at the heart of Season 3. The reveal that Penelope is Lady Whistledown causes a rift between Pen and Eloise, but at the same time, they’re lost without each other, yearning across ballrooms and courtyards for their old rapport — a task impossible without Eloise’s forgiveness.
It’s deeply painful for the first few episodes, giving Coughlan and Jessie plenty of heart-wrenching moments. But their fractured friendship remains significantly one-note for this first half of the season. Where she once found rebellious love in a print shop and gloriously lamented society’s oppression of women aloud, Eloise’s character is somewhat relegated to this silent seething at her former best friend for most of Season 3. Hopefully, Eloise gets to diversify her time in the second half of the season, because Jessie’s one of the strongest — and most hilarious — members of this cast.
Bridgerton Season 3 gets a little lost in the hedge maze of side quests
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix
While it’s difficult to upstage the leading duo in a season of Bridgerton, it’s definitely doable, bolstering the main storyline with playful interludes and rich social scandal. But so far in Season 3, the series struggles to conjure truly compelling subplots beyond Penelope and Colin’s ever-bubbling romance and the introduction of a rival suitor, the delightful Lord Debling (Sam Phillips).
Not content with one leading lady this season, Bridgerton splits focus between Penelope’s storyline and that of the latest Bridgerton to debut in the Ton: Francesca (Hannah Dodd, taking over from Ruby Stokes). Unfortunately, Francesca’s defining traits are she loves playing piano and not talking. Introversion itself is an interesting character trait in Bridgerton, with Francesca finding solidarity in a scene with fellow “wallflower” Penelope. But Francesca’s narrative drags as she literally courts by staring at a wall. Hopefully, the second half of the season will salvage this underwritten thread.
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix
As for the rest, I regret to use Jane Austen’s own words to describe the show’s supporting narratives: “a quick succession of busy nothings.” As closeted artiste Benedict Bridgerton, Luke Thompson gives a continually delightful performance, though a random romance gives him little to do. The other Featheringtons, often fun for their awfulness, are mired in the repeated plot point of social-climbing — save for the absolute show-stealing sex advice from Portia Featherington (a straight-up hilarious Polly Walker) to her ghastly daughters.
Meanwhile, former boxer Will Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe) and his wife Alice (Emma Naomi) find themselves suddenly thrust into inherited wealth. Huzzah! But the only tension in this storyline involves sleeping arrangements and Will’s insistence on maintaining his business — propriety be damned! Give them more!
Credit: Liam Daniel / Netflix
Even Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) actively yawns at this year’s lot. In fact, her quest to find society’s “diamond” of the season is nearly abandoned, half-baking Bridgerton’s core narrative tool with a demotion: In Season 3, she’s looking instead for a real “sparkler.” Luckily, any scene involving Rosheuvel as the Queen and Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury is a healthy serving of societal snark in glorious costumes, so the Queen can yawn all she likes.
Qualms aside, Bridgerton fans will likely have a ball in Season 3, with a full dance card of fan favourites returning, especially its two leads. With a deeply binge-worthy first half of the season awash with glorious costumes, electrifying sexual tension, and swoon-inducing romance, Bridgerton is playing to its strengths. And with another half of the season to come, perhaps there are more satisfying twists on the way.
How to watch: Bridgerton Seasons 1 and 2 are now streaming on Netflix. Season 3 will drop in two halves, with Part 1 streaming on May 16 and Part 2 on June 13.
0 Comments