Bridgerton Season 2 Is Missing That Spark
The global phenomenon Bridgerton is back for season 2!
Based on the sequel book The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn, we head into a new season of courtship centered around the eldest Bridgerton son Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his quest to find a bride. Embracing duty over love, Anthony focuses in on newcomer Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran) as a potential viscountess. He has to prove himself to her headstrong older sister Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) to get her blessing — but the two of them find themselves draw together despite their initial disdain for one another.
While the first season of Bridgerton made waves with the racy and opulent “fake dating” Regency romance between Simon (Regé-Jean Page) and Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor), season two slows things down with Anthony and Kate’s “enemies turned lovers” romance. There are a number of parallels between Simon and Daphne’s story and Anthony and Kate’s story, including their father issues, sense of duty, and traumas from the past. Simon’s father had such a strong hold on him that he didn’t even want to have children, while seeing Edmund die in front of him caused Anthony to have a fear of death and hurting the people he loves. Both Anthony and Kate’s loss of their fathers encouraged them to focus on duty over love. The duo have a very tension-filled chemistry that is reminiscent of classics like Pride and Prejudice, but where the show struggles is in how dragged out both the season and love story are. While it’s so refreshing to see a romance led by South Asian women, we don’t see Anthony and Kate really get together until the final episode and then the season ends abruptly.
Bridgerton has been touted as a very diverse and inclusion adaptation from the beginning, but the show lacks meaningful storylines around many of those characters. They didn’t focus enough on the main love story of Anthony and Kate. Without Simon, the writers have given his friend, the boxer Will (Martins Imhangbe), no real development and seem to not know what to do with him. The book series develops all eight Bridgerton siblings, while the series seems to forget about the youngest three. Eloise (Claudia Jessie) gets a love story that feels half baked. It seemed like they were hinting at an LGBTQ+ storyline for Benedict (Luke Thompson) that they dropped going into season 2. Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) is one of the most compelling characters to follow, especially as we go from her Lady Whistledown mystery in season 1 to seeing her explore more of an entrepreneurial side of her in season 2. The issue comes with how other characters, in particular Colin (Luke Newton), treat her as a plus size woman in this world. It felt like the last two seasons were her villain origin story as we head into a third season of the show. Something that really made Bridgerton stand out in its first season was its music and the way they delivered stunning classical arrangements of modern songs, like “thank u next” by Ariana Grande. This season’s music was highly disappointing, highlighting songs like “Material Girl” by Madonna that felt underwhelming and boring.
While the actors brought it in season 2, there was a spark missing in this season due to the writing, pacing, and production choices. It just seems like after the meteoric success of the first season, it would be almost impossible for another season to live up to it, especially when each season focuses on a new story. It makes me question Netflix’s decisions to cancel shows like The Baby-Sitters Club or Julie and the Phantoms following the huge success around projects like Bridgerton and Squid Game. There is an audience for all of these shows and its disappointing to see smaller projects be cancelled because they didn’t hit the very rare global phenomenon hits of these series that are also unlikely to keep that momentum going in the future. Following this weaker installment in the Bridgerton series, I wonder if there will be continued interest from fans in seeing all eight Bridgerton siblings’ love stories be told, as well as the Queen Charlotte spin-off.
Bridgerton season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix. Catch my interview with Jonathan Bailey from season 1 for more insight into Anthony, below:
