Netflix made us wait a month for more Bridgerton. Was it worth it?
By Nell Geraets
This review contains spoilers for Bridgerton season three.
Bridgerton, season three, part 2
★★★
Netflix
There are few things more thrilling than a chase. It’s that titillating build-up, the “will they, won’t they” of it all, that made the first half of Bridgerton’s third season so intoxicating. But the question for the second half of the season, which dropped on Netflix on Thursday, is once the chase is over, do we care what happens next?
Making viewers wait a month for the second half was a risky move on Netflix’s part. Over the first four episodes, we lapped up every naughty dream, inadvertent touch and stolen glance between Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newtown) – the ’Ton’s “it” couple this season. Our underdrawers were well and truly in a twist by the time the final scene rolled along, in which they seal the deal in the back of a horse-drawn carriage (which must be the equivalent of the mile-high club in Regency London).
Pen and Colin have done the deed. Now what?Credit: Netflix
It was the narrative climax we needed. But it also killed off the momentum of the third season.
Part two picks up exactly where things left off, with wallflower Pen accepting Colin’s proposal after three seasons out in society. It’s what Pen has been pining for since season one, but made more complicated by the fact her soon-to-be-husband still has no clue she is the town’s powerful gossip, Lady Whistledown.
This dilemma lies at the heart of the fifth and sixth episodes, and though a secret is always juicy, this one is nothing new. We’ve known Whistledown’s true identity since the end of season one, and have already seen Pen’s secret destroy a significant relationship (her friendship with Eloise Bridgerton). At this point, what’s another one?
It doesn’t help that Colin largely remains a mere silhouette of a character. Gallivanting around Parisian brothels wasn’t quite enough to make him a fully developed love interest.
Pen without Colin is still an influential, silver-tongued woman. Colin without Pen is just a rich man with long sideburns. At the end of the sixth episode, Colin finally discovers Pen’s secret. But at this point, it’s difficult to comprehend the implications of that revelation, beyond the obvious sense of betrayal.
In fairness to Bridgerton, which was created by Chris Van Dusen and produced by Shonda Rhimes, this is technically the point. Though the women appear to be subservient to the men, they’re the ones with the power to shift the narrative.
This half of the season was a little less chaste than the first, finally revealing a sexual side of Pen we all knew was within her.
It also treats its side characters with more respect. Cressida Cowper goes from being a two-dimensional bully to a woman determined to escape the suffocating life her parents have planned for her. Meanwhile, Francesca Bridgerton’s marriage to the Earl of Kilmartin, which is largely based on companionable silence, is a refreshing departure from the melodramatic trysts synonymous with the Bridgerton name.
The second half of the season is packed with everything but the kitchen sink – pregnancies, multiple weddings, a fake Lady Whistledown, blackmail and, of course, more outrageous wigs than you can count. But all of that fails to distract us from the fact that it’s missing the thing Bridgerton does best: the chase. Without that, we’re just back to the same old secret and some sweaty, yet tasteful, sex.
The secret is revealed to all during one of the final scenes, when Pen requests that the Queen allow her to explain herself in front of the entire ’Ton. The build-up is sensational, with Pen meticulously planning every step towards the truth. But is anyone that shocked? No. Everyone essentially accepts it and moves on. Pen retires her notorious pseudonym for her real name, they all have babies, and it’s happily ever after.
For those of us who enjoyed the mayhem and anticipation of the first half of the season, we’re left feeling a little numb. I couldn’t help but wonder whether it would have been more exciting if Pen had been thrown in the dungeon, or cast out of Mayfair. After all, we need something to replace the thrill of the chase.
Bridgerton season three, part two is streaming on Netflix now.
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