Bridgerton - Series One Review

Dearest Reader,

In today’s review, I shall be delving into the latest release from Netflix - the adaptation of Julia Quinn’s erotic romance, Brigerton. Imagine Jane Austen elegance, but we see the going’s on in the bed chambers. Sometimes a bit too much...

The drama focused on wealth, lust, and betrayal set against the backdrop of Regency-era England, seen through the eyes of the powerful Bridgerton family. Meanwhile another family the Featheringtons are dealing with a scandal closer to home, but a mysterious writer is revealing the city’s most scandalous affairs and darkest secrets in the press.

Although this show has a large ensemble cast, the main storyline follows Daphne and her romance with Lord Simon Hastings - respectively played by Phoebe Dynevor and Regé-Jean Page. The author’s and therefore the shows inspiration of pride and prejudice was not lost on me, with Daphne and Simon showing clear parallels with Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy. Dynevor has that wife eyed innocence that fit the character well while Page, I did enjoy his overall performance, but some scenes I found myself wanting him to go further in his acting - moments where he was softly spoken, I wanted to see his character lose his composure and moments where he did, I thought he should have much of an impact with a quieter intensity.

Both characters had a back and forth throughout the first half of the season, with the classic fake courting becoming actual feelings arc. However, there was a scene in episode six which was quite uncomfortable to watch and very problematic, but the ensuing conflict completely ignore that act and instead fixated on one’s desire for children and one’s desire not to. Said character did not even apologise for their actions or admit they were also at fault. All I’ll say on that scene, if the genders were reversed with this exact same scene I think there would be more of a heated discussion amongst viewers and the aftermath would’ve been written differently. Alas, I began to lose my investment in this pairing - not just over that scene, but it soon became apparent that their issues would be resolved over an honest conversation. The silent treatment before the finale became incredibly tedious at times.

Also the “love making” scenes with all of the characters were too long and unnecessarily graphic. I respect this show’s desire to depict the Female Gaze and while effective for its difference at first, I soon began wishing we had a less is more approach. As in tease the audience and leave it to their imagination and then scenes where we have the entire sexual encounter, it feels more pivotal to the plot. It was just a lot of buttocks for the majority of these scenes.

I will say this show had some standout performances from quite a lot of its cast - Adjoa Andoh was just spectacular in every scene in particular. And this show did raise a lot of points about class, mental health, sexuality, deceit, unmarried pregnancies, sexism, the pressures on women in those times and I found myself wishing that the show delved deeper into those themes. However, it felt like the writers were more tentative with those topics and instead wanted to expand upon escapism and romance - which both are fine, I just thought it struggled to find the balance at times.

The other Brigertons and the Feathingtons had stories and arcs that felt underdeveloped, plot lines or a line of dialogue that could spark a whole sequence of events were abandoned after awhile or completely forgotten. However, as this show has been rumoured to be renewed for a further eight seasons and due to the many Brigerton offspring being variously aged, I feel this show will primarily focus on this family (the show’s name itself implies as much), so I would like to think these storylines will be picked up at a later date.

I will say, one thing I’ve always appreciated about Shonda Rhimes’ productions is the inclusion of a diverse cast without making the characters’ races a controversy within the story. Admittedly, this show could’ve cast more diversity in this season - but it was refreshing to see a more realistic cast instead of being white-washed.

Finally, I must Regency Gossip Girl with Julie Andrews was genius casting. However, the identity of said writer who reports on scandals should’ve stayed hidden much, much longer. The revelation, was a bit anticlimactic as that was the character I least expected - although a good actress, nothing led to this revelation or even made me consider her as a suspect. It’ll be interesting to see if this will be delved into further in future seasons - because at the moment, I was actually disappointed by this quick reveal.

With everything that has occurred this past year and continues to unfold this year, this show definitely provides some much needed escapism. The locations and costumes were vast and colourful, the plot was an easy watch and overall it was a nice watch - there were just times where I wanted more.

My rating for this season is 3 STARS. Had good points and areas that could’ve been improved, but overall a well made production.

You can watch Brigerton on Netflix and stream all eight episodes now.