TV Review: Bridgerton Season 2
After captivating audiences in late 2020 with society, scandal and swoon-worthy romance, Bridgerton is back for its second highly-anticipated season. Picking up where the first season left off, with eldest Bridgerton sibling Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) declaring his intention to marry, the season follows him attempting to do just that, and getting caught up in a love triangle in the process.
Forming the other corners of that triangle are sisters Kate (Simone Ashley) and Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran). While Edwina is young and sweet, Kate is older, prickly, and gets under Anthony’s skin almost immediately. But of course, in the world of romance, prickly vexation often leads to feelings that are far more pleasant in nature.
Though the season is based on the second book in Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series, The Viscount Who Loved Me, the story expands out farther than Anthony and Kate’s enemies-to-lovers romance. Also back this season are the Featherington family, whom we last saw reeling from the sudden death of the family patriarch which left them in dire financial straights. And of course there are the elder, still-unattached Bridgerton siblings Benedict (Luke Thompson), Colin (Luke Newton) and Eloise (Claudia Jesse) who all continue to play a large part this season.
Having the elder Bridgerton siblings around - including last season’s star Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) - is both a blessing and a curse. On the positive side of things, the relationship between the Bridgerton siblings is one of the strongest points in the books. They are unwaveringly loyal to each other, even though they bicker like all siblings do and it really rounds them out as characters. The cast play this out to perfection, with their teasing affection for each other shining through at all times, in one of television's more realistic sibling dynamics.
Where this causes the show to suffer is that in having them play such a large role, it pulls focus from Anthony and Kate, who should be the love story at the centre of it all and indeed are advertised as such. But in giving each sibling a full subplot of their own and devoting the necessary time to it, it pulls time away from where it is most needed, slowing down the progression of Anthony and Kate’s characters and romance and making the pacing of the season feel unbalanced as a whole.
And that is really what grieves me so much about the season overall, which was otherwise just as fun and engaging as the first. Whether or not I thought the subplots pulled focus, on their own they were perfectly fine. They made sense for the characters and set up tension for future seasons, and it’s a good sign that the creatives at least have long-term goals in mind. The cast as a whole are phenomenal and engaging, and play off each other extremely well. But the side plots were not the story I was most keen to see.
The true saving grace of the season is the sheer, palpable chemistry that Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley have. What time they do spend together onscreen was enough to get my heart racing and for me to forget how to breathe. But to my ultimate dismay, they do not get nearly enough time together as a pair, especially time spent alone. It’s enough to make me hope directors somewhere are taking note and gearing up to put them in another romantic story together, because that potential is too good to pass up.
I think back to the amount of time Daphne and Simon (Regé-Jean Page) got to spend together as a couple growing into that dynamic. Anthony and Kate should have had something similar.
I admit I am a little biased. The Viscount Who Loved Me is my favourite Julia Quinn novel. Anthony and Kate are my favourite of her couples. Kate is the heroine I relate to the most, and in so many ways. So believe me when I say there are few out there who wanted to love every second of this season more than I did. That is why I appreciate the chemistry between Bailey and Ashley so much. They innately understood the assignment, even where the writing did not.
The real strength of their relationship, in the books, is their overcoming of their traumas together as a pair. Traumas that at first glance appear quite unrelated but turn out to share a root cause. Those issues are paid lip service at best in the season, but will not jump out to anyone who does not know to look for them, which is a shame because they were the source of some of the best scenes in the book. It does no good to dwell on what could have been, but I cannot help but imagine Bailey and Ashley given that material, knowing they would have played it every bit as tender, romantic and heartrending as it appears on the page.
In terms of costuming, the clothing and jewelery is every bit as beautiful as it was in the first season. Arguably, more so. The choice to dress Simone Ashley primarily in jewel tones was inspired. She is breathtakingly gorgeous and pulls the eye every time she is on screen. As for the music, in addition to the original score, music supervisor Justin Kamps has once again assembled a playlist of modern pop music covers done by string quartet, which add just the right touch to the scenes they are included in.
Ultimately, the second season of Bridgerton is a perfectly enjoyable second season of an ensemble period drama. Regarded in that context, even the way the love story was handled makes sense to me - as part of the whole, rather than the focus it deserved to be. And despite the tone of this review, I haven’t written the series off entirely, as it has been renewed for an additional two seasons which I am still eager to see. But in trying to break the mold and strive for the unconventional on the second go-around, the writers have truly lost sight of the heart and the romance that made the novel so beautiful to begin with.
The second season of Bridgerton hits Netflix on March 25, 2022