Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey has defended the show over its lack of sex scenes in season two.
When it arrived on Netflix in December 2020, the first season of Netflix’s period romance series focused on the steamy relationship between Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page).
Season two dropped on the platform on Friday (23 March), with a new focus on older brother Anthony (Bailey) and his love triangle between sisters Edwina (Charithra Chandran) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).
*Spoilers for Bridgerton season two below*
While the series has earned praise, many critics and fans alike lamented the lack of physically intimate scenes in the new run of episodes compared to the first season, with Kate and Anthony having sex for the first time in the penultimate episode.
However, speaking to USA Today, Bailey said that “it would have been wrong for Kate and Anthony to have got physical any sooner than they did”.
“I think the payoff is really earned,” he added.
Explaining why season two differed from the first season, the Crashing actor said that it was right to “surprise an audience and keep them on their toes a bit”.
“What you lose in sex scenes you gain in a deeper human understanding, which hopefully enriches the world so that the future intimacy scenes won’t be the heavy feature, and won’t have to lean on them as much,” he said.
On Wednesday (30 March), Netflix announced that Bridgerton season two had smashed its opening weekend viewing record, after the show was watched for 193 million hours worldwide.
Bridgerton is on Netflix now.
