Bridgerton sashayed into our lives during lockdown with all of its saucy, high-society scandal and we fell in love.
Shonda Rhimes, showrunner for mega hits like Grey’s Anatomy, has sprinkled her magic American stardust on the show and while some disregard it as soapy froth, I’m all in. Bring on the bubbles.
Season two landed on Netflix on Friday – eight glorious episodes of romance, lust, spats, posh furniture and vertigo-inducing wigs.
The brooding Duke of Hastings (Rege-Jean Page, the reason most people watched) is absent, but don’t panic. You’ll have forgotten him within five minutes.
Season two follows Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), the eldest sibling and Viscount, as he sets out to find a wife.
He’s driven only by family duty and has impossible standards. “I do not need feeling,” he says.
“What I need is what I have, and that is a list: tolerable, dutiful, suitable enough hips for child-bearing and at least half a brain.”
Ooh Viscount, you had me at tolerable…
Unsurprisingly, his speed dating through the local corset set ends only in frustration.
Too boring, doesn’t read, bad dancer etc.
Then of course, in a tale as old as time, he runs into a mysterious, beautiful woman who vanishes on horseback into the woods without giving her name.
This is basically Cinderella.
Within ten minutes there’s a ball, obviously, and they catch sight of each other.
Except that, in a detour from the fairytale, Mystery Woman (Kate, played by Simone Ashley) has no interest in Lord Bridgerton whatsoever.
“Your character is as deficient as your horsemanship,” she scoffs. Drop the mic. Exit stage left.
So now of course he wants her. Kate meanwhile really, really doesn’t want a husband.
So how many episodes before they have sex in a lavish four-poster? Five is my bet.
However, Kate’s sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) is in the market for a man and the handsome Viscount will do nicely. It’s about to get complicated.
In the meantime, Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), having been revealed as the anonymous gossip merchant Lady Whistledown (still voiced by Julie Andrews, thank god), struggles to sneak around writing her newsletters.
Turns out people get suspicious if you start bulk-buying quills.
It’s all so glossy and predictable, but I’m fully absorbed in this shiny world of beautiful people.
From the lavish set pieces – the races! the balls! – to the orchestral covers of modern hits, the sumptuous costumes and the classic enemies-to-lovers plot, this is a most suitable regency affair.
