Despite how much I despised season 2 of Bridgerton, the Netflix marketing team managed to reel me in for the story of Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton. And though their getting together could have used a tiny bit of refining, their storyline was easily extremely far above the frustrating and low standard set by Kanthony and proved to be the only redeeming quality of yet another boring and pointless season of this otherwise bottom barrel show.
Bridgerton is not a good show. It doesn't have good characters, good plot, good dialogue, or good themes. And yet for the first time, I don't entirely hate what I'm watching. To give you a brief recap of my experience with the show, I gave the first season a try but the first episode was much too boring with terrible writing. I got about as far as Daphne meeting Simon (with some considerable skipping ahead on my part) which may have been episode 2, but I really couldn't continue further.
I absolutely did not want to try season 2, but the public seemed to be raving about how incredible the season was and how incredible the characters and the romance was. Plus, seeing a brown girl in the lead when romance stories in Hollywood rarely include people of color, I had to give it a shot.
And boy, was the public wrong. Despite its popularity, Kanthony is a really badly written love story that takes two people with the exact same one-dimensional personality, forcefully creates tension via the cringiest scene I've ever witnessed on TV, then drags out their getting together until the very end of the season.
The only even remotely interesting aspect of season 2 for me was the Featherington stuff. I had heard about Penelope being Lady Whistledown and to me, she was the only character on the screen that wasn't insufferable. People (see Kanthony stans) call her a villain for what she did to Marina in season 1, which I read was that she basically exposed that she was pregnant, so I'm not sure what's so horrible about that, especially if Colin had agreed to marry her and didn't know. They also say she's horrible for what she did to Eloise, but Eloise SUCKED in season 2 and completely deserved what she got.
In fact, Penelope only wrote about her because the Queen thought Eloise was Whistledown so she essentially saved her, and then when Eloise found out Whistledown's identity, Penelope cleared her privileged ass so bad.
Eloise is the exact type of pretentious feminist-wannabe character I hate because they think they're so oppressed while sitting in their mansions, have no clue about real life politics or social issues, make their rebellious attitude their whole personality without actually trying to create change, and treat other girls as dumb, shallow, and vapid (which unfortunately the show itself likes to do in how it depicts the non-main female characters).
One improvement in the latest season is that Eloise seems to be growing somewhat. She still has her pretentious moments where she thinks she's better than other girls, and befriending Cressida, who's Penelope's enemy, is an extremely weird and petty move, and spilling Penelope's secret about Colin to Cressida in a not-so-quiet manner then having the audacity to blame Cressida for it showed how oblivious she can be. But at least she's apologetic to Penelope and doesn't seem entirely terrible anymore? The bar for this girl is so low, but still.
Cressida is someone I don't remember at all from the previous season, but I still prefer her to Eloise. I guess she was a mean girl that maybe hated on or bullied Penelope previously, but seeing her shut Eloise up when she was trying to accuse her of gossiping about Penelope was a great moment. Cressida's character is much too inconsistent for me to have too much empathy for her with the way she treats Penelope in their battle for Debling's hand in marriage, but I still appreciate that she has a difficult situation at home because of her father which privileged ass Eloise can't even begin to understand.
I really couldn't care less about their storyline and if not for Eloise's relationship with Penelope, this wouldn't even have mattered. Most of the Bridgertons aren't worth caring about and because of this, the first episode was EXTREMELY BORING. I don't even know what happened apart from Francesca Bridgerton entering society and Colin coming back and acting like a completely different person. These are the only two Bridgertons who aren't completely boring (sorry to Daphne, I can't vouch for what I didn't watch). Anthony, Benedict, and the two kids are literally so bland with no personality, and the mom is boring, too. They tried so hard to cater to Kanthony fans this episode, but those two are so boring I had to skip every one of their scenes.
Francesca isn't the most interesting person in the world, but at least she seems nice and has something of a personality so that's a huge bonus on the rest of the squad. Colin seems kind of boring too when he's not in a scene with Penelope, but it quickly becomes clear he's pretending to be someone he's not, and the show overcomes the Bridgerton Bore issue with him in episode 2.
I don't really remember much of Colin from the last season but he's so obviously trying to change his personality and it really isn't working for him, which I believe is the not so subtle intention of the writers. The brothel scenes felt unnecessary, even to show the before and after effects of the kiss with Penelope. Like y'all are spelling it out a little too much right now and given the way Colin is written in episodes 3 and 4, those scenes really weren't necessary because this man has lost his MIND for Penelope.
I do think the story could have used some refining between their kiss and them actually confessing to each other because this part felt a tiny bit rushed. In terms of timing, I don't think their story was rushed overall since they've clearly been friends since childhood and part of the cast since season 1. Even if this is your first season, you can still grasp the history between them, feel their long-standing connection, and see how Colin constantly seeks out Penelope and goes to her without question.
I'm really glad they got together by the end of episode 4 instead of dragging it out all season. But something about episodes 3 and 4 felt like we could've used some more development of Penelope and Colin's story rather than wasting our time with other characters. For instance, I wish the hot air balloon scene had been written a bit differently to make Colin ultra aware of Penelope and of course of the fact that Debling shielded her.
Like why couldn't the writers have shown Colin see her in danger, work extra hard on bringing down the balloon, then turn, ready to rush over and check on her, only to see Debling had gotten there first? Maybe I'll just add that into my headcannon for now.
However, the rest of what we got was good enough. Colin's fantasy dream about Penelope after their kiss and then telling his family he didn't dream at all was great. During this time, both he and Penelope grapple with choosing between what's in their heart and what is seemingly best for them. On the surface, Debling does seem like a really decent person, but Penelope is a romantic who wants and deserves true love, and yet she's treated so horribly by her family and mocked in society that she's willing to settle for a man who will be away most of the time.
I really like Penelope's character arc this season as we see her grow into someone who is more comfortable with herself and can see that she has many amazing qualities. Colin is the first to help her see that, telling her how charming she is when they talk, even if it is just with him that she's able to do that. They have such good chemistry together and a level of comfort that shows exactly why they're a perfect match.
Seeing Colin realize his feelings for Penelope, struggle with whether to say anything since he believes she doesn't feel the same, and ultimately make a scene in the ballroom is just too damn good. He was so afraid of losing Penelope to another man that he straight up asked Debling to cut in for a dance with her in front of everyone, making it look so obvious to Debling that he was into her which then prompted Debling to call things off with Penelope. And then even after Penelope got upset at him for ruining her chance at a marriage, he chased her carriage ten blocks to tell her Debling was right about Colin's feelings at least.
Even though he believed she didn't love him back, this man really did not waste any time letting Penelope know exactly how he felt when he figured out that the alternative was having her upset with him, or even forgiving him and simply remaining friends with him. He straight up asked her to marry him right away because he just knew she was the one, and the way he truly loves and cares about her is so important to Penelope's story as she's been told she'll never find that love. She thinks she'll just have to settle for the first guy who agrees after the way the entire town ridicules her. Her own family didn't even think she could ever get married, with her mother flat out suggesting that Penelope would always be around to take care of her.
Although I haven't read the books, I would really love to see Colin set the Featheringtons straight in the second half of this season. The other thing I'm eager to see is Colin's reaction when he finds out the identity of Lady Whistledown, as well as how he'll find out. The first episode ends with Colin wanting to coach Penelope to find a husband and then telling Eloise he'll ruin whoever Lady Whistledown turns out to be. I'm sure the issue with Marina from season 1 will come up and though I only know about that incident from reading about it online, I'm still interested to see how things will unfold.
However, the second episode where Colin does the coaching is probably a good indication that he'll accept her fairly quickly. While she goes through a series of rather awkward but funny attempts to woo these men, he encourages her, compliments her, and laughs with her about someone's dead horse. He goes off on Eloise after people find out Penelope enlisted Colin's help to find a husband, and even tells Penelope he hates what Lady Whistledown did to her. Once he realizes she essentially exposed herself though, he'll probably at least understand where she's coming from.
He also got mad when she read his writings, but he calmed down quickly and she apologized, telling him she loved his writing and wanted to read more. When he finds out she's a writer too, that's something that can bond them together even more.
All in all, the second episode is a really critical Polin episode, because it shows just how strong they are when they're still just friends, so imagine what their relationship will be like when they're actually official.
Unfortunately, all the non-Polin stuff this season makes the show suffer. This season is also focusing on the potential love interests of Francesca Bridgerton, which isn't too interesting, but at least it's better than Benedict Bridgerton and his dalliance with some young widow played by Hannah New, whose performance I loved in Black Sails. Despite this, their story is so boring I had to skip all their scenes.
It also looks like the Bridgerton mom, Violet, might be getting some action with a fellow widower in town who just so happens to be Lady Danbury's brother and more importantly played Dr. Facilier/Baron Samdi in Once Upon A Time. It's another episode filler that I really don't care about, especially since I won't be tuning in for future seasons (and I mean it this time).
Meanwhile Queen Charlotte is still triggered about Lady Whistledown and wants the girls to prove themselves as worthy of being a diamond. BORING. I don't even know what this lady's purpose is in the story, and maybe that's on me for not watching season 1 or the spin-off, but she's just written so stiffly.
This whole diamond thing is unserious as hell, too. When I first gave this show a chance, I couldn't believe that this regency Bachelorette wasn't satire. It straight up reads like the author just wanted to set a bunch of romances in the era of Pride & Prejudice but neither did she grow up in that era nor did she care about making it actually feel like a period piece.
Apart from the bad dialogue and plot and the overly generalized "women have no rights" theme, it's extremely jarring to hear modern pop songs played by a string orchestra. I don't even know most of those songs, but you can still tell by the bad arrangement. It's not impossible to period-ify modern music and still make it sound good. Westworld did it fantastically with "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones and well enough with Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun," and that show had the added difficulty of combining the western period element with the artificiality of the world in its music.
My last complaint about this show is that this season was split into two parts, which is incredibly stupid. I get that Netflix wants users to stick around for more than a free trial's worth, but then why not do weekly episode releases or drop two episodes at once for four weeks when you know this show has a massive existing following that is willing to tune in each week? Spacing it out so there's more than a month after that first batch really just kills the momentum.
But hey, at least I'll get two articles out of this. So until next time, dear reader, I'll just be washing my brain with the 2005 Pride & Prejudice to remind myself what a good mix of romance, period piece aesthetic, and actual feminism looks like.