What a surprise! After the bodice ripper of a first season, I was shocked by the almost complete lack of sex in season two. Suddenly I was sitting back, relaxing, and just enjoying a fantasy regency-esque slow burn (with Taming of the Shrew elements). Yet, as the show progressed I began to feel that without the sex to take up screentime, the writing deficiencies were showing.
Just to be clear, I am not saying season 1 is better. Merely that with the extra length of season 2 (and the new direction which I hope will continue) I was baffled by some of the writing and pacing; it actually made me re-evaluate season 1 and how much was being hidden by the characters constantly humping each other instead of talking.
I do prefer Season 2 personally but the big surprise for me was how shallow many of the new relationships and characters felt. Let’s start with the main couple, shall we?
Kate Sharma. While I found myself excited for the casting of this season and have no issues with any of the actors or actresses’ performances (for the most part) the character herself frustrated me beyond belief. From the start Kate’s motivations and intentions were nonsensical partly due to the lack of exposition and partly to lack of characterization for the whole family. (Compare this to the flashback scenes and flushed-out motivations of the Duke in season 1.) Now, I know that this show is not a historical period piece, however, they have established that certain things matter in this world based on history and others don’t; many of my problems with Kate’s characterization is that it is out of sync with the world’s rules or logic.
The first thing we really learn, is that Kate is keeping a secret from her family. Edwina’s grandparents will give her a dowry if she marries nobility (though it is unclear later if this actually means a title or not as many of the men Kate approves are not titled but merely gentry). Several things were odd about this, first if the requirement was only to make a good marriage into the gentry, then there is literally no reason for this secret. Even if Kate wants Edwina to marry for love, the family has come to London for “The Season” specifically to find Edwina a husband. Literally, gentry and nobility are the only choices in that dating pool. If Edwina’s sister wanted her to find genuine love without all of that then why make the arrangement in the first place?
The second reason I found this secret plot point odd was how vague it was. For example, it is extremely unclear if Edwina and her mother know about the dowry just not the conditions. After all, they must know because having a dowry is basically a requirement for marriage among the elite which is why the grandparents offered it. So then, the only thing they don’t know is the conditions which, as stated above, are already what they are looking for. The only reason I thought Kate was keeping the secret at first was it sounded like she would also be receiving some money (which made me not like her) but then that was never addressed again so, I’m still not sure what they meant or why this was a secret!
My other issue with Miss Sharma was her strange prejudice against Anthony. The inciting incident for this dislike comes from an overheard conversation where he states that he has a list of qualities he’s looking for in a wife and that he’s looking to marry because it’s his duty. Now I admit his list is shallow and ridiculous, but none of that is shocking in this world they’ve created. They’d established through several characters that, though many may strive for love and value it, romantic matches are the outliers, not the norm.
This moment felt so contrived as did her continued and growing dislike of him. If they had wanted her to oppose him as a suitor for her sister, I would much rather they use the idea of his former reputation. He’s a rake who keeps mistresses and sleeps with actresses and singers. Who wouldn’t want to protect a precious baby sister from that? Of course, we’d all know the truth from the last season, but it would have been a much stronger motivation on Kate’s part to keep him from her sister and to doubt his sincerity. Alas, Anthony’s reputation never gets mentioned and plays no part in this season.
I would have even preferred they leave out the nonsensical reasoning they gave and instead just focused on them being two obstinate strong-willed characters who bash heads. Instead, we get a female lead who is constantly and verbally stating her dislike based on the standards and wishes the male lead has for his future life partner, as if she does not have the same kind of expectations (though different) for herself and her sister.
As far as Anthony himself, I quite liked the character this season and found him more interesting. However, again it felt like the motivations of the character were strange, as if the Anthony of season 1 barely existed at all. His whole motivation at the end of season 1 had come out of his heartbreak, so he wished to marry without affection and spare his heart further. All of that seems to have been retconned in season 2 in favor of the flashbacks (I really loved those scenes with young Anthony) and his parent’s relationship. Specifically the trauma of his father’s sudden and early death as well as his mother’s reaction to it. This is what is now presented to us as the reason behind Anthony’s disdain for any attempt at a love match and it would be really great. . .if it wasn’t for season 1.
When the characters are together and Kate isn’t hung up on nonsense, I loved their banter. The croquet scene between them was fantastic and any time they were competitive was gold. I didn’t buy the strange “smelling” sexual tension of the moments they’d used to replace all the steamy sex scenes and wished they’d been a little more subtle, especially because they employed the exact same “face breathing” three different times. To each their own, but I actually laughed at the absurdity the last time they did it. Of their relationship, the only real thing I wished for was faster pacing. Also, I found the horse accident stupid but now I’m getting off-topic and into the completely subjective.
The last big thing I noticed in the show was how shallow or short some of the subplots felt. (Again strange considering the lack of sex AND longer run time) All of the siblings get marginalized to some extent but in season 1 I felt, despite the time taken up by sex, we had plenty of it to get to know Anthony, Benedict, Colin, and Eloise. This season it felt like a chore. “Oh we should have Daphne,” “bring her back for a couple of episodes, don’t mention the missing husband”. What should we do with Benedict? “hmm?” “Something artsy, he’s the artsy one right?” What about Colin? “oh, let’s say he’s grown and moved on,” “Also we should have him check in with Marina!” But. . .the one that made me the saddest, was Eloise.
Eloise and Theo to be specific. I really WANTED to like this couple, however, it was so shallowly skimmed over and on what felt like three times speed that they had “broken up” twice before we really had a chance to embrace them as a thing. They might have been my favorite couple of the season if they hadn’t had so few scenes with such minimal interaction. The entirety of our investment is supposed to be that he’s cute because we don’t ever see the reasons stated behind their attraction, namely the sharing of ideas and thought-provoking conversation.
Eloise even says she’s never had somebody to converse with like this, who both challenged and listened to her ideas. Yet, except for alluding to these “great conversations”, discussing Lady Whistledown or confessing their supposed attraction, they never talk. In the end, it felt much more like Eloise was suffering from a wounded ego than a broken heart, which maybe was what they were going for? I just wish they had either committed to actually developing the relationship or leaving it out altogether and letting us get to explore the “radical ideas” Eloise was discovering. I mean really what was the rally actually about? All we saw was an allusion to vague women’s rights.
So, to sum up I have a love-hate relationship with Bridgerton and season 2 only seemed to inverse the things I liked or disliked about the first. My hope for the 3rd season is to see the marrying of these two things. A season where the sex is a climactic moment between characters we’ve been rooting for and for the extra time to be spent doing all the character’s arcs and stories justice; especially our main two, Penelope and Colin!
