‘Bridgerton’ Season 2 Talks About Keeping Secrets: TV Review
Despite the chemistry between Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley, this season takes too long to get to the big stuff
It took six episodes for the characters of “Bridgerton” Season 2 to admit the obvious. From the moment they first laid eyes on each other, Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and formidable newcomer Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley from “Sex Education”) shared sexual tension so intense that almost everyone in the room could feel its longing vibrations. At first glance, that might put them in the same company as Anthony’s sister Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and her dashing friend Simon (Regé-Jean Page), whose sparkling romance fueled the first season of the Netflix hit. What’s different this season, though, is that both Anthony and Kate are so committed to sacrificing everything for their family that they refuse to admit what they really want until it’s almost too late.
Forbidden love—even self-inflicted love—is nothing new for a period drama, or even the Julia Quinn romance novels it’s inspired by. What’s new about Chris Van Dusen’s “Bridgerton,” however, is the length and relative innocence of this version. There have been plenty of Regency-era dramas that play on desire; thanks to its romance-novel roots, “Bridgerton” has the added benefit of introducing a fairly explicit sex scene into the equation. So while Season 2 does some clever work to explain exactly why Anthony and Kate are so stubbornly holding on to their blindness, it also gives in to their determination to keep as much distance as possible—to “repressively indulge,” in the words of “Arrested Development”—for a surprisingly long time.
Does that make the season any less valuable or immediately special? Well… yes and no. But for many eager “Bridgerton” viewers, it’s likely to be a confusing surprise, at the very least.
To be fair, season two was always going to have a steep climb. For one, Quinn’s corresponding novel (“The Viscount Who Loved Me”) is one of her most beloved—and fans of the novel should be warned that the TV adaptation takes a major turn after the infamous bee sting scene (if you know, you know) to become something else entirely. Second, the first season became a Netflix phenomenon thanks to the perfect storm of a timely premiere (Christmas Day 2020), silly and sexy entertainment after a terrible first year of COVID, and Page’s breakout role as a smoldering duke with self-loathing and over-the-top hotness. (For those wondering if there was a sneaky Page cameo despite his insistence on ending the series, I can confirm that he’s still keeping his word.) Following up on that singular feeling would be tough no matter what.
That said: It’s undeniably strange to watch this second season and feel as if the “Bridgerton” team might have forgotten what made the show such a fun distraction in the first place. Yes, the costumes and production design are still sumptuous. Yes, it’s still fun to watch Adjoa Andoh’s Lady Danbury, Polly Walker’s Lady Featherington, Ruth Gemmell’s Lady Bridgerton, and Golda Rosheuvel’s Queen Charlotte (a character who will soon have her own Shonda Rhimes prequel series) team up and/or spar. And sure, when the show finally lets its main characters succumb to their passions, the moment of (literal) release is satisfying, even if it’s shot rather frantically. But over the course of the season’s eight hour-long episodes, this “Bridgerton” return often feels like a luxury carriage stuck in the mud, spinning its wheels before finally rolling back on its own.
This is even true of the season’s subplots, which are almost entirely dull until the finale tries to kick things into high gear. Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie) still spends her free time chasing down clues to the identity of the mysterious gossip Lady Whistledown, but she still can’t quite figure out that it’s her best friend Penelope (Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan, whose lucid performance is still more nuanced than her repetitive material). Meanwhile, Penelope continues to harbor feelings for Eloise’s brother Colin (Luke Newton), who has become increasingly insufferable since returning to England from a trip abroad, as her family struggles to make ends meet through a relationship Netflix won’t let me reveal.
