‘Bridgerton’ Season 2 Speaks Up About Keeping Secrets: TV Review
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 of “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 his 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 completely committed to sacrificing everything for their families 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 draws from. What is new about Chris Van Dusen’s “Bridgerton,” however, is its length and relative innocence. 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 some pretty explicit sex into the equation. So while Season 2 has some clever character work that explains 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 “repressive satisfaction,” 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, this season will likely be a confusing surprise, to say the least.
To be fair, season two was always going to have a steep climb. First, 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 performance 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 unfortunately confirm that he kept his promise.) Chasing that sense of solitude will be difficult no matter what.
