TV Review: "Bridgerton: Season 3 (Part 2)"
The second half of the third season of the beloved Netflix show is a stronger, more coherent outing than its predecessor.
Hello, dear reader! Do you like what you read here at Omnivorous? Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture? Do you like supporting indie writers? If so, then please consider becoming a subscriber and get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. There are a number of paid options, but you can also sign up for free! Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and now, on with the show!
I hate to admit it, but I was very underwhelmed by the first half of the third season of Bridgerton. At first glance it seemed to have all of the things that I love most about the show–misunderstandings, romantic tension, steamy sex scenes–but there were just too many storylines going on for it to all cohere into a compelling piece of dramatic television. I was therefore more than a little skeptical that they’d manage to stick the landing for the back half of the season but, as it turns out, I was wrong. The final four episodes of this third season put Bridgerton back in fine form, giving us both a fitting conclusion to the Penelope/Colin romance as well as sowing the seeds for future seasons.
The heart of it all is, of course, Penelope herself. It really is a perpetual delight as Penelope, and it’s been quite extraordinary to finally get to come into her own as a character. Her arc is especially compelling as it revolves around her divided loyalties, between her love and faith in herself as a writer (in her persona as Lady Whistledown) and her obvious love and desire for Colin, the man she has always dreamt of being with. There’s something heartbreaking and poignant about her desire to have both her profession and her love, just as there’s something uplifting and triumphant about the fact that she gets to have both. By the end of the season she can now live openly as the author of her beloved gossip sheet as well as get her happily ever after with Colin. It’s a true triumph of storytelling, and thanks to Nicola Coughlan’s performance we cheer along with her victory, even as we are also pleased that she’s decided to use her poison pen for more noble, uplifting purposes.
But, it probably goes without saying, my favorite part of the second half of the season was our dear Lady Featherington.
You’re probably tired of hearing me talk about how great Polly Walker is in this show but, if so, you can just skip this paragraph. She is one of those actresses who plays women who are tough-as-nails and have a take-no-prisoners attitude but who can, on a dime, show the deeper vulnerability that lurks beneath the surface. This season has really given her a chance to shine, since she not only has to contend with the ups and downs of Pen’s relationship with Colin but also has to try to fend off a nosy solicitor who has it in for her and isn’t going to rest until he’s brought the entire edifice of the Featherington family crashing down around them.
Now, at last, she has to accept that her youngest is the daughter who is the most like her, in the sense that she has a sharp mind and a keen wit and knows how to put them to good use. At the same time, however, she also shows that in some key ways she is very different from her mother. While Lady Featherington has always been willing to play by the rules of the ton, for all that they chafe and restrict her, Penelope does not. She is the kind of woman who plays by her own rules, even if that means turning her poison pen against herself. Both, however, have an acute awareness of how power and privilege work in their world, just as they also recognize that, to paraphrase Baby Jane, they could have been friends all along. Fortunately, it seems that they now have a truce in hand, and they can both work together for the betterment of their family and their own personal relationship.
However, Penelope and Lady Featherington aren’t the only two tough-as-nails women who are duking it out this season. Enter Cressida Cowper, who not only tries to claim the mantle of Lady Whistledown but also goes so far as to blackmail Penelope once she ferrets out the truth A less subtle actress than Jesse Masden would have turned the young Cowper into someone it would be easy to hate. In her capable hands, however, she becomes something else: an embittered young woman who has had to endure her father’s unkindness and her mother’s passivity but who yearns for something more. It’s really rather sad that she doesn’t get the same kind of happy ending as Penelope, but we can hope that in some future reality she at least gets to have a little bit of the happiness that she has been starved of throughout her life.
Overall, the third season of Bridgerton does a masterful job of both giving us the wish-fulfillment of the Penelope/Colin romance as well as nicely setting the stage for more romantic outings to come. I’m particularly excited to see what comes of the brewing love triangle among Francesa, John Stirling, and his dazzling cousin Michaela. Likewise, I’m glad that we finally got to see Colin have some much-needed male-on-male action, and it’s my earnest (though perhaps vain) hope that he’ll find his prince charming in a subsequent season.
For me, though, Eloise will always be the most fascinating and beloved of the Bridgerton siblings. We’ve seen some extraordinary character work from Claudia Jessie this season, and it will be very exciting to see what she’s able to do when the story well and truly shifts to her point of view. I’m sure I’m not the only one who breathed an enormous sigh of relief when she was finally able to let her resentment of Penelope and resume their friendship. While it may never be what it was before the fallout from the Featherington revelations, one can but hope that they’ll find their way back to one another after Eloise returns from her sojourn in Scotland (assuming, of course, that she does so).
In conclusion, I found this to be a remarkable season of TV, and while the series has lost just a bit of its former dazzle, I’ll keep tuning in for more. There’s just enough of the old magic–from the scenery-chewing performances of Adjoa Andoh and Golda Rosheuvel as Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte to the lovely matronliness of Ruth Gemmell’s Violet Bridgerton (who gets her own love interest!)--to make Bridgerton a delight. Here’s to season four!