Dearest Reader,
Today I bring forth a very large review of all my thoughts of Bridgerton Season 1. It’s a bit late but it’s here. I’ve had this drafted for a while but it was a bit intimidating to edit. After seeing the Season 3 news, I got the last bit of motivation I needed to clean this up and get it published!
Today I bring forth a very large review of all my thoughts of Bridgerton Season 1. Like with most other cool and popular things, I have arrived *very* late to the Bridgerton fandom. I’ve read a couple of the books a while ago but I actually didn’t end up watching the show until right before the second season dropped. I can assure you all that I am very much on the Bridgerton hype train now. It’s honestly become my new comfort TV show.
I’ve had this post drafted for a while now but I’ve been putting it off because it was so long and I was too lazy to edit it down but now that we’ve got news from the Bridgerton crew that Season 3 has officially started filming, I got that last bit of motivation I needed to clean this up and get it posted.
It was so fun revisiting my thoughts of the first season, especially because the Season 3 synopsis has just been released.
This is a pretty lengthy post so grab yourself a beverage of your choice and dive in!
For those who have not heard of this Netflix show yet, Bridgerton is a regency romance TV series that’s based off Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton novels. There are 8 books in the series, each one following a Bridgerton sibling find the love of their life.
The Bridgerton family consists of Lady Bridgerton, the widow of the late Viscount Bridgerton and mother to the current Viscount, Lord Anthony Bridgerton, and seven other children. The Bridgerton siblings consist of Anthony, Benedict, Collin, Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, Gregory, and Hyacinth.
The first season of the show is based off the first book in the series, “The Duke and I”, where we’re introduced to Daphne Bridgerton. Daphne’s the oldest sister in the Bridgerton family and has made her debut into society in search for a groom. Much to the happiness of the rest of the Bridgerton’s, Daphne’s named the Diamond of the ton by the Queen herself. With this new title, Daphne’s marriage prospects have significantly increased but so has the drama that comes with being in the center of Society’s gossip. When things inevitably start to go awry, Daphne is desperate to find a way to win back some control and ends up striking a deal with the mysterious Duke of Hastings, a deal that’ll change the course of both their lives.
I’m not going to lie, I went into Bridgerton with the sole purpose of finishing Season 1 to get to Season 2. Season 2 is centered around my favorite characters, Kate and Anthony, and Season 1 is centered around a character I really disliked, Daphne. So given that I didn’t really like book Daphne, I wasn’t exactly keen to spend 8 hours with her in Season 1.
Boy, oh boy was I wrong.
I mean Daphne still did piss me off at times but this show was just so good.
First of all, it’s a work of art. The amount of time, money, work, and people that went behind making the sets, costumes, music, and atmosphere of the Bridgerton world is insane. The show is dripping in the beauty and elegance of this extremely diverse utopia where everyone’s rich, happy, and spends day and night worrying about balls and dances.
I read a ton of historical romance novels that are centered around relationships that spun off from the events of a Season but to actually see what a Season entails of on screen was magical. The aesthetic of the show made the whole story so much more meaningful.
I also didn’t mind Daphne until around episode 6. Phoebe Dynevor who plays Daphne is so good at acting. Her acting was so strong in this show and it showed in each and every episode because we really got to see a physical and emotional transformation in Daphne’s character. I love how the costume designers made subtle changes to her wardrobe to indicate her character’s journey and how Phoebe’s acting paralleled these changes in the way she carried herself physically in each scene. Looking back on the first season now, I think that it was so amazing how Phoebe took naive innocent, and fresh Daphne and slowly aged her into some who’s so much more mature and knowing of the world, people, and womanhood.
My biggest complaint with the book, “The Duke and I”, is that Daphne’s character felt pretty uninteresting and flat to me. I was always more interested in the Duke’s storyline. Phoebe brought Daphne to life. Daphne’s character arc was one of my favorite things of Season 1, even though I didn’t like some of her character’s decisions.
I also love how Shonda is playing with storylines and timelines and adding in her own voice. I didn’t know about this but apparently, Season 1 introduced some characters we don’t get to read about until book 5 or 6 in the Julia Quinn series.
I think that one of the greatest things Shonda did is to give more screen time to the Featherington’s. The Featherington’s don’t have much page time in the first book other than that to say that the mother’s a bit nosy and they’re overall a pretty eccentric family. I love how Shonda took that and went even further by developing more of a background for their presence such as having family struggles with an unreliable father/husband and the maternal figure having to take control of situations in also equally unreliable and harmful ways.
Of course, the diamond of the Featherington family is Penelope, the youngest daughter who’s best friend to Eloise. Once again, I need to praise Shonda and her team for their Penelope casting because I love Nicola Coughlin, I’ve followed her ever since I watched Derry Girls and I was so, so, so happy to see her playing Penelope.
In this show, we don’t only follow the main romantic relationship between Daphne and the Duke but we also get to follow friendships, sibling dynamics, and parent and child relationships.
Eloise and Penelope’s relationship is the most precious thing ever. Seeing them laugh, fight, support, and protect each other just knocked me out with all the nostalgia. There’s something so precious about seeing young female friendship and how supportive two girls can be with each other but also having falling outs. Their relationship felt so real, and authentic.
I also loved seeing Eloise and Benedict’s relationship. I think that they were my favorite Bridgerton sibling duo in this show. I love the contrast of snarky, witty Eloise and fun loving, soft, Benedict.
As mentioned before, this show did add more non-cannon storylines into the show and I, as a reader, personally didn’t mind them and appreciated their additions:
I already mentioned the Featherington’s but they need another shoutout, especially Mama Featherington. I’ve never felt so annoyed but also enraptured by a character in a show than I did with Lady Featherington. She did some real shitty stuff but taking into consideration the time period, things read a bit differently. As cunning, foxy, and innovative as she was, even when meant for bad intent, it was still admirable to see such a strong, independent woman in a time period like that of the Regency Era.
I think the most significant difference between the show and the book is the inclusion of Anthony’s origin story. In book two, “The Viscount and Me”, where we get to follow Anthony’s story, we’re introduced to the fact that he’s a retired Rake. He’s wanting to settle down and find himself a wife but we never get much insight into the before. I think the show did a good job in setting up the background and foundation for Anthony’s story in season 2 by laying out all his flaws, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities and baptizing him into the role of the eldest son, the Viscount, in a way that as painful as it was for him, was necessary.
I think that by having us go through Anthony’s origin story, we get to feel for him better and set him up to be in the right position for season 2. I’m getting ahead of myself and getting into season 2 discussion points, but I think that by showing how flawed of a character he was, it rightly accentuated Kate’s future role in his life because she too is a flawed character.
We can’t not mention Collin Bridgerton. I loved seeing him interact with Penelope and his brutal friend zoning of her. It’s definitely sad to watch but it sets up that, best friend’s brother and unrequited love trope so well.
The thing I hated about the book continued to be something I hated in the show. First of all, I really didn’t think that they’d go through with it on the show but the whole non-consensual sex scene was as problematic on screen as it was on page.
What made me the most mad about this whole situation is that Daphne used her situation to relate to Marina and to place herself on the same level as Marina. Daphne’s non-consensual act cannot be compared to Marina’s actions. Marina is not a privileged woman who comes from a family of money and respect. Marina is a young woman who was manipulated and lied to by her caretakers. Yes, Daphne was also failed by society and her mother but the whole situation that led her to assaulting the Duke could have been avoided with simple communication. Daphne was mad that the Duke didn’t communicate and so she didn’t either. Unlike Marina, Daphne had options that would have allowed her to live a comfortable life while Marina had no options.
The other thing that bothered me about this season was the scene where Mr. Featherington told Will Mondrich something along the lines “your father ran away from the colonies for you to end up like this.” I know this show is about this inclusive utopia but I mean… come on. A white man is telling a black man how to live his life and teaching him about the privilege?!
It just adds to the whole conversation where so many European countries spend hours on end shit talking America when most all of those countries were are all imperialistic empires that imprisoned millions of people and affected their society and culture in such a way that it’s still affecting generations today. Especially Britain, especially for that white man to preach about what it means to live a meaningful life and to not be ignorant about the privilege a colored person he has.
That whole scene really triggered me and rehashed this conversation I had with my friend about how so many European countries bond by shit talking America and its problems when they have a boatload of their own. Almost all European countries were imperialistic empires that conquered places to “humanize” people and steal lives, resources, and land that weren’t theirs. Especially Britain and so when I saw Mr. Featherington talk to Mondrich like that, I spiraled into a ball of rage.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading that giant essay review lol. If you read the series and are hesitant about watching the show because you didn’t like the book, I say forget the book. Go into this show and prepare to find yourself lost in the most immersive, cozy show on Netflix. Season 1 does follow Daphne and the Duke’s storyline pretty closely but the show has so much more plot imbued into it that you won’t get bored.
Have you seen the show? What did you think of Season 1?
I’ll be doing a review of Season 2 soon and get ready because Season 2 is my favorite so far.