Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2
One of the littlest pleasures in life is finishing a season of a TV show and feeling utterly satisfied. It’s like eating just the right amount of delicious chocolate cake, or taking a nap at just the right time, and while I mean that as the ultimate compliment, it’s almost rude to say that “Bridgerton” Season 3 Part 2 is a good one because these final episodes don’t feel like a nap. They’re more like a colorful dream, perhaps. It’s so good at delivering exactly what it needs to be that it’s amazing — it’s truly a masterpiece. If you’ve ever almost loved “Bridgerton” before, I can’t imagine you won’t be completely engrossed in this season.
The second half of the season picks up where the first left off, right after Colin (Luke Newton) proposes to Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) after a steamy carriage ride with a Pitbull instrumental. Thanks to a quick announcement from Pen’s alter ego Lady Whistledown, everyone is buzzing with the news, but there’s a worrying twist: Colin still doesn’t know that Penelope is a notorious gossip, and the only Bridgerton who knows is still seething over the secret. Eloise (Claudia Jessie) plays a semi-villain this season, threatening to eliminate her friend Whistledown if Penelope can’t figure out how to tell Colin. But when Eloise’s anger turns more into jealousy, Cressida (Jessica Madsen) and her big sleeves swoop in to ruin her own redemption arc and almost Penelope’s life.
It’s like a superhero TV series, with Whistledown being the vigilante whose identity everyone wants to know. Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) in particular wants to know, and she wants to know so much that she offers a £5,000 reward to anyone who can tell her, making Penelope’s late-night trips to the printing press all the more dangerous and her relationship with Colin all the more precarious. It also adds interesting twists to a show that’s often lacking in that department.
In the Bridgerton way, everything works out for everyone except Cressida. Colin and Eloise eventually get over themselves and their gallant contempt/jealousy for Whistledown, and the Queen gives Penelope her approval, preventing her reputation from being ruined. Penelope also abandons the Lady Whistledown name, choosing to continue her column but signing it as Penelope Bridgerton, a major twist in the books. At the end of “Romancing Mr. Bridgerton,” Penelope quits the gig altogether. This is a much better choice, and it’s not the first or last great change in the book.
The story of Colin and Penelope isn’t Julia Quinn’s best novel, but its magic lies in the friendship-turned-lovers plot between two beloved characters, and Colin and Penelope’s command of an epic romance that’s also a little silly. The show has managed to change almost all of the book’s key moments without losing the spirit of the story or feeling like it’s forgotten entirely. Instead, it feels like the most beloved parts of the book have been carefully planted in places that are more appropriate for the show.
Colin and Penelope’s second sex scene, which comes just minutes into Episode 5, is a prime example. In the book, Colin suddenly goes from being angry with his new fiancée to being extremely horny for her, and says some strange things about wanting to grab her breasts in front of a mirror. It’s all part of the ongoing story that Penelope isn’t traditionally beautiful and was forced to have sex in front of a mirror to see how beautiful Colin thinks she is. On screen, the mirror is present, but it feels like this is an opportunity for Coughlan to declare that she is, to quote herself, “a respected member of the perfect-breasted community.”
Penelope has no idea what she’s doing and no one has ever paid attention to her like this before, but there’s no doubt that she’s intrigued and is just as into it as Colin. She doesn’t know exactly how it works (as we’ve learned Mrs. Featherington isn’t great at explaining sex to her daughters) but she’s willing and ready to learn. The resulting scene, which comes alongside the Outlander wedding night episode of television sex, is well done, and Coughlan’s performance makes it feel like it’s more than just a sex scenes just for the sake of sex scenes. The scene changes Penelope’s life, and it only takes a few facial expressions to convey how epic it is. Coughlan is definitely a star, putting a little pressure on future showrunners to live up to what she’s brought to the table.
As Penelope builds confidence in both her writing abilities and her sex life, the rest of Bridgerton begins to plant some seeds for the future, both literally and figuratively, while the series gives readers some thrilling teases and finds a great balance overall. Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley) are expecting a child and adjusting to their futures as viscount and viscountess, while Violet (Ruth Gemmell) is watching things unfold with Lady Danbury’s handsome brother Marcus (Daniel Francis). Benedict (Luke Thompson) has just embarked on a very sexy threesome and reveals that he might like men too and is looking forward to his mother’s upcoming masquerade ball (a big event for him in the book “A Gentleman’s Proposal”).
Meanwhile, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) heads to Scotland with her new husband, Lord Kilmartin (Victor Alli), a reserved but observant man who values peace and quiet. They’re joined by Eloise, who’s itching for adventure away from the marriage market, and John’s cousin… Michaela. Readers of Francesca’s book “When He Was Wicked” will find it a bit surprising that the film delves deeper into modern ideas about relationships and marriage, and deeper into its own fantasy. This is most evident in the costumes, which are stunning works of art and character studies, but seem increasingly less historically accurate.
At this point, I’m no longer here for accuracy (if there ever was one). I’m here for the romantic, dramatic, feel-good stories about hot people overcoming the limitations society places on them while wearing impractical dresses and corsets as necklaces, and that’s exactly what Season 3 is in all the best ways. It’s just fun and delicious, a sugary treat that I can’t wait to eat again. I hope future seasons are even sweeter, but for now I’m content with this confection.
