Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
‘Bridgerton’ season 2 is still a great show and worth the watch, but without the Duke there is less fire
TONIGHT, 400 guests in their Regency-era finest garments, all preening and primping, will be doing their best to get the approval of Zozibini Tunzi, at “A Bridgerton Affair” hosted at the Inanda Club in Johannesburg.
The former Miss Universe will stand in for Queen Charlotte, and take pride of place as the ultimate taste maker and gatekeeper, who decides who is worthy to be called the “Diamond of the Season”.
The event is the official African premiere of the second season of the hit show, which has become a cult favourite.
The first season of brought something few shows enjoy: worldwide adulation. The obsession with the Shonda Rhimes-produced show based on the series by Julia Quinn was so great, its actors became superstars overnight.
Regé-Jean Page, Phoebe Dynevor, Jonathan Bailey and Nicola Coughlan revelled in their new-found fame, courting admirers (and foes) as they became the toast of le bon ton (or Hollywood fame).
With the pandemic in full force the time and nary a vaccine in anyone’s arm, Bridgerton provided a respite from our reality. Here was a show to transport us to a world that only cared about wealth, meeting the ideal life partner and getting approval from the queen.
And since we were, yet again, locked inside with few outdoor activities possible, the show not only offered an opportunity for some escapist fun but something we hadn’t seen before with a Regency era-based show.
We gobbled up the modern-day songs rearranged for the period, the anticipation of trying to figure out who Lady Whistledown was and of course the burning love story with Simon Basset, the Duke of Hastings (Page) and Daphne Bridgerton (Dynevor).
The show became an instant hit, internationally and locally, and TikTok FYPs, Twitter and Instagram time-lines were filled with user-created content based on it. However there was soon to be heartbreak when news broke that Page would not be joining the cast for the second season.
Now the big question is: Without the fan favourite Duke of Hastings on the show, does Bridgerton have the guts to pull off a coup that fans will not get enough of and even forget the impossibly attractive Duke?
The second season of Bridgerton was plagued with production issues due to constant coronavirus cases, which added to the long wait for its return. However, it looks like they had no impact on the end product.
We pick up the following year with the next social season, with high society still recovering from the fallout of Lady Whistledown/Penelope Featherington (Coughlan) spilling all the insider tea.
After a close call last season, Lady Whistledown is back and making moves to take her business to new heights. Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is determined to outsmart the nosy columnist and regain her control over high society which she feels is getting out of her reach.
The show is beautifully shot, the acting is great, figuring out what pop song is playing at various social events is fun, seeing what kind of wig Queen Charlotte is going to wear is exciting, but when it comes to our two leads, there doesn’t seem to be much fire.
With the pandemic turning into an endemic, with many of the restrictions that made many of us homebodies gone, the second season of the show doesn’t quite scratch the same itch.
Don’t get me wrong, the addition of the Sharma family – Edwina (Charithra Chandran), Kate (Simone Ashley) and Mary (Shelley Conn) – adds a bit more scope to the show.
While they still subscribe to the norms of London high society, they are very much in touch with their Indian heritage, which in both small and more overt ways is shown.
This is specifically so with Kate, where she does slight code-switching when speaking to her sister and mother compared to everyone else.
There is a lot of chemistry between Kate and Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), but it’s nowhere close to that between Daphne and Simon.
That “burn for you” scene is still one of the hottest things to grace our screens, and they try to do something similar with Anthony and Kate, but it just doesn’t hit in the same way. I don’t foresee a whole song being made from that moment.
The lack of true fire between them might have to do with Anthony, in general, being a very unlikeable character. Especially compared to Simon, who straddled the line between lovable douchebag and swoon-worthy heartthrob.
The stand-out performance from the first six episodes, for review purposes, came from Simone. She brings a presence and stature to the role of Kate that is very much against the status quo. Kate expertly straddles the line of playing the game for women in that period while still finding ways to be independent.
The show is still good, with great scriptwriting and characters we still care about. The story moves well enough between all the cast members, with the focus being Kate and Anthony.
However, since their storyline is the anchor for this season and at least in the first couple of episodes, it falls short compared to Daphne and Simon.
Shondaland has never been shy to give well-rounded queer characters a good storyline in their shows, and I’m hoping we get that in the second half of the season.
Bridgerton is still a great show and is worth the watch, but for me, I just didn’t feel the burn this time around. Hopefully, when season 3 comes around, the next couple the story focuses on will reignite the fire that was once the main driving force on the show.
And is Regé-Jean Page missed? He definitely needs to at least make a cameo appearance in later seasons. His beautiful face and body are truly missed.