Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 Review

After 3 seasons, Bridgerton has developed a routine: he is excellent during foreplay but unreliable at the end. Nobody enters a relationship expecting an unsatisfactory ending, thus it annoys me when a relationship that has taken time and developed builds to a satisfying climax is just ok.  Nevertheless, the pressure on this underwhelming high point is lessened by Bridgerton’s third season, which spends a lot of time on the other Bridgerton siblings and expands the cast of gregarious supporting characters. Everything surrounding the lead couple is so exciting and fun that it almost doesn’t matter that Polin’s apotheosis is more of a gentle plateau.

Similar to the show’s first two seasons, this chapter of Bridgerton is a wonderful adventure that features Barbie feminism, towering piles of confectionary-sweet nonsense, and the occasional perplexing structural mistake. While there are flaws in every season of Bridgerton, they are all flawed in different ways. The show’s dream of the Regency era was belied by a messy web of racial politics and reproductive fear in its sensual and uninhibited first season.

There was criticism of season two for not having enough sex and for not fully navigating the emotional ups and downs of its sisterly love triangle, despite the fact that it took a slightly more cautious approach to the racial aspects of this universe. In both instances, the season began with a compelling idea but fell short of the intricacies of its own emotional stakes in the second half.

The third season is destined for success. In seasons one and two, Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton both had ample opportunity to grow. Penelope’s secret identity as Lady Whistledown, the anonymous creator of the most important gossip pamphlet in the town, adds a layer of intrigue and challenge to the Colin/Penelope match-up. Fans of the show adore Nicola Coughlan’s portrayal of Penelope, which she does so in a way that seamlessly transitions her from an awkward supporting role to the gorgeous lead love interest.

Colin, played by Luke Newton, is a charming and kind character who can gaze at Penelope with a mixture of yearning and dismay. Because of all the hurtful things Lady Whistledown has said about him and his family, Colin despises her; Penelope’s secret is a bomb that is buried and will explode when it is ready.

Everything seems to be moving along like a brand-new two-horse phaeton on a sunny spring day up until the last few episodes. Following a terrible balloon-based experience, Colin and Penelope struggle with the emotional fallout before embarking on a digital excursion in a carriage that brings them into blissful matrimony.

In their unfurnished future home, Colin and Penelope had one of the most sensitive and charming sex moments on the show, all the while the mystery surrounding Lady Whistledown lingers in the background. Everything is ready for a grand, ardent, explosive, and ultimately fulfilling finale! However, there is a worrisome lack of crucial background information regarding Colin.

Colin had one disappointing trip to Europe, when he received less letters than he had hoped for and had to console himself with the Regency equivalent of a buy-ten-get-one-free brothel membership card. Penelope, on the other hand, has a full hidden life and an ambitious quest for social influence. Although he is a wealthy man with plenty of spare time and the means to publish anything he wants, he fails to really write anything. Perhaps this is something he wants to do as a writer, a concept that is unexpectedly introduced in the premiere.

Though his unbuttoned shirt and large coat evoke the spirit of Mr. Rochester, he flirts with a manly sorrow reminiscent of Charlotte Brontë, but his melancholy is ludicrous at worst and unpersuasive at best.

This is a fantasy world where money almost never matters and all the rules of race, class, aristocratic titles, and the plausible load-bearing capacities of any given hair accessory are invented and discarded on a scene-by-scene basis. Therefore, it is not necessarily a problem with Bridgerton’s chosen storytelling setting or its tendency to focus on wealthy aristocrats. The issue is completely structural.

Colin has no barriers since he is not burdened by issues of wealth or social status, tragedy, trauma, ambition, unmet sexual desire, poor health, or even a particularly passionate interest. He is devoted to his neighbor! She’s sultry for him! He has almost no duties, plenty of money, and the social stature to weather a scandal. He’s doing fantastic and is the most sought-after bachelor of the season! As a result, when Colin eventually learns of Penelope’s secret identity, the betrayal and sadness that ought to be felt equally by both parties instead feel glaringly unfair.

When two romantic leads diverge, the viewer should ideally be able to empathize with both of them and recognize whatever viewpoint is preventing them from being together, even though it is obvious that they will end up together. However, the audience is largely waiting for Colin to grow up because he doesn’t change much during the season.

It should come as no surprise that the two do not have an exuberantly emotional reunion. Penelope and Colin proceed with the wedding as scheduled, which gives rise to even greater tension between them—they will be bound to this terribly unhappy relationship for all time! However, Bridgerton is unable to fully commit to an irate marriage, and Colin gives Penelope a soft smile as she approaches the altar. This has poor momentum for a romance plot, but it’s great for two people who are trying to make it work. Are they meant to be alright now? Have they reached a consensus of some kind? No, since following the wedding,

Colin becomes enraged with her again, and all seems to be resolved when she comes clean about Lady Whistledown in the epilogue. even though they don’t really discuss it! Penelope is also realistic about the issues that lie ahead! But there’s no need to worry—in the end, everything works out beautifully, they have a child, and Colin publishes his book.

Bridgerton’s third season is still incredibly entertaining to watch despite Polin’s lackluster ending, largely because the promising Polin plot is quickly transferred to interesting supporting cast members and the prospect of more seasons. Though it actually belongs to the Featheringtons, especially Polly Walker’s Lady Featherington, who runs away with every scene she’s dealt and manages to balance cruelty, practicality, tenderness, impatience, melancholy, and love while also being unfailingly humorous, the third season should be about Polin. Without a doubt, she and the other two Featherington sisters are this season’s MVPs.

The Bridgerton siblings are assigned so much work, even in the absence of the Featheringtons, that when the Polin narrative slows down, their stories take over. Benedict (Luke Thompson), who has a sexual encounter that deserves an unlikely endurance prize, has the best and most outrageous one. And Francesca (Hannah Dodd) has a lot of promise because the show’s finale presents her love story and has an exciting possible plot twist.

To its advantage, the Bridgerton universe appears larger than it has in the past: New seasons could see promising story development for Cressida Cowper, Violet Bridgerton, Lady Danbury, and her recently revealed brother. The Mondrich family, in particular, in whom Bridgerton obviously wants to invest, suffers from a near-fatal case of Colin Bridgerton Lack-of-Problems Syndrome during this season, so the growth isn’t always effective. However, these plots are more than sufficient to offset any possible tiredness with Bridgerton. At the conclusion of the season, the general consensus is to watch more right away, but this was an unfortunate mess.

The series has successfully accepted the narrative adjustments required to go from a romance-novel series into a TV show, effectively expanding the Bridgerton universe and telling stories about multiple Bridgerton family members at once. The most crucial requirement for any adaptation is that it must deviate from Julia Quinn’s original works just enough to be entirely unique and not just a parody of them.

A Bridgerton series must to possess the ability to not only embrace group narrative but also accomplish the complete fulfillment and meticulous structural harmony of a romance novel. Although Bridgerton is not as good in season three, he is still too much fun to think about ending things anytime soon.