‘Sanditon’ Season 3 Review: Soapier, Smarter, and Swoonier… The Final Season Soars

Sanditon Season 3 has got me swooning. The first five episodes of the final season of the beloved Masterpiece on PBS series fully embrace the joys and sorrows of romance, letting love bloom all over Jane Austen‘s seaside resort. It’s not just heroine Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) and her Season 2 love interest Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) who will have you squeeing like a tween at a boy band concert. Almost every Sanditon character, new and returning, gets a taste of romance in the show’s final season. Sanditon Season 3 is the show at its soapiest, smartest best and it’s well worth the wait for long-time fans.

Sanditon Season 3 opens with Charlotte Heywood returning to Sanditon for her best friend Georgiana Lambe’s (Crystal Clarke) 21st birthday. However, she’s not alone. She’s come with her farmer fiancé Ralph (Cai Bridgen). Now, Ralph isn’t a bad guy. He’s just a blah guy. And he’s certainly not as confident, intelligent, or sophisticated as any of Charlotte’s past love interests. As it so happens, Alexander Colbourne has also finally returned to Sanditon after a spell away. The star-crossed lovers are placed on a collision path when Colbourne’s niece Augusta (Eloise Webb) finagles a last-minute invite to Georgiana’s big soiree.

Hard core fans know that Sanditon Season 2 was something of a reset for the Jane Austen-inspired series. The first season ended on a cliffhanger, with Charlotte learning that although Sidney Parker (Theo James) loves her, he must marry his widowed former flame for her money. The idea was that their story would be resolved later, but James quit the show in the gap between ITV cancelling the series and PBS picking it up. The show killed Sidney off, introduced new characters, and put Charlotte through the wringer of heartache followed by grief followed by yet more heartache. Though she managed to find love with the brooding Colbourne, their wires got crossed. Words were misspoken. So Charlotte withdrew from Sanditon and got engaged to the farmer her family wanted for her. Now Charlotte is back in Sanditon and it’s clear that Ralph is not the man for her. Everyone else sees it, but can she?

Rose Williams plays Charlotte as more muted than ever before. She is clearly straining under the weight of all of her regrets. Ben Lloyd-Hughes, on the other hand, plays Colbourne with a bit more confidence. If their brief Season 2 romance brought Colbourne back to life, it seems to have left Charlotte a pale imitation of her former self. That isn’t to say that Charlotte has completely wilted. In fact, Williams and Lloyd-Hughes’s chemistry is such that a brief glance can convey oceans of emotions.

Of course, Sanditon Season 3 has a lot more going on than the tortured tension of Charlotte and Colbourne’s romance. Georgiana’s birthday means she has officially come of age and can take possession of her fortune, but an unwelcome blast from the past once again puts her future in danger. Miss Lambe is also being pursued by Lord Montrose (Edward Davis), an impoverished Duke harboring a secret. Elsewhere, Tom Parker (Kris Marshall) is trying to build a grand hotel, Edward Denham (Jack Fox) is flirting with redeeming himself, and Augusta embarks on her own first romance. We also get to meet Alexander Colbourne’s dashing brother Samuel (Liam Garrigan), who calls his sibling ‘Xander. (I didn’t see that nickname coming!)

Sanditon Season 3 isn’t high art, but it is perfect comfort viewing. It balances the hallmarks of Jane Austen’s style with some truly progressive new storylines. Indeed, Sanditon Season 3 bizarrely outpaces Netflix’s Bridgerton in terms of tackling race, sexuality, and even classic romance tropes. (One storyline even feels like a cheeky riff on Daphne and the Duke’s fauxmance!) But what makes Sanditon’s final season so enchanting so far is how it still leans into wholesome values like love, community, and kindness.

What I’ve seen so far of Sanditon‘s final season has me both excited and devastated to see the series finale. I’ve fallen so hard for the characters of Sanditon that I don’t want my visit with them to end. The final season of Sanditon is absolutely enchanting and a fitting farewell for a beloved show.

Sanditon Season 3 premieres on Masterpiece on PBS on Sunday, March 19.