Bridgerton season 2 review: No Duke? No problem!

Season one of Bridgerton was a phenomenon — a sumptuous pandemic distraction replete with gorgeous people wearing extravagant costumes and having steamy, soft-core sex all over Regency-era London. Eighty-two million households tuned in to watch the devilish and dashing Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page) lick a spoon — which made the surprising news of Page's departure ahead of season two feel like a potential death blow for the Netflix hit.

Now for a twist that would catch even Lady Whistledown off-guard: As it turns out, Bridgerton doesn't need the Duke. With a second season that's more clever, moving, and emotionally complex than the first, this period drama — based on Julia Quinn's novels and created by Shondaland's Chris Van Dusen — proves that it's not just a titillating trifle.

Having married off his sister Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) to the Duke, Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) decides it is time for him to fulfill his duty as Viscount and secure a wife during London's upcoming social season. He sets his sights on the elegant Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), a newcomer to the city and the protégé of the ton's formidable doyenne, Lady Danbury (the equally formidable Adjoa Andoh). Vexingly, his efforts to court Edwina are hindered by the disapproval of her beautiful and headstrong older sister, Kate (Sex Education's Simone Ashley). Let the love triangle commence!

While Daphne and the Duke had solid physical chemistry (outside, on a staircase, in the library, and so on), Bailey and Ashley bring a sexy screwball energy to Anthony and Kate. The elder Miss Sharma is resolute and rebellious, quick to scoff at the Viscount's imperious persona and transactional view of matrimony. Whether they're quibbling over proper hunting techniques or going head-to-head in a family game of Pall Mall, Kate and Anthony's bickering disguises the powerful passion of two opposites who very much do not want to attract.

It all plays out against the kind of impeccable excess Bridgerton fans have come to expect. Members of the ton gather at lavish balls, where they waltz to classical renditions of pop songs, pay homage to the Queen (Golda Rosheuvel), and whisper about the latest gossip revealed by Lady Whistledown (voiced by Dame Julie Andrews) in her anonymous scandal sheet.

Anthony's feisty sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie) is still on a mission to uncover the true author's identity — who viewers know to be Eloise's brilliant but perpetually underestimated best friend, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) — though it results in a more nuanced and substantive storyline for each character this season. Eloise's investigation leads her to cross paths with Theo Sharpe (Calam Lynch), a working-class intellectual who shares her progressive ideas. Penelope, meanwhile, struggles with guilt over lying to Eloise as well as fears that her endeavors as Lady Whistledown only serve to add more toxicity to a society she already disdains.

What season two lacks in sex montages it makes up for in emotional resonance. Anthony is forced to face how his father's death — and the immediate, crushing responsibility it placed on him as the eldest son — drove him to develop a tyrannical focus on duty, leaving him all but estranged from his own siblings. Bailey easily captures his character's personal growth, as Anthony's deep love for his family begins to break down his icily stern demeanor. Luke Thompson gets a welcome increase in screen time, showing off his romantic-hero bonafides as Benedict Bridgerton, an artist with the soul of a poet. Polly Walker remains a snooty hoot as the scheming Lady Featherington, whose efforts to secure her family's financial situation are complicated by the arrival of her late husband's brother.

That isn't to say that the new season of Bridgerton is chaste — heavens no. There are moments of intense sexual charge, and all those pent-up feelings mean that the subtitles (yes, I watch with subtitles) display the words "[breathing heavily]" frequently. But now we know there's a rich family saga beneath all those heaving bosoms. Grade: A-

Bridgerton season 2 premieres March 25 on Netflix.

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