Bridgerton Season 2 *Almost* Gets the Romance Right
Warning: This review contains spoilers for the entirety of Bridgerton Season 2.
You’re immediately happy once you hit play on Bridgerton Season 2 Episode 1, “Capital R Rake,” and step back into this world and the drama surrounding marriage season. It’s a wonderful escape from today’s insanity, and you can transport yourself to a place where you know you’re guaranteed to witness a happily ever after.
Everything we loved on Bridgerton Season 1 is back in full force on Season 2. Thankfully, this time around, the costumes and wigs have gotten so much better.
Without a doubt, the highlight of Bridgerton Season 2 is the Bridgerton family. All their scenes, whether it’s a big group of them together or some one-on-one sibling chats, are wonderful.
There’s something so heartwarming about being back with this family. They can be completely chaotic, like when playing pall mall, but they can also be sweet, as evident in Eloise and Benedict’s scenes alone together or Anthony talking to Gregory about their father.
There’s so much to love within the Bridgerton household, and I wish we spent more time with them, which always seems to be the case. The season definitely had a storyline or two it could’ve cut, but more on that later.
The love story of the season is between Kate and Anthony, and it’s a captivating romance. Bridgerton does a fantastic job bringing this beloved couple to life.
From their first interaction, it’s impossible to stop the grin on your face, and the sparks continue to grow from episode to episode.
While it’s hard to pick a favorite moment between the two of them, I have to praise the final two episodes. Bridgerton Season 2 Episode 7, “Harmony,” and Bridgerton Season 2 Episode 8, “The Viscount Who Loved Me,” delivers some top-tier Kate and Anthony moments, as well as giving us some heartwarming sisterly moments between Kate and Edwina.
The chemistry between Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley is beyond insane. They are the perfect Kate and Anthony. There are so many electric moments between Kate and Anthony, filled with unresolved sexual tension and lingering looks. Their romance really is almost perfect.
But then, Bridgerton decides to drag out Edwina and Anthony’s courtship.
I honestly couldn’t believe that we make it all the way to their wedding. Despite knowing how the book ends (and therefore who ends up together), the events leading up to their wedding is beyond stressful.
You can’t deny that Edwina and Anthony’s drawn-out courtship provides some wonderful Kate and Anthony moments as they try to hide their feelings and have some tension-filled, secret encounters.
However, it would have been better if Edwina and Anthony’s engagement ended on Bridgerton Season 2 Episode 5, “An Unthinkable Fate.”
Over the course of the dinner, a very plausible reason for the courtship to end is revealed, and it appeared as if everything was over. And it should have been.
Edwina would’ve been heartbroken, and then we could’ve still had her put the pieces together regarding Kate and Anthony somehow. Perhaps during Edwina’s re-entry into society as a single woman, she could’ve observed Kate and Anthony together and had it all click. She’d still be devasted and upset with Kate.
It also would’ve given more time for Edwina to process Kate’s betrayal and forgive her for it.
The only thing that the engagement ending with the dinner wouldn’t have caused is the downfall of the Bridgertons (which I did love), but Eloise’s scandal could’ve accomplished that, and we could’ve seen it more in a reaction to when Kate and Anthony are officially together.
The main reason why I maintain the engagement should’ve ended on “An Unthinkable Fate” is it would have allowed us to see more of Kate and Anthony together, whether as an engaged couple or as a married one.
We spend quite a bit of time with Daphne and Simon once they are married during Bridgerton Season 1. Therefore, it’s hard not to feel cheated that we don’t see Kate and Anthony settling into married life, nor do we see everyone reacting to their engagement.
Overall, Bridgerton does a good job with Kate and Anthony. Their passion is evident whether they are fighting or finally giving in to their temptations. If the series had just changed one thing, it would’ve been spectacular.
During Bridgerton Season 1, we had to spend time with the Featheringtons in order to get to know Penelope. Fans who hadn’t read the book needed time to fall in love with her in order to make the Whistledown reveal a bit more shocking.
However, there’s no need to have a separate Featherington family storyline in Season 2.
Penelope has her own storyline going as we follow along with her Whistledown endeavors as she tries to run her business and keep it a secret from everyone. That’s a very valid reason to spend time with her separate from the Bridgertons, and it’s so much more entertaining than Cousin Jack.
The fake mines and the sham of a proposal are extremely boring, and when the flirting with Lady Featherington starts, it gets creepy. We could’ve spent time on literally any other storyline, and it would’ve been a vast improvement.
The Lady Whistledown storyline, however, is a fantastic side storyline throughout the entire season.
We’re able to see more of the complete picture of who Penelope is by following her around as she tends to Lady Whistledown business. In Season 1, we mainly saw Penelope through the lens of her friendship with Eloise or her role in the Featherington family. So, it is about time Bridgerton carved out a space just for her.
And, of course, we watch how Whistledown starts to ruin her friendship with Eloise.
Eloise finally putting the pieces together on “The Viscount Who Loved Me” is absolutely perfect. We’re able to watch everything slide into place once Penelope does the smallest thing — gossip with her friend. Eloise’s investigation over the course of two seasons is finally solved.
It makes sense that Eloise would have a much more dramatic reaction to Penelope’s Lady Whistledown secret than she does in the books. This is Shondaland after all. Why have Eloise shrug the revelation off when you can use it to create some tension between best friends?
I’m excited to see where we find Penelope and Eloise in Season 3. Hopefully, we’ll get to watch them slowly reunite over the course of the season. We could have a slow-burn romance and friendship in Season 3, which would be fun and probably a little heartbreaking. Sign me up!
Stray Thoughts
- The amount of times I call Anthony a “stupid bitch” throughout the season is ridiculous, but he deserves it.
- Newton is the star of the show, and we have him to thank for the soaking wet Anthony in a lake scene.
- I loved seeing another sibling relationship this season in the form of Kate and Edwina.
- Everyone else had Satisfied from Hamilton in their heads during parts of this, yes?
- Daphne meddling in Anthony’s courtships is a wonderful parallel to his meddling in last season.
- You can definitely tell they are setting the stage for Benedict’s story next season.
What did you think of Bridgerton Season 2? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Bridgerton Season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
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Allison Nichols
Allison is in a love affair with television that doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. Slightly damaged fictional characters are her weakness. She loves to spend her free time curled up with a cat and a show to binge-watch. Allison is a Tomatometer-approved critic (Rotten Tomatoes).
2 comments
Hard agree on so so much of this! I was rolling my eyes that they dragged out Edwina and Anthony’s engagement so long, since we ALL KNEW full well it wasn’t happening. I would’ve much preferred to move on and spend more time building Anthony and Kate’s relationship. I also didn’t lime that they made Edwina actually love Anthony, and be absolutely clueless to the fact that he doesn’t love her, even though Kate straight up told her he’s not interested in love. I thought it made her seem pretty dim and therefore she felt less real to me, which was disappointing. And to me it made it all feel needlessly soapy and made it less easy to enjoy Kathony’s growing connection since it was now going to actually hurt Edwina. I think they could’ve created plenty of tension and angst with just the internal issues of both Kate and Anthony. The “love triangle” being amped up really annoyed me.
BUUUUUUUUUUUT Anthony and Kate’s chemistry???? Hot diggity dog. They were FIRE together. They made the whole season for me, and I found them much more believable and compelling than Daphne and Simon. And there was so much humour too…BENEDICT oh my goodness!! My affection for him and excitement to see his story next increased greatly, largely because he was so human in his funny moments. And seriously yes trim the side stories. When you have a lead pairing as compelling as these two, it feels wrong to spend so much time away from them on characters and dynamics that are far less so.
Overall loved it better than first season by far due to the power of Kathony!!
Personally, having read the books, I was completely disappointed in season 2. The reason readers of Julia Quinn loved the first season was because it was VERY true to the story and the characters, the characters being so well done being so key to both book and tv series. This season was NOT that in so many ways. In the book, Edwina KNEW she needed to make a good match and was actually reluctant to marry Anthony, in fact she was very happy for Kate when she was ‘forced’ to marry Anthony because she was happy for Kate to marry and it relieved the pressure on herself. In the “bee scene” where Kate and Anthony are caught together being far too familiar with each other in the book, I thought they would put the story back on track in the show and instead they left out a most important part of the story and went further off track. The writer of the show just did not keep with the original story and that made this season not as well done as the first because the original story is so good. If they had kept with the original characters and story with just the small changes due to the new circumstances of the world they created it COULD have been as good as the first season, but they didn’t so its not.