[[link removed]]

PORTSIDE CULTURE

BRIDGERTON’S THIRD SEASON IS MORE DIVERSE — AND EVEN SHALLOWER
— THAN EVER  
[[link removed]]


 

Aja Romano
May 21, 2024
Vox
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ Bridgerton’s third season is gauzier than ever. Should we still
be holding it accountable? _

Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte in season three of Bridgerton.,
Laurence Cendrowicz/Netflix

 

With the recent Netflix drop, _Bridgerton_’s color-conscious
casting enters its third season, and we still have many of the same
questions for the series that we had at the beginning
[[link removed]].
What impact does this casting have on our storyline, if any? Does the
injection of so many characters of color add complexity to our
understanding of the _Bridgerton_ universe, or is this casting
ultimately little more than window dressing for the same old crusty
patriarchal tropes? 

Bridgerton is almost — but not quite — an alternate historical
universe, one where a colorblind view of society prevails. This slight
historical rewrite posits that Queen Charlotte
[[link removed]],
who was the real wife of Britain’s King George III, is a Black
aristocrat who marries into the British royal family and presides over
society in all her glory. That thin historical tie, along with the
show’s season-one acknowledgment that slavery exists in this
universe, has always complicated how we understand the diversity of
the _ton_ (Bridgerton-speak for society). Season one
[[link removed]],
indeed, drew criticism
[[link removed]] for
“having Black people strolling around in the background” without
giving most of the show’s Black characters meaningful identities or
storylines. 

Season two
[[link removed]] expanded
the number of minority characters and gave two of them the show’s
focal storyline, but did little to address the concerns held over from
season one about the lack of complexity in this universe. Granted,
romance as a genre is all about escapism; but how can the show
simultaneously tell us that class and racial inequalities exist while
usually pretending they don’t? 

Season three
[[link removed]],
rather than attempting to reconcile this paradox, has simply flung
more characters into it. And while it’s a lot more _fun_ to have
even more characters of color strolling around in the background, the
show still largely configures them all as shallow and undeveloped. 

_BRIDGERTON_’S BLACK MEN ARE ALL ISOLATED WITHIN THEIR SOCIETY

_Bridgerton_ frankly enjoys its surface pleasures, and season three
has chosen to go wide, not deep. We’re introduced to a truly
dizzying number of new characters and relationships — everyone from
lead character Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) dueling love interests
to Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis), cane-tapping Lady Danbury’s
(Adjoa Andoh) surprise brother. He appears and immediately develops a
flirtation with Danbury’s bestie, widower Lady Bridgerton (Ruth
Gemmell), who’s one of _four_ Bridgertons looking for love this
season. (Anthony, who married his love Kate last season, also makes an
appearance.) 

Among them, another unexpected sibling, Francesca (Hannah Dodd), who
was previously played by a different actress in a much smaller version
of the role, returns from Bath just in time to make an amiable
connection with the quiet, quirky but charming John Stirling (Victor
Alli), a little-known earl who seems destined to easily win her hand.
Francesca and her mother seem to represent opposite ends of the
marriage spectrum: Lady Violet wants all of her children to make a
love match like she did with her late husband, but Francesca seems
perfectly content to make a convenient marriage based on her
friendship with the earl. 

What’s less clear is what either man hopes to gain from wooing a
Bridgerton. Lady Danbury seems to be wary of Marcus, with the vague
implication that he might be a rake, but he gets so little screen time
that we barely get any sense of his character beyond his shallow
banter with Violet. John, by contrast, gets one of the more
interesting arcs of the season — if you can call socially awkward
courtship an arc. Both get sidelined by a script that has too many
characters to cycle through and not enough time to devote to giving
them all three dimensions. 

Additionally, as Black gentlemen of the _ton_, both men appear to be
disconnected from the society they’re moving within. Marcus has
arrived from out of town and no one seems to know him apart from Lady
Danbury. John likewise seems to have come to town specifically to tour
the marriage mart — no one among the _Bridgerton_ families seems
to know him at all. His apparent neurodivergence further sets him
apart from their sphere, at least initially. 

It’s unclear whether the writers intended both characters to feel
this isolated, or whether it’s a byproduct of the show’s divided
attention, but the result leaves us questioning what role Black men
actually play in this society, and how integrated they actually are
within it. Recall that our season one hero, Simon (Regé-Jean Page),
was _also_ a solitary figure within his set whose best friend, Will
Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe), was a working-class boxer who bonded with
him through the military.

Throughout season one, Will’s primary role was that of sidekick and
exposition tool for Simon. Over the course of season two and season
three, _Bridgerton_ has tried to redeem its mechanical use of him in
season one by gradually elevating him through the social ranks. Season
two sees him breaking away from the shady world of boxing and trying
to establish himself as a respectable barkeep. Season three cavalierly
upends that storyline by handing Will’s young son a surprise title
and elevating Will’s entire family to the peerage. This
“unexpected fortune” trope forms the basis for many a romance, but
Will is happily married to Alice (Emma Naomi). She’s not too
pleased, though, when Will fights to keep his club and continue
running it himself. His resistance to luxury horrifies the gentlemen
who formerly patronized his establishment, and they drop him,
threatening both his business and his family’s new position in
society.

[Emma Naomi and Martins Imhangbe as Alice and Will Mondrich, a bit
intimidated by their new social status.]

Emma Naomi and Martins Imhangbe as Alice and Will Mondrich, a bit
intimidated by their new social status.

 Liam Daniel/Netflix

Given that Will is one of only a few significant characters
in _Bridgerton_ with an actual job — dressmaker Madame Delacroix
(Kathryn Drysdale) has likewise hovered around the edges of polite
society for all three seasons — it’s hardly surprising that so
much of his character revolves around work. It also makes sense that a
show so fixated on wealth would explicitly create an upwardly mobile
character to both center all the show’s class concerns and represent
the show’s modern middle-class viewer.

Yet it’s striking that the conflicts that arise from this new season
three storyline have everything to do with class but nothing to do
with race. The Mondriches have no trouble being accepted by
the _ton_ until Will determines to keep the club; it’s only his
choice to buck the trendy disdain for work that makes him
unfashionable. Will and Alice each afford the show a rich opportunity
to explore the combination of class and race, one that so far the show
has declined. _Bridgerton_’s prequel series, _Queen Charlotte_,
addresses these intersections more explicitly — and arguably more
improbably
[[link removed]] —
than the main series yet has.

There seems to be little thematic connection between the social
isolation of Marcus, John, and Simon and the ease with which Will is
initially accepted into society. Yet their disconnection, combined
with the fact that Will’s patrons turn on him so rapidly once he
chooses to keep working, implies that for all of these men, race may
be the primary factor keeping them set apart from the other
characters. Again, this could be all down to the writing, to the
show’s expanding storylines and self-conscious frippery. Still,
intentional or not, race provides subtle friction for these
characters.

That brings us to _Bridgerton_’s most isolated character of all.

QUEEN CHARLOTTE MAY BE THE REASON _BRIDGERTON_’S LONDON HAS SO MANY
DIVERSE MARRIAGES

_Bridgerton_ is a story that’s ultimately all about competition —
competition for a better position in society, for a wealthy spouse,
for more money, and for more power. At the center of all that
competition sits the regent herself — Queen Charlotte (Golda
Rosheuvel), who simultaneously reigns over London society and fiercely
fights to maintain her position. 

The show configures its arch gossipmonger, the anonymous scandal-sheet
writer Lady Whistledown, as the foil to the queen herself. Both women
exert huge influence over the fates of their fellow members of
the _ton_. But where Whistledown’s influence is usually strategic,
due to her writer’s need to protect herself and her loved ones, the
queen’s influence often feels random and quixotic — characterized
by bored vanity and occasional whimsy. Queen Charlotte, much like the
real-life prince regent who’s missing from this version of history,
functions as a sort of chaotic neutral
[[link removed]] in
the world she dominates, using her power and social influence to move
chess pieces around according to her whims. Typically, only
Whistledown, who operates more like a true neutral among the society
she observes, can disturb her sense of studied nonchalance. 

As we learn in the issue-laden prequel series
[[link removed]],
Charlotte secured her position in the world of _Bridgerton _through
a sociopolitical “experiment” spearheaded by her husband to
integrate the races among all social classes. So what seems like
arbitrary meddling in the affairs of the _ton_ on Charlotte’s part
may be her way of ensuring that the “experiment” continues for the
benefit of all British society. 

Yet increasingly, for all Charlotte’s queendom ensures the elevation
of her and all Black characters in this universe, we see that it’s
left her almost entirely alone. Her position of power alienates her
from almost everyone in the _ton_; the sole exception, Lady Danbury,
serves her more as an advisor than a friend. 

We might question, then, whether anything in _Bridgerton_, for all
its lavish luxury, leads to true community or connection, especially
for its characters of color. Throughout the third season, the
proliferation of minor characters of color becomes more than just
window dressing; it becomes a metaphor for the show’s inability to
do more than merely maneuver its characters, like Charlotte herself,
without providing a cohesive narrative purpose for any of them. 

The show offers marriage and family as the best path to meaning, and
matchmaking duly occupies most of Charlotte’s attention; yet outside
of the Bridgertons, all of the marriages we’re privy to are either
arranged (the Featheringtons) or currently experiencing friction (the
Mondriches). And even among the Bridgertons, marriage feels so
burdensome that several members of the family have done all they can
to avoid it. Meanwhile, queerness exists so far outside the main scope
of the show so far that it mainly occurs only accidentally; the
writers so far have seemed committed to a fully heteronormative,
traditional take on the concepts of marriage and family.

All of this means that _Bridgerton_ season three, for all its
infusion of new characters, ultimately feels like more of the same.
The ultimate test might be simply the depth test, and the show’s
failure to dole out so little of it to anyone.

Still, if _Bridgerton_ has firmly embraced superficiality, then this
season at least gives multiple races an equal slice of its thinly
layered pie. This threadbare representation makes for the gauzy fabric
Bridgerton prefers, never mind that it’s not enough for a decent
muslin gown at Vauxhall. With the string quartet playing Pitbull, no
one will notice. 

* bridgerton
[[link removed]]
* diversity
[[link removed]]
* representation
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit portside.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 



########################################################################

[link removed]

To unsubscribe from the xxxxxx list, click the following link:
[link removed]