I Finally Watched Bridgerton Season 1
I give off a vibe of being a person who has seen (and probably read) Bridgerton, but I've only recently gotten around to diving into it. And yes, this may have been spurred on slightly by the Doctor Who episode "Rogue"—when something is deep enough in the zeitgeist that it's influencing one of my favorite shows, it becomes much more difficult to put off.
So, all right. I've seen season 1. My thoughts? In short, I enjoyed it... even if it was laden with my #1 least-liked literary trope.
Generally Speaking
When I told bestie and regular collaborator Ginger that I was going to be diving into Bridgerton, she told me the description she'd heard of it before: "Cocomelon for white women." Which, I'm not going to argue that. If you're not already invested in the machinations of Regency society, you're probably not going to be all that invested in this. It is Pride & Prejudice on steroids, commentated by Dame Julie Andrews with carte blanche to cuss. That either will or won't appeal to you.
Anyway it appeals to me.
Overall I like the cast, and I recognize a lot of them. I did kind of walk backwards into this series, meaning that Regé-Jean Page will always be Xenk Yendar first and foremost to me. (And thus I love him unconditionally.) Ben Miller is always fun to see, and I'm always delighted to see an actor I like manage to make me hate him. Adjoa Andoh (to me, always Martha Jones's mom in Doctor Who) steals every scene she's in, to the point that I have to wait to talk about her or I won't talk about anything else.
I'm not as familiar with the books, though my friend Katy (who is walking me through the series) has given me some background on what's changed and how the books are arranged. I may end up reading them myself eventually. As it stands, I generally like the pacing, and the fact that in season 1 we have a central couple around whom all the other stories revolve. Things like Lady Whistledown's identity and the elder brothers' various crises of identity are all focused through the lens of Simon and Daphne. And I'll be curious to see how that evolves when the focus shifts to other couples in later seasons.
However...
While there are a lot of things I like about Bridgerton, the fact that Simon and Daphne's plot is motivated almost entirely by a lack of communication started to drive me up a wall after a while. Which is not to say that bad communication isn't a valid theme in a story like this: upper class double-talk, the silencing of certain people for no reason other than the boxes they fit in, and sheer misinformation are all valid and interesting pieces of action.
One of the biggest lapses in communication—Violet failing to give Daphne "the talk" and Simon assuming she's had it—falls under this category. It accentuates an aspect of this society, of the different expectations placed on husbands and wives, and of the Bridgerton family as the "head of household" distinction is tossed around like a hot potato.
There was a sense of relief when the Duke and Duchess finally addressed the elephant in the room, but not the pleasant kind that comes after intrigue and anticipation. As engaged as I was by their story, I didn't feel like this reticence to discuss something as important as "children: yes or no" was warranted. Maybe that's my mistake for being a contemporary viewer of a classically-style story.
That said, I think it could have worked. There were ample threads to tie this reticence to rather than simply choosing not to talk about it. I can do the legwork in retrospect to justify it, but having it there of its own volition would have been so much more meaningful.
But Also...
Lady Danbury could have turned this 8-episde series into a 30-minute featurette.
There's something both wonderful and terrible about having an eminently sensible person floating through an ensemble cast—knowing they could solve everything with a bit more screen time. Lady Danbury is honestly one of the best characters in the series, and not just because I feel like she must be seeing the people around her much as ew do. She's managed to make this world work for her, rather than bending herself to fit within it. I'm looking forward to eventually watching Queen Charlotte and seeing how that played out.
Her discussion toward the end of the season with Simon in which she (quite literally) tells him to use his words is as close as we get to a meaningful thematic reason for the lack of communication with Daphne. That salvages some of my issues with that story arc, but it still felt like a lot of drama balanced on a very small infrastructure. For that reason, the stories radiating out from the central story ended up feeling much stronger and more fulfilling in a lot of ways.
That said, I will absolutely keep watching. I want to see what else there is, and I want to see how these characters grow and change. And maybe, when my TBR pile has shrunk a bit, I'll try the books.
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