Bridgerton Season 2: A Review
Bridgerton’s new, intriguing take on a period drama became incredibly popular after the first season’s release. It is no surprise then that Season 2 has been highly anticipated by many fans.
Even though the much-loved actor Rejé-Jean Page, who plays the moody Duke Simon Basset in Season 1, did not return, Season 2 maintained high popularity. From a modern perspective, however, much of this season is highly problematic, making one wonder why it experiences such popularity.
Season 2 Plot
While Season 1 focused on the marriage of the Bridgerton family’s eldest daughter, Daphne, this season leads up to the marriage of the eldest son, Anthony Bridgerton. The audience has already seen some of Anthony’s failed romantic exploits from the first season, and his experience in Season 2 continues to show a lack of understanding regarding healthy relationship dynamics.
Problematic Depictions of Romance
While no one would expect romantic liaisons in a drama to be devoid of problems as this would make for a very boring plot line, there are numerous heavily problematic elements to Anthony’s courting experience. In the incredible world of Bridgerton, the filmmakers have negated the problems of racism within this society that historically promoted extreme classism, especially based on racism as an excuse for colonial activity.
At the same time, they have maintained gender inequalities as well as the stratified levels within British society. This seems to be done to create a problem that female characters can then rebel against. Anthony’s love interest in this season, Kate, is a woman pushing against society’s expectations of women and is seen as an exception to the rule set by society.
Her headstrong, competitive nature quickly turns into a point of intrigue for Anthony, and the two are shown competing with each other throughout the season. While this is certainly flirty at times, the two characters never acknowledge their actual feelings for each other until after they’ve caused significant emotional damage to those around them.
Furthermore, this non-acknowledgement of feelings leads to extremely problematic scenes of passion where verbal language does not match the characters’ actions. The couple experiences moments of extreme lust very frequently after verbally expressing their hatred for one another or telling the other that they should stop. You’d think in an age of #metoo, we could stop romanticising forbidden love that doesn’t prioritise consent.
