The Muddled Yet Entertaining Season 3 of Bridgerton
After two years of waiting, Bridgerton has finally come back for season 3, and Netflix has officially dropped all 8 episodes onto the platform. While entertaining, this season is overly complicated and seems to drop and pick up plot lines with little context for them, while leaving it’s main couple of the season almost as a side plot.
The whole season revolves around Penelope and Colin’s affection, a love story we have been watching slowly unfold since season 1 when it was made apparent that Penelope has been in love with Colin ever since they were young. We watch the two of them discover themselves in the dating scene this season, and watch as Colin finally realizes his affections for Penelop, culminating in the highly spoken about and steamy carriage season that caps off episode four. When the second half picks up, the major conflict becomes if Penelope will reveal to Colin that she is Lady Whistledown ,and what his reaction will be. He does find out, and while at first angry it becomes apparent that all the two really need to do is sit down and talk to each other about it. While there’s an interesting story here about Colin’s role in their marriage. He is not as talented as her, and ultimately won’t provide for her as much as she can herself, their storyline is constantly cut away from and we don’t get to see these themes and ideas truly dissected. They end the season happily in love, which makes a lot of the conflict in the back half of the season seem strange and arbitrary.
Not only is Penelope on the market, but another Bridgerton is as well. Francesca is starting her first season in society, looking for a match. And while most parents would be pleased for their children to just find a good match in society, Violet Bridgerton is obsessed that all of her children find, “the love match.” While Francesca is on the market she finally lands on Lord Kilmartin, an odd and quiet man, that does not seem to spark love, but sparks the most feelings we see out of Francesca for a majority of the season. The minor but unnecessary conflict between Francesca and her mother seems to come to a close at the end of the season where we see Francesca happily married and moving to live at the Kilmartin estate, that is until his cousin arrives. While Francesca, John and Eloise talk about moving to the estate (Eloise will be joining them for a brief time), Michaela Stirling arrves and leaves Francesca absolutely starstruck and speechless. Showrunner Jess Brownell has commented on how she personally viewed Francesca’s story to have queer undertones. Who knows when it will be Francesca’s season, but an entire season dedicated to a queer romance in Bridgerton is a delicious idea.
The final main plot thread is the friendship triangle between Eloise, Cressida and Penelope. Eloise having dumped Penelope as her best friend at the end of season 2 has now befriended Cressida Cowper who is struggling to find a husband for both herself and her family’s reputation. The friendship as portrayed in the first part of the season seems to be genuinely good for the two women. Cressida’s personality softens and she becomes more kind with Eloise, while Eloise is finding entertainment in society in a way she hadn’t before. While viewers are waiting for Eloise and Penelope to makeup, this new friendship was also compelling. That is until Eloise also seems to dump Cressida after she speaks out and announces that she in fact is Lady Whistledown to get herself out of the marriage market, and potentially make enough money that she will not be sent away to go live with her aunt in Wales. All of this backfires on Cressida, she ends up in a black mailing plot against Colin and Penelope, which leads Penelope to reveal herself as Lady Whistledown. At the end of the season, Eloise denounces Cressida, and she is in fact cast out of society. It seems that any type of potential character growth and development from the first half of the season is entirely thrown away to heighten the Lady Whistledown drama. And after finding myself rooting for Cressida to figure something out to get out of her awful family situation, I find the way she was treated ultimately disappointing and a let down. There was a lot of sympathy built for that character in the first four episodes to ultimately treat her as if she was in fact deserving of all the ill will.
Other minor plotlines that while entertaining, bog down the plot include Benedict’s discovery of his sexuality in the form of having a threesome. The hijinks of the Featherington sisters as they determine if they are pregnant, how to have sex, and putting on a ball complete with bugs. The Mondrich family entering society as their son becomes the receiver of a large estate. Violet Bridgerton finally getting back out there on the dating market much to the distaste of her dear friend Lady Danbury since it is in fact with her own brother. And of course, audience favorites, Anthony and Kate being the absolute perfect couple navigating their new marriage and trying to birth an heir.
Overall there are aspects of all of these plots that are entertaining. Watching the push and pull of Colin and Penelope as Colin discovers his feelings for her and as she discovers more about herself not only as a wife but as a writer, is fun. There is chemistry between the two of them that is electric to watch. Benedict discover himself is fun. But the pacing for his storyline is strange as it cuts between him having wildly fun sex, to the interpersonal drama of Colin, Penelope, Eloise and Cressida. Even Francesca’s quiet and strange moments are full of wonder as we witness her potentially fall in love with Lord Kilmartin. But overall, there is simply too much going on this season. The main focus of Colin and Penelope’s romance seems to take a backseat as everything else spins around them. The pacing and jarring edits between all of these different moving parts leads to an entertaining season, but a muddled one, and one that does not seem to be as tight and fun as the two seasons prior.