"All is fair in love and war."
Hello everyone!
In the hopes of alleviating some truly awful moments of the year, Netflix gave us the Regency centered love story by Julia Quinn, and although there hasn't been any word yet about whether or not a season two is forthcoming, I think it's safe to say it might be.
After all, from all that can be seen and heard, this show was the most watched on Netflix at this time and it's saying a lot!
Make sure your stays are all in the proper position and that your tiaras aren't askew on top of your head.
It's time to be presented at court for the new season and to find a match.
In other words, its time for Bridgerton.
I don't think I've ever reviewed any of Quinn's books on this blog so far, though that may change in the future, so there isn't really anything to link you back to except for my Blogtober post which you can absolutely find below.
But before we dive straight into the recap, I'm going to explain how this is going to go - mainly that I will be trying to follow the storylines as they progressed through the released eight episodes, but maybe not specifically episode by episode. It will all make sense in the end, I promise. And I'll also not go into too much detailed discussion in the actual recap until the end of the post either, just to try and keep it as concise as possible.
Allons-y!
It's 1813 in an alternate universe Regency London, and I say AU because the Queen is a POC, something that didn't actually happen, but in the story, King George saw her, fell in love, married her, and thus erased racial divides as he raised others of colour to high ranking statuses, like Dukes and doyennes and the like.
More importantly, as the show opens, households are preparing for a new season among the ton in London, during which time their fortunes will either be made or they will break.
Yes, it used to be this serious indeed.
Two household specifically, the Bridgertons and the Featheringtons, are the central focus of the series. Lady Featherington has three daughters she wishes to present at court, while Lady Bridgerton will only present her eldest daughter, Daphne (Phoene Dynevor), and ultimately it's Daphne who takes the crown as the Queen dubs her the season's 'Diamond'.
This is where the fun begins.
Naturally because of this endorsement, suitors should be lining outside Daphne's door, but because she has this rather annoyingly obnoxious older brother Anthony, Viscount Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), he has his own ideas on how she should act and behave to lure suitors to her - which results in the Featheringtons having more of them than Daphne!
This is also noticed by the gossip, Lady Whistledown; no one knows who this is, and in the show she's voiced by Julie Andrews, but she seems to know everything and delivers bits of scathing gossip, criticism, and amusement pretty much every single day, or at least weekly.
Anyway, with Anthony blocking her in and thus preventing her from actually achieving a good match which would then help the rest of her siblings further their own causes, Daphne devises a scheme with none other than the returning Duke of Hastings, Simon (Rege-Jean Page). As he is also unwed - and determined to remain so - London's ambitious mamas tend to flock to him whenever and wherever he appears, so with Daphne's help, that's going to change.
She'll keep him safe from them, and he'll help her get a husband: by pretending to be courting her.
Here's the flaw in their masterplan, however: in Regency London, during the season, prolonged courtship wasn't looked upon favourably, and the longer Simon goes without proposing to Daphne, the more confused everyone else is - but also the more other suitors come to knock on her door.
Anthony himself is wary of the scheme, not that he knows about it, but he and Hastings have been friends all their lives and he knows for a fact Simon has no intention of ever marrying, which is why he goes and does a stupid thing, aka arrange a match with possibly the most odious man in entire London, because somehow or other he momentarily loses his senses there. Or something.
I'm not sure, but it happens LOL
Daphne is dead set against marrying the idiot, who is sleazy to the N-th degree, but also through the schemes she and Simon concoct, she's starting to get a little desperate, even though she turns down at least three suitors (that we know of).
Then, of course, the one Anthony chooses tries to be a bit too forward with her, and she punches him in the face (he gets his face handed to him by Simon later on for insinuations, too, but you know the drill). All of this backfires when he procures a speedy marriage license, threatening blackmail if Daphne doesn't marry him, but not to fear, Lady Bridgerton and her servants are on it: they discover that the idiot is rather fond of his maids, and fathered a child on one of them, sending her to the country and not providing any money for the babe.
That ends talk of Daphne marrying HIM, of course, but Simon equally isn't going to marry her, as per the way he's decided when he was first introduced, and he explains as much to poor Daphne after a confrontation with her brother Anthony, in which Anthony demands to know whether or not he ACTUALLY means to do something about what's going on.
And if not, to stop leading his sister around by the nose.
Little does Anthony know who's fooling who, but then again he's busy with his opera singer all season long, and that's a bit of a yo-yo kind of relationship. He provides for her as her patron in exchange for, ahem ahem, as was fashionable back in the day. But after the debacle with the suitor, Anthony decides he needs to step up his game and actually be the Viscount, or try to be at least.
His mother isn't helping him much, as instead of giving him any good advice, she roasts him, not gaining any points in favour from ME, let me tell you.
But anyway, Anthony dumps the singer even though he's madly in love with her, thus breaking her heart, and throughout the rest of the season they try to find their way back together, and it looks like they might towards the end, though it does not, in fact, work out: when Anthony is finally prepared to show her off to the world on his arm, she tells him no, that she's going to stay with someone who doesn't want her to change.
Because, you know, demanding to be more permanently at Anthony's side wouldn't come with any sacrifices for her in her logic, and he should have been the one to sacrifice it all while she wouldn't meet him even halfway.
You're well rid of HER, Anthony!
Suffice to say that with all this back and forth though, Anthony also misses other developments in his siblings' lives - like the fact that his sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie) is on the hunt for Lady Whistledown and doesn't actually want to marry, but wishes to be an independent woman, or that his brother Benedict (Luke Thompson) would prefer to be an artist rather than potentially marry, too, and lands in a threesome during an art sequence under the tutelage of a renowned artist.
To top it all off, Anthony also doesn't foresee his younger brother Colin (Luke Newton) announcing that he will wed the Featherington charge, Marina, and let me tell you, the Viscount's face is PRICELESS when it happens.
Marina is an entirely other kettle of fish because she comes to the Featheringtons as a cousin from the country, is a huge success with the ton with all suitors paying her court instead of the Featherington daughters, and interestingly enough Lord Featherington doesn't turn them away as he does with those who come for his own flesh and blood.
Turns out, he owes Marina's father for gambling - and he owes a hell of a lot more, too, which eventually leads to the family's financial ruin and his death.
Marina herself is in a precarious position, because she's pregnant and waiting for her soldier love to return from Spain where he's fighting Napoleon, but even trying to secure a marriage with Colin doesn't work when Lady Whistledown blows her secret wide open; this is what Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), the youngest Featherington, had been worried about all season long, but nothing can stop people in love - or desperate, right?
Anyway, after a botched abortion attempt, the soldier's brother arrives to say that unfortunately, Marina's lover fell in battle, but he is prepared to wed her instead, which honestly, might be the best solution to everything at the end of the day here. Marina also learns a valuable lesson: Colin explains that if she'd only told him about her predicament, he would have married her on the spot, because he thought himself that much in love. She didn't have to deceive him at all.
Dun, dun, dunnn.
As all of this is going on in the background, however, Daphne and Simon continue their dance, with Simon practically dumping her, and her taking matters into her own hands when she hears the Prince of Prussia is in town, deciding to settle on him instead then. But she underestimates the power of love, and ends up in a garden with none other than Simon, kissing passionately, and getting caught by Anthony, who demands marriage, and if not marriage, then a duel to defend his sister's and his family's honour.
Simon agrees to the duel, and it's obvious he isn't planning to shoot when Daphne herself rides in the middle of the two shooters - as you do when your head isn't screwed on straight - and tells them that someone else saw them in the garden, so they have no choice: they HAVE to get married to protect her reputation.
So marry they do, grovelling before the Queen a bit since her nephew got displaced. Never piss off royalty, people!
They then embark on a honeymoon filled with nothing but sex all over Simon's country estate, despite the sniffing of the housekeeper who disapproves of everything.
Daphne also learns a lot more about Simon's past there: that he was a long-awaited son, that his mother died in childbirth, that he had a stutter which made his father hate him, and that Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) ended up taking charge of him and raising him when his father wouldn't. There's deep animosity between the two men which she doesn't begin to understand, but she does clock into the fact something might be up as Simon never wants to finish inside her.
While he's dealing with the estate's deplorable finances, Daphne does her own exploring, and finally gets told how babies are made (because her mother never actually got to that bit, assuming that Daphne and Simon had already done the deed and therefore her daughter knew; ironically, Simon thinks she knows because mothers usually tell their daughters, so the miscommunication here is wide enough to sail a ship through).
She then gets mad, and during the next bout of intercourse, when Simon wants to take her off him, prevents him from doing so, which naturally breaks the entire thing WIDE open as she accuses him of not telling her he doesn't want children (he said he can't give her kids), and Simon roars at her that she better be pregnant after the trick she just pulled on him.
They return to town for the Colin scandalous debacle with frost between them, and Daphne proceeds to turn on anyone and everyone who was ever nice to her because she feels betrayed by the lot (because that makes sense), especially her mother. She even attempts some frostiness with Lady Danbury, but she's having none of it, and Daphne ends up at her gambling den for married ladies where they have fun together.
As you do ... apparently.
It turns out Daphne is not, in fact, pregnant this time around, and it looks like the Duke and Duchess of Hastings will be going their separate ways after the season's over and they host the closing ball, but it's during the ball that they make up and Daphne tells Simon that even though he thinks he can only be perfect to be loved, she loves all of him. So they mend their relationship, Anthony decides he'll make a woman Viscountess without the bother of love, Colin takes off to travel and heal his broken heart, and the fourth Bridgerton daughter returns home from Bath.
Oh and also, Penelope is Lady Whistledown.
Put THAT in your mustache and smoke it!
And just to wrap things up in a nice little bow, Daphne gives birth to a baby boy at the very end, signalling that her and Simon's truce is well and truly forged in an unbreakable chain.
FIN.
Whew, there's a whole lot to unpack in the review above with one GLARINGLY OBVIOUS point, but I'll start with the less jarring ones first, just to ease you into it: all in all, for the first five episodes, Bridgerton is a lovely rom-com to take your mind off things. Is it completely accurate? Nah. But is it amusing and fun? Oh that it is!
Until episode six, after which I had to force myself to watch seven and eight, as opposed to the enjoyment of the first five.
But even without that, we have the situation with Anthony where I truly felt for him: no matter what he did, or didn't do, he came up on the wrong side, not having his father there to guide him, and his mother not really prepared to give him any advice whatsoever. While the father SHOULD have prepared his firstborn better, the mother SHOULD HAVE at least attempted, and instead calmly ground him under her dainty heel and walked away from his ashes. His opera singer also didn't exactly make it easy for him, expecting things but unwilling to give back, so hopefully, if we do get a season two, Anthony's story can give the poor man a break. He needs it!
Eloise's arc is understandable in the time we're living in, but I will admit she got on my nerves after the first three or so episodes. We get it: she wants something more. But her blinders for everyone and everything else aside from what SHE wanted were painful to watch and I wanted to shake her. Hopefully she grows up some!
Marina's situation can be unpacked rather troublesome-ly too, because if you look at it, she's a POC as well - and she's the one who gets pregnant out of wedlock, not one of the 'white' girls. This in itself is problematic enough given our own history, but it's added on to by what I'm going to go into in just a minute, not to mention that while Netflix does say the whole racial problematic has been solved by the royal marriage ... it doesn't really do much more than that.
Instead, actually, it does worse.
Remember how I said Daphne prevents Simon from doing what he usually does when they have sex? Well, let me be a little clearer on the topic: she holds him down and, against his wishes, forces him to ejaculate inside her.
This is a word with four letters. It's called RAPE.
What follows after is victim shaming, victim blaming, and a complete disregard for just how problematic the situation is, even if we set aside the fact that a white woman forcing a POC down to do her bidding is a kettle of fish NONE OF US wants to touch with a ten foot stick, but I'm touching it right now. Because it is problematic, and worse still is that nobody's talking about it.
I've watched countless interviews with the cast and crew, and all they have to say about the sex scenes is that they had an intimacy coordinator (this is now a thing) and everything was blocked like a stunt action sequence.
Okay. But what about the rape?
Let me make it clearer for you: there is no buts, explanation, or excuse. People saying Simon was an asshole to Daphne for not being honest are right to the degree that he SHOULD have been honest - but that doesn't excuse HER actions or HER feeling angry that he isn't apologizing later. Because she should be the one doing the grovelling, and in fact, Simon could have walked away from her right then and there and I would have cheered for him. Simon was abused as a child, emotionally abused, and manipulated, and Daphne does the exact same thing to him when he's an adult, so him loving her is baffling to me.
And even if the Regency era wasn't exactly receptive for post-rape discussions, THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED MORE FIRMLY BY NETFLIX. Someone should have said something. Someone should have pointed out this is wrong. It's already deplorable in the book, but the show takes it one step further in keeping quiet with the rest.
So I'm saying it for them. I'm saying it for everybody in the back and everybody saying they didn't view this as rape or it wasn't that bad or it was just something in the context of the story: rape is not a story-telling device. It is not 'character progression' or 'relationship progression'. It is a violation of basic human rights, to say NO when you don't want to do something anymore and to have that liberty stripped away from you.
To those saying Simon was okay with having sex: yes he was, until he wasn't. And it's the point where he wasn't okay with it anymore that things turn out badly.
Picture this, if you will: a young woman tells her suitor she can't have children so for that reason, he shouldn't marry her. He tells her she's enough, they'll be fine. Then he learns that she doesn't want to have children because of childhood abuse and other trauma through her life, to which he responds by accusing her of taking away his choices, holding her down mid-intercourse when she asks him to stop and pull out, and finishing inside her.
Tell me what you call that. And once you do, tell me in what bizarro world you live in where it's not the same thing when the only thing different is that genders are reversed.
So while I'm prepared to give Bridgerton the power it holds over its viewers, and that it was a nice romp for five episodes, this one thing dumped everything into the flames of hell for me. Because I was expecting better treatment in 2020 and better discussion, not what we're getting now.
And it truly worries me in what kind of society we live in if we don't see things for what they are.
I'm not saying don't watch it - but I am saying watch it critically. And speak out.
Speak. Out.
xx
*images and video not mine
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