katDearest reader,
You don’t know me but I know you. LOL, jk.
The reason for my writìng to you today is due to a well-known show called, “Bridgerton” and my sudden acquaintance with it through a friend’s recommendation.
I have watched all seasons. Yes, including season 3.
So today I would like to share my humble thoughts on the show. However, I will mainly be writing about the main love story season by season.
At first I did not want to watch this show especially after hearing so much about the raunchy scenes. However, I got curious about the hype and really wanted to know why everyone loved the show so much. It can’t be THAT good, I thought.
However, upon finishing the show I can’t help but agree that Miss Shonda Rhimes had done it again! For those of you who don’t know who Shonda Rhimes is, she is popular for the creation of shows like Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy, How to Get Away With Murder among a few others.
For those of you who haven’t seen Bridgerton I’ll give you a short synopsis. Though for my sisters in Christ or for my girlies who hate raunchy scenes I HIGHLY recommend watching with this site called, “VidAngel” because it blocks out all the steamy scenes.
I must share that I haven’t read the books, but I’ve heard the books are very different from the Netflix Original.
Basically this story follows the families of the Elite in Britain in the 17th century, I think. They are called the “ton” on the show. The story begins with the debut of the eldest Bridgerton sister named Daphne who according to google is 21 years old but I’m not completely sure to be honest. I believe girls are allowed to “come out” to balls at age 18, the appropriate age for them to find suitors.
Daphne goes before Queen Charlotte who names Daphne the “diamond” of the season. Oh yes and there are seasons- I think one happens each year. Since Daphne is named the most beautiful and desirable of the season, this puts Daphne at an advantage and she starts being courted by many suitors including this really old creepy dude. In efforts to avoid having to marry said man who continuously conspires to trap her in a marriage, she in turn conspires with her best friend’s brother to create a “fake courting” ploy to make it seem like they are both smitten with each other. They believe this will lead Daphne to gain more suitors. So the story continues from there and you can guess what happens from there (spoiler not spoiler: they fall in love).
I have to admit this show is incredibly stunning and visually appealing. I think that’s why it’s garnered so much attention. We love the galant outfits, the beautiful elegant gowns, the extravagant styling of the homes, the beauty of the carriages, the countryside, etc. We all have a little princess inside so we can’t help but enjoy shows like this. If you’ve ever seen ‘Reign’ I’m sure you enjoyed it for such details as well.
Season 1
Simon and Daphne
I’ll begin my review of season 1 here, so if you don’t want any crazy spoilers please stop here. I have to admit I liked Daphne from the start. A smart girl, aware of her value and her duty, and willing to fulfill it. She didn’t seem like just a pretty face. She embraced her desire to marry yet I think she recognized some of the pressures women are put under in society. However, once Simon came into the picture, my heart towards her started to change. Let’s be honest, and I think we can all agree on this – SIMON WAS HORRIBLE TO THIS POOR GIRL!!
He was heavily giving “boy who doesn’t know what he wants and is just playing with your feelings” energy. I was so frustrated by her consistent willingness to devalue herself for the sake of receiving this man’s attention. I also hated his reasoning for not wanting to get married or have children.
Though I could understand his trauma- I couldn’t understand his incapacity to overcome it, especially after showing Daphne so much interest and leading her on. Ladies, if a boy treats you like this I’m telling you he’s not the one! I really dislike it when shows romanticize horrible relationships and make them seem like this kind of behavior is to be accepted.
It’s definitely not. Daphne shouldn’t have had to suffer as much as she did, waiting on this man to grow up and make up his mind. The reality is most times women wait on men to change and it never happens. So they give their everything, their lives even, only to be deeply disappointed. It also frustrated me that she did so much to remain with him. She coulda had a prince! A PRINCE! Which she herself even realizes and tells Simon.
Ok, enough of the Simon and Daphne hate. I have to admit though I hated the dynamic of this couple for most of the show. I did start to understand them both and soften my heart towards them ONLY and I mean SOLELY because of the ending episode
When I tell y’all the ending scenes had me on a chokehold. starting from that STUNNING scene of Daphne in the rain. It was poetic and maybe it was a little cringe to some of y’all but I do not care y’all I still think it was so beautiful. Daphne’s line, “Not even a duke can stop the rain, ” is powerful and foreshadows something great- no matter how much human beings try to separate love when a love is meant to be, it will be fulfilled. You can’t stop the rain of love.
I realized this through my relationship with God. I did not believe in God most of my life until I reached college, and partially for similar reasons to Simon. I did not believe I was worthy of love. Therefore, I did not believe I was worthy of God who is love.
I lived most of my life trying to avoid love, not seeking God but believing all the lies I’d ever heard about Him. It was easier to pretend God did not exist than to dive into a deeper investigation in efforts to discover Him- because if I discovered Him I’d have to change, open the deep wounds of my heart, and admit ignorance.
Until one day, like Daphne intrigued Simon with her beauty, God intrigued my heart with His. It just took a few words and a few scriptures for me to become enraptured by the beauty of His speech. He spoke words unlike any I’d heard before; like light shining on my bleak heart.
Like Simon, my traumas made me isolate myself.
I came to empathize with Simon more when Daphne said to Simon, “I’m tired of pretending and I cannot continue acting as if I do not love you because I do. I love all of you even the parts that you believe are too dark, too shameful. Every scar, every flaw, every imperfection. I love you. You may think you are too damaged and too broken to allow yourself to be happy but you can choose differently, Simon. You can choose to love me as much as I love you. That should not be up to anyone else, that cannot be up to anyone else. It can only be up to you.” In this scene she gives him the ultimatum: will you love me back and stay, or will you leave and give up on us?
I felt God confessed himself to me in the same way. When I began seeking him it not only became clear to me at the end, like Simon, that I did not want to die alone or live life alone and I didn’t want to lose the only chance at true, pure love I’d ever have.
I just didn’t believe I was worthy of being the woman God wanted me to be. I had lived in sin so long, because I innately believed I was unworthy. Living a pure life seemed too difficult. God, however, fought for our love, He did not give up on me. So I can understand Daphne’s unwavering, relentless love towards Simon.
I wasn’t immediately convinced of my love for Him nor did I trust it. So I did not know whether I should continue to seek a relationship with Him or not.
In the end, like Simon, I could not deny God’s love. I believe what made Daphne and Simon’s romance so magical was that no matter what odds came against them, no matter how much they ran from each other, hated each other, in the end they could not escape each other. I believe it’s a classic romantic trope; that lovers are meant to be and no matter how much the gravity of love will always pull them together. We love “love” that is meant to be; what we call soulmates.
But I warn the reader- this kind of love only works between humankind and God. It doesn’t truly exist among men- because human beings are fickle and our love could never be as merciful and as unchanging as God’s.
God, I’ve realized, is our true soulmate and the love between us and God is fate. No matter how much we try to run from him he will always find us.
We are predestined to live loving him.
We are imperfect but very much worthy of love. God chose us because he believes we have what it takes to be who He’s called us to be. Just like Daphne fought for Simon; God fights for us in the same way- He doesn’t give up. It’s so endearing. We don’t deserve Him.
Since God has proven His love for us we should prove our love for Him today, tomorrow, and always.
Romans 8:38-39 “38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Season 2
Anthony and Kate
Anthony and Kate. Oh, Anthony and kate. Just offhand, I have to say I thought Daphne and Simon had chemistry and looked so good together but Kate and Anthorny are on another level. They really do match each other in many ways. Whereas Daphne and Simon to me had stark differences between each other personality wise. I feel Anthony and
Kate are both strong, stubborn, sacrificial older siblings, and have a love for horse riding.
I have to say, I really liked the initial interactions and exchanges between Anthony and Kate. However, I really hated Anthony for going after Miss Sharma, Kate’s sister.
But what I hated most was when Anthony and Kate started having feelings for each other, even meeting each other in secret places, knowing that Anthony was courting Miss Sharma. They even got engaged and made it all the way to the aisle. I hate infidelity. I think because Anthony and Kate looked so good together it was easy to excuse it and not call it for what it was-disgusting adultery. I feel Kate was a really bad sister for keeping certain things from her sister and doing all the things with Anthony, knowing Miss Sharma truly had feelings for Anthony.
She went too far. Both Anthony and Kate are equally at fault, I can’t blame one over the other.
I feel that their attraction was portrayed as more physical than emotional at times, but sex sells so that makes sense. However, I did appreciate the unfolding and timely revealing of Anthony ‘s trauma which further explained to us his character and actions from season 1. Understanding
how his father died from a bee sting and how traumatic that was for him and his entire family really softened my heart for his character and helped me also understand Kate’s heart towards him. The relationship between Kate and her sister was also endearing to watch and I could understand why Kate would sacrifice her passions and her desires, keeping even her feelings for Anthony a secret, only for the sake of her sister’s happiness.
I guess like the first season the moral is you cannot hide or run from what it meant to be. I agree that you cannot run from what is meant to be but only the love between God and humankind is truly magnetic. I believe we were created to love God. You can’t run from our purpose of creation.
All in all, I liked this season. It was full of lots of funny and exciting moments.
Season 3
Polin & Penelope
Oh Colin and Penelope! I have LOTS of thoughts on these two.
To be quite honest, Penelope was also another character I was not particularly fond of at the start- especially during her exchanges with Miss Marina Thompson. I also didn’t particularly like Miss Thompson, mainly because she was lying to Colin, however I feel it was very easy to empathize with her and her situation. As for Penelope, I do think as pure as her intentions were for going against Miss Marina Thompson in order to protect Colin, it can’t be ignored that they were also coming from a place of jealousy and wanting Colin to herself.
Despite how much Colin would friendzone her and even at one point he made a pretty awful comment about her in front of this stupid group of boys, (granted after some time he apologizes) she continues melting for him and worshiping the floor he walks on.
I understood that her love for Colin was deep and had developed over years of friendship with him, particularly through hanging around Eloise and the Bridgertons often.
However, I hated that Colin only started to notice her once she changed her look. I think what shows that Colin’s feelings are genuine is that Colin in season 3 apparently has a glow up (shoutout to the Shonda effect LOL) and he becomes the most eligible bachelor of the season.
He could have anyone he wanted, any girl he wanted. He was rather flirtatious, probably because he enjoyed the attention, and Colin has such a witty character. Some fans share the opinion that Penelope settled for Colin. I have to say I do agree! I feel that she shouldn’t have had to wait for Colin to finally reciprocate her feelings after such a long time.
I feel my disapproval of this couple also stems from the lack of development towards their relationships through the seasons, especially season 3. Though I have to admit they look pretty good together.
As good as season 3 was, they did not give Polin the screen time that they deserved and everything felt so rushed. I felt like their romance was advancing so fast in a way that didn’t make sense to viewers. We needed a slow burn and we didn’t get it. How do you expect me to believe Colin truly likes Penelope after so many years of friendzoning her. Why the sudden change of heart? It has to be more than just her looks, but something in their heart and that was not portrayed as well as it could’ve been. The ending was just so CRAZY it felt like entire seasons were condensed to one.
I also came to have an appreciation for the Featherington mother as well, although in previous seasons she made many mistakes I think she redeemed herself. I see that in all of it she did so at times out of sacrificial motherly love always thinking about her daughters and their future. I have to give Kudos to Penelope for fessing up and finally telling her truth. Telling the truth went well for her and one thing we can take away from Penelope is her independence and bravery to pursue her passions. She shook up society in a way she never expected.
Do I think there will be another season? Probably but honestly I wish there wasn’t. I think if they ended the show now I’d be content with that.
Either way, we’ll see what happens! I hope you enjoyed my review of the show and my critique of each season’s romances.
Share your thoughts on any of the seasons or couples with me below in the comments or shoot me a DM on instagram. Happy to fight with you 😉
