Bridgerton

Okay, I had to do a blog post about my latest obsession – Bridgerton. I finished watching it recently, and I’ve already started re-watching it. I know, I might be a little late to the game, but I was hesitant to watch it at first. I’m not a fan of period pieces. In fact, I tend to find them to be a bit dry and boring, so I figured Bridgerton would probably be the same. But my friend reached out saying how much she loved it, so I said I would give it a go. I was still a bit reluctant, but then I finally got around to watching it.

And my god, I’m glad I did.

Also, yes, this post is going to contain spoilers.

The first time I watched it, I’ll admit, I missed a lot because I was so focused on the Duke and Daphne. For instance, at the end of the season when they mentioned that Francesca was coming back – I was like, who the hell is Francesca?? Why are they introducing a brand new character so late, and acting like we should just know who she is?

Then I found out she was in the very first episode. I felt so bad, but I honestly had zero recollection of that character! I don’t know how she was completely wiped from my memory. Oh wait – yes I do:

So, yeah, I was definitely zeroed in on one particular aspect of the series.

In fact, I also didn’t really even notice the music the first time watching, either. Which is ridiculous, because now I’m just as equally obsessed with the soundtrack. The classical renditions of modern hits? Insane. I don’t know what it is about the soundtrack either, but listening to it just completely shifts my mood. Which I find surprising, because I’m also not typically a huge fan of that style of music, either. But something about it just makes me so happy, and seems to mentally transport me to a different place. My favourite piece is probably their rendition of thank u, next.

But seriously, what is it about this entire series that is just so magical? Everything about Bridgerton is just so captivating and leaves me wanting more!

It wasn’t until I watched Bridgerton that I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve felt truly, properly invested in characters in a tv show. Don’t get me wrong, there have been shows I’ve enjoyed and gone back to rewatch later. But it’s been a long time since I’ve truly cared about what happened to characters, that I wanted to keep going back and watching them and their relationship develop.

When the Duke and Daphne were going through their rough patch, oh man you guys. I would have been properly heartbroken if they didn’t end up together. It would have felt like I was being broken up with.

One scene in particular made me feel like I needed them to work things out and stay together. At the end of episode 7, when Daphne gets her period and realizes she’s not pregnant, and you can hear her sobbing while the Duke is sitting there teary-eyed…honestly, it gets to me. I was so emotional. I wanted to scream at him to go to her, you idiot! I had been planning to save the last episode until the next day, but I was just feeling so many emotions after that scene, I had to watch the last episode immediately. I needed to know that they would end up together, that everything would work out.

And then it was bittersweet – because they did end up together, thank goodness. But then it meant I had finished the season, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the characters or the world of Bridgerton yet. So, I immediately started rewatching the first episode.

Also, let’s talk about the sex scenes for a second. Before I watched Bridgerton, I saw memes all over the place talking about how much sex there was. It gave me the impression that pretty much every second scene would be sex, which also made me reluctant to watch the show initially – I assumed it would lack depth, and would be a show trying to gain popularity based off sex appeal. But really? I didn’t think there was that much sex. There was like one episode that had a bunch, but let’s be real, it added to the storyline.

It was an important part of the story, in my opinion, because it shows Daphne’s sexual awakening and the way she gets to finally embrace her sexuality – something that she was brought up to be so sheltered from that she didn’t even seem to grasp the concept of touching herself. But not only that, it also showed just how naive and unprepared she was in regards to sex education. She knew so little about what sex was that she didn’t even realize the Duke was pulling out – she didn’t seem to realize he was purposefully doing that to avoid getting her pregnant. It seemed as though she just thought that was a normal part of sex, that that’s how it ends, nothing weird at all. And then it allowed us to see her realization that the Duke was purposefully avoiding getting her pregnant.

I think it also showed the growth in their relationship. When they were first having sex, there was a lack of honesty in their relationship, with the Duke not being honest about his ability to have children/his desire to not have children. Then, in episode 8 when they make up and have sex again, and the Duke doesn’t pull out – it feels like it’s representative of the Duke’s growth as an individual, as well as their growth as a couple and their ability to communicate better. I don’t know, maybe I’m not explaining it in the best way, but I do think those scenes were a strategic part of the story, and were important in showing the effects of extremely sheltering a young woman from anything to do with sex.

Oh, and Lady Whistledown – I’m sad to say I wasn’t actually that captivated by trying to figure out who she was. Which is surprising, because I love mystery/thriller novels purely for the investigative work of trying to figure out the identity of a character, or guess the plot twist. In the last couple episodes though I did start paying more attention to Lady Whistledown, and I think I briefly accused almost every single character of being her at least once! I don’t think my lack of interest in trying to piece together the identity of Whistledown is any fault of the writers of the show, though. Or maybe it is, in a way. They did such a good job of creating an enrapturing love story, that I was too busy focusing on the Duke and Daphne. I mean, come on, this scene just destroys me:

I can’t decide if I want to read the books now, but I think I might hold off on it for the time being. I’m worried I’ll spoil the second season for myself by finding out what happens next. Or, I’ll spoil the entire series by comparing the show to the books, since I have a bad habit of picking out all the differences in movie adaptations of books.

So, I’ll just be over here rewatching the first season of Bridgerton while I impatiently await season 2.

Until next time,
Nadine