Recommendations of the Editorial team
When “Bridgerton” premiered in December 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 TV aquarium, the Regency romance captivated viewers with fantastical masquerade balls, corsets and passionate sex. Based on author Julia Quinn’s best-selling novels, the Netflix series, now in its fourth season, follows the titular Bridgerton family and the journeys of their eight children through London’s “marriage market.” It’s a world full of intrigue, gossip and desire.
But the panting, excited attraction faded over time. By the third season, audience fatigue seemed to be setting in. Why else would the creative team have decided to follow not one, but two couples in season three: Colin (Luke Newton) and Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) friends-to-lovers story, and Francesca’s (Hannah Dodd) and John Stirling’s (Victor Alli) love-at-first-sight story?
With the sexy new release “Heated Rivalry“now soaking up all the romance TV oxygen, Part 1 of “Bridgerton” season four arrived last week with something to prove. And this time the series successfully defended its crown. This season’s lovers, Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie (Yerin Ha), bring just as much heartbreaking drama to the story as season two’s Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate (Simone Ashley). But the answer to the series’ problems, counterintuitively, didn’t lie in hotter sex – it lies in finally exploring the lower classes of the Regency world.
A Cinderella story with real stakes
“Bridgerton” season four takes its main love story from Quinn’s 2001 novel “An Offer From a Gentleman,” which tells the Cinderella story of Benedict and Sophie. As the Bridgertons’ second eldest son, Benedict has all the charm of his siblings, but none of the married respect that the others enjoy. Sophie, on the other hand, is a maid at Penwood House. After a chance encounter with a mysterious lady in silver at a masquerade ball, Benedict realizes that maybe he believes in love after all. He soon falls in love with Sophie, unaware that the mysterious woman and his budding love are the same person. He and Sophie have an undeniable connection, but anything more than a sexual relationship would violate every established rule of society. Rich men can have poor mistresses – but not poor wives.
Since the protagonist of season four spends most of her screen time going about her work while the entitled lords around her sip red wine and complain, a large portion of these four episodes takes place in the everyday lives of the previously unexplored working class. While previous seasons of the series have introduced governesses and house managers, these characters have always remained peripheral to the central love stories of “Bridgerton.” Unlike other period dramas like “The Gilded Age,” “Downton Abbey” or Apple TV’s Edith Wharton drama “The Buccaneers,” Bridgerton has consistently avoided any real exploration of class issues.
Even the expanded screen time of working-class couple Will (Martins Imhangbe) and Alice Mondrich (Emma Naomi) in season three came with a status change that came out of nowhere: an estranged great-aunt dies, leaving the Mondrichs’ son as sole heir to an estate, transforming the couple from poor bar owners to suddenly wealthy aristocrats, with no connection to their previous lives.
A look behind the scenes of Regency society
But season four takes viewers into lower-class locales like the bars where scullery maids and footmen relax, the markets where household staff shop, even the secret parlors where servants eat breakfast and discuss town gossip. Since these are the people most often ignored by society, they are the ones who not only know the correct details of the latest town gossip but also know which lady is a loving employer and who is a cruel tyrant. The people Sophie works with are her family — more than any actual blood relative — and that recognition adds grounding and depth to the friendships in this normally breezy series.
The focus on class also strengthens this season’s central love story. While previous seasons of Bridgerton have all featured some sort of will-they-won’t-they tension in their main characters’ journey to love, the class divide gives season four real stakes. Unlike the couples in previous seasons, if Benedict and Sophie were to consider a life together, they would have to choose one that would completely exclude them both from society. Any child they had would be kept separate from the upper classes; Benedict might rarely see his family again; and Sophie would be back in the exact situation she desperately wanted to escape. The decision Benedict and Sophie make could change their lives – or ruin them forever.
Why historical reality improves romance
“Bridgerton,” of course, has never focused on historical accuracy. The series revels in its deliberately anachronistic music, casting and costume choices. And not every romance has to be rooted in reality. Sometimes the last thing a romance novel needs is a reminder that the characters on screen think leeches are a helpful medical treatment, or that disagreements can only be resolved with dueling pistols.
But you can’t take away everything that makes a story interesting and expect it to work the same way. By ignoring class as a factor in its characters’ lives, Bridgerton often polished away much of the underlying friction between them – and in doing so did a disservice to the couples’ love stories. You would never see a Cinderella retelling where she ignores the fairy godmother and buys the dress and a ticket to the ball with her fantasy AmEx. Period dramas need a certain level of accuracy, or at least an acknowledgment of social realities, for their fantastical elements to work. Luckily, “Bridgerton” figured this out before it was too late.
