Netflix’s big Christmas day drop Bridgerton has a lot of things going for it. It’s as visually sumptuous as a French patisserie’s shop window, with a cast full of beautiful people that both men and women will fawn over; it has a plot full of romance and secrets that our gossip-starved souls should be craving after months of isolation; and it’s a period drama landing on Christmas Day, the Dickensian time of year when our capacity for watching Mr Darcys and Lady Crawleys seems to double in size. Lots of people will surely already be eyeing up the show as their cancelled Christmas contingency plan. But sadly, it may just end up being another disappointment.
Based on Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels, Bridgerton plays like a cross between Downton Abbey and Gossip Girl, as an anonymous writer begins distributing a free gossip column around high society London under the name of Lady Whistledown. Voiced by Julie Andrews, our anonymous narrator is far from short of material. Tis the season for eligible young bachelors to seek out a nice girl and an even nicer dowry to spend the rest of their lives with, and love is a battlefield, particularly when it’s not necessarily love, but rather status, that you’re after. Pushy mothers stuff their daughters into corsets and parade them around at balls; hopeful men come knocking on their doors with lavish gifts the next day. Drinks accidentally slip and ruin rivals’ dresses; jealousy and scheming threatens to ruin friendships.
This is all fine, but that’s the issue: it’s just fine, when it could have been brilliant. Produced by Shonda Rhimes, one of the most striking aspects of Bridgerton is that it’s incredibly diverse for a period drama and, while it’s refreshing to see different people represented within this context, it still manages to make the same old mistakes when it comes to diverse casting. For instance, the woman who garners the most attention from bachelors after making her debut is Marina Thompson, played by Ruby Barker, a light-skinned black woman. The eligible stud who wants to remain single, Duke Simon Basset, is played by Regé-Jean Page, a light-skinned black man.
I am a light-skinned black woman myself, so I must admit that it’s exciting to see someone who (very vaguely) looks like me get all the attention in high society, but I can’t help but wonder why, on a show that has so clearly put an emphasis on diversity during castings, it has fallen into the trap of colourism. Dark-skinned characters are represented, but not with the same gusto or status as ingenue Thompson and bad boy Basset. While Bridgerton is a step in the right direction, it’s frustrating to see diversity once again fall short on screen, particularly on a show that was supposed to do precisely the opposite. Seeing the potential only makes the disappointment hit harder.
Similarly, there are flickers of something more exciting than your typical period romance when boundaries between the new and the old are blurred, a violinist playing a classical rendition of “Thank U, Next” at a ball, for instance. When it finally dawns on you that an Ariana Grande song is soundtracking the festivities, your hopes are raised for more contemporary Easter eggs that might appear throughout the show, but it soon reverts back to dialogue copied and pasted from a Jane Austen novel as characters decide to “take a turn around the room”. You wonder if Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington might strike out and pave her own path after expressing that she’d rather focus on her studies than find a man, but by the end of the first episode, she’s been swept off her feet by a dashing bachelor at a party. The only person who doesn’t live up to society’s expectations is Basset, but even then, as he strikes a deal with the show’s main character, Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor), to engage in a faux courtship that will raise her status and allow him to remain single, it’s glaringly obvious that the pair will eventually fall for each other. All is predictable in love and war.
Perhaps that’s exactly what the nation needs after 2020, hours of formulaic period drama to bookend a year of unprecedented uncertainty. But unsurprising Christmas presents are hardly thrilling, are they? Like a new pair of novelty socks from Santa, you’ll open Bridgerton on Netflix, appreciate the sentiment, but ultimately be left with your great expectations dashed. Fill the void with reruns of your favourite show instead. If Christmas day is destined to be filled with predictable TV, you may as well make sure it’s a show that you’ll actually enjoy.
The TV shows on Christmas day that are actually worth watching
The new Grand Tour is … actually quite charming? We’re as shocked as you are
Chadwick Boseman is at his bittersweet best in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
