"Bridgerton Season 3" How Do You Mess This Up?

 

    Look, I'm not here to say that Bridgerton has fallen off some once great pedestal that it stood upon. After all, this show has, and will always be more of a filler show to me, something to simply put on before I go to sleep, and nothing more, and nothing less. I can however, notice when the quality of my filler/slop show is reduced, and somehow that is what has happened with Bridgerton. Do they need to go back to the basics? I don't think they have to, but if this show maintained the formula it had always had I wouldn't completely be against it. What I do know though is that the showrunners grew too bold, too ambitious, and despite every episode clocking in at practically over an hour it still felt like it wasn't enough. Much better shows have suffered from stretching itself too thin syndrome, but never in my life did I think somehow Bridgerton was going to be one of them, and that is my main issue with this latest season of my favourite royalty show.

    Look, I don't watch Bridgerton for historical accuracy, or frankly anything of substance, I am purely here for the vibes, and this season failed to deliver on the optimal amount that previous seasons did. I don't care for historical inaccuracies, nor the fact that the show has such an odd relationship between race and racism, yet allows other forms of prejudice exist for the sake of plot. Actually I do care about the weird fenagling with race that this show has. It makes absolutely no sense, the only time they acknowledge racism is during the Queen Charlotte side show is when she's becoming Queen, but it's less of a major plot point, and more of a footnote, because in this show, class and gender are so much more important. It's so weird too, like I don't know if I've seen a single hispanic person on this show so far, and maybe like three Asian people, if you really wanted real "colourblind" casting for this show, you would have actually included other cultures, like you did with Kate and the whole India plot they have going on. What you just end up with is this weird "black and white" world (sort of in a literal sense too), where they refuse to even acknowledge racism, yet what they do acknowledge is that sexism and a bit of homophobia are present. It's kind of weird how sexism is the only form of prejudice they're comfortable acknowledging in this show, but it's all okay because the dudes love the girls so even though their power is totally at the whims of their husbands you're never really in fear of them losing it.

    Also can we talk about the absolutely wild orchestral renditions of pop songs, which can range from awful like with Cheap Thrills by Sia, or oddly cute like with You Belong With Me by Taylor Swift. It's jarring, but also fun to see whether or not they're putting out something that kind of works or is the most awful cover you've ever seen. Like abcdefu wasn't awful, but to be fair I think everyone's big complaint with that song was the lyrics anyways. That is not the main issue with this season though, as technically my gripe with the way it handles racism has always been present. This show forgot what made it good in the first place, each season focuses on one core Bridgerton as they navigate love through Mayfair, nothing more nothing less. There were multiple, and I mean multiple storylines that felt that they should have been pushed, or scrapped altogether. Look, I'm not saying that Violet Bridgerton/older people/widows do not deserve love, but I also don't think that relationship was that necessary, especially the whole Lady Danbury vs. her brother thing as well. Moreover, why were they focusing on Francesca this season, when it should have all been about Colin/Penelope. The formula is simple, focus on one couple, while planting the seeds about who is going to enter a relationship next in the later season. Her relationship with Lord Kilmartin simply lacked any chemistry either, I know they were both supposed to be bad fits for being around so many people, and super awkward, but they ended up married despite no one seeing anything around or about them, it was so boring. And don't even get me started on Benedict, all that relationship just for it to be cut off at the end? I like him but what was the point? I'm not saying you couldn't have sideplots, but there was simply too much for them to juggle, and no one left satisfied in my opinion.

    Of course, I also have to talk about the main relationship, the big attraction I complained didn't get enough screentime, Colin and Penelope. Honestly, I think this season did more for Colin than Penelope in my eyes, I think they made Colin actually look attractive this season, and frankly he didn't have much character in the previous ones so trying to turn him into this brooding third son who puts on a confident facade but wants to prove himself persona was fine. He just didn't get much screentime outside of being mad at Penelope. To me, it felt like this season was more Penelope focused than anything, it seems like the showrunners just wanted to go with the whole Lady Whistledown finally being exposed angle. Which is fine, I just don't think they handled it particularly well. I mean it doesn't help when I already don't like her for what she did in past seasons, and they basically chalked it all up to "she doesn't have power, she doesn't want to have power". I just wanted her to admit that she was a bad person, that she actually just did it for selfish reasons. Is it so bad to have the main character admit they were being selfish? Also the part where she basically gets off scot free at the end was so frustrating. She just does this whole speech about why she started doing Lady Whistledown, and everyone forgives her, and she says she'll "wield the quill more responsibly"? What the hell does that even mean. She could have gone public, she's a tastemaker, and her opinion should matter, is she going to be less harsh in her criticism? Personally, I feel like she shouldn't, but that's just me.

Final Score: 52/100

    I mean on a good day a Bridgerton season reaches maybe a 70 at max for me, but a 60 if I felt it was good enough. I'd say there were parts of this season I enjoyed, but whether it be the two halves release date, which this show frankly didn't need, to all of the unnecessary sub plots, I was more invested in seeing Eloise do something, or Anthony and Kate for another season. They need to remember to focus on the main relationship, everything else in this show needs to come secondary, if you don't have the fans supporting the main ship enough, then everything just falls apart, it's that simple. I'm not saying the shows completely irredeemable, I mean there wasn't much to redeem in the first place, but it has also somehow gotten off-track for a show that should be pretty simple and straight forward. I imagine most people don't think too hard when they watch this show, so when it isn't easy going, everything you just sort of let slide becomes a bigger issue, which is how I felt, so please, fix this show, for my sake and for others.