Bridgerton Season 1 Review

January 3, 2020 at 4:27pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a Netflix Original Series that brings together a robust cast of individuals using their titles to get ahead as wealth, lust and betrayal are the key factors of this Regency era England setting. Apparently this is based on a book series, with this take doing some different things with the setting. I suppose that’s fine, mostly wanted to get across that I don’t have any prior knowledge of this show’s source material.

It’s a universe wear racism between two races isn’t a thing, but they’re still not too cool about any non-traditional relationships or at least it seemed to be the case. I won’t focus on that, but it’s just something I observed. Seriously, just a casual observation. Essentially keep in mind that while it’s fairly historic in mannerisms, wit and discussion it’s not historically accurate.

That is of course entirely fine, and it made for a rather enchanting time. I will note that I felt this seriously took a bit of a nose dive towards the latter two episodes, but from the start I was rather hooked in by it. We’ve got this powerful Bridgerton family at the core of the experience, with their perspectives largely being the focus. There are many brothers, and sisters all doing their own things while connecting with one another at various occasions.

I would suppose the heart of this story follows the naïve Daphne Bridgerton (Phobe Dynevor) working with the broken solo rolling Simon Basset (Rege-Jean Page) in order to get ahead. The latter doesn’t want to do any courting, and you’ll find out why throughout the series.

The former wants to get the best possible proposition. Therefore a truce is struck, and that’s really the core of this season. The relationship between the two because obviously it’s such a shallow traditional love story where over time they become more enamored with one another.

There are of course many, many side ventures going on and I’d be here all day doing a deep dive into the various conflicting story lines. You’ve got people sleeping with each other constantly, across all lines of class and it’s just wild in regards to the intricacy at play for the various sub stories.

I will highlight that I found Marina Thompson’s (Ruby Barker) tale to be rather interesting and ruthless. In general across the show I really liked how the dialogue was setup, being very snappy. Then there was also the very delightful Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jesse) doing some detective work. Like I said, there’s a lot going on here and also a mysterious gossip mixed in too. It’s rather wild, but at the same time very shallow in terms of content.

This is rather beautifully shot, with each scene being filled to the brim with detail. This had some insanely impressive set designs that truly did capture the era. Past that, some of the most impressive and varied costume design I’ve seen on a show. I do wish they would have had the leading lady be presented in more wild designs, as she seemed almost bland in comparison to the extravagance all around her.

There were some really awesome and just insanely cool dressed folks everywhere. That was the case whether there were gentlemen in suits, or women in insane dresses to match their personality. It was wild, while being well framed and of course presented across realistic locations that looked stunning. I will note that there was a lot of sexual content with the second last episode being really filled with that.

To the degree that it was a bit too much, I rang in the New Year with that episode and it was a bit unsettling considering whom I was watching the show with. I don’t typically mind this type of element as it’s a natural part of life, and I’m more open to seeing this across visual mediums than most might be. At the same time, they sort of went overkill on it and from there on the show felt very tonally different from the episodes that preceded it.

It’s almost as if this season sort of went too fast in reaching its easily predicted ending location and it could have used more time to breath. The acting was fine for the most part, some were a tad weaker than others in delivery. Still, some stand out scenes and individuals sprinkled throughout. Again, it’s a rather massive cast so it’s hard to highlight everyone and their dynamics. Just so many families, one off characters and supporting members. This must have been such a massive production to balance.

The Conclusion

Bridgerton Season 1 is an interesting, yet very predictable and shallow romantic series that features a massive cast set against gorgeous locations. It really did nail the visual department from the various costumes to the well dressed sets. There’s such a varied group of individuals here, and they’re very fun to see react to one another.

I do think the two leads were successful in presenting their various issues, and a certain level of charisma within their primary problems. That was particularly the message from the overly sexual second to last episode as I got why we were shown so much yet at the same time that could have been conveyed in a more timely way. That aside, I did enjoy their reactions with one another. At the same time, there could have been more of a focus on desire between the two as that level of passion wasn’t perfectly present.

Moving past that as there were so many people meeting one another throughout this I will say it was definitely varied. People were hooking up left, right and center. I’m merely focusing on the two leads because they’re essentially the core of the story with the rest of the cast being around them for support or side levels of scandal.

There definitely was some drama, but nothing too thrilling and most of the stories felt very light in terms of not being anything too wildly fresh. There was a bit of a duel, some scandalous moments out in the dark glorious gardens and indirect conflicts throughout. It was an interesting series, I’m not sure if I’d like to see more since it felt relatively wrapped up though I suppose this is a richly full cast with many options for future situations to arise.

Bridgerton Season 1 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 6.2