Before you start reading this article, make sure you’ve watched Bridgerton season 1 to avoid being bombarded with spoilers. Don’t say you weren’t warned!
On 22nd January, less than a month after Bridgerton’s release on Netflix, the second season for the show was announced. The announcement was made in a classic London high society fashion through the paper of Lady Whistledown.
The note began in the same tone that continued through the series and has given half the world a British accent now, “The ton are abuzz with the latest gossip, and so it is my honor to impart to you: Bridgerton shall officially return for a second season. I do hope you have stored a bottle of ratafia for this most delightful occasion.” The announcement was, as though Lady Whistledown knew everyone was waiting for a renewal of the next season. And with Netflix’s habit of discontinuing shows, you can never be too sure. But then Bridgerton became the most-watched show on Netflix ever, within only a month of its release on 25th December 2020.
“The incomparable cast of Bridgerton will return to production in the Spring of 2021. This author has been reliably informed that Lord Anthony Bridgerton intends to dominate the social season. I will have my pen ready to report on any and all of his romantic activities.”, was also found in Lady Whistledown’s note of announcement.
The series Bridgerton is an adaptation of Julia Quinn’s bestselling series of novels. The first season was based on the novel “The Duke and I”, and it is said that the series stayed quite true to the book as it followed the story of Daphne and Simon as they pretended to be in love to attract better matches for Daphne and keep the competitive mothers at bay from the Duke. They were both successful in doing so, but somewhere in the middle of their ruse, the two fell in love with each other and started living from one meeting to another. In the process, we also fell in love with the Bridgerton family and all their friends and acquaintances. The first season also got great reviews by the critics as well as by viewers on platforms like- Rotten Tomato.
But season 1 ends with a lot of cliffhangers. Although Daphne’s story ends desirably and everything goes perfectly for her, there are some loose ends otherwise. Anthony’s love interest leaves the city, Mrs. Featherington is anxious about her husband’s heir and even though we got our closure on who Lady Whistledown is, Eloise and Queen Charlotte did not! However, the makers of the show shift the story from Daphne to Anthony by episode eight of the first season.
The second book of Julia Quinn’s series, “The Viscount Who Loved Me” is focused on Anthony’s journey from the trauma of his father’s sudden death from a bee sting to his decision to look for a match in the second season in the London marriage market. Anthony, who up till now was seen as a hot-headed man, and also a rake with fellow rake friends such as the Duke of Hastings is now expected to be seen as a more composed man. At the end of season eight, he was heard telling his younger sister Daphne about looking for his Viscountess, “I finally determined the difficulty — love itself. Removing it from all romantic relations shall make me all the better for it. No more distractions from responsibility or being waylaid from the sensible path.”
I would like to end with what Regé-Jean Page, who plays the Duke of Hastings on season one said in an Oprah magazine interview about returning to Bridgerton, “I think there are a lot of good stories to be told in this world,” he said. “There’s a plethora of characters and each of those characters has cousins, uncles, and dogs, and I think people enjoy exploring all of those depths and nooks and crannies.”
So it is a time when we can only wait for the makers to tell this story, watch reruns of the first season to lift our spirits up, and watch our accent and vocabulary shift a little. And while doing so, the season of spilling tea by Lady Whistledown will return in no time.
