"Remember Bridgerton mania? The first season of the candy-colored Shonda Rhimes-produced Regency romance-novel adaptation, which dropped on Christmas of the cursed year of 2020, still sits on Netflix's list of the most-watched shows, globally, of all time, as does 2024's Season 3. The commercial success of these adaptations of Julia Quinn's series kick-started the Hollywood run on romance novel IP that's still ongoing today. Fans continue to excitedly await the first drops of official photos presenting the season's assigned Bridgerton sibling with their love interest,"
"It was Season 2, which came out in early 2022, almost four (!) years ago. Back then, the show's milieu-the pink-and-green palette, the bonbon buffets, the empire-waist dresses, the string-quartet covers of pop songs-still felt new, instead of like millennial cringe. It helped that Jonathan Bailey, who played the Viscount Anthony Bridgerton, has a potent way of yearning at an actress that would later render the Fiyero parts of the awful Wicked: For Good comparatively tolerable."
Bridgerton achieved massive global viewership on Netflix, with Season 1 and Season 3 ranking among the platform's most-watched shows. The show's success sparked a broader Hollywood surge in adaptations of romance-novel intellectual property. Early seasons established a distinctive aesthetic—pink-and-green palettes, bonbon buffets, empire-waist dresses, and string-quartet pop covers—that initially felt fresh. Audience enthusiasm peaked around Season 2, aided by Jonathan Bailey's memorable performance as Anthony. Subsequent seasons have generated diminishing returns despite occasional high points. Season 4 centers on Benedict Bridgerton and adapts Julia Quinn's An Offer From a Gentleman. Yerin Ha delivers a strong, watchable Sophie Baek in a Cinderella-inflected arc.
Read at Slate Magazine
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