It’s time to return to the Tom as all the families are back in London specifically for the purposes of the wedding season. With all the revelations and excitement from last season, we jumped at the chance to review the first part of season 4.
As always, we break down our reviews by story, acting, and overall. Let’s jump on in to the ball.
Story 6/10
There are a lot of interesting exchanges between characters, I will however say my favorite of this season has been the exchange between Lady Danbury and the Queen, and Benedict Bridgerton and Sophie Baek. The tale of wanting to find your own place in the world and the sorrow of a friend who is not able to give up one of the last lifelines she has to the world is an intense story, so it’s nice to see it well balanced with the cute and intoxicating story of Benedict and Sophie as they both slowly and trepidatiously move towards a relationship.
Another good small story this season is Francesca’s journey to deal with newlywed life, and the realization of how little she knows about the intimacies of marriage. Seeing her coached by Penelope and advice from her mom, it is a sweet journey worth noting because of how loving the relationship between her and her husband is.
The main story of the season, I wish was less stolen from fairy tales, but unfortunately the entire season’s premise seems to be mixed and mashed between that of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid.
The story that is supposed to take the majority of the season focuses on Benedict Bridgerton, self-proclaimed, rake and ardent refuser to settle down stumbling upon a girl at the masquerade ball at the beginning of the season, who refuses to give her his name and runs off before the midnight reveal of what’s behind the masks. What follows is a search amongst the Ton as Benedict tries to find his mystery woman.
At the same time, we follow the journey of the mystery woman, Sophie Baek, the daughter of nobility who was unfortunately relegated to being an unpaid maid in her household by her stepmother and her stepsisters. After the stepmother realizes that she stepped out at the ball, she is kicked out of the house and forced to try to survive in the maid market.
Is in this moment that Benedict finds her as a maid, and through a series of events, attempts to help her and begins to fall in love with her while also still holding on to the idea of the woman from the masquerade, not knowing the whole time that it is the same woman.
All this leads to the cliffhanger where Benedict chooses the maid over the idealistic woman in silver, in that moment she rebuffs him, leaving all the viewers hanging in the balance waiting to see will they ever find their way back to each other.
Acting 8/10
Benedict has done such a great job, or more specifically Luke Thompson, at showcasing his rakish behavior and his interest in multitude subjects that prevents him from being able to fully commit or find somebody that can keep his interest. While with other characters I might find this sudden change at the discovery of the right girl believable, it feels slightly forced with Benedict Bridgeton for the sake of story.
Any further marriages in the show were going to end up being forced anyway, so I get that, but it does seem a little bit too much too soon when all of that change occurs in the first 20 minutes of the first episode.
One of the best things from this new season has been the inclusion of Sophie, played by Yerin Ha. While she appears to be able to do everything, in defensive allegations of being a Mary Sue, it is at the results of having had her life ripped from her and being forced into constant and unfair amounts of servitude from her stepparent. That being said, the character herself is charming, interesting, and well worth the watch, albeit incredibly forced into a story of Cinderella.
Ruth Gemmell and Daniel Francis who play aged lovers, finding new love late in life also do a great job engaging and intriguing the audience. Their interactions are sweet, without feeling like it is saccharin or forced.
In the second half of the season, I can’t wait to see the further interactions between the Queen and Lady Danbury, played by Golda Rosheuvel and Adjoa Andoh, as well as Alice, played by Emma Naomi, who is now becoming her new lady-in-waiting.
Overall 6/10
I think this season takes a hit in our rating simply because of the fact that the show borrows so much from the classic stories of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid. While those are both great stories, they’re easily noticeable in their fables, whereas Bridgerton has done such a great job in the past trying to stand out on its own. The show has always used romantic tropes in the past, but this is very heavy-handed.
Conner’s Final Thoughts
While I don’t feel this is the best season of Bridgerton so far, it has definitely been an interesting ride.
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