When Jane Austen wrote one of her most famous lines about universally acknowledged truths, she probably wasn't talking about how to make an equally successful follow-up to an arguable pop culture phenomenon — but, as it happens the upcoming Bridgerton Season 2 does follow the romantic plotline of a man in want of a wife. This time around, it's the eldest son of the titular family, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey), who finally tosses himself out into the marriage mart and onto the mercy of the ton by extension (and all of those ambitious mamas in search of an auspicious match for their single daughters); however, unlike the romance that played out between his sister Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and her eventual-husband Simon, Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page), the Viscount Bridgerton is far from motivated to make a love match of his own, content on approaching the ideal notion of his future Viscountess as someone who can satisfy a checklist rather than stir any deep emotions to the surface. All that changes, naturally, when the Sharma family arrives on the scene for the latest social season, thanks to the patronage of Lady Danbury herself (Adjoa Andoh).
One of the biggest themes of Bridgerton Season 2 doesn't even hover within romance, but the concept of family and duty in all its forms. It quickly becomes obvious why the series shifts to these dynamics, given the responsibilities that the two main characters at its center have committed themselves to. Anthony, who witnessed the unexpected death of his father, Bridgerton patriarch Edmund (Rupert Evans, in a series of flashbacks) at a very young age, was unexpectedly thrust into a leadership position as the family head and has since strived to maintain that role to the best of his ability — even if it has meant sacrificing his own contentment in the process. Meanwhile, Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) has only emerged alongside her family into society for the benefit of her younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran), and is making all efforts to ensure that only the best suitors are considered for Edwina's hand-in-marriage. From a distance, the Viscount Bridgerton seems like the ideal match on paper, and Edwina is visibly charmed by him in their initial meetings, but Kate isn't immediately impressed — even if it's plainly evident that the hostility she demonstrates toward Anthony only masquerades deeper feelings of attraction.
Much of the marketing surrounding this season has emphasized the "love triangle" trope — which feels a little disingenuous for what actually plays out on-screen. If anything, one could argue that if there is a triangle, it exists in the form of having Kate at its primary joining point, with this season's heroine torn between acting on the long-simmering tension that could yield to more in the right moment and giving in to feelings that would hurt her sister in a way that's beyond repair. Ashley and Chandran have some of the season's most tender and emotionally vulnerable scenes together, as Kate's love for Edwina exists in direct competition with her rising interest in Anthony; time and time again, she makes the decision to choose her sister over anyone else. Comparatively, Anthony is engaged in a variation on the same exact theme, as he prioritizes his inherited duty to family and his responsibility to find a bride over anything that could even be remotely interpreted as love.
The result, over the course of Season 2, is a lot of yearning and longing looks between our main pair, the occasional lift of a hand that stops just shy of making contact with another, kisses nearly shared but never fully initiated — and Bailey and Ashley know how to masterfully thread the tension needle, making you primed for even the slightest promise of culmination between them just about every time they're on-screen together.
Theirs isn't the only storyline that plays out this season, though; apart from the main romance arc, there are plenty of B-plots reserved both for the rest of the Bridgerton family and the members of their immediate circle. Anthony isn't the only sibling tasked with attending balls and earning good impressions; this year is also his younger sister Eloise's (Claudia Jessie) turn to make her debut in society, though her terrifying presentation to Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is conveniently disrupted by the return of none other than Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews). The stakes surrounding the mystery of the gossip columnist's identity have only increased since Season 1, which means that the real writer herself, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), has to take even greater pains to avoid being discovered — even if it means penning more intimate details into her paper that could prove hurtful to the people she cares about. Beyond that, there are also smaller threads dedicated to older Bridgerton brother Benedict (Luke Thompson) leaning into an artist's life of partying and nude portraiture, as well as the return of Colin (Luke Newton), who's come back from his travels abroad with a new tan and a lot of changed perspective about his relationships from Season 1. And that's not even getting into all the drama surrounding the Featheringtons and the arrival of the family's new heir, who has shown up with an aim to help them out of their current financial straits.
If that already sounds like a lot to squeeze in over the course of eight episodes, that's because it is. Naturally, one of the benefits of having a big ensemble cast in any series is the seemingly limitless number of plots that can be tackled, but the downside to the same comes when storylines that should be afforded even more emotional weight aren't given a sufficient length of screentime to work themselves out. Next to Daphne and Simon's journey to their happily-ever-after last season, Season 2's love story plays out much differently by comparison — and the resulting slow burn contributes to a completely distinct pace related to how Kate and Anthony find their way to a HEA. While that aspect, specifically, isn't a negative in and of itself, this season does fall prey to a similar issue as its predecessor, with some resolutions feeling more rushed through or added in purely as an afterthought to tie up any loose ends remaining.
Those who are more familiar with the source material (Julia Quinn's The Viscount Who Loved Me, the second installment in the series that inspired the TV show) may notice some distinct changes to the plot, though whether those substitutions contribute to the season's detriment overall may depend on how much of a book purist you are. That aside, what this season of Bridgerton appears to be primarily driving towards is setting the stage for its inevitable future seasons (the show has already been renewed for both a third and fourth at Netflix) by dropping in breadcrumbs for the romances yet to come — which, if the series plans on following the books, will likely be Benedict and Colin/Penelope's, respectively. Building out the world of the Bridgertons is a necessary ingredient, and any series centered around a family like theirs is always going to dedicate itself to those narratives first and foremost. The issue is when that prioritization happens at the expense of the plotlines that deserve to be, and should be, positioned at the very center of everything else.
With its return to Netflix, Bridgerton successfully fills the very specific niche of unabashed romance-rooted storytelling that audiences have been anticipating — and those of us who get our thrills from watching people fall in love amidst the backdrop of a very restrained society (set to the tune of many excellent instrumental covers of contemporary pop songs) will have plenty to feast our eyes on. From the sight of Anthony emerging from a lake with his white shirt being completely plastered to his skin to the long-awaited match of Bridgerton pall-mall to the absolute scene-stealing presence of Newton the Sharma family corgi, there are more than enough delightful elements that illustrate why this series has been such a success and deserves to continue in that vein. Now that the future of Bridgerton is all but secured, though, it would behoove this show to focus more on the compelling, seductive romance it has in the present rather than setting sights too far ahead to next season's drama.
Rating: B+
Bridgerton Season 2 premieres in its entirety on March 25, exclusively on Netflix.