After debuting on May 16th with the first part, Bridgerton returns with the second part of the third season, which was received as always with enormous enthusiasm. The TV series created by Shonda Rhimes and taken from the literary saga written by Julia Quinn returns to the small screen to bring the love story between Colin Bridgerton to a close (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicholas Coughlan).
In the first four episodes already available on Netflix, the “spinster” of the Featherington household had tried to change her status quo by asking for help from her friend Colin, who had the task of teaching her how to conquer a man in order to obtain a marriage proposal that would free her from her mother’s future and far from exciting plans. However, Colin, “forced” to spend a lot of time with Penelope also to make up for a rather unfortunate phrase towards her, soon realized that he had begun to feel very strong feelings for her best friend. In this way we had reached the end of the fourth episode, the famous one carriage scene which has become viral on the Internet and a great topic of conversation. The first part of the third season ended with Colin asking Penelope to marry him.
A truly happy ending, but with four more episodes to go at the end of the season the viewer knows they can’t sit back and have to expect obstacles along the way of the next couple. In fact, Penelope doesn’t have to worry only about the happiness she has achieved in having been chosen by the man she has always been in love with. Her friendship with Eloise Bridgerton (Claudia Jessie), in fact, is now just a memory and Eloise herself seems hostile towards her former best friend, guilty of being the one who hides behind the mysterious Lady Whistledown (voiced, in the original language, by Julia Andrews Of Mary Poppins).
Bridgerton 3: less love but more society
And it is precisely from here, from this “secret identity”, that the new episodes of Bridgerton arriving June 13th. The real central point of this second part is Penelope’s double identity and her internal struggle to understand what to do. On the one hand, in fact, the girl is torn by the idea of having to lie to the man she loves, of marrying Colin without him knowing her fully, omitting important details that could make the gentleman lean towards a disappointment that could also lead to to cancel the wedding. On the other hand, however, Penelope feels she doesn’t want to give up Lady Whistledownto that pseudonym that allowed her to have a voice even when everyone considered her invisible.
If the first two seasons of the show focused mainly and almost exclusively on the construction of the love story of the protagonists, this third season seems to want to put on the scales reflections that are not so obvious and also very current, which insist precisely on the possibility of having a own life, one’s own independence, to have the strength to create one’s own freedom with which to face the most corrupt and false sides of society. Although it is set in nineteenth-century London, Bridgerton seems to look at us closely, addressing, with the light notes of his string covers, daily problems with which the public can identify. Paradoxically, however, this very aspect could undermine the success of this season, since the feeling is that there are often too many irons in the fire, as if we wanted to tell everything without ever dwelling on anything.
The camera moves on different characters, trying to follow their transformation arc: this offers an interesting picture of society, but at the same time takes away attention from the main couple. If Dafne and Simon as well as Anthony and Kate had the entire stage on their side to describe the twists and turns of their love, Colin and Penelope risk getting lost a bit in the background, appearing as two protagonists whose story is told perhaps too quickly . This means that whoever watches Bridgerton exclusively for the love story he may be partly disappointed.
On the contrary, others who are primarily interested inPenelope’s evolutionto his awareness and the way in which London society (and not only) reacts to those who do not belong to the standards, then also the second part of Bridgerton will reserve many surprises and satisfactions.
