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After watching Bridgerton twice and still tempted everyday to watch it the 3rd time. ( I have started watching it but I decided to exercise some self control and stopped after the second episode). The only thing left to do is to write a review. I’m surprised by how much I love this tv series. I’m not one to watch shows from the era it was portrayed in, the 1800s. However, all the hype around the show got my attention and here we are today, I am an established Bridgerton advocate. Enough about me, let’s talk about this show now.

Before we go further, we must know there are two types of people in this world. Those that love Bridgerton and those that don’t. If you enjoyed gossip girl ( assuming everyone has watched it). I think any gossip girl lover would enjoy Bridgerton a lot. There are some similarities from the gossip, to wealth showcase to fashion.

Bridgerton is like the typical expected love story you watch in romcoms. Boy and girl have a weird encounter, totally disgusted by each other for no tangible reason . Soon after, a friendship or an alliance is formed, love slowly creeps in. There’s a plot twist in there somehow but love prevails eventually.
Asides from being totally entertaining and amusing, this show gives an insight on how women have evolved from the 1800s to this present day.
I have pointed out somethings I found bizarre from the 1800s. I have tried to avoid telling the story in this review so to avoid spoiling it for people that still intend to watch it.

I found the betrothal process quite amusing, the presentation of young beautiful girls to the queen to show they are eligible for marriage was so corny and unnecessary because the men didn’t have to go through such a ridiculous process. The way the queen was only impressed by Daphne (one of the lead characters) was unfair to other girls that must have spent a long period of time preparing for the day. The pressure was on Daphne too, imagine, the Duke wasn’t there to save her. It would have been a disaster as she would have had to marry Nigel ( You have to watch the series to understand some parts of this post sorry but try and focus on the big picture).

Also the fact that women were groomed solely for marriages, no university degrees, no exciting career prospects to look up to, just the wife title was such a downer. Nothing wrong with being a wife but you can be a wife and have a life!

Beyond education and career talk, most women were so uninformed about their sexuality and sexual awareness. what exactly were they teaching them about marriage? Daphne, the lead character in the series, was an innocent girl that knew virtually nothing about sex, reproduction, getting aroused etc. We also witnessed how Eloise and Penelope were clueless about sex and pregnancy. The lack of information access for young ladies back in the days was terrible and led to several terrible consequences. Some examples includes Marina trying to get rid of her pregnancy by drinking herbs concoction or Daphne almost ruining her life and marriage due to her ignorance about ejaculation and child conception process.

Women were not necessarily in control of deciding who they wanted to get married to. If a man proposes or defiles you, he would most likely have to marry you. The case of Daphne and Nigel also Daphne and Simon.

The women’s family were responsible to pay the dowry. I know this is still a practice in some parts of the world. In some cultures the men pay. It is evident that not much has changed for men since the 1800s . They still do the same things and I think they have it easier now as most men are not the sole providers in many house holds anymore. Notable change is the fashion. I am glad that the fashion has evolved for both men and women since the 1800s.

Now that I’m done reviewing what it was like to be a woman in the 1800s, let me quickly tell you, there are a lot of sex scenes on this show. It was flaunted left, right and center. The honeymoon sex scenes were so many, we didn’t need to see so much to be honest. I say Daphne was innocent but she’s a fast learner apparently.

They were very fashionable on the show. I’m not surprised as it was depicting life of the royals and the affluent. I had an issue Daphne’s dresses, they were ill fitting. I didn’t understand why she needed corset if the clothes were designed to make her look she had on rectangle cardboards. I know they were trying to portray her innocence but unacceptable regardless. I love how black people were royalty on the show, the inclusivity made me happy. Black people are usually the slaves in series like this, it was refreshing to see some black royals. From Lady Danbry, to the duke, to the queen.

I particularly liked that the Duke and Duchess were black and white. Gambling was big then and it still is now, some things never change. A major lesson from the show is a woman must have her financial freedom. We witnessed how lord Featherington ruined his household due to his gambling addiction.

My highlight of the show was watching Simon The Duke ( the other lead character )on my screen. He’s the definition of eye candy and his acting was so good. He could have laid in bed throughout the show and I would have been content.

My most memorable line from the show- I burn for you. The tv series was filmed in Bath and directed by Shonda Rhimes. There are 8 episode in this first season and the series has been approved for another season, get excited.

Ps: the series was adapted from Julia Quinn’s novel series.

I wish I could touch on all areas of the Bridgerton tv series but this post will be too long. I hope you are now curious to watch the show if you have not watched it. Thank you for reading xx.