By Beth Nugent, Third Year, Film and Television
It’s not often that I admit when I was wrong, but I feel it’s vital in this moment to hold my hands up and acknowledge I was fooled entirely by Part 1 of Bridgerton Season 4, in fact I’d go as far to say the second part of this season was boring.
There’s something about modern media that often becomes unable to sustain tension and a good plot line once the two love interests of a show get together and the second part of Bridgerton really showed this. It’s true that in the first four episodes, I was giggling and kicking my feet at Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie’s (Yerin Ha) romance, they really seemed to have it all; yearning, forbidden love, great instrumentals to back up their emotionally charged moments, but all of this seemed to dissipate from the second we started episode five.
We kicked off right after Benedict offered Sophie the extremely coveted position of his mistress, she declined and here we are. It frustrated me to no end that Benedict couldn’t get it through his thick skull why in fact this was a bad idea and an insult. I would understand his initial confusion but once you put two and two together, anyone with a brain would get four. Instead he wanders around Mayfair clueless as to why Sophie is upset, and that is the large majority of the plot for the fifth episode.
The pairing was perhaps the most uneventful part of this season. They sleep together in episode five and then we have three more episodes full of pointless barriers as to why they can’t be together. I mean sure, there’s the whole she’s a maid element to their love story, but to be honest, the stakes of that didn’t feel that high. It was only when Jonathan Bailey made his dashing return to yell at his brother and Benedict admitting he would never see his family again if it meant marrying Sophie, did I stop and think that we hadn’t actually seen that much of Benedict and Sophie falling in love. Technically they only had two episodes together before Benedict began spewing love confessions; episode three at My Cottage, and episode four at Bridgerton House. The tension was there for sure, but enough to warrant a dramatic Bridgerton love speech? Maybe not. It’s because of all this that I honestly was unconvinced by these two at the end. Which isn’t really what you want when they are the two leading the screen.
By far the most interesting element of this part was the death of the beloved John Kilmartin (Victor Alli). Fans of the books (or twitter) would’ve known this was coming, but it didn’t make it any less devastating when the moment arrived. It was almost worse knowing his fate and watching him and Francesa (Hannah Dodd) become settled in their marriage and their love. I’ve always loved their story, there’s something so beautiful about their quiet love in a world full of outward loud displays of affection. Dodd did an incredible job of portraying her grief and the scene with her mother brought me to tears. It was a well needed disruption to the usual upbeat and happy Bridgerton vibe.
My final grievance was the idea that as soon as Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) gave up writing as Lady Whistledown, someone new and mysterious took her place and began a new column. Showrunner Jess Brownell said that the motivation behind this decision was to create a new mystery that didn't stem from the source material, to create real confusion and tension amongst viewers. The issue with this is that it stripped all power away from Penelope, who had confessed last season that this was her greatest fear. I disagreed with the idea of revealing her as Whistledown to society so early on because I knew it would only be a matter of time before it got boring. Lo and behold, the very next season, they realise their mistake and start the mystery up again. It felt like cheap writing and a vicious backpedalling of a previous decision.
Beth Nugent
Overall, I was left feeling bitterly disappointed and found myself rewatching season two to remind me of what the good old days were like. Simple and elegant costumes and great plotlines that stand the test of time and aren’t written like a Wattpad story.
Featured Image: IMDb / Bridgerton
What did you think of Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2?
