Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 Review: Bridgerton The Show Is Growing Up. Will It Confront Its Past Sins?

I have a love-and-hate relationship with Netflix’s Bridgerton.

I started watching the series when the first season came out back in late 2020. I knew not to expect a lot of historical accuracy from a period fantasy, but after a point, I couldn’t bear to watch it anymore because of how much it reminded me of those terribly written romance fanfictions from 2010s era Wattpad. 

A still from Bridgerton season 1Netflix

I would go on to dismiss the show for two more years, missing out on the release of the best season till date, until a friend forced me to sit and watch the spin-off series, Queen Charlotte, with her. This time however, I was “bewitched, body and soul”, as Anthony from Season 2 would put it. In the week following Queen Charlotte, I realised I had practically become a member of the cult of Bridgerton, watching and rewatching every season (bar the first one), memorizing the confession scenes by heart, and waiting, eagerly, longingly, for new seasons to drop. I would not say I consider the series in the list of the best TV shows out there, but the characters in this world are endearing enough to grow on you and keep you coming back for more.

That brings us to the present. The first half of season 4 is here. Benedict Bridgerton, the wayward bisexual artist and the second son of the family is our focus as “the most eligible bachelor of the season”. Except Benedict would do anything to not “settle down”. Society life bores him, and he feels out of place amidst the superficial niceties of regency-era aristocracy. 

And then he meets the Lady In Silver, a mysterious attendant at his mother's masquerade, who, unlike everyone else at the ball, has no idea who he is and is not there to try her luck at wooing the titled nobleman. Benedict is drawn to her almost immediately, but before he can find out her real identity, the clock strikes twelve and she has to leave the party immediately. Turns out, our silver ingenue is actually Sophie Baek, a maid working for her evil stepmother and her daughters. 

A still from Bridgerton season 4Netflix

This is what we knew from the trailer, and going into the season, I felt a little apprehensive that the main romantic plot would just be a simple Cinderella trope. In all honesty, it gave me season 1 flashbacks. It also did not help that Colin and Penelope’s story in the previous season was just as disappointing.

Except this time, I was pleasantly surprised. Bridgerton seems to be moving on from the shadow of Kate Sharma and Anthony Bridgerton’s love story (they don't appear in part 1 at all), and further into Downtown Abbey territory. It's as if, with two brilliant releases and two unsatisfactory ones, the writers have found out what works for the audience. Now, all that is left is to test their learnings.

A very important lesson, in that regard, has been the ability to manage the many subplots of the nine members of the Bridgerton family, the royalty, and the many side characters of the universe while maintaining the clear distinction that Benedict and Sophie’s story is the central plot of the season. This wasn't the case in the highly anticipated season 3, where Colin and Penelope's story pretty much lost itself to the larger crisis around Lady Whistledown’s true identity. Even worse, Colin, the male lead of the season, felt nothing more than a plot device for Penelope to grow into full bloom.

A still from Bridgerton season 4Netflix

This time, and largely thanks to Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha’s chemistry and sublime acting prowess, Benedict and Sophie keep our attention affixed to them. Thompson in general has proved himself to be quite the darling amongst Bridgerton fans with his charismatic, easy-going nature. He has great chemistry with every character he interacts with, which would only make it difficult for a female lead to rise up to the occasion and steal our attention in equal measure. Ha succeeds at it with a disarming ease, and wins over not only the people around her, but the viewers too. 

It's also interesting how Benedict’s story is handled here. Till now, while his siblings went ahead in search of their own partners, the second Bridgerton brother was away with his own sexual escapades, many of which would be frowned upon by his society. Refreshingly, in his season, these escapades lower down to a minimum, and for once, chemistry grows through the banter between the leads, and rarely through the sexual tension.

In fact, season 4 tries to break away from the sexy-period-drama trope this time. Apart from a brief scene at the Mondrichs and a carriage scene with Colin and Penelope, intimate moments are either tied to larger plots (like Francesca and John being unable to conceive) or skipped altogether (like Violet and Lord Tennyson). 

A still from Bridgerton season 4Netflix

These subplots hold their own, perhaps too steadily for a season with only eight episodes. The Mondrichs, who had been loosely butterflying around the main cast after season 2, are brought further into the limelight with Alice being thrust into the position of the queen’s lady-in-waiting. We get a chance to revisit the friendship between Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte, now that the former is planning to take her leave from society duties. Katie Leung (that's Cho Chang from Harry Potter, by the way) as Lady Araminta Gun proves a formidable antagonist in the season, towering over the show in her black robes and mysterious relationship with her stepdaughter. Violet Bridgerton, refreshingly, has more screentime this season, both as the matriarch of the family, and as an elderly woman with a second chance at love.

Speaking of the Bridgerton matriarch, I did not quite expect the show to delve into the lives of the maids and servants that run the households of the aristocrats in the show and give a commentary on just how dependent the aristocracy is on its servants. Violet’s chief of staff arranges her fling with Lord Tennyson. Entire relationships between houses tumble down following a supporting staff shortage in the ton. In a brief interaction between the maids and a carriage boy in the first episode, we learn how, beneath the shine of the Bridgerton household and their blissful married lives with their babies, there are the servants who begrudgingly do most of the work of bringing up said children. Sure, this is a season about interclass marriages, but it's nice to see the show take itself this seriously and not turn everything into a wishy-washy Disney Princess show.

A still from Bridgerton season 4Netflix

Which brings us to the final scene of the fourth episode. Much to the disappointment of fans, the first half ends with the open-minded Benedict following the norms of the time and offering to make Sophie his mistress, and not his wife. It goes against the image of Benedict we have in our minds. It also doesn't help that the build-up to this scene is rather rushed, as you would imagine in a show that has been cut into two ridiculously short mini-seasons. But to finally stop placing its characters beyond the mores of the world they live in is the greatest coming-of-age sign for Bridgerton we have seen till now.

It's more realistic in ways the previous seasons have never been. In every season, the main characters flout society at the cost of others, without any repercussions whatsoever. It feels strange at first that the makers chose to do away with this with the brother who cared the least about society rules. But then you realise on second thought that all the men in this show are either sexually active playboys who end up with chaste noblewomen, or men who make their women ensure that the family name is not stained. Despite being less judgemental than his brothers, Benedict is only a product of the people he is surrounded with, and his “gentleman's offer” is only another addition in a show where women carry the burden of the relationship, while men are free to love as they please. Only this time, it brings that hypocrisy to the forefront.

A still from Bridgerton season 4Netflix

A well-deserved reality check for the audience, and a mature decision for the writers to make, should Benedict learn to bear that burden in equal measure as his Lady in Silver. That is of course, as long as Netflix does not wash down the stakes midway to keep the season in the shadow of its pastel, fairy tale predecessors, like Benedict has long been in the shadow of his brothers.