Like many of you, I've been spending some of my holiday binging Bridgerton on Netflix. The period drama is addictively soapy with romance, sex, and period style backstabbing. It's as if writer Julia Quinn sat down and decided to throw Downton Abbey and Gossip Girl into a blender and see what happened. Although Bridgerton has aspects of both shows, the original books were actually written and published years before either television show as created.
I'm four episodes in and so far, really savoring each episode. It's very good, but at the same time, I have to say it's maybe not quite as good as the on-line praise I've been reading. I like it, very much, but it leans slightly more int he Gossip Girl direction at times.
Although romance it's at the show's core, my favorite scenes involve the older female characters plotting and scheming. I'm not also not swooning over Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) as much as many of the male characters in the show. As the heroine of the piece, she's also the weakest link in the cast. I also won't get started on those bangs...
Dynevor aside, the rest of the cast are incredible. Although I've had some struggles with some of Shonda Rhimes projects, I've always been amazed with how she casts her shows. Beyond diverse, Rhimes seems to always choose the right actor for each role. I've never felt an actor was cast for any other reason than being the perfect for the part. Although there are of course liberties take with casting, not to mention music and fashion, but it works beautifully due to the actors they hired.
Two of those actors are already getting a flurry of on-line attention for their roles, and of curse their butt baring scenes. Jonathan Bailey as the eldest Bridgerton son had me at hello, and no one, except maybe Hugh Jackman, has made mutton chops so sexy.
The break out star of Bridgerton appears to be is Regé-Jean Page as Simon Basset. Page in strikingly beautiful, but I was a little on the fence with his acting in the first episode. By episode two however, he was fully committed to his role and like so many viewers, I was drawn to the delicious Duke of Hastings.
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