I don’t know about you, but I’m still coming down from the high that was Bridgerton Season 2. Despite the surprising shortage of sex scenes, the new season and adaptation of The Viscount Who Loved Me stole my heart away, especially when it came to sisters Kate and Edwina Sharma. And now it has been announced which couple is next in line to fall in love. Colin Bridgerton and his secret admirer / Lady Whistledown herself – Penelope Featherington – will find romance in the upcoming third season. Time to get pumped, but I do have some trepidations I hope the series addresses in its third season.
Bridgerton Season 3 is no longer going in book order with the announcement, considering Julia Quinn’s third book is An Offer From A Gentleman, about Benedict Bridgerton. The season will instead be adapted from Romancing Mister Bridgerton, and follow Penelope and Colin’s story. Before we get to my hopes for next season, let’s briefly recap.
First, What’s Going On With Season 3 Of Bridgerton?
Since Season 1, it’s been clear that Penelope has been crushing on Colin, but it’s unclear if he feels the same way. So far, they are most definitely friends, but finally in Season 3 Penelope will get her own love story. In Season 2, Colin got somewhat tipped off that Penelope cares about him, but we’ll have to see how that goes down. A big reveal of the Season 2 finale was Penelope’s best friend Eloise learning that she was Lady Whistledown all along. She was unhappy at learning the secret, and it’s very possible that Penelope won’t have her longtime friend to lean on as the spotlight is placed on her and Colin’s romance.
What’s especially exciting about Colin and Penelope (not having read the books myself) is the potential for a friends-to-lovers storyline. Season 1 was a more traditional love story and the second season was an incredible take on enemies-to-lovers a la Pride and Prejudice. With our quills sharpened (or however one uses those things), here are the lessons I hope Bridgerton takes into account next season.
There Needs To Be A Balance Of Sexual And Romantic Tension
When Bridgerton was released initially in 2020, audiences loved it for the regency romance, sure, but also because it dared to go there with the sexual content. There has been a lot of period romance movies over the years that kept it PG-13, so it was refreshing to see the series delve into smut territory with its well-fleshed out (and romantic) story. It was the best of both worlds. Season 1 brought us Daphne and the Duke just going at it everywhere to the orchestral melody of Taylor Swift’s “Wildest Dreams.”
But then Season 2 confused its audience. The spiciness didn’t hit the same as Daphne and Duke’s romance. Sure, the Viscount and Kate are very different characters and they didn’t need to be horny the whole series for the tension between them to charm us, but at the same time, it felt like Bridgerton became a different show because of its lack of this element that was such a part of the show's identity the first time around.
Now that we’ve seen two very different Bridgerton seasons, in terms of spice, Season 3 should hopefully find a balance between teasing us and giving us the filth too. According to Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope of course, fans will reportedly “be extremely pleased” about the sexual content in the upcoming season.
More Emphasis On Returning To Past Romances
Bridgerton Season 3 will hopefully dodge what happened in Season 2 regarding Regé-Jean Page and continue to build out its previous romances. Following the events of Season 1, Page decided to not continue on the Netflix show, and he currently has a promising future as a movie star. The actor nabbed roles in upcoming high-profile movies including The Gray Man and Dungeons and Dragons, and a quick cameo in Bridgerton might not have been productive for him.
However, I really enjoyed Daphne’s scenes in Season 2 and wished there was more of her and the Duke in the season as one of the ongoing storylines. So often we see fairytale romances and we never get to see what comes of it once they confess their love to each other and go away to live in a big castle or whatever. Hopefully Bridgerton understands that this could be a strength to their show and continues to build out not only Kate and Anthony’s life after Season 2, but Edwina’s next steps in Bridgerton.
Taking Time To Build Out Future Leads, Mostly With Benedict’s Storyline
As mentioned prior, Benedict Bridgerton was technically the next in line to fall in love if the series went in book order on Netflix, but Penelope and Colin jumped the line. I think this is an especially smart decision because as viewers, as Season 2 invested more time in Penelope and Colin than Benedict, who is frankly a pretty uninteresting character thus far. Except for the speculation he might be gay, which could certainly add to the show's diversity. I remember when the love story for Bridgerton Season 2 was announced, I really didn’t care too much for the Viscount either wished the first season had built out his story a bit more. But the first season was balancing a lot of things.
With Season 1 and Season 2 in mind, another lesson Season 3 can learn (and seems to be on top of already with the decision to focus on Penelope) is to build out the direction of the next season intentionally. I don’t care much about Benedict as is, but hopefully this upcoming season gets me to care so I’m ready and sold on watching his romance unfold when his season does come. As Bridgerton moves forward, it has the power to create even more complex and great romances with the beauty of time on its hands to allow for us to get to know the various Bridgertons before they become the focus of their own seasons.
While we wait for Bridgerton Season 3, you can stream the series so far with a Netflix subscription. While I had some notes for Lady Whistledown, Bridgerton has been really strong overall and here on CinemaBlend, we can’t wait to watch more unfold.
