Even a wallflower can bloom.
Bridgerton Season 1 Review. Season 2 Review. Queen Charlotte Review.
The third season of Bridgerton follows the love story between Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan, Derry Girls), seeing the pair finally get together after years of secret pining on Pen’s part. We see the pair reunited after Colin returns home from travelling the globe, having inadvertently upset Pen the last time he saw her, having boasted that he’d never court her’. Pen has since moved on and is now looking for a husband of her own, having grown sick of living under her Mother’s (Polly Walker, Line of Duty) thumb, especially now that both of her older sisters have been married off.
Colin offers to teach Pen the art of flirting to help her improve her chances, initially matching her with newest catch of the season Lord Debling (Sam Phillips). Colin however realises that his own feelings for Pen have changed, complicating things for her especially with her Lady Whistledown persona and Colin’s own feelings towards the scribe. With so much working against them can these best friends make their romance work and get their own happily ever after or will secrets stand in the way of true happiness and force Pen to choose between her writing and her true love match?
Season 3 had a slightly different set up from previous seasons because this was the first time we were diving into the love story between two already established characters rather than anyone new to the show and family dynamic overall. We’ve known both Colin and Pen since the show’s very first episode and so many fans were excited for their eventual coupling and to see this fan favourite couple finally get together. I will say that personally neither Colin or Pen have ever been my absolute favourite Bridgerton character but I will still excited for their season and to see them get their chance in the sun.
Despite being the starring couple of the season I do feel like Pen and Colin got significantly less screen time than Simon/Daphne and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey)/Kate (Simone Ashley, Sex Education) in their own respective seasons, with other characters and storylines taking up so much of the runtime away from them. On the whole their love story just felt so rushed, which is weird because it’s literally been building for years now, so on paper it should have been the perfect romance. Instead everything felt like it moved too quickly and for me it felt like Colin’s feelings changed from friendship to romance almost overnight, I wanted some more slow burn. Once the pair did then get together we focused so much on the Lady Whistledown drama that we didn’t really get any scenes of them just being a couple and growing together, which I think is a shame because like I said above this has been a romance years in the making.
For me the Featherington family were the breakout stars of the season here and I have truly come to love Portia, Phillipa (Harriet Cains) and Prudence (Bessie Carter) as the wacky and deeply flawed family that they are. The trio are absolutely brilliant together and bring so much of the show’s comedy, the ‘inserts himself where?’ scene still has been in stitches to this day, we truly love an iconic trio. I also really loved the slight softening of the three, especially towards Pen, showing so much growth from the first season where they were little more than ugly-stepsister archetypes. Instead we now see the two sisters happily married in seemingly genuine love matches and it’s just been nice to see their characters grow from background bullies to genuine comedic relief over the last three years.
Eloise (Claudia Jessie, Vanity Fair) definitely had an interesting arc this season, both in herself and with those around her and I continue to love her character and her views on the ton and society. Season two obviously ended with her discovering Lady Whistledown/Pen’s identity, putting her at odds with her former best friend and later with Colin when the romance begins to bloom. I really loved the fractured relationship between the pair, Eloise didn’t necessarily hate Pen but she couldn’t be friends with her any longer and it made for a really interesting shift in dynamic. I also enjoyed her growing friendship with Cressida (Jessica Madsen) this season as well as the attempted humanising of the former bully as we learn more about her dreary home life especially when compared to the loving Bridgertons. I hope we see Cressida again, she definitely didn’t deserve to be shipped off to Wales and there’s more to her story for sure.
Season three reintroduced us to Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd, Enola Holmes 2), having been recast and given a much bigger role than the previous two seasons, now finding her own love match in John Stirling (Victor Alli) and marrying him towards the end of the season. Now a fully fleshed out character we learn that Francesca much prefers the quiet and alone time from her multiple siblings and I really enjoyed the exploration of a quieter type of love rather than the epic love stories that have come before, even if Violet (Ruth Gemmell) does slightly disapprove. Saying that the finale did then introduce Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza) in a gender-bent change from the original novels (a choice which is certainly making noise online) and I for one am excited to see what happens next. Season three now confirmed that at least two of the Bridgerton children are among the LGBT community (yay for Benedict (Luke Thompson) as well) and I’m definitely curious to see how the show handles its gay relationships when compared to its straight ones.
We finally saw Lady Whistledown unmasked this season after Pen is forced to step forward and reveal herself, finally spilling the secret to the ton and Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) herself. Season three really upped the pressure for Pen as Lady Whistledown with Eloise knowing her secret and threatening to tell Colin at every moment, really forcing her to choose between her new love and her old passions. We also see Cressida attempting to take up the mantle in order to escape a fate worse than death (Wales) and it was fun to see the feuding between the pair. I did like how Pen was finally able to step forward and speak for herself, claiming the Whistledown title and being proud of it. We also see Queen Charlotte accept Pen for who she is, recognising that gossip makes life in the ton more interesting showing that her quest for Lady Whistledown was for the chase and not necessarily the capture. I am curious to see what happens next because I do know in the books the Lady Whistledown storyline does stop after Pen’s story but I hope the show continues for the narration style if nothing else.
Overall I enjoyed this third season of Bridgerton and loved returning to the Ton again, its seriously been too long since we last got the gossip from Lady Whistledown. Colin and Pen’s romance has been so long in the making and it was so satisfying to finally see them get together despite the numerous obstacles along the way. I will say that season three had a lot of moving parts meaning that certain storylines and/or characters felt sidelined (namely the couple of the season) but on the whole we got so much drama here and I just loved seeing everybody again, two years between each season is seriously too long to wait. Going forward I’m definitely excited for season four (we got hints that we’d be focussing on Benedict but nothing concrete yet), the show left a lot of storylines open to explore and I’m especially interested to see where Francesca and John’s romance goes, I just hope we don’t have to wait too long to get it.
Ramblings of a Supposed Writer 