IIt’s a Scrooge-y Christmas season for all of us, so Shonda Rhimes gave us Regé-Jean Page as a little delicacy.
Page is the male leader of Bridgerton, the new vintage soap opera that marks Rhimes’ first project that was broadcast from her massive Netflix deal.
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The series itself is like a thought experiment asking “What if Jane Austen saw gossip Girl and then he was asked to write a TV series to be consumed with a vibrator in his hand? “And Page is the answer to that question, an actor whom a colleague of mine – whose identity I will not reveal to protect her from future restraining orders – has resolutely led” the coolest man I’ve ever met. ever seen ”.
But Page, like Simon Basset, the haughty and emotionally tortured piece that follows the outer circles – not to mention libido – of the Regency London season, is just a fantastic attraction. Bridgerton, especially with the launch date of Christmas Day at the end of this year cursed by the pandemic.
It’s certainly not what Rhimes or Netflix planned when it came how and when to launch this very expensive, very escaped new show. But, as it is, it comes with serious vibrations of “You have nothing to do on vacation? Here’s the sex and corsets from Gray’s anatomy And may God bless us all.
Bridgerton it is set in that era of British society that we spent until historical fiction in our minds, when balls were organized for the sole purpose of matching the grown daughter of one family to the eligible bachelor of another. A period in which the scenery is such a priority, it could only be a fertile ground for salacious gossip, this is exactly what is Bridgerton grabs.
Enter Lady Whistledown, an all-knowing character voiced by Julie Andrews, who creates the Grosvenor’s Square version of Page six. (If I said it once, I said it a thousand times: Julie Andrews is the new Kristen Bell.) She’s busy with everyone, to the point where even the Queen cares who’s in favor of Whistledown. and whose scandals hasten them through the mud.
Whistledown’s main concern is Daphne Bridgerton, the “diamond” of the company’s season; It’s Tinsley Mortimer, if you will. After a stressful few minutes of “you can’t tell I’m not Sansa Stark” while watching Phoebe Dynevor’s show, you’ll be swept away in her insanely complicated love affair with Simon Basset.
If you have read any of the anticipated covers of BridgertonDid you hear that fucking show. As inside there is sex. A lot. And not like that Scandal “That’s kind of hot and then the room cuts off” sex. There are asses! And tits! And at Christmas! Oh, come all believers, indeed.
The series takes a few episodes to get to all the panting you’ve heard about. At first I wondered, where was all the sex I was promised? And then he showed up. And he came again and again. It was so incessant that I needed to take a break and spend a few minutes with God.
At one point, two characters quarrel over the state of their lives together, take a short break for a violent round of cunnilingus on a ladder, and then continue their argument.
“At one point, two characters quarrel about the state of their lives together, pause for a violent round of cunnilingus on a ladder, and then continue their argument.“
This is a great agitation about what is, in the end, just an element of the show – although an undeniably important one. But that points out how Bridgerton in fact, the plot of a legendary network television creator who takes his universe – literally Shondaland – to a streaming service is doing well.
It’s not just the explanation of the love scenes or even madness that the budget allowed him to do a show that looks like this, as if PBS had sent all Downton Abbey through a Baz Luhrmann Snapchat filter and that came out on the other side.
Too many of these major streaming offerings have found their creators in essence, making the same scheme, only with longer operating times, a greater narrative swelling and, some would argue, a declining quality profitability. With Bridgerton, Rhymes seems to really take advantage of doing things in a narrative way – not just in terms of production – that she could never have done on television.
A Regency soap opera throbbing with lust? It is the enigma of the industry in 2020 in which it will be an indisputable, massive hit for Netflix, but it would never have existed elsewhere.
I mean, folks, it’s not perfect. There are a few story lines that range from boring to maybe even offensive. For the whole celebration of the inclusive, seemingly blind genre casting, there is so much movement of the heart towards a strange story that you wonder why you should bother at all. And the playful with the production can become pretty fast from cute to twee.
But honestly … anything. It’s a juicy show that will make you hard and make you cry – a real capture of life under lock and key – while serving a cast so full of engaging actors, that by the time British hottie Freddie Stroma appears , begins to look almost simple. Let’s all be grateful.