6 Years In, Netflix’s Masterpiece Romance Returns & Delivers Its Best Story So Far

Almost 2 years since it last fogged up television screens by paying off the volatile romance of Colin and Penelope, Bridgerton is back on Netflix with the first part of the long-awaited fourth season. It is, once again, a charming return to the alternate Regency period where romance is a currency almost as valuable as gossip. The fourth season marks a change, of course, after the public reveal of Penelope as Lady Whistledown, but thankfully, this season bucks the trend of entirely sidelining the leads of the previous seasons.

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Sadly, Penelope and Colin’s wings are a little clipped this season, because their tension has been replaced by happiness, and there’s nothing cools romantic intrigue quite like the removal of chaste furtiveness. But as fans of the books will know, the advancement of Benedict (Luke Thompson) to the main event is an excellent tonic, because “An Offer from a Gentleman” is probably the best story. It’s also the most familiar, borrowing liberally from Cinderella, with Benedict falling for a disguised peasant at his mother’s masquerade ball. Crucially, though, Benedict and Sophie (Yerin Ha) are rather upstaged by another story entirely (the best one of all 4 seasons so far).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

PROS	CONS
Benedict & Sophie’s story is charming	Several subplots fall flat
Violet’s “awakening” is the best part of the story (by far)	It’s hard not to miss the missing originals
It admirably tries something new	Sometimes falls into pantomimey silliness
Hits most of the right notes for longer term fans	A 4-episode part-season drop after 2 years away is not acceptable, I’m afraid

Violet Bridgerton’s Story Steals The Show in Season 4

Benedict and Sophie do make a good match, and Thompson’s resident cad (and sexual adventurer) is always enormously good fun, but they’re not quite up to the level of the three central romances so far. The Cinderella story adds a new spin on the conventional romance tropes, too, but I found myself occasionally questioning the pair’s chemistry when I was supposed to feel like they would have happily destroyed social hierarchies for one stolen moment together.

That said, there’s a pleasant Mr Darcy-ness about Benedict when we see him through Sophie’s eyes, and he does get a chance to flex his roguish muscles. That culminates in the titular “Offer” of the books, which adds intrigue and friction right at the end of the fourth episode (and the first part of this frustratingly split season). And it’s very much a case of frustratingly being pulled away just as it’s getting hotter.

But at least we do get to see one complete arc in the annoyingly short four-episode chapter: that of Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmell). Over several seasons and in Queen Charlotte, Violet has clumsily entertained the idea of “getting back on the horse,” as it were, realizing that she might be able to enjoy an active sex life in her later years. This season sees the story build to its delightfully charming, hilariously teen sex comedy-like pay-off as Violet wrestles with her feelings for Lord Anderson. Here, the chemistry is unmatched, and Violet gets easily the best line of all three and a half seasons so far when her Lord “comes to tea”.

There’s newness in the way the show embraces the perspective of the servants – even in the Bridgerton household – thanks to Sophie’s part in things. Things do threaten to get a bit too Downton Abbey at times, but we never really dwell, and it does make sense to show how the other side live, even if I constantly find myself yearning for more of the pageantry, the pomp, and the classical covers of pop songs (this chapter’s highlight is Vitamin String Quartet’s take on Paramore’s “All I Wanted”).

Not Everything In Bridgerton Season 4 Works As Well

I confess I found the storyline between Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) and Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) – and the introduction of a new dynamic that seems designed solely to actually give Will Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe) Alice (Emma Naomi) something to do. Their surprise peerage last season was nice, but this time I struggled to care about their conflict, which again seemed like an attempt to replace the missing friction between the Queen and the mystery of her nemesis, Whistledown. Everything after that reveal was always going to be more of a challenge, and this part of the season is where it sags most.

Generally, Queen Charlotte is drifting further from the incredible, tragic figure we saw in her own spinoff (and at times elsewhere, when her husband pops up), and is now more like Blackadder‘s Queenie. Petulant, pedantic, and dare I say it, a bit pantomimey, and the subplot that deals with her affection, and the impact on Lady Danbury aren’t all that fun.

Francesca and John return from their Scottish home and stick around, and their personal struggles add an element of comedy (even if John is unfortunately being set up as a bit of a fool), but after she was forced to tag along to Scotland for something to do, Eloise returns and is a bit too outside of things for my liking. She’ll get her own chance to shine but this time out she feels a little underserved.

There are new characters thrown in too – Sophie’s “ugly stepsisters”, as well as her snide, domineering stepmother (played by Harry Potter’s Cho Chang actress, Katie Leung). As a villain goes, she’s rather one-dimensional, and the sisters are caricatures who simply don’t live up to the Featherington girls, who played the exact same role far better.

Am I saying Bridgerton is tiring out a little as it gets into its fourth chapter? Not really: the standards now are very high, and it will be watched in huge numbers, but Season 4 is definitely the weakest so far. Or at least it hasn’t started at a 5-star pace. Parts of it are great, parts are very funny, and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays out (in another month, again annoyingly). But there’s definitely work to be done to capture all of the usual magic.

All four episodes of Bridgerton Season 4, Part 1 are available on Netflix now. What did you think of the series? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!