The first part of the highly anticipated season four of Bridgerton is chock full of what makes this series so enticing and quite honestly addictive: eclectic chemistry, beautiful costuming, and painstaking yearning.
Season four follows the love story of Benedict Bridgerton, the second son of the Bridgerton clan, and Sophie Baek, the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood who is forced by her stepmother to work as a maid after the death of her father. Ever since the showrunners decided that each season would focus on a particular Bridgerton sibling, I have been greatly looking forward to Benedict’s season. I love a Cinderella story and combined with the Shondaland signature of intense yearning and interesting plotlines, I had high expectations for this season. So far, I am not disappointed.
There is a lot to love about this season of Bridgerton so far. Aesthetically, this season displays the considerable growth that this series has experienced in striking a balance between crafting up an atmosphere that is, for lack of another word, uniquely Bridgerton, while retaining the Regency-era elements that made this show so popular in the first place. In no other way is this quite so evident than in the show’s costuming, spearheaded by head costume designer John Glaser and his team.
Episode one opens to follow the first ball of the societal season, which is a costume masquerade ball hosted by the Bridgertons. This gave an opportunity for Bridgerton to showcase beautiful and creative costumes, and this was certainly delivered upon. The beauty of the costumes, combined with string versions of popular songs like DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love, played by the Vitamin String Quartet, make it one of the most memorable parts of this season thus far. While the remaining episodes do not allow for as creatively intense costumes as that of a masquerade, they certainly make their mark as being unique to Bridgerton, with many dresses donning details of sequined flowers and glittered fabric.
One of the strengths of Bridgerton as a series is that they are in a position to pick and choose the elements of realism and of their own creative liberties in regards to the world of London’s high society in the Regency period. Because of this, the introduction of class into season four is even more engaging to follow, particularly since it hasn’t been explored in Brigerton so far.
Sophie’s story is that of a lower-class member of a household and the struggles that she and her peers face. The first three episodes make an attempt to voice class disparity, such as with “maid wars” plot point, where it is revealed that most members of staff are not paid nearly enough. However, it is not until episode four, when Sophie becomes a member of the Bridgerton household as a lady’s maid, that the point is made even close to being effective. Sophie sees what the Bridgertons do not. When the Bridgerton brothers have a carefree play fight during Gregory’s first shave, Sophie only sees the aftermath of a maid on her hands and knees with a mess to clean up. While this is a simple and harmless example, it does show their different lives and consequences of the actions of these Lords and Ladies on the people around them. I am incredibly interested to see how this dichotomy is further explored in part two. I wonder if anything will come out of it, or if Sophie’s marriage to Benedict will simply reduce the household staff back to being shadows.
On the whole, I particularly enjoyed the first and fourth episodes, as these exhibited the love story and yearning of Sophie and Benedict beautifully. The second and third episodes, while still engaging and visually striking, felt more like filler at worst and extremely slow progression of the plot at best. Despite this, I truly look forward to the second part of this season (which is released February 26th) and to see how Sophie and Benedict’s love story, as well as the lives of those around them will progress.
