REVIEW: ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Part 2 Leaves Us Wanting

After nearly a month of waiting, Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 is here to speed-run its way towards its inevitable romantic conclusion. After a whirlwind Part 1 orchestrated by showrunner Jess Brownell, it seems like there’s no stopping the latest season from keeping viewers whipping their heads every which way. With only four episodes to wrap things up (and two provided to critics in advance), the problems present in Part 1 continue over into Part 2. This all culminates in a feeling of wanting more than we’re given.

Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 starts off almost immediately after the events of Episode 4.  Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) is overwhelmed as Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) tells his family of the good news. Everyone seems happy except for Eloise (Claudia Jessie), who frankly more than earns the worst friend award this season. Eloise issues an ultimatum to Penelope: tell Colin that she is Lady Whistledown, or Eloise will tell Colin himself. It puts an incredible damper on Penelope’s happiness and further twists something that once brought her joy into a heavier albatross around her neck.

Adding an extra layer to her internalized anxiety is Penelope’s ever-evolving relationship with her mother, Portia Featherington (Polly Walker). The real MVP of this season in terms of character development and performance, Walker’s Portia may be brutally honest, but she also loves her daughters. Penelope is the smartest of the bunch, and Portia knows this. And while she doesn’t initially approve of Penelope marrying for her love, it’s out of a sense of concern because the real world isn’t forgiving or amendable to love or happy endings.

While the romance is a significant portion of Penelope’s development this season, the larger dilemma she has in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 (and one that many will relate to) is whether or not she’s ready to let the moniker of Lady Whistledown go. This identity is very much a part of Penelope. With marriage on the horizon and an awful former best friend breathing down her neck, it seems natural to give it all up now that she has everything. But Whistledown is what gave her the first taste of freedom and autonomy in a world that offers few options for women.

This fight for freedom and autonomy carries itself over to other characters and stokes their desperation in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2. Some either resign themself to the loss of freedom while others desperately try to find a solution.  Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) is the latter, doing everything she can to ruin her father’s plans but failing to think things all the way through. This facilitates an all-too-predictable clash between her and Eloise, and while Cressida takes on the projected mantle of villain yet again, Madsen’s performance and this season’s writing soften the edges.

Freedom for others sometimes means adhering to social norms. Case in point: Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd) and her desire to marry John Singleton (Victor Alli) expeditiously. The longer the wait, the more Francesca begins to boil over. For her marriage means establishing a life of her own, away from the confines of such a busy family like the Bridgertons. While some characters, like Eloise and Cressida, view marriage as repressive, other characters, like Francesca, find the idea of marriage as a way to establish their identity away from family. Marriage transforms into a symbol of agency for her.

This adherence to social norms, particularly as one ascends up the class ladder, can be constricting. In Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2, the Mondrichs storyline settles into the fold whilst examining this idea further. Will Mondrich (Martins Imhangbe) makes a monumental decision, but while those of the upper echelon celebrate it, no one can deny that this decision represents a loss for Will. What does one have to give up in order to be seen as respectable? Despite the Ton’s hypocrisy on the matter, respectability lies at the forefront of everything in polite British society.

Still, despite all of is exploration, there’s still too much going on in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2. And with the pacing sprinting along, there’s not enough time for these revelations and highly-anticipated moments to breathe. Romance is meant to linger, to take hold of the drama and clutch it to one’s chest to savor the emotions it facilitates. Instead, it’s almost akin to a game of ping pong. Each new hit of the paddle leads us to another plot point that needs checking off.

This reads most blatantly with the seeming resolution of Eloise’s and Penelope’s conflict, which, in execution, is hastily constructed at best. The same can be said for Eloise’s epiphany after Cressida’s actions ripple through the Ton.  Neither moments are earned. Nor do we get a moment for things to settle between Eloise’s and Penelope’s come-to-Jesus moment before they race off to the next battle to tackle. It’s another thing to check off a list before moving on to more pressing matters in Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2.

A similar note can be made for Lady Danbury’s (Adjoa Andoh) tension with her brother, Lord Marcus Anderson (Daniel Francis). The inevitable addressing of the issue happens in an almost out-of-character fashion, rendering the reveal to feel almost tacked on rather than something that’s happened naturally. With so many competing storylines this season, tighter writing, a reduction of storylines, or maybe even a higher episode count could have rectified these issues. Instead, there’s a lack of balance across the board.

What remains on point is the visual aesthetics and the spicy scenes. After those last fifteen minutes of Episode 4, fans have been chomping at the bit, waiting for what happens next. Without giving too much away, it is gorgeous. We’ve seen the Grecian-style influence in costume designer John Glaser’s and hair/make-up designer Erika Ökvist’s work this season, along with Bridgerton Season 3‘s production design. This aesthetic carries itself over into the main spicy scene, and from the visual framing to the constant checking from Colin and little notes here and there, it’s all I needed in that category.

With that said, Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2 leaves us wanting. Losing sight of what made its preceding seasons so successful, the romance feels rushed and hurried without giving audiences room to savor the anticipated meal we’ve been yearning for. It’s still beautiful to look at, and the chemistry between Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton does all of the heavy lifting. But it’s clear that the romance was not as much of a priority this season in favor of setting up the stakes for future seasons.

Ultimately, what Bridgerton Season 3 proves is that when you put too many eggs in a basket, the basket will buckle under the weight of the load it has to carry. Splitting an already short eight-episode season into two parts, with the litany of storylines this season has been tasked with executing, accentuates the overall weakness in the storytelling. And, for a romance like Polin’s to feel rushed, even despite two seasons of build-up, is a disservice. Hopefully, for the next season, we are spared the two-parter and perhaps get a larger episode in order to give each storyline its proper due.

All episodes of Bridgerton Season 3 are now streamingly exclusively on Netflix.