Genre: TV – Period Drama (Pilot Episode)
Premise: Set in the competitive world of London’s mating season, when debutantes are presented at court.
About: This is Shonda Rhimes’s first big play on Netflix, and she didn’t come lightly. This looks like it cost a billion dollars to produce. Netflix opened up that pocketbook and didn’t close it. That approach seems to have paid off because, according to Netflix, Bridgerton is the most watched program on the streamer ever over its first month, tallying up 82 million household watches.
Writer: Chris Van Dusen (produced by Shonda Rhimes) (based on the novels by Julia Quinn)
Details: 60 minutes
The time has come.
I’ve received over 650 e-mails about it. Asking me when am I going to do a stinking review for the sumptuous Bridgerton? And by 650 e-mails I mean two e-mails. It’s taken Netflix by storm. It’s taken you all by storm. And pray-tell it has taken me by storm. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about Bridgerton. Although that’s mainly because it’s the first show pictured whenever I open up Netflix but that’s neither here nor there.
Now while the manner in which the following review is written would seem to indicate I didn’t give this show a chance, I promise you that is not true. I’m not going to swear on my life or anything to promise you that. And, truth be told, I’m probably lying. But, hey, I’m the first to admit that “Cinderella with sex” isn’t the worst pitch.
Join me now, as I attempt to make sense of… Bridgerton.
So there’s this woman. Her name is “Lady Whistledown.” She runs a gossip blog but it’s the olden times version of a gossip blog so it’s printed on a pamphlet. Nobody knows who Lady Whistledown is, which confuses me since there are probably 3 printing presses in the entire world at this point and since very few people would have access to such a device, you could figure out who Lady Whistledown was through process of elimination. Assuming there are 10 buildings total in each town, just hang outside the printing press building until you find a suspicious-looking 50-something lady with 500 blank pamphlets walk inside.
Anyway, Lady Whistledown is obsessed with our heroine, the porcelain-skinned doe-eyed Daphne Bridgerton. Daphne hops on Whistledown’s radar when she gets the attention of the Queen! You see, back then, the Queen would spend entire days having women march into her throne room so she could either give them a ‘nay’ or a ‘yay.’ Sort of like their version of America’s Got Talent. But there’s only one Simon Cowell. And it’s a woman. And this Simon Cowell woman gets creepy ecstatic when she sees Daphne, bestowing upon her a forehead kiss, which makes everyone else in the room whisper to each other loudly. Meaning ‘This is a big deal!’ I’m glad they showed that loud whispering because otherwise I would’ve had no idea that it was a big deal.
ALLLLLL the men are now obsessed with Daphne and want her to husband them. It’s a little confusing, though, because Daphne is beautiful and the Bridgerton family already had a good name before this so it seems like she would’ve done well in the husband market anyway. But I guess this is like the difference between having access to regular dudes and celebrity dudes. Zak the scruffy-suited school teacher versus Zak Efron.
Either way, it seems like Daphne’s got it made. But there’s a big bad obstacle standing in her way. Her impossible brother, the Duke of Ellington! Actually, he’s not the Duke of Ellington but every guy in this show looks like a Duke of Ellington. So whenever I didn’t know someone’s name I mentally named them the Duke of Ellington. Point being, no husband is good enough for her brother. Which is cramping Daphne’s wedding plans.
Oh! I almost forgot to tell you. There’s this really studly guy that Daphne is attracted to named Simon Basset. But guess what? SIMON DOESN’T WANT TO GET MARRIED! Yikes, what?? Yeah. And he’s the only guy Daphne’s truly interested in. Well, until Lady Whistledown reveals that Simon is a player. And then she’s all, “You and I ain’t happening.” Which Simon seems totally unaffected by.
What is going to happen next? Will Daphne find a man? Will her nosy brother keep standing in her way? Will the true identity of Lady Whistledown ever be revealed???? I ask you, dear Scriptshadow reader, to find out the answers to these questions. For I know I never will.
Okay.
Time to get serious.
Although that’s probably not going to last.
What is Bridgerton? I don’t think it’s a soap opera. It’s too expensive to be a soap opera. So is it an elevated soap opera? A soap opera +1? Cause the whole time I was watching it, I was trying to figure out what the tone was. Is it supposed to be cheesy? If so, how cheesy? Or does it want to be taken seriously? Because sometimes it feels like it’s ready to take on real life problems and shit.
Since I could never get a handle on it, I could never get myself in the right headspace to care about what was going on. Take Cobra Kai, for example. Cobra Kai is cheesy 80s nostalgia. It’s not meant to be taken seriously. When there’s a serious moment, it’s almost always played with a wink to the audience. And whenever a problem does occur, it almost always gets resolved by karate. I understand that about Cobra Kai which is exactly why I love it. I never found that clarity while watching Bridgerton.
I did learn one thing about screenwriting while watching this show, though.
High stakes only need be high relative to the story you’re telling. For example, Ferris Bueller doesn’t have end-of-the-world-stakes. But there’s a good chance that, if Ferris gets caught ditching school today, he will have to repeat his senior year of high school. And to a high school kid, that’s a big deal.
This rule is on full display in Bridgerton. The stakes are: Daphne needs to find a husband. Back then, it was really important to find a husband. And the “bigger” the whale you caught, so to speak, the better it was for you and your family. The show does a good job establishing that, so those who enjoy this sort of show are likely invested.
There are typically two things required when talking about audience investment – stakes and character. If you’re ever losing audience investment (someone’s getting bored) it usually comes down to one of those two things. We’re talking about the stakes here. If the stakes don’t feel big to the reader, why would they stay invested? Let’s say, in Bridgerton, there’s no marriage storyline. It’s just people hanging out in the city and reading gossip pamphlets. You’re probably losing a lot of audience members. That’s because you don’t have stakes.
If you have stakes and your audience is still getting bored, it’s probably because, at least, 2 of your 3 main characters are weak. You can give me the highest stakes in the world – an asteroid is going to collide with earth with 100 Decepticons on it – but if 2 out of your 3 main characters are thin or cliche or they don’t have any sort of internal unresolved dilemma going on – I’m not going to be invested.
While Bridgerton clearly isn’t my thing, I can confirm that it got those two things right. It got the relative stakes down. And both Simon and Daphne are interesting main characters. Oh, and let’s not forget Lady Whistledown. Even though we never see her face, she’s still one of the most fascinating characters I’ve ever come across (I’m being sarcastic in case you couldn’t tell).
If you’re someone who likes period dramas, I’m guessing you’ll like this. The production value is insane. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much detail and extravagance in costume and set design in a period drama TV show… ever. And with two well-cast leads, it does the job.
Does that mean I’m going to watch it again? Hell no. I would shoot my own face with a staple gun before such an act were to occur. But I understand why the show has fans.
Maybe not 82 million fans.
But I understand why people watch it.
Sorta.
Not really, though.
But I kinda do.
I reserve the right to change my opinion on that in the coming days.
In which case I’ll probably say I hated it.
Lady Whistledown.
[ ] What the hell did I just watch?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the stream
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: One of the best screenwriting skills you can possess is being able to identify why something works even if you don’t personally like it. It’s easy to dismiss something you don’t like as “bad.” But if other people like it, it doesn’t do you any good to assume everyone who liked it is an idiot with terrible taste. It’s much smarter to figure out what they’re responding to. You might be surprised and find a new screenwriting skill you can now place in your own screenplays moving forward.
