IIt’s kind of a Scrooge-y Christmas season for all of us, which is why Shonda Rhimes gave us Regé-Jean Page, as a little treat.
Page is the male lead of Bridgerton, the new period soap that marks Rhimes’s first project to air from her massive Netflix deal.
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The series itself is like a thought experiment with the question, ‘What if Jane Austen had seen it? Gossip Girl and then asked to write a binge-worthy TV series meant to be consumed with a vibrator in hand? And Page is the answer to that question, an actor who decidedly ruled a colleague of mine – whose identity I won’t reveal to protect her from future restraining orders – as ‘the hottest man I’ve ever seen’.
But Page as Simon Basset, the gloomy and emotionally tortured hunk who stalks the outer circles – not to mention the libidos – of Regency London’s society season, is but a fantastic draw from Bridgerton, especially with the Christmas Day release date at the end of this cursed pandemic year.
It’s certainly not what Rhimes or Netflix intended when it came to how and when to launch this very expensive-looking, very escapist new show. But as it stands now, it comes with a serious vibe of, “You got nothing to do during the holidays? Here are sex and corsets from the Grey’s Anatomy lady. “And, really, God bless us all.
Bridgerton is set in the era of British society that we have celebrated in our minds to the point of historical fiction, when balls were staged for the sole purpose of matching the adult daughter of one family with another’s eligible bachelor. A time when decorum is such a priority can only be fertile ground for lusty gossip, and that’s exactly what Bridgerton seizes.
Enter Lady Whistledown, an omniscient character voiced by Julie Andrews who played the Grosvenor’s Square version of Page six. (If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Julie Andrews is the new Kristen Bell.) She’s all in everyone’s business, to the point where even the Queen keeps an eye on who’s in Whistledown’s favor and whose scandals rake them through the mud.
Whistledown’s primary concern is Daphne Bridgerton, the ‘diamond’ of society season; it’s Tinsley Mortimer, if you like. After a few stressful minutes of “you can’t tell me this isn’t Sansa Stark” while watching Phoebe Dynevor’s performance, you’re drawn into her wildly complicated love story with Simon Basset.
If you change the previous reporting from Bridgerton, you heard this show is fucks. Like there is sex. Lots of it. And not like Scandal “This is quite hot and then the camera cuts off sex.” There are butts! And tits! And at Christmas! Oh, come all faithful.
The series takes a few episodes to get to all the humping you’ve heard about. At first I wondered, where was all the sex I was promised? And then it showed up. And came over and over. It was so incessant that I had to press pause and spend a few minutes with God.
At one point, two characters have a heated argument about the state of their lives together, pause for a moment for a violent round of cunnilingus on a staircase, and then continue their argument.
“At one point, two characters have a heated argument about the state of their lives together, pause for a moment for a violent round of cunnilingus on a staircase, and then continue their argument.“
This is a major fuss about what is ultimately just one element of the show – albeit undeniably important. But that underscores how Bridgerton makes up for the intrigue of a legendary network television maker bringing her universe – literally Shondaland – to a streaming service.
It’s not just the explicitness of the love scenes, or even a no-brainer like the budget she has to put on a show that looks like this, like PBS Downton Abbey via a Baz Luhrmann Snapchat filter and here’s what came out on the other side.
Too many of these big streaming deals have found their creators doing essentially the same job, just with longer run times, more narrative bloat and, some would argue, diminishing returns on quality. With BridgertonRhymes really seems to benefit from narrative doing things – not just production-wise – that she could never have done on TV.
A rain soap full of pleasure? It’s the industry’s riddle around 2020 where it will be an undeniable, massive hit for Netflix, but would never have existed anywhere else.
I mean, folks, it’s not perfect. There are some story threads that range from boring to maybe even offensive. Despite all the celebration of the inclusive, seemingly gender-blind casting, there’s such a half-hearted turn to a strange storyline that you’ll wonder why you bother at all. And the playfulness in the production can go from cute to two quite quickly.
But honestly … whatever. It’s a juicy show that will make you hard and make you cry – a true shot of life under lockdown – while serving up a cast so full of compelling actors that by the time legendary British hottie Freddie Stroma shows up, he almost looks ordinary. Let’s all just be grateful.