IIt’s kind of a Scrooge Christmas season for all of us, so Shonda Rhimes gave us Regé-Jean Page as a little gift.
Page is the male protagonist of Bridgerton, the new period soap that marks Rhimes’ first project to air his huge deal with Netflix.
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The series itself is like a mental experiment that asks, “What if Jane Austen had seen Gossip Girl and was then invited to write a TV series worthy of a spree that must be consumed with a vibrator in hand? ”And Page is the answer to that question, an actor that a colleague of mine – whose identity I will not reveal to protect her from future restraining orders – has definitely considered” the hottest man I have ever seen “.
But Page, like Simon Basset, the sullen and emotionally tortured fat man who haunts outside circles – not to mention the libidos – of Regency London’s season of society, is just a fantastic attraction for Bridgerton, especially with its release date on Christmas Day at the end of this goddamn pandemic year.
It’s certainly not what Rhimes or Netflix planned when it came to how or when to launch this very expensive and very escapist-looking new show. But, as it is, it comes with serious vibrations of: “You have nothing to do during the holidays? Here’s sex and corsets from Grey’s Anatomy “And truly, God bless us, each one.
Bridgerton it is set in that era of British society that we festivated to the point of historical fiction in our minds, when the balls were staged for the sole purpose of combining the daughter of one family with the eligible bachelor of another. At a time when decorum is a priority, it could only be fertile ground for lewd gossip, which is precisely what Bridgerton apprehends.
Enter Lady Whistledown, an omniscient character voiced by Julie Andrews, who writes 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 involved with everyone, to the point that even the Queen maintains control over who is in favor of Whistledown and whose scandals she is. is digging through the mud.
Whistledown’s main concern is Daphne Bridgerton, the “diamond” of the era of society; it’s Tinsley Mortimer, if you want. After a few stressful minutes of “you can’t tell me you’re not Sansa Stark” while watching Phoebe Dynevor’s performance, you’ll be overwhelmed by your irritatingly complicated love story with Simon Basset.
If you have read any of the early coverage of Bridgerton, have you heard that this show fucks. As if there was sex. Lots of it. I do not like Scandal “This is kind of hot and then the camera cuts off” sex. There are asses! And breasts! And at Christmas time! Oh, come all of you, faithful, indeed.
The series takes a few episodes to get to all the sex you’ve heard. At first I wondered, where was all the sex I was promised? And then it appeared. And it came again and again. It was so incessant that I had to press the pause button and spend a few minutes with God.
At one point, two characters are having a heated discussion about the state of their lives together, they take a brief break for a violent round of cunnilingus on a staircase, and then continue their discussion.
“At one point, two characters are having a heated discussion about the state of their lives together, they take a brief break for a violent round of cunnilingus on a staircase, and then continue their discussion.“
This is a big fuss about what is ultimately just one element of the show – although it is undeniably important. But this highlights how Bridgerton in fact, it fulfills the intrigue of a legendary television network creator by taking his universe – literally Shondaland – to a streaming service.
It’s not just the clarity of the love scenes, or even a no-brainer like the budget she paid to do a program like this, as if PBS had sent everything Downton Abbey through a Baz Luhrmann Snapchat filter and this is what came out on the other side.
Many of these big streaming businesses found their creators essentially doing the same job, only with longer run times, more narrative bloat and, some would say, a diminishing return on quality. With Bridgerton, Rhymes seems to be genuinely capitalizing on doing narrative things – not just in terms of production – that she would never have been able to do on open TV.
A Regency soap opera pulsing with lust? It is the puzzle of the industry around 2020, where it will be an undeniable and massive success for Netflix, but it would never have existed elsewhere.
I mean, guys, it’s not perfect. There are some stories that range from dull to perhaps even offensive. Despite all the celebration of the inclusive and seemingly gender-blind cast, there is such an indifferent shift towards a strange plot that you wonder why you care. And production fun can go from cute to twee quickly.
But honestly … whatever. It’s a succulent program that will make you hard and make you cry – a true capture of life under confinement – while serving a cast so full of attractive actors that when the famous Briton Freddie Stroma appears, he starts looking almost boring. We will all be grateful.