In the latest instalment of GLAMOUR’s Assistant Editor and Entertainment Director’s column, ‘Showtime with Emily Maddick’, in which Emily brings a unique perspective to the month’s most hyped film or TV series, Emily writes about the Netflix Behemoth, Bridgerton. As the second part of season 3 drops on Netflix today, Emily argues that while the streaming giant’s smash-hit show is undeniably groundbreaking in terms of debunking racial representation in period dramas, its portrayal of women is sexist, regressive and deeply depressing.
When Netflix’s first season of Bridgerton landed – to much global fanfare, trumpets, cornets etc – it was, you might recall, in the depths of lockdown; Christmas 2020. I had just turned 40 and I was single. Intrigued by the hype and also impressed with the groundbreaking representation in a period drama, I eagerly settled down for a Boxing Day binge. And dear, gentle reader, I did not enjoy what I saw.
In short, (and I really am loath to use this overused word, but it’s entirely appropriate here,) as a single 40 year-old-woman, I was viscerally ‘triggered’. I slammed my laptop shut in fury after just one episode feeling really, really awful about myself.
© 2024 Netflix, Inc.
Why? Because the entire plot of this wildly popular show, now into its third season, focuses on ‘marrying off’ young women to save them from a tragic, desperate, society-shunned life of spinsterhood; a fate worse than death in the ‘Ton. To be single is to be a social pariah and to have any interest outside finding a husband is to be scoffed at and disapproved of. Yup, for those Bridgerton uninitiated, that’s pretty much the sum total of all storylines on every season (plus some steamy hot sex scenes) and therefore the messaging being ingested by millions and millions across the globe who have gobbled it up as one of Netflix’s most beloved shows.
According to the streaming giant, Bridgerton series one and two are in the top 10 of the most watched shows on the platform of all time.
Bridgerton Season 1 lands at number 4, with 113,300,000 views (that’s 929,300,000 hours viewed) and season 2 is rated ninth most watched, with 93,800,000 views and counting. That’s well over a billion hours of viewing a show that regards women as little more than cattle. Women whose only existence is to be objectified and to find a man – or to be precise, have a man found for them by their families – through the ludicrous process of being ‘presented’ for the season to the Queen in her court.