Bridgerton season 3 review

Bridgerton, season 3, continues the story of the Bridgerton family, the high society world they moved in, and brings the mysterious Lady Whistledown out into the open. This series is an endless Regency period soap opera. I can’t stop watching it and reviewing it.

With many characters and subplots in season 3, I’ll just hit the highlights. The series released this season in 2 batches of 4 episodes each. At the end of the 4th episode, Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) proposed to Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan). The complications in this romance were the main focus of the second half of season 3.

Lady Portia Featherington (Polly Walker) was delighted that Penelope would be marrying money. Suddenly the long ignored and discounted Penelope was the star of the family. Her two already married older sisters were both pregnant and in rather poor marriages. Penelope would save the day!

Colin’s sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie), who was Penelope’s best friend, knew the secret of Lady Whistledown. Eloise told Penelope to confess who she was to Colin or she would do it herself. Penelope intended to do just that, but it wasn’t easy and they were constantly interrupted at the crucial moment.

Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) welcomed Penelope into the fold. Lady Violet was attracting some male attention of her own from Lady Danbury’s (Adjoa Andoh) brother (Daniel Francis).

Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd), the music loving quiet child in the Bridgerton family, became engaged to another music lover, Lord John Stirling (Victor Alli).

Lady Bridgerton wasn’t quite as pleased about the match between Lord John and Francesca. They didn’t have that passion that, for example, Penelope and Colin shared. Yes, the sexy bits for this season belonged to Penelope and Colin.

Something interesting happened in the final episode of the season, when Lord John and Francesca announced where their residence would be. Lord John’s cousin Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza) made a grand entrance to the announcement that she would accompany them there. Eloise had already begged permission to go with the newlyweds. When they met Michaela, Eloise was making eyes at Michaela and Michaela was making eyes at Francesca and all of them were ignoring Lord John. That should make for some interesting happenings in season 4.

No need to speculate any longer about the sexual preferences of Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson). He spent most of the season happily involved in a threesome with a woman and another man. More sexy bits there.

Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) was engaged to a horrible man. She was desperate to escape it. When Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) offered a £5000 reward for the identity of Lady Whistledown, Cressida actually figured out who it was. Then she tried to blackmail Lady Whistledown for twice that amount. That would be enough for her to survive on her own.

In a world where women had no power and no control, Penelope was not eager to give up her writing or her identity. As an introverted wallflower who stinks at small talk, I can certainly identify with Penelope’s desire to continue to use writing to express herself with freedom and influence.

Cressida made the situation between Penelope and Colin more difficult and forced Penelope’s hand. It was quite exciting there for a while.

Two of the Bridgertons married in this season. But there are younger ones still at home. Benedict isn’t ready to settle down. Lady Violet herself might be in for a romance. Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his pregnant wife (Simone Ashley) are headed to India for a while.

There’s plenty more to come! Places to go! Lives to follow! So bring on season 4 because I’m always ready to take a ride with these wonderful characters and their romances.