As such, these two young lovers mostly avoid the show’s frustrating tendency to romanticize the extreme power imbalances of many of its pairs. Colin and Pen are on more equal footing, although we perhaps do not need to learn his preferences in sex workers (and yet we do). Still, Pen has her own power, if not sexual knowledge and the show emphasizes her strengths.
By season three, “Bridgerton” has learned to portray married-and-trying-to-procreate women who do not know basic biology as ridiculous and not sexy. It lampoons this naivete with Pen’s sisters and their new unions, thankfully not using ignorance as a plot point as it did for Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page). Speaking of those two, this season is also better with consent, giving us a meaningful portrayal of what it looks like and making it romantic. We’ve come a long way.
Indeed, Pen’s story (for Colin, despite being of the titular family, is a side player here) is free of previous seasons’ baggage and can clip along nicely. The origins of this post-racial society, its rules of courtship, and even the identity and motivations of its anonymous truthteller, Lady Whistledown, are all already known. So Pen can have her romance without distractions. But don’t worry, season three also features so many other pairings that it could be the last. Regardless, there’s never a dull moment.
All of these factors make “Bridgerton” a nice place to visit. There, love always triumphs, racism is over, and even the virgins are having great sex! Who wouldn’t want to stop by for a few hours every year or so?
Of course, the wrinkle is that sexism persists, and here, the show struggles some, lacking clarity about what exactly it’s trying to say. “Bridgerton” ascribes Pen’s otherness to her outlook and aspirations, but it also casts Coughlin opposite a world of thin women, no matter that back then, the beauty standards would have prized her fuller figure. Able to fill its background with people of all sorts of racial backgrounds, it cannot imagine a similar diversity in beautiful bodies. That puts Coughlin in a strange position that she does not deserve, and the show refuses to comment on it.
