'Bridgerton' Concludes Season 3 with Long Due Reconciliations

Put on your comfiest walking shoes, friends – we’re about to start strolling down the long & winding road to Happily Ever After in the second half of Bridgerton’s third season. As I noted in my review of the season’s first half, what this series does well, it continues to do well. Beautifully, even! Each of the big storylines we follow this season – romances between Colin and Penelope, Francesca and Lord John, Lady Violet and Lord Anderson, plus the soon-to-be-unraveled mystery of Lady Whistledown’s identity – are engrossingly told. In the back half of the season, we also get the conclusion of Cressida Cowper’s plot line, a lovely reconciliation arc for Lady Featherington and all three of her daughters, the bisexual journey of discovery that the series has teased for Benedict since Season 1, and a stunning, delightful gender-bending setup for Francesca’s second chance at love in a future season. Plot, plot, and more tantalizing plot as far as the eye can see!

Once again, my main criticism is how poorly served the series is by cutting its eight episodes in two halves. The release of the season’s concluding four episodes reveals more evidence of how detrimental the month-long hiatus is. It’s a momentum-killer for all of the plotlines, and while it’s good news for Netflix that the move encourages viewers to rewatch the fourth episode to remind themselves of what’s going on, it’s bad news for storytelling.

My remaining critiques of this season are primarily wish-list items. Let's run them down in ascending order of significance.