Bridgerton season 3 part 2 review: The wheels are starting to come off the carriage
The IndependentGet our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Get our The Life Cinematic email for free SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. In the final moments of series three’s first half, the perennially overlooked Penelope Featherington escaped the friend zone in the most Bridgerton way possible: by snogging Colin, the long-time object of her affections. Season three is ostensibly Penelope and Colin’s story – and yes, that much-vaunted sex scene, the one that Coughlan has described as “amazingly empowering” to film, is classic Bridgerton raunch. The marriage mart travails of younger Bridgerton sibling Francesca, who seeks steady-eddy companionship over a grand passion, might be intended as a counterpoint to her siblings’ dramatic romances, but don’t always make for captivating television. It’s pretty much the period drama embodiment of “no plot, just vibes” – so it feels slightly garbled when attempts to raise the stakes are chucked in, like when Penelope claims that Lady Whistledown is a voice for the voiceless, as if she is the mouthpiece for some sort of underground resistance rather than a 19th-century Gossip Girl.