Writers: Shonda Rhimes, Julia Quinn
Cast: Golda Rosheuvel, India Amarteifio, Adjoa Andoh, Arsema Thomas, Ruth Gemmell, James Fleet, Corey Mylchreest, Michelle Fairley.
Director: Tom Verica
Genre: Drama Limited
Year of release: 2023
Streaming On: Netflix
It’s super easy to watch Bridgerton and fall in love with the rakish but handsome Duke of Hastings, the stubborn but passionate Anthony Bridgerton who has found the one who makes him feel seen yet drives him insane with pleasure. It’s easy to fall in love with Kate Sharma and Phoebe Bridgerton- they’re relatable, admirable characters.
But to fall in love with a man who is, in all the sense of the word, truly insane- to fall in love with a woman who has hardly any roots, hardly any sense of compassion as her echoes of “Sorrows. Sorrows, prayers” to her grieving son fill our screens- truly, falling in love with this hard woman and this mad king seems to be a difficult, perhaps impossible task at first.
But Julia Quinn and our Queen, Shonda Rhimes prove to us that they relish in difficulty. They dance and twirl majestically across the realms of impossibility, and just as Queen Charlotte did say, They stand with us between the heavens and the earth and tell us where we are-in the midst of one of the most beautiful love stories ever told.
Amongst perhaps a million other things, one of my favorite things about this series was the subtle yet persistent telling and retelling of beautiful stories. It is almost as if the producers of the show saw the minor roles these stunning women, Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury and even Viscountess Bridgerton played in the full Bridgerton series and knew that the show would be truly incomplete without the telling of these “untold stories.”
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is a powerful story with incredible replay value. As is common with perhaps all Bridgerton stories, this story pays attention to the powers women wield in their soft hands, the advantages of solitude and the curing power of true love. It revisits in every character the theme of loneliness and the choices made to curb this loneliness.
Perhaps, one can infer that Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is the producers’ own way of telling us that:
- Love is powerful. It heals.
- Loneliness hurts, and our ways of dealing with the loneliness within us, as long as we are not hurting others, is valid.
- Never ever underestimate the power of a woman.
- We all have our doses of insanity. What matters is we find those who bring the light in us.
- Female friendship is a lot more than chatter, gossip and matchmaking. If used rightly, female friendship is a force to be reckoned with.
We would give this show a rating of 9/10 for its impeccable storyline, its miraculous characters and its cathartic wonders.
Have you seen Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story?
Tell us what you think?
