It is the bond between sisters that carries you into Bridgerton's season two – a viewing season for us, and a social season for the characters in the story.
Be warned, there are spoilers ahead.
In the first episode, we're introduced to Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) and Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), both single, but only one emotionally available.
Kate – described unflatteringly during the series as a spinster – is more concerned with finding a suitable suitor for her sister Edwina than she is with finding love herself.
But this call to duty proves to be in direct conflict with her heart's desire – and so the drama begins.
It's the season where Lord Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) is searching for a wife, but he's eliminated love from the equation – he wants the perfect woman – an impossible standard for anyone, but he feels he may have found her in Edwina.
The problem is he has to win over her sister, who has an icy countenance towards him – at least initially.
There are many Days of Our Lives moments in the show.
The long stares and built-up sexual tension between Kate and Anthony drag on for a little longer than necessary – you can tell what's likely to happen early on – and due to the predictability, the wait for real action gets exasperating after a while.
There are fewer steamy scenes this time around, but they still exist.
And there's plenty of visual and auditory stimulation to keep you engaged including the beautiful 19th-century costumes and hairstyles.
And like the first season, the period drama has modern touches – queue classical renditions of songs including Madonna's Material Girl, Miley Cyrus's Wrecking Ball, Alanis Morissette's You Oughta Know and Rihanna's Diamonds.
The subplots in season two mean we learn more about Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), who was revealed to viewers last season as Lady Whistledown – the author of a tabloid pamphlet that is both captivating and scandalous.
The new season is based on Julia Quinn's novel The Viscount Who Loved Me, but like the first season, there are key differences between the novel and the television series.
One of Bridgerton's strengths is its inclusive casting. The Sharma family in season two is of South Asian descent, with their Indian heritage adding a further dimension to their characters.
I'd argue that it's one of the reasons the series is so successful.
Surely, it's no accident that Netflix's most-watched series is the South Korean hit Squid Game, which reached 111 million viewers when it launched, overtaking Bridgerton season one, as the biggest original series to launch on the streaming service.
Bridgerton is a Shondaland production – from award-winning writer and producer Shonda Rhimes, and it's from Creator Chris Van Dusen.
In an interview with Netflix staff, Rhimes said casting the Sharmas as an Indian family was a very simple choice.
"The idea that we don't create worlds that look like the world that we live in, and that we create false societies where everybody looks a certain kind of way or is a certain kind of colour or whatever, feels disingenuous to me.
"It also feels like erasure."
She said with Bridgerton attracting a global audience, everybody should be able to see themselves reflected back to them on the screen.
It isn't entirely necessary to watch the first season of Bridgerton in order to follow season two. But the question is – why would you want to miss season one?
If you don't belong to one of the 82 million households that tuned into season one during its first 28 days of streaming in 2020, and you didn't manage to catch it afterwards following the hype, you're missing out on all the fun, and it's not too late to binge the first season before you get into season two.
Bridgerton season two will be available to stream on Netflix from 6pm AEDT tonight (Friday, March 25).
