American imperialism is hard to avoid at present, whether that’s on the evening news or our small screens. Bridgerton – based on books by an American author, created by an American writer, and broadcast by an American streamer – is the most American show on television right now. Don’t let the fact it is set in Regency England – drawing from Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë – mislead you. As it returns for its fourth season, Bridgerton seems ever more content to lean into its Yank conventions.
Having cycled through the most immediately appealing of the Bridgerton sprogs, the gaze of this fourth instalment alights upon Benedict (Luke Thompson), the debonair second son. “Where is Benedict?” comes the despairing cry of his mother, Lady Violet (Ruth Gemmell), forever frustrated by her son’s ambivalence towards social mores. But that loftiness is challenged when he meets a mysterious lady at a masquerade ball. Who is she? Why does her understanding of the Ton seem to derive mainly from Lady Whistledown’s gossipy pamphlets? And can he track her down with just her lost glove? It turns out she’s Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), the eldest daughter of the late Lord Penwood, who has been relegated to servant status by her domineering, malevolent stepmother, Lady Penwood (Katie Leung). Sophie even has two frustratingly pampered stepsisters – yes, this season on Bridgerton, we’re doing Cinderella.
