“Bridgerton” was a smash for Netflix when it premiered last year, and Season 2 of the historical romance, based on author Julia Quinn’s book series, has once again swept viewers up in its semi-winking Regency-era evocation of heaving breasts and smoldering stares, set against a backdrop of ballrooms and country estates.
This time out, Kate Sharma (the practical-minded elder sister, played by Simone Ashley) and Edwina Sharma (the sweetly naive younger sister, played by Charithra Chandran) have arrived in England from India with the intent of finding Edwina a husband. All goes to plan, except the most eligible bachelor of the season (Jonathan Bailey’s Anthony Bridgerton) happens to have eyes for Kate instead. The queen, a frequent presence in their lives, has thoughts about all of it. Let the swoonery commence. Ashley, in particular (whose previous credits include “Sex Education”), is such a great romantic lead, giving an emotionally grounded and witty performance. She’s beautiful and smart, desirable and relatable.
Hollywood rarely casts South Asian women with darker skin in these kinds of roles and “Bridgerton” is an exuberant but firm rebuke to that. It feels meaningful. So much so that it’s part of the show’s marketing campaign: “If you’re going to have a genre that’s all about love and happy endings,” Quinn told the streamer’s in-house publication, “then let everybody see themselves in the story. Part of the reason (the Netflix series) is so popular is because so many different kinds of people could see themselves in the story.”
