This text contains spoilers from “Bridgerton” season 2 and Julia Quinn’s book “The Viscount Who Loved Me”.
After more than a year since the immeasurable success of Bridgerton’s first season, the pop universe’s most beloved period romance is back for another round of episodes, now inspired by the second book of the series written by Julia Quinn: “The Viscount Who Loved Me”.
In the novel, Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) now passes the protagonist title to her older brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey). The Viscount Bridgerton is now looking for the perfect woman to become his Viscountess, and he believes the most suitable for the role is the diamond of the season Edwina (Charithra Chandran). But to conquer her, he first needs the approval of her older sister Kate (Simone Ashley), for whom he soon begins to develop a roller-coaster of feelings.
“The Viscount Who Loved Me” is the favorite book of many Julia Quinn fans, since it has numerous iconic, humorous and passionate scenes of Kate and Anthony, and also for presenting with such charisma two characters who carry with them deep baggage that influences their choices at every second.
However, to the surprise of many, the Shondaland series chose to make major changes to the plot, which has disappointed several fans. Among the main alterations is the inclusion of a love triangle and a sister rivalry that did not exist before.
The mistake
Before Shondaland’s Bridgerton, the period romance genre was judged as something more conservative and even old-fashioned. It is impossible to deny the revolution that Shonda Rhimes has made by including more representation and issues that would never be covered in stories of the genre.
Among these topics is female power. Without losing the essence of the period novel, Bridgerton included in its story discussions of women’s role in society, female sexual discovery and other topics. Therefore, it was already expected that Kate and Edwina would be strong characters (and indeed they are!).
But the major mistake of the season was to put the Sharma sisters into a love triangle with the Viscount. In a series that has family as its most precious treasure, encouraging competition between two sisters, thus provoking a quite unhealthy relationship is a mistake impossible to ignore.
In both the book and the series, even with Anthony courting Edwina, it is very clear that Kate is the woman for whom the Viscount has deep feelings. However, in the book this issue is only limited to the beginning of the storyline, because most of the novel is about Kate and Anthony discovering love in each other. Edwina is not a third element in the relation..
Quite the contrary, Edwina is gracious and kind, but not annoyingly ingenuous like in the series. She quickly realizes the feelings that her sister and Anthony share for each other and at no point does she fall in love with the Viscount.
We needed more Kate and Anthony
Another element that these wrong plot changes harm are the moments in Kate and Anthony’s trajectory. Due to the alteration, many important scenes for revealing the depth and motivations of the characters in the book were reduced to simple scenes in the season.
A good example is the storm when they are at Aubrey Hall, the Bridgertons’ country mansion. In the series, Kate’s fear of the heavy rains seems only an uncomfortable feeling. In the book, she becomes extremely terrified and has panic attacks, since they remind her of a very complicated moment in her childhood, so she hides under the table in one of the rooms of the house. Anthony finds her and decides to stay underneath with the woman while he tries to calm her down. It is the couple’s first moment of vulnerability and a scene that fans considered extremely important.
Modifications in crucial scenes like this, coupled with the extended screen time for secondary plots have greatly reduced the prominence of Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley, who are extremely talented actors and knew very well how to bring the chemistry and strength of Kate and Anthony to the screen, even if for a shorter time than desired.
Unfortunately, this is an impossible mistake to fix since each season of the series intended to focus on one member of the Bridgerton family. Anthony’s era is gone and, with it, the chance of giving more attention to this great couple has been squandered.
The article above was written by Giovanna Ragano and edited by Milena Casaca. Liked this type of content? Check out Her Campus Casper Libero for more!