After a fairly disappointing third season, I wasn't too optimistic to watch the fourth season recently released. Also, I'd not been able to read the next book in the series to keep up with its adaptation. Since the third season was a wide deviation from the book, I guess Chris Van Dusen and Shonda Rhimes are determined to spin their version of Julia Quinn's regency romance. Then I saw online that this season's rating is a bit high and it's at the top of Netflix’s streaming charts. That got my attention.
I can say that Bridgerton Season 4 based on the Julia Quinn's book, An Offer from a Gentleman, is fascinatingly different from the previous seasons and thus deserves the high rating. In this season, we are treated to a love story that is similar to the Cinderella fairy tale.
It's about Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha), the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Penwood and his maid. Her mother passed away and her father remarries, introducing Sophie to his new wife, Araminta (Katie Leung), as his ward. Later, Lord Penwood dies and Sophie is forced into servitude by her evil stepmother.
In another part, Lady Danbury plans to retire to her ancestral homeland and so passes the baton of hosting the first ball of the season to Violet Bridgerton. It's a masquerade ball and everyone is in attendance. Sophie sneaks out, with the help of her fellow servants, to attend the masked ball. She meets Benedict Bridgerton. They talk, dance and kiss. When midnight comes, Sophie slips away leaving one of her silver gloves with Benedict.
The queen wagers with Penelope Bridgerton, aka Lady Whistledown, that Benedict as the season's catch will wed before it's over. Benedict becomes obsessed with finding the ‘lady in silver’ because he's enamoured. Instead he rescues a maid from being assaulted by Lord Cavender. He likes this maid—she’s smart, well-read and truly sees him. He becomes conflicted. Who is Sophie Baek? Where is the lady in silver? Will the queen win her wager with Penelope Bridgerton?
My Review And Rating
Truly, I enjoyed watching this series' season 4. It's packed with exciting side plots that I suspect are teasers of what's coming in the future seasons. First, the Cinderella style adopted for Benedict and Sophie's love story is fascinating and well done. It allows this female lead cast to shine more than the other females of the previous season.
Sophie Baek is the star of this season. Through her perspective as both a lady and a maid, we get a glimpse of regency life upstairs and downstairs. Watching the upstairs people again and again can be somewhat exhausting. The scenes where the servants are shown working, eating and conversing is a new side to this series that just balances the storytelling.
Further, we feel the social disparities alongside Sophia and how this impacts their lives at that time. She's a lowly maid but in love with a gentleman. How will that work? Will society accept them? This reveals the power of the society over the lives of its people and that can be really annoying. Yerin Ha embodies this dual role perfectly. She's gentle, hardworking and admirable as a maid but also classy, soft-spoken and elegant as a lady.
However, I don't like Benedict Bridgerton one bit, right from the first season. He's spoiled, indecisive, irresponsible and promiscuous. The scene where he gets wounded in a fight and instead of treating it, pretends he's not wounded (male pride) only to become a liability later on aggravated me. In reality, Sophie Baek could do better.
Among the side plots, I particularly enjoyed that of Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), the dowager viscountess. More depth and screen time are given to this character. She doesn't let her age or accomplishments stand in the way of living her life, despite the biases of her society. I'm hoping we see more of her in the future seasons.
Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) and the Queen's friendship is explored as they face the fact that they can't be together forever. When Lady Danbury leaves, who will take her place and become the queen's close friend?
Francesca Bridgerton (Hannah Dodd)'s struggles and loss are particularly touching in this season. I almost want to cry with her as she rants against the unfairness of the world. She is slowly bonding with her husband's cousin, Michaela Stirling, and I'm curious which direction the creators will take these characters.
I wasn't too impressed with Penelope Bridgerton (Nicola Coughlan) in this season. It's like her character was dampened. She still writes as Lady Whistledown which doesn't make sense because she had been exposed in the third season. Even more annoying is that another unknown person now writes gossip in Whistledown's style, which means the creators are taking their audience down another mystery part. I think this part is overplayed and should not be explored further.
Rating this season, I will give it 7 out of 10 stars. The attention on social classes, female independence, loss and passion is gripping. The love story and romance is well told and the cast's performances are outstanding.
All images above are from the movie screenshots
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