Bridgerton 2: Did we (really) miss the Duke this season?

Even before the second season was released, there were thousands of fans writing on social media Bridgerton they would never see him again because for them Bridgerton he was the Duke of Hastings, and without him it would make no sense to continue watching the series. Now, however, that Bridgerton 2 arrived on Netflix giving us the turbulent love story between Anthony and Kate Sharma, maybe we should really ask: Did we really miss Simon Basset this season? Before answering, it is logical to clarify one thing, namely that to evoke as much as the Duke without showing him is a narrative device to say the least ridiculous, also because, if everything goes as it should go, Bridgerton it should have at least seven more seasons ahead of it: how can you perpetually justify his absence by showing only Daphne struggling with her offspring?

Having said that, let’s move on to the narrative, which in our opinion it is much more coherent and better built than the first season. If in Bridgerton 1 laction seemed more focused on surprising and creating catchphrases that actually went viral like the spoon licked by the Duke and the numerous sex scenes that would have surprised not a little the public over fond of costume dramas, this second chapter can count on a more solid structure that, although he looted without restraint from Jane Austen’s repertoire, especially from Pride and Prejudice, however, he managed to create a more plausible and coherent intertwining. Anthony’s desire to marry the diamond chosen by the queen only to fall in love with his older sister who has always promised herself never to betray her free spirit is, in fact, a much more interesting drift than the Duke who, in order to have no children, explains to his inexperienced new wife that interrupted coitus is a full-blown practice and not an extraordinary exception.

We would be liars if we said that I don’t miss that rascal smile, but the truth, for us, is a: Bridgerton – which on this tour also attracted the attention of Babbel who, for the occasion, drew up a glossary to deepen the historical expressions used by the series to understand how these have changed over time – without the Duke it continues to work. Of course, if he had stayed we would have all been happy but, beyond the obvious comparisons that see him compared to Jonathan Bailey – throw him away -, the plot continues to unravel and the public continues to grow fond of the story even if the sex scenes were supplanted by (much) more. Right now, however, it seems that the Duke will not see him again, and not only by choice of him. Interviewed by Vanity Fair, producer Shonda Rhimes has, between the lines, hinted that she has put Regé-Jean Page on the phantom blacklist which Shondaland appears to have compiled from the days of Grey’s Anatomy (to have ended up, among others, were Patrick Dempsey and, above all, Katherine Heigl), so we might as well give up and enjoy the series with the survivors.

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