Emmy Catch-Up: Bridgerton

Every year, I watch the six submitted episodes of every series I don’t regularly watch that’s up for one of the Emmy series prizes. Last year, I started watching the entire season of each show to get a better idea of the quality I missed, and I’ve decided to continue that this year. 

Bridgerton: Season 1, Episode 5 “The Duke and I” (B+)

I did not expect things to progress quite this fast, and it certainly felt like a rocky road even just over the course of this one episode as this marriage happened quite quickly. For his part, the prince was so nice and understanding, much more so than the queen herself, which suggests that he might have made Daphne perfectly happy since he would have valued her feelings almost more than his own, especially in living close to her family. I was very surprised that Simon was so honest in front of the queen about how it wasn’t love at first sight but that it progressed genuinely after spending time together. That gamble worked, and they were ready to ride off with the whole Bridgerton family lined up to say goodbye. Daphne did not seem happy and things only got worse when Simon revealed that he had requested a separate room, but things took a much different turn when he finally expressed his true feelings and they had one hell of a passionate night. The next big Bridgerton romance, between Colin and Marina, might well be derailed for different reasons by Penelope and Portia, while Benedict is keeping what he’s learned about his new friend a secret, presumably because that lifestyle might interest him too. I’m not sure what it will lead to, but I love the fact that the queen stopped to interrogate Eloise about her Lady Whistledown theories, which seem to include every person in town as a possible suspect.