Bridgerton continues to romanticise marriage Olympics but mixes things up with a career woman at the centre

Bridgerton has finally found a protagonist who does something more than just looking for a husband and such is her commitment to her work that she's ready to sacrifice her honour for it.

Written by Sampada Sharma

New Delhi | Updated: June 18, 2024 05:09 PM IST

5 min read

Nicola Coughlan, who plays Penelope Featherington, is the lead of Bridgerton Season 3.

In Greta Gerwig’s 2019 film Little Women, Florence Pugh’s Amy explained marriage was not just about romance, but in fact, an economic proposition. In a scene that described gender discrimination better than Gerwig’s Barbie, Amy explained that she had to be an “ornament to society” because in this world, women had no right to be financially independent and live a rich life. Her money isn’t hers, but her husband’s and even her children aren’t hers, but her husband’s property. Their world, she acknowledged, is an unfair place where independence for women did not exist so the best they could do was play the cards they held with a little more caution. It is this idea of an almost-independent woman who is trying to flutter her wings that takes centre stage in this season of Netflix’s Bridgerton.

After being the wallflower for two seasons, Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope Featherington, who is also the ‘gossip girl’ of this world, becomes the central protagonist this time around. Penelope’s life as the mysterious Lady Whistledown required her to stay in the shadows and she did so successfully for a long time. While navigating her way in this excessively sexist world where women are blatantly treated as lesser individuals, Penelope identified what the people needed and emerged as the tabloid reporter of the ‘ton’. This brought her some money, which is more than what any of the women of this elite society could dream of, but it also gave her a reason to be the collector of the town’s gossip. One could call her a rather hurtful person for spewing venom through her newsletter, which is essentially a ‘Bollywood blinds’ Reddit page of today, but Penelope does not reflect on the moral implications of her actions, even if it involves hurting her best friend, or even worse, inflicting some self-harm.

Moral complications aside, Penelope too has been pushed into the marriage market like all her peers and this season, she realises why she has to find herself a husband and just like Amy, she knows it has nothing to do with romance. It’s a different story that eventually both Amy and Penelope will marry for love. Like Little Women, Bridgerton is set in the 1800s where women from a certain kind of aristocratic family aren’t seen as individuals but as ‘plus ones’ who should be wed off as soon as they come of age. Penelope accepted that fate but wasn’t too keen on being an ornament to a man’s estate but when she realised that the absence of that would mean that she would have to spend the rest of her life with her rather manipulative mother and somewhat ditzy sisters, she knew it was time to leave. Because for Penelope too, there’s no world where she could just make her own money and be alone with it.

ALSO READ | Bridgerton Season 3 Part 1 review: It feels like hope

Bridgerton Season 3 is streaming on Netflix.

Bridgerton came into our lives in the middle of the pandemic when we were all living in our small little bubbles. The show has always been sexist and watching it in 2024 makes you wonder if romanticising it. Bridgerton covers up its sexism with many clichés and a shiny bow of a love story. Julie Andrews’ voiceover cements that farce but what hits the nail on the head every season is presenting its protagonists as contestants in a reality show, a marriage Olympics if you will, but also trying to convince themselves, and us, that it’s all about love.

This year, the show hugged its tropes close with Penelope getting a makeover and Colin going through the beats of a Casanova-falling-in-love-with-an unlikely-partner. Penelope’s character has had some time with the audience and in the two years that we have seen her, we have gotten to know her beyond the basics. Her friendship with Eloise, her loyalty to Marina and how she has been Colin’s confidante over the years makes her more wholesome than ‘Daphne’ or even ‘Anthony’.

Netflix has only dropped its first four episodes of the season as of now. While the love story has almost reached its culmination, the second part will surely have Penelope trying to have it all – a career as well as a partner, and it is that part of the story where Bridgerton actually has a chance at redeeming itself of the sexism.