On Jan. 29, the first four-episode volume of the newest season of Shondaland’s “Bridgerton” aired on Netflix, garnering the lowest audience score of the series’ four-season run. The show, which follows the romantic exploits of the eight Bridgerton siblings in a fictionalized version of 1800s England, first caught audiences’ attention with its flashy, bright-colored costumes, raunchy romance, and diverse cast in December of 2020, quickly achieving cultural touchstone status.
While the first two seasons of the show enjoyed widespread success, the third season, which aired in 2024, received mixed reviews, with complaints about the chemistry between the lead actors and laments about repetitive storylines. Many fans of the show felt disappointed by the third season and fatigued by the repetition of aristocratic storylines. As Rebecca Onion aptly wrote for Slate about the third season, “After the fourth or so installment turning on the events at so-and-so’s musicale or so-and-so’s luncheon, I find myself thirsting for a different setting and different stakes.”
The show’s investment in telling stories of the aristocracy may give viewers an exciting peek into the life of 19th-century elites, but after a while, audiences get bored and start longing for something different. While “Bridgerton” does include characters from the working class, they are often relegated to side plots, and don’t enjoy the same narrative prominence as the aristocratic main characters.
For example, Sienna Rosso (Sabrina Bartlett), a lower-class opera singer who appears in the first two seasons, briefly serves as a love interest for the eldest Bridgerton son, Anthony (Jonathan Bailey). Her involvement in the plot allows the show to explore the class divide, but this examination is quickly abandoned, along with Sienna, when Anthony pivots to searching for a marriageable, high-society woman. The same can be said for Theo Sharpe (Calam Lynch), a young shop-boy who Eloise (Claudia Jessie), the second Bridgerton daughter, harbors feelings for, but stops visiting once their friendship threatens her reputation.
However, this formula is changed in Season 4 as the series centralizes a working-class character as a main love interest. This season follows Benedict (Luke Thompson), the second Bridgerton son, on his search for the mysterious masked woman that he met at his mother’s masquerade ball. At midnight, the woman, who Benedict has fallen in love with, flees the ball, leaving Benedict besotted and with no clues as to her identity except the glove she leaves behind.
The audience soon learns that the mysterious woman is Sophie Baek, played by Australian actress Yerin Ha, a servant, who disguised as nobility, snuck into the ball to experience the luxuries of regency high society. While Benedict begins his search for the mysterious woman in silver, Sophie and Benedict meet once again, this time when Sophie is out of disguise, and the two begin falling in love again.
The season follows the “Cinderella Story” formula very closely, from the ball, fairy-godmother-like side characters, and “evil” stepmother and sisters. Some critics of the fourth season critique the use of the Cinderella formulation, a storyline that has undeniably been overused in film since Disney’s 1950 cartoon version. However, the formulation, while considered trite by some, has granted “Bridgerton” the opportunity to break its traditional formula and explore class conflict in a way that it was previously unable to.
While the audience was unable to connect with characters like Sienna and Theo in a way that would allow the show to make a deeper exploration of class, as a main character, the audience has access to Sophie’s backstory, internal conflicts and desires. Much of her relationship with Benedict revolves around the class differences that separate them and the power imbalance that makes his pursuit of her troubling. Her “Cinderella Story” plotline, while a familiar one, allows the show to explore questions of equal access and exclusion.
In addition to centralizing Sophie’s character, the show also takes the opportunity to comment on class distinctions in the Regency era and how they affect Sophie’s romance with Benedict. For example, during a montage after Sophie has come to work at Bridgerton House, the audience witnesses a heartwarming moment between the three youngest Bridgerton brothers while Gregory, the youngest, receives his first shave. The brothers, including Benedict, start a playful fight with shaving foam, flinging it at each other and getting it on the walls and carpet.
Directly after the moment, Sophie passes by the same room to see a maid cleaning up the mess that the brothers have made of the room, demonstrating the difference in Sophie and Benedict’s societal standing. While Benedict is able to do whatever and make whatever messes he wants, working-class people like Sophie are often left to clean up and bear the responsibility for the actions of the elite. This difference in responsibility and social freedom is reflected in the dynamic of their relationship. While Benedict might escape from a romantic connection with Sophie without much scrutiny, Sophie’s reputation would be ruined.
Sophie and her position as a servant not only allow a deeper exploration into herself, but into the lives of the servants that have lingered in the background for the first three seasons of the series. Since the audience follows Sophie for much of the season, we witness her interactions with other servant characters, whose problems, dreams and stories are then able to be put at the forefront. Most notably, John, a footman who has worked at Bridgerton House since the first season has been given a bigger role, with the audience able to see him not only as a footman, but a charming young man with his own interests.
With the centralization of a character of a lower socioeconomic class, foregrounding of servant perspectives, and direct demonstrations of class differentials, the fourth season of “Bridgerton” pivots from its previous formulaic romances and gives audiences a taste of something new and perhaps more relatable. As only the first volume of the season has been released, it’s difficult to say whether the conclusion of the season or future seasons will continue this precedent of class consciousness. However, the first volume, while labeled as predictable by some, has established a thoughtful and intentional examination of class that has previously been ignored by the series.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.