Queen Charlotte is blessedly more confident at the task it was actually designed for, which is delivering a romance worth sighing and giggling over.
One is almost left with the impression that the only reason England didn’t desegregate sooner was simply that it hadn’t occurred to anyone to pull the trigger.īut then, this frothy franchise was never really equipped to handle such topics.
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The “Great Experiment” of integration is considered drastic enough that George marvels after one mixed-race ball that he and Charlotte have “created more change, stepped forward more, than Britain has in the last century.” At the same time, the series is reluctant to probe the ugly attitudes implied by this necessary edict, aside from a few instances of ineffectual grumbling from overt racists. But the spinoff’s approach lands as both too heavy-handed to ignore and too superficial to take seriously. Bridgerton‘s first season established that it was the union of George and Charlotte that brought about its ahistorically diverse vision of British high society, thus obligating Queen Charlotte to tackle the issue head on. (In fact, it’s lifted from something the actual George III is supposed to have said about a pre-Charlotte love evidently, this is a common problem with these people.)Īnd inevitably, some have to do with questions of race and other social issues. “I am born for the happiness or misery of a great nation, and consequently must often act contrary to my passions,” George rages about his marriage, and the line might sound borrowed from Charles’ pre-wedding conversation with Elizabeth II on The Crown, or adapted with a bit of era-appropriate tweaking from one of Harry’s grievances in Harry & Meghan. Others echo one of Netflix’s other series about the unbearable angst of British royals. Some will seem familiar to fans of other Bridgerton seasons of course Charlotte is so naive that she needs the concept of sex explained to her via hastily sketched diagrams. Here, the utter magic of that first encounter - which Rhimes casts so skillfully, she almost makes it look easy - pays off big time: It keeps us believing in the inherent rightness of their bond, even as the series throws all manner of hurdles at them.
Though Queen Charlotte‘s premiere ends a wedding, the fact that the series has five more hours to fill should be an obvious tip-off that the couple are headed for bigger challenges than merely getting to the altar. And while the series doesn’t always land on a perfect balance between the two, the challenge ultimately yields a spinoff that’s richer and more complex than the flagship series, but no less delectable in its romance. Inherent to Queen Charlotte is the tension between the cotton-candy fantasy that’s made Bridgerton so beloved with the thornier ground already laid out for the central couple by the core series (and real-life history). Cast: India Amarteifio, Adjoa Andoh, Michelle Fairley, Ruth Gemmell, Corey Mylchreest, Golda Rosheuvel, Arsema Thomas, Sam Clemmett, Freddie Dennis, Hugh Sachs, Julie AndrewsĮxcept we already know in this case that there won’t be a happily-ever-after, or not exactly.
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