Premiering on Fri. Mar. 25,  the second season of “Bridgerton” was released after its long anticipated return to Netflix. From the costumes and romance to the drama and regality, this show follows the lives of the Bridgerton children as they navigate the struggles found in the early-1800s London Ton marriage season. 

While the first season of the show focuses on Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and her eventual love interest, Simon Basset (Regé-Jean Page), the Duke of Hastings, the second picks up with her younger sister Eloise’s and older brother Anthony’s first debutante. Considering how much I loved the first season, I was excited to see how the producers would go about the new season without making it repetitive. While the plot of Anthony’s love story itself is captivating, the second season did not live up to my expectations.

For the majority of season two, Anthony fights between his feelings towards Kate Sharma, the sister of his fiance Edwina Sharma, and the self-inflicted pressure to provide for his family by marrying Edwina. Although this blossoming relationship between Anthony and Kate is scandalous on its own, the scandal subdues after his marriage to Edwina falls through around the midpoint of the show, leaving the remaining plot to appear as if the writers seemed to take classic scenes out of classic romance shows and novels, making it repetitive. This being said, apart from Kate’s dramatic fall off of her horse towards the end of the season, the plot is somewhat flat, and does not provide enough screen time for Kate or Anthony, thus causing their entire love story — the supposed focal point of the show — to come off as uneventful.

Conversely, Daphne and Simon’s relationship in season one captured the entire world, making it the most watched series on Netflix after its launch in December 2020, as the volatile nature of their relationship engrossed fans to continue to watch, due to the couple’s tendency to make impulsive decisions throughout the season. Because we get to experience the highs and lows of the entire relationship, I feel that the first season was simply better written than the second.

Additionally, I feel that the second season lost the initial intrigue that Lady Whistledown’s lack of identity created, as she was unmasked in the final episode of the first season to be Penelope Featherington. This illustrious storyline, outside of Daphne and Simon’s affair, provided the first season with a significant amount of tension, as she revealed many unknown secrets within the Ton, thus creating a sense of unpredictability and apprehension. After she is revealed, Penelope gains a lot of screen time in season two, while we hear less and less of the narrated Lady Whistledown. This extra screen time is entirely unnecessary to the show, as it highlights the problems that the entire Featherington family experience, and takes away from Kate and Anthony’s relationship. 

Another flaw of the second season was the absence of Simon, as Page claimed that the role that he would play in the rest of the seasons would be minute, causing him to refuse to sign contracts for season two or the upcoming season three. This created a noticeable issue in the plotline, as Simon was absent from all of the scenes where the entire family was present. 

Although both seasons were entertaining in their own respect, the first season of “Bridgerton” is superior, as the bold narrative kept the audience hooked and provided the producers with the platform to continue the series into a second season. Additionally, it is clear that the acting from Dynevor and Page in season one, and lack thereof in season two, redefined the expectations for romance series, making it entirely unmatched by the second season of “Bridgerton.”