Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2: Netflix Period Drama Continues To Divide Critics
The first part of Bridgerton’s fourth season left audiences on a cliffhanger with Benedict’s three little words hanging in the air.
Part two picks up with Sophie taking Benedict up on his offer – as well as throwing in some more trysts, triangles, trysts and tribulations to keep us hooked.
The first part of the regency drama was met with mostly mixed reviews - and the second part of the Netflix romance has many of the same praises and complaints, with half the critics swooning over Benedict (Luke Thompson) and Sophie’s (Yerin Ha) steamy romance and the other half criticising the way the show has become predictable.
Here’s a selection of the reviews for the latest episodes of Bridgerton…
Variety (3/5)
“The final chapters of Bridgerton season four are beautifully detailed, allowing the characters (from various seasons, hint, hint) we’ve grown to know and love to expand, grow and change drastically — all while setting the series up for the remaining four love stories.
“It’s baffling that Netflix continues to slice some of its biggest series into two parts, especially since it interrupts the pacing of the romances in Bridgerton, especially this season. Yet, when everything comes together in the end, it’s clear part two is well worth the wait.”
Metro (4/5)
“‘Benophie’ aficionados, you’ll be feeling a wave of emotions by the time you reach the episode eight finale [...] if the aim of this season was to make my heart shatter into a million pieces while also renewing my faith in fairytale romance, it succeeded.”
IndieWire
“Bridgerton has long struggled with keeping the spotlight on its principal couple and making the space for scads of other storylines (to say nothing of the inevitable need to set up whichever sibling will take centre stage next), but season four proves that is indeed possible, even (gasp)… powerful.”
AV Club
“In the back half of season four, Bridgerton becomes its best self… As far as various takes on the Cinderella story go, Bridgerton‘s isn’t without its flaws. But as a mainstay of TV’s current romance genre, the show thankfully rekindles its flame with a grounded take on a fairytale.”
Screen Rant (8/10)
“Without the season’s established fairytale roots, its conclusion could easily feel overly campy and melodramatic. Instead, Benedict and Sophie’s love story celebrates the romance conventions that make the genre so beloved while existing on its own terms. If that’s not a happily ever after for romance fans, I don’t know what is.”
IGN
“In the new episodes, long-running storylines are resolved and brand new ones are set up that will surely make upcoming seasons of the show can’t-miss television. The cast is superb, the drama forward-thinking, and the sets and costumes are as lush as ever. Bridgerton is back on track in a big way.”
Movie Web
“If there is a future for Bridgerton, fans can expect more of the same. More pastel gowns, more breathy sex scenes, more ‘milords’ and ‘miladies’, more contrived miscommunications and eleventh-hour solutions to problems that are fixable if people would just talk to each other! That’s what the show is, and I can’t really criticise it for staying in its lane. The problem is we’ve been in this one lane for way too long, and the view is getting stale.”
Collider
“Four seasons in, however, Bridgerton still hasn’t really figured out how to solve its worst habit, which the biggest constraints of streaming television render even more glaring. Sophie and Benedict’s romance is sprinkled with just enough steam and swoon to satisfy, but it should’ve been given ample room to utterly sparkle.”
Decider
“When we first met the Bridgertons all the way back in season one, we were told that they were a ‘shockingly prolific family’, but the clan has exponentially grown into the point of barely controlled chaos [...] you can’t really explore the sacred bond of a love story unless you’re willing to show how it feels when two people connect and the rest of the world – the overpopulated, overstimulating, overstuffed world – falls away.”
The Standard (2/5)
“While the first half of the season felt more propulsive (and therefore, more fun), part two suffers from a lack of just that. With all the near-constant over-explaining and exposition, it’s a wonder we get any time to advance the show’s few plotlines.”
All four seasons of Bridgerton are now streaming on Netflix.