![]() When Prince Friedrich meets the blonde, overdecorated Cressida Cowper, we’re witnessing the all-white fairy tale from afar, and I think it feels a little sinister.ĭaphne isn’t showing signs of being under the royal spell. Simply by entering the stage, Friedrich sets up a conflict between a Black Duke who represents the new, inclusive aristocracy and the white prince that was the dream of mid-20th-century fairy tales. I think it’s safe to say that Prince Friedrich is meant to be a little unsettling to viewers when he first appears. I was worried that I was reading too much into this historically accurate costuming, so I asked followers in my Instagram Stories to vote whether they had a more positive or negative reaction when seeing a bare-bones Black Cross symbol 1,113 people reported a more negative response versus 91 who saw the symbol more positively. He’s blond, blue-eyed, and wearing a decorative Prussian Black Cross that was later co-opted by the Nazis (it was just a national military symbol when it was introduced in 1813). Simon and Daphne are back in the business of successfully selling their match, but truly eligible suitors who might be taken in by the plot are thin on the ground - until Queen Charlotte enters with Prince Friedrich of Prussia.īefore he says a word, Prince Friedrich’s person says so much. We should be thankful that at least in this show, the party isn’t always in the last 20 minutes. The main characters are at yet another ball, which I understand was what the ton did in 1813, and it gives Bridgerton yet another thing in common with Gossip Girl: the party of the week. I’m down with purring blue ice-planet aliens, but centuries of conditioning about childhood are making this episode tough for me to enjoy. I realize now that my wish wasn’t specific enough: I want all of that, but I also want the romantic boning to take place in a world not resembling 1997’s Cinderella starring Brandy Norwood, a childhood masterpiece for those of us who believed frost eyeshadow applied from lashes to brow to be the height of elegance. Look, I’m just a girl, sitting in front of a TV, asking to see some legitimately romantic boning without having to sit through like 43 murder investigations, two marriage implosions, or a clash of civilizations. Maybe Boney is like Voldemort 200 years after (spoiler alert) Waterloo? If there’s an alternate history at work, tell us and build the new world! Wellington could be off fighting the White Walkers for all we know. ![]() I don’t think we hear the name Napoleon Bonaparte once this season. Sir George, father of Marina Thompson’s baby, is stationed in Spain with Wellington, but that’s the only context we get for why Miss Thompson’s true love is AWOL. ![]() ![]() Anthony’s bare ass is doing a lot of work to signal that this is a show for adults. I’m not a stickler for accuracy and don’t particularly like scholarly exposition in historical romance, but historical detail can help reinforce who the show is for. But the prince, bright costumes, mean Featherington sisters (seeming so much like evil step-sisters), and surface-level engagement with Regency history give a sense that we’re in a fairy-tale world, a world commonly associated with entertainment for children. A Euro prince comes to town for a crossover story line that’s more sophisticated than a screenshot might suggest. The dissonance comes from everything that surrounds Daphne’s swooning. Once again a popular debutante, she’s turning down proposals and focusing on what truly matters: watching Simon tongue down some ice cream at Gunter’s Tea Shop. The episode opens with Daphne having what passes for a sex dream when you’re an early-19th-century virgin, waking up just as she’s getting to the good part (a kiss from Simon). This episode is devoted to Daphne’s sexual awakening, which on its own more or less works. If you’ve never looked at The Wonderful World of Disney and thought, Yes this, but with a little sex in it, that’s probably a legacy of this revolution in social mores. Kids now had special little-kid clothes, their own kid books, and they were supposed to be kept in a state of innocence. Long, long ago, for complex reasons we still don’t quite understand, two things happened in upper-class families of the 18th century: More couples like the Bridgerton parents married for love, and there emerged a sense that childhood was a distinct phase of life.
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