Bridgerton 2

I liked Bridgerton Season 2 more than Season 1.

It’s good.
The sweet parts are properly sweet.

But.

It’s long.

It’s loooooooooooooooooong.

I was ambivalent about Season 1. The season was filled half with a sweet romantic story, and half with a bitter cynical dramatic story.
I didn’t like the mix.

Season 2 is mostly devoit of the bitter cynical drama stuff that polluted Season 1.
But.
It seemed to drag on a bit.

I liked the first half of the season, which proceeds at a steady pace through the will-they/will-they relationship between the Hero and Heroine. The two have witty banter. As characters, they both feel bound by duty to do their best to help their family.
By halfway, the story seems to reach its climax. (The skeleton of it being that the Hero was going to marry the most popular girl of the year, the Heroine’s sister. The wedding was planned to be big/fancy, but the Hero ruins the wedding by giving the Heroine hungry eyes).
Which leaves half the season left to meander around for the Hero to admit his love for the Herione. And not much plot which rises to the level of “big fancy wedding” to do it with. (The two families are both snubbed in scandal because of it, but by the end their popular reputation is restored because they were nice to the Queen).

Listening to the instrumental arrangements of pop songs that play in the season is very fun, and brings the best parts of the season to mind!

I think that explains why Season 1 was filled with the bitter cynical dramatic crap.
It pads out the meat of the romance to help with pacing.
(That they chose bitter crap to pad it with is just a weird decision).

For Season 2, the writers apparently decided to chill out on the bitterness.
The padding is still dramatic fluff.
I don’t think the show would be worth watching if it were just this padding.
It’s not terrible, but it’s also not fun or particularly engaging.
e.g. one arc has B. Bridgerton (not the main character in this season) hope to attend an art school, get into the art school, later discover that he got into the school because his rich family donated money to the school, so he quits the art school.
Not terrible.
But. idk. I just don’t find it compelling.

(And the fun instrumental pop arrangements don’t bring to mind any of this fluff, either!).

Overall, I’m glad Season 2 has got less of the bitter crap that Season 1 had. I’m happy that the sweet romantic parts were sweet.