The Big Picture

Nicola Coughlan shines as Penelope in
Bridgerton
Season 3, bringing depth to a character we’ve already known.
Season 3 explores love beyond romance, focusing on female friendships and familial bonds.

Bridgerton
Season 3 successfully balances all its subplots while highlighting Penelope and Colin’s romance, setting up new love stories.

Four years ago(!), when Bridgerton first premiered, it may have been difficult for general audiences to imagine how much of a smash hit the Shondaland adaptation of Julia Quinn’s Regency-era novels would become. Those of us who have been reading romance novels for any portion of our lives already, however, had a bit of an inkling that viewers would gravitate towards this swoony, steamy, dramatic series that always culminates in a happily ever after. That assurance of an uplifting ending, despite all the ups and downs a central relationship must face to get to that point, is a big part of what makes the romance genre itself so enduring. We might not know how our main couple gets their HEA, but we know they will.

Yet, if any potential romantic duo has had somewhat of an uphill battle to climb over the last two seasons, it’s Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). The pair have seemed forever destined to remain in the friendzone — especially once Penelope overheard some particularly cutting words about her from her longtime unrequited crush. But, as we all know, when the time comes for yet another Bridgerton family member to get their love story, falling headfirst into some newly realized feelings is inevitable. While Colin is definitely in for a wake-up call, Season 3 rightfully centers around Penelope herself — her search for a husband, her strained friendship with Eloise (Claudia Jessie), her secret inner life as gossip columnist Lady Whistledown — and Coughlan is more than up to the task of leading a story that’s been years in the making.

Bridgerton The eight close-knit siblings of the Bridgerton family look for love and happiness in London high society.Release Date December 25, 2020 Creator Chris Van Dusen Main Genre Drama Seasons 3 Studio Netflix

What Is ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 About?
As the families of the ton return to the city in anticipation of yet another social season, matchmaking is at the forefront of everyone’s mind. Naturally, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is starting to consider which young lady she will declare her newest diamond, but one woman has already resigned herself to a last-ditch effort at finding a husband. With both of her older sisters now married and taking the necessary steps to start their own families, Penelope really only has one more season to make an essential match before she’s doomed to spinster life. Coincidentally, the man she’s carried a secret torch for since girlhood, Colin Bridgerton, has just returned from gallivanting overseas. While he initially seems a bit too ready and willing to charm society’s ladies, his new allure is masking a deep-seated desire for a more significant, and possibly romantic, connection.

But Penelope and Colin’s reunion is anything but friendly at first; she’s still incredibly hurt after overhearing him vehemently emphasize a lack of interest in her to his fellow rakes, and he’s embarrassed to have been discovered grandstanding purely for the benefit of social clout. To make it up to her, Colin insists that he’ll spend his efforts trying to help Penelope find a husband this season — which, naturally, will involve some lessons and guidance from him in order to help her turn heads. The only problem is that Colin starts to find himself captivated by this new Penelope, and he’s not the only man whose interest is piqued. Lord Debling (Sam Phillips), a new suitor on the scene, is also drawn in by her unique charms, and as he starts to make his intentions of courting Penelope known, Colin realizes that the woman of his dreams may have just been under his nose the entire time. Amid all this is the secret Penelope carries with her — the truth about being Lady Whistledown — and the fact that it continues to drive a wedge between her and Eloise, who just so happens to have recently befriended Penelope’s main rival for Debling’s affections, Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen).

At the fringes of the main story, the other Bridgerton family members are facing new developments, ranging from newlywed bliss to unplanned courtship. Although their romance in Season 2 was fraught with tension and drama, Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) are now very much in love, and their return to the series allows for a welcome update on how their marriage is faring. In many ways, Anthony and Kate serve as the new backbone of the series alongside Bridgerton matriarch Violet (Ruth Gemmill), who, in addition to keeping a watchful eye on her remaining children, wrestles with ceding the title of Bridgerton viscountess over to Kate. Meanwhile, Francesca (Hannah Dodd) makes her debut this season to understated results, as the most introverted Bridgerton sibling yet would much rather be sitting in a quiet room playing the piano than looking for a husband — but romance, for her, might happen when she least expects it to. As far as second son Benedict (Luke Thompson) is concerned, that sort of love isn’t in the cards for a bohemian artist type, but when he becomes entangled with wealthy widow Lady Tilley Arnold (Hannah New), he might learn more than one lesson about himself in the process.

Nicola Coughlan Is the True Diamond of ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3

While Bridgerton is, at its core, an ensemble drama — a natural consequence of this many siblings in the titular family — Season 3 very much belongs to Nicola Coughlan this time around. In years past, Penelope was every ounce the wallflower, draped in garish yellow gowns at her mother Portia’s (Polly Walker) request and more content to blend into the background than stand out. While that ability made her an even better Lady Whistledown, it also meant that society and the audience itself didn’t have the best impression of who Penelope truly was.

Bridgerton’s third season changes all of that, placing Coughlan at the center of her own narrative in a welcome shift for the series that adds new depth to a character we’ve had our eye on since the beginning. Penelope is frequently surrounded by others — even more so now that her sisters, Prudence (Bessie Carter) and Philippa (Harriet Cains), are hanging around the family home with their new husbands in tow — while feeling completely alone. Taking her future into her own hands is partially accompanied by the intent to get out from under her mother’s thumb, but a wardrobe and hairstyle change only achieves so much. An early scene that features Penelope standing up for herself with Colin, telling him off right to his face, is also the moment when he, and we, sit up and take real notice of her for the first time — and once Bridgerton’s latest heroine gets the chance to shine, she’s utterly luminous.

Penelope’s road to love isn’t smooth sailing, however, and not simply because she’s struggled to find a husband. The dilemma that Bridgerton Season 3 ultimately makes plain for her is that she’ll have to set aside her work as Lady Whistledown once she’s someone’s wife. But, for Penelope, writing her column is a part of who she is, not something that can be tossed aside for marriage. Although past seasons of the show have explored unique dilemmas — Kate and Anthony had to fight their growing attraction while he was engaged to her sister, while Daphne and Simon navigated the inconveniences of a marriage of convenience — this is the first time we’ve seen a Bridgerton heroine weighing the ramifications of abandoning her own professional dreams. As Penelope questions whether a convenient match is worth giving up her deepest passion, another looming question hangs overhead: will Lady Whistledown be forced to reveal her true face this season?

‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Is Ultimately About Love in All Forms

Although romance is the main genre of this series, it’s not the only type of love that Bridgerton Season 3 explores. Penelope’s burgeoning connection to Colin aside, the story makes a point to emphasize that her friendship with Eloise has always been — and still is — one of her most important relationships, and their estrangement, which continues in the third season, is given just as much emotional weight. Coughlan and Jessie make the shift from two girls who were thick as thieves at the beginning of the series to two maturing women who share a complicated secret, the reason they still can’t fully set aside their differences. It’s beyond evident, however, that Eloise and Penelope don’t only mourn the loss of that camaraderie, but they also deeply yearn to be friends again. No doubt the audience will be rooting for these two to reconcile right alongside the developments in Penelope and Colin’s journey.

Female friendship also becomes a central aspect of Violet’s dynamic with Lady Agatha Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), which was tested somewhat in the aftermath of certain revelations that the Queen Charlotte prequel series brought to light. Despite those tensions, Lady Danbury finds herself stepping in to protect Violet’s feelings from someone who may have ill intentions towards her friend, allowing the two women to strengthen their bonds once more throughout the season. Platonic relationships are also wielded as a means of revealing surprising details about characters we may have prejudged early on; Eloise’s initially perplexing friendship with Cressida Cowper peels back the layers of Bridgerton’s long-running “mean girl,” offering a new perspective on the pressures that even she is facing from within her own family. Similarly, Penelope’s mother Portia becomes even more of a three-dimensional presence this season, with Walker delivering one of her best performances yet in a single scene. Without Penelope and Eloise being paired at the hip, the show can also put different characters together for unexpectedly meaningful exchanges, including one understated yet significant moment between Kate and Eloise that reminds us these two women are much more like-minded than even they’ve known.

Bridgerton has previously struggled with balancing the many subplots of the show’s ensemble while prioritizing the main romance, but Season 3 seems to have finally cracked the formula for success. By embracing the best moments of Quinn’s novel Romancing Mister Bridgerton as well as adding new scenes that create deeper dimensions to the story, the series is in good hands with Jess Brownell taking over from this point on. Even though this is very much Penelope and Colin’s time in the spotlight, the third season (of which the first six episodes were provided for review) also begins to sow the seeds of other love stories that, quite frankly, need plenty of time to grow. These teased threads don’t just prove that the future of Bridgerton is already being taken into consideration, but that the series itself is still as good as ever.

Bridgerton Nicola Coughlan finally gets her time to shine in Bridgerton Season 3, a delightful friends-to-lovers romance that’s been years in the making.ProsSeason 3 is very much Coughlan’s season, and it’s impossible to take your eyes off of her in any scene she’s in.Season 3 does a significantly better job of juggling its ensemble, sowing the seeds for future romances in the background of Penelope and Colin’s story.It’s refreshing to see a Bridgerton heroine wrestle between marriage and a career for once.Characters like Cressida Cowper and Portia Featherington become more three-dimensional this season.

The first half of Bridgerton Season 3 premieres May 16 on Netflix, with Part 2 releasing on June 13.

Watch on Netflix