‘Bridgerton’ Season 3, Part 2: Women Finally Get to Have it All

“While most marriage marts follow a predictable pattern, this author likes it most when there is a surprise,” Lady Whistledown writes in her latest scandal sheet at the opening of Bridgerton Season 3 Part 2. By now, most Bridgerton fans of both the text and the TV series (which Netflix has split in two this season) are intimately familiar with the machinations of this 1800s Regency Era drama set in Mayfair, England. People are “out” every year in the marriage market, weddings happen, and babies, too. Such is life. 

But what if Bridgerton now wanted to break up this very formula? In a society where women must leave their families and homes when they marry, tend to their children first instead of their own needs, and give up their independence and often their dreams, is there another way? Shonda Rhimes and her Bridgerton showrunners underline: yes, yes, yes. And that — along with far more Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma, though not nearly enough —  makes the second installment of Season 3 far superior to its first half.