Despite its success, season 3 has garnered some of the widest ranging criticism of all Bridgerton seasons. Whilst previous seasons were not immune to criticism it was mostly contained to one or two main points, in comparison season 3 has been criticised widely for everything from hair and make up to storytelling and acting. Is this criticism valid, or is it (as some claim) just haters? From my perspective I believe that some of the criticism is more than valid, this season did not live up to previous seasons in a number of areas and completely missed the mark in other areas.
Below are 5 of the ways that I think Bridgerton season 3 missed the mark.
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Costumes: One of the most criticised aspects of season 3 has been the costumes, and I believe that the costuming this season is one of the main reasons many see this season as feeling disconnected from the previous 2 seasons. Many of the costumes feel anachronistic, taking the viewer out of time and place and disassociating the viewer from the Regency period the show is meant to be set in. From 1940s and 1950s Hollywood Glamour to 1980s power dressing, Bridgerton season 3 had it all in terms of costuming, and most of it missed the mark for Regency. Bridgerton set its in-world design in season 1 where it was established that despite a modern twist the general aesthetic and silhouette would remain firmly in the Regency period, for season 3 these rules were thrown out and the costume designer ran with a mishmash of styles and periods which gave a messy and incoherent look overall to the season, and very little of it appeared to make sense. This is not even taking into account the hideous gloves which looked cheap, nor the fact that the leading lady never appeared to wear stockings, something that even the poorest in society did. This is not to say there weren't some good costumes, there were and they tended to be the ones that stuck more closely to Regency fashions, overall the costuming for season 3 was not up to the same standard as the previous seasons.
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Hair and Makeup: Another miss, which is odd considering the Hair and Make-up team (unlike the costume designer) was pretty much the same team as for season 2, at least for the main characters. This season the make-up looked too modern with heavy eyeliner and copious amounts of highlighter in some scenes, but one of the most egregious decisions from the Hair and Make-up team was the acrylic nails and the 1950s hairstyles. In some scenes we saw Penelope with a lot of makeup and her hair down in a Rita Hayworth style with the overall look making it appear as though she was in a 1940s dance hall not a Regency ball room, which did little to draw in the viewer. Even though we saw some half down hair styles in previous seasons, in general they styles were not fully loose, keeping in theme of the Regency period with a modern twist complementing the two time periods but not completely taking the viewer out of the period the show is meant to be set in. In this season we saw Penelope with her hair fully down in public more than once - a style that would have only been worn by a sex worker or child not yet out.
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Writing: Another major complaint on season 3 is the writing and storytelling. Whilst some will say there were too many sub plots, I would argue that it isn't necessarily the number of sub plots, but the way they were written and the failure to feel seamless within the story that was being told, a problem that was also present in season 2, though not to the same degree. However, one of the worst aspects of the writing is the incomplete storylines, or the storylines that felt incomplete but finished. The most obvious of these for many fans it that of Kate and Anthony, where their whole story arc was centred on Kate wanting to get pregnant, and then being pregnant without seeing the baby. Further, with the Kate and Anthony storyline is that they left to go to India whilst Kate was pregnant (another much longer issue to be discussed), leaving their story feeling finished but not complete. In addition to the incomplete storylines, the plot contrivances were more noticeable, especially in respect of Lady Whistledown. Bridgerton has always used a plot contrivance to tie up their stories, the writers tend to spend too much time on the drama and not enough time getting the couple together, however it seemed even more pointed in season 3. Part of the issue was that the Lady Whistledown story had been built up for 3 seasons by the time of the reveal, there had been consequences for Marina, for Eloise, and for Cressida as a result of Lady Whistledown for one reason or another, but when the reveal came about it felt too easy. The resolution failed to deliver on the build up, with a 'that's it' feeling at the end, but also rendering the sacrifices of other characters meaningless in the need to tie up Penelope's story with a happy ever after bow, and her not being vilified for being Lady Whistledown. There is so much more to say about how the hubris of the writers failed Penelope as a character, and the Lady Whistledown story arc over the three seasons, but that will come over time as I rewatch all three seasons to take more in-depth notes on it.
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Telling not Showing: Whilst we saw a little of the idea of showing not telling in season 2, this season it was more prevalent, most noticeably centred around Colin, his story arc and his character. We were told how Colin felt, but not really shown, we were told aspects of Colin's character but not shown him behaving in this way, we were told that Colin and Penelope were good friends, but we were not shown this, and in fact if you had not seen the previous seasons you would come into this season thinking it was an enemies to lovers initially. Bridgerton writers are looking to rely a lot more on the telling not showing as they try to go bigger with the drama season upon season.
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Having Polin as the protagonists: This will be a controversial view in some quarters, but I stand by the fact that I think they did Polin's story too early, and it needed an extra season to marinate, for the friendship to be cemented, and for the fall out of season 2 to be dealt with before moving forwards with their story. I think one of the failures in season 3 with the writing was that there was too much drama to be resolved and they didn't leave enough time and space to resolve it, however, some of that drama could have been resolved, or at least on a path to resolution if they had waited another season to do Polin.
