streaming
YOU know the Bridgerton formula even if you’ve never seen a single frame. It goes like this: A sexually naive aristocratic beauty starts off despising the man who will be her partner (and the societal games she’s forced to play) but, eventually, finds love and orgasms despite it all, squeezing genuine connection out of a crushing system.
The wildly popular Shonda Rhimes series (based on the novels by Julia Quinn) offers sumptuous escapism set in a moderately post-racial version of Regency London.
There are usually some half-hearted critiques of the “marriage market” and how a shadowy gossip columnist who goes by “Lady Whistledown” can tank or elevate certain people's marital prospects, but these are more gestural than substantive.
