Dearest Gentle Reader,
We find ourselves time travelling back to the past, long before Kathony were the bane of our existence and the object of all of our desires, to the youth of the witty Lady Agatha Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), the ever sweet Dowager Viscountess Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) and of course, the titular character (Golda Rosheuvel) in Netflix’s latest steamy historical romantic series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
Charlotte is, of course, the only Queen we actually had eyes for last weekend π
Recap:
With the ever distinguished Dame Julie Andrews once again narrating as Lady Whistledown, we take in the fresh air along the long-ago Promenade in this six episode show. We are treated to two timelines in which both the desire for a royal heir must come before all of the high stakes drama that usually plagues the Ton.
In the future i.e. the 1800s Charlotte and George have just lost their only heirs, their granddaughter Princess Charlotte and her stillborn babe. With 13 living children, of which their daughters are past childbearing age, and no marriage prospects to speak of, Charlotte does everything in her power to see her offspring wedded and bedded to produce her desired heir. In the past i.e. the 1700s, Charlotte, like many royal ladies before her, is sold in marriage to a stranger to produce the next ruler of the kingdom.
Young Charlotte (played with an uncanny likeness to Rosheuvel by the captivating India Amarteifio) when we meet her, is trying and failing to get out of marrying the new King of England, George ( a rather scrumptious looking Corey Mylchreest). Their comical yet instantly sexually charged meeting sets the tone for this prequel to our beloved Bridgerton series.
While George doesn’t quite burn for Charlotte just yet, he is as remarkably stunned by Charlotte’s assertiveness as Simon will be by Daphne a few decades later. Their wedding is the stuff of every little girl’s dreams but alas, our young sire leaves his bride to her own devices for most of their honeymoon. As we know from Bridgerton, George suffers from a debilitating mental illness which he chooses to hide from his new bride in the first few episodes of this prequel.
Once reconciled but still not fully revealing the extent of his madness, George becomes the ever doting husband to Charlotte and lavishes his carnal attention on her, in-between bouts of fighting and begging her to accept him as Just George, a man who would rather be farming than rule the kingdom.
Charlotte’s only confidante is the young and equally beautiful new Lady Danbury (played by the wonderful Arsema Thomas). Titles were quickly bestowed on the rich people of colour in the kingdom to help the new Queen feel at home in England. Deemed The Great Experiment, not everyone amongst the white titled folk is pleased to suddenly have to consort with their coloured peers. Lady Danbury, realizing the precarious position she, her husband and others are in, does her best to steer Charlotte into 17th century wokeness, civil action and matters of a sexual nature, since the young Queen is quite naΓ―ve.
By the sheer force of her will, Lady Danbury not only survives the untimely (but much longed for) death of her really old husband, secures her son’s status as the new Lord Danbury and secures her financial future by forming a secret alliance with Charlotte’s mother-in-law. She even manages to find love and lustful pleasure, albeit briefly, with a surprising member of the Ton. Go Agatha!
Young Violet (Connie Jenkins-Greig), in the past, is but a bystander to this new mixed reality and is all for it. Future Violet finds herself longing for male companionship for the first time, many years after losing the father of her large brood, Edmund, to a bee sting. As she so eloquently puts it, her, uh ,”garden is suddenly in bloom”, particularly after attending an erotic art exhibition, Man, those old timers knew how to have a good time!
Our whirlwind trip to the past ties back neatly into the future as Charlotte’s marriage traps, I mean, arrangements pay off: her fourth son Edward and his wife Victoria finally produce an heir. Mazel tov!
We end as we began: with older Queen Charlotte and King George declaring their love to each other. Love, after all, is a kind of madness, is it not?
Impressions:
This brilliant masterpiece from the minds of the series creator Shonda Rhimes and book author Julia Quinn is a royal match made in steamy reader heaven. Whether they are devouring each other as naked as the days they were born or making love in full royal regalia in in front of their servants, George and Charlotte made this gentle author reach for her fan quite a few times.
Reader, what I am saying is that my garden certainly was in full bloom throughout watching this series π
To build on the success of an existing show with a sequel or prequel doesn’t always work but luckily Rhimes is quite good at this already. Her Grey’s Anatomy spin-offs, The Practice and Station 19 are proof of that. Therefore, it is no surprise that Queen Charlotte is so fantastically good.
While this was announced as a limited series only, Rhimes herself has not ruled out a continuation so let us all pray it comes to fruition.
Gymnastic sex in every conceivable (pun intended!) place in their various palaces aside, the chemistry between all of the leads is fun to watch on screen. I do so love seeing how Charlotte and Agatha, in particular, developed their electric dynamic in this prequel and how it explains why the latter is the only one the Queen tolerates in Bridgerton.
What a shocking surprise it is that Lady Danbury, Mama Bridgerton’s closest friend and ally in helping Simon and Daphne get together, was actually bedding the latter’s father back in the day! Those birthday hats, whilst such a lovely gesture from father to daughter, caused quite the stir decades later. At least now we know where Anthony gets his suaveness from!
While it was painful to watch, seeing the extreme measures George went to, to rid himself of his madness so that he could be with Charlotte, is a stark reminder that mental health issues were not treated correctly or dealt with by society in an appropriate manner back in the 1700s. One could argue it is still not well managed or received in the 21st century either , despite our advancements in medicine and societal acceptance.
I now know that I wasn’t the only one who screamed at the screen and tried to drown out the sounds of The Rains of Castamere playing when Michelle Fairley, formerly Lady Catelyn Stark of Game of Thrones and the infamous Red Wedding scene, appeared as George’s overbearing mother:
The Great Experiment explains the mixed Ton in Bridgerton and its origins unfolds much in the way one would think it did. Let us not forget, gentle reader, that Rhimes did not pluck this particular plot device from thin air. Queen Charlotte was a real life consort of the monarch (and the longest reigning one before Prince Philip overtook her) and is believed to have been mixed race.
Her mother-in-law, the horrid Dowager Princess Augusta did, in fact, ask for royal artists to paint Charlotte with lighter colours to hide this fact. Long before Meghan Markle joined The Firm, there was Queen Charlotte. God save The Queen!
All in all, this prequel series is certainly worth a royal watch.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now available to watch on Netflix.