The sights & sounds of Bridgerton

Who cares about historical accuracy? You will not find that in Bridgerton. Always fast-paced, there is nothing formal or regal about the Netflix series supposedly set in 19th century Great Britain. It even uses witty, contemporary language and pop melodies for its soundtrack. The mixture is a strange one but the outcome is utterly delightful.

Bridgerton defies convention. But it is a virtual feast for the eyes, the ears and if you have the right imagination, it is also emotionally and sexually exciting. And aren’t we glad that everybody has accepted the wonderful color-blind casting. I would love to see more Asians in future seasons though.

For the eyes, there are the houses, more like castles really, mostly tapestried, structured gardens abloom with flowers, sheltered with giant trees, empire cut costumes in satin, brocade or lace, gloves all the time, picture hats, jewelry to gape at and young heartthrobs in fitted waistcoats. Those are everything my young self dreamed of upon encountering Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Well, the latter is set in Russia but of the same period, around 1813.

The Bridgerton stories take place during the debutante season in London, where girls of marriageable age are paraded around in search of husbands. As a result, there are a lot of types of the human species on display. The females range from sweet beauties to prissy wallflowers. The males are bumbling widowers, but mostly moneyed, slimy opportunists looking for dowries and the young and titled, eligible and very attractive.

On the forefront is the pairing of the Duke of Hastings played by Rege-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor as Daphne Bridgerton in Season One. She is serene and seductively innocent. He is swarthy, passionate and incredibly sexy. Season Two has Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton. He could have been a wimp, but Bailey has intensity in huge doses and could create erotic tension with a single look. He and the beautiful Simone Ashley as Kate Sharma make an incendiary twosome.

Their love stories and other intriguing goings-on play out in the opulent settings with gorgeous music setting the mood. I do not know if you, Bridgerton viewers, have noticed this, engrossed as you are in the will-they or will-they-not dilemma of the romantic leads most of the time.

Give a listen though and you will find that there is something very interesting going on in the music of the series. The soundtrack uses modern pop tunes but arranged in the classical Baroque style of the period. That is why you heard Material Girl being played at the debutante’s ball.

This is not really original. I still remember being pleasantly surprised to hear We Will Rock You and We are the Champions by Queen, plus other rock classics in the soundtrack of the Heath Ledger starrer, A Knight’s Tale. If I remember right, that one used the original sound recordings which put a hip vibe in the Middle Ages setting.

Bridgerton ups the ante by using new versions arranged and recorded by the Vitamin String Quartet. The chamber group has already had a lot of success converting new hits into classic sounding tunes in a series of albums. But the Bridgerton collection is certainly the one that is being heard by millions all over the world.

A soundtrack album has been released but only on vinyl. It is available at Amazon and sells for around $33. Pricey but said to be worth it. The disc comes in the Penelope Pink color and includes bad guy by Billie Eilish; thank u next by Ariana Grande; Girls Like You by Maroon 5; In My Blood by Shawn Mendes; Wildest Dreams by Taylor Swift; Strange by Celeste, plus excerpts from the original score.

I know, suddenly hearing Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball at a crucial moment can be distracting. But who cares when the viewer is having so much fun.