Nothing Is Perfect — Not Even Bridgerton: The Effects Of Liberal Escapism, Historical Revisionism and Performatism

Nothing is perfect. Not even Bridgerton. And, as people stop sipping from their china tea cups and the bad British accents return to their normal tone, we need to take a step back and note the issues littering the debut season.

Bridgerton managed to avoid backlash for the majority of their press circuit, fans and critics alike praised the show for its diverse cast and it became an overnight sensation, 82 million households had streamed the drama its first 28 days, making it the biggest Netflix series ever released. But why was it such a huge success?

According to Netflix, it’s because “all kinds of audiences love romance”, and “the empowerment of people of colour and women made Bridgerton feel accessible and contemporary”. This may have been true, for a while at least. Among all the overblown grandeur of reimagined British aristocrat tropes there are issues beginning to weave their way out of the writing as the novelty begins to die down.

Aside from the fact that only two people of colour were involved in writing some of the episodes throughout the season, the show’s reliance on the three major devices; Liberal Escapism, Historical Revisionism and Performatism, leads the audience too far into ideology and the removal of damning, historical events and their long-lasting impacts are simply glossed over to play into a fantasy.

Liberal Escapism — the avoidance of reality by absorption of the mind in entertainment or in an imaginative situation.

In the global pandemic, where many find/found themselves under strict rules denying them of instinctual human desire, audiences could find parallel with the misery that accompanied the strict societal rules of the regency era. Touch starved viewers found themselves pulled in by the raw depictions of desire, awe inducing costume design, gossip girl-esque dramas and only-in-a-dream settings which, on top of the foe-turned-lover romance, built the perfect groundings for an escapist reality.

Escapism isn’t inherently bad. Entertainment is there to help numb the everyday disasters, the unpleasant and boring aspects of daily life. Shows like Keeping Up With The Kardashians, Gilmore Girls, even The Great British Bake Off. They’re easily watchable, they’re not tackling societal issues and they don’t need to. They’re there to take us away from real life and into a different world where our issues don’t exist.

So why is this an issue in a show like Bridgerton? Well, it wouldn’t have been, but the fateful line, “Love Conquers All” changed it all.

Historical Revisionism — re-interpreting or re-imagining of historical record

The visuals released in anticipation of 2020’s Bridgerton branded the show as an escapist fantasy where people of different races lived in a harmonious society. The show, up until the fourth episode, seemed to eliminate the events of the transatlantic slave trade and the many racial issues prevalent in society both then and now.

The show’s colour blind casting placed POC and BIPOC into roles which were previously reserved for majoritively white actors — a fact for sure to be celebrated! But where it falls is the lazy placing of these actors into the roles.

Racism in the Bridgerton realm is wiped out by ‘love’, a fact we can now be assured will never happen in current society visa vi Megan Markle. These characters live in a post-racist world where none of the actors/actresses face any kind of discrimination and the world seemingly became a harmonious utopia thanks to the love of a king.

POC and BIPOC should see themselves represented in these roles, they should be queens and dukes and this re-imagining of history done in this way then please is more than welcome! Create these worlds, create this escapist realm where these characters can flourish. Don’t place them into ‘white’ roles with a single re-write that tries to tackle the abolishment of racism in a couple of sentences to then never mention it again.

Performatism — forcing an audience to believe in, and identify with, positive values like love, beauty, reconciliation, and transcendence

“Love Conquers All” is a sentiment people wish to be true. But the big issue with the approach taken by Bridgerton. The show promotes the idea that, ‘yes, some people are racist, but the world as a whole is wonderful’ and it uses this philosophy to replace the real world truth that there is a system patriarchy in place that consistently oppresses minorities and will continue to do so without intervention.

Even all the pastel hues and glitter couldn’t help mask the performative solutions to many of the problems tackled through the show. The easy-come solutions allow the audience to acknowledge the issues the show talks about without having to feel the need to do anything about them.

We’ve seen, especially within the past year, the hard work and endless mental strain that it takes so even start to tackle societal issues. So glossing over them in such a way as Bridgerton has, belittles the hard fight in favour of ‘reassuring’ people that as long as we ‘love’, things will all be sorted. It’s not done so obviously as it sounds, but the underlying sentiment gives people who don’t face similar struggles a free pass to ignore the very real consequences that come from certain actions in the real world.

You can still enjoy shows and use them to get a bit of escape from reality, it’s just important to note the issues with things we love and then they can be made to be even better. It’s hard to argue with the numbers, clearly Bridgerton is a hit and people love the re-imagined utopia in which these characters figure out how babies are made and spend the afternoon having tea and cake with the queen.

Bridgerton has definitely raised the bar for representation in the regency genre, but it hasn’t set it in stone. There’s a long way to go and yes, while on the journey we should praise those championing diversity, but we also shouldn’t exaggerate and glorify the idea when there are improvements that can be made. So sure, have a tea party with fancy china, run through a field in a regency era dress, but also take accountability for your actions and amplify the voices of those who need to be heard.