Binge-r #222: Bridgerton + Bump
Indecent Proposal: Phoebe Dynevor (Daphne) and Rege-Jean Page (Simon) in Bridgerton
BRIDGERTON S1
Streaming Service: Netflix
Availability: All eight episodes now streaming
A canny drawing room romance, Bridgerton drives easy pleasures from the friction it applies to the conventions of 19th century drama: “pray tell” a character will retort, while the ethnic diversity of 1813 London society is suddenly a black and white affair; society balls are life and death struggles for eligible debutantes, while contemporary pop hits remodelled by a string section soundtrack the scandal. Riffing on Pride and Prejudice and Gossip Girl, this gaudily budgeted Netflix series is juicy bubble gum where the pop is expertly played. It is escapist, but it’s smart enough to know that liberation is an equally enjoyable release and apart from its dedication to hour-long episodes it’s wholly fine viewing.
With the daily pamphlets of anonymous society gossip Lady Whistledown (voiced by Julie Andrews) supplying the narration, the show zooms through carriage-laden streets and Regency-era facades to the presentation at the court of the society’s eligible young women, who need to find the marriage they’ve been raised to secure. Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dyvenor) is the season’s favourite, as anointed by a literally drama-loving Queen (Golda Rusheuvel), at least until the arrival of the mysterious Marina Thompson (Ruby Barker), who joins the comically inept Featherington household (the series is not short of characters, all intertwined by a fishbowl existence).
Bridgerton is the first streaming series for Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal architect Shonda Rhimes, whose lieutenant Chris Van Dusen adapted Julia Quinn’s best-selling series of novels. If there’s a house style it’s a tart exterior with sharp edges, female resilience, and a hunger for melodramatic sacrifice. The women here exert their power through subterfuge, whether it’s Daphne faking a courtship with the marriage-averse Duke of Hastings, Simon (Rene-Jean Page), to throw the society hounds off their scent, or her younger sister, Eloise (Claudia Jessie, escaped from spiky teen comedy) searching for a career instead of a husband. Its innovations are striking, but sometimes shallow, and the mix of then and now does eventually become problematic. But the show aims to be a pleasure and if you’re even halfway open to the genre then it succeeds. As the start of a new year in watching I can accept that.
Family Tree: Angus Sampson (Dom), Nathalie Morris (Oly), and Claudia Karvan (Angie) in Bump
BUMP (Stan, all 10 episodes now streaming): One of the best qualities this contemporary Australian comic-drama has is a refusal to be rushed. In telling the story of officious high school over-achiever Oly (Nathalie Morris), whose plans are derailed by unexpectedly giving birth, the series lets the story unfold through natural queries and character-based development. The creators are writer Kelsey Munro and actor-producer Claudia Karvan, who plays Oly’s mother, Angie, who was planning to leave her wayward husband, Dom (Angus Sampson), until she became a grandmother. Set in a multicultural Sydney, it’s frank about the realities of birthing, teenage parenting, and the baby-industrial complex, while exploring Oly’s connection with Santi (Carlos Sanson Jr), the fellow student and now father she’s barely spoken to in nine months. It’s a show about choices, and whether we make them or accept them, and while it certainly tugs at the heartstrings, it wisely does so from an unsentimental starting point. When Angie gives Oly a rousing speech to welcome her to motherhood the frustrated teen simply replies, “Nothing you just said helps at all.” Don’t consider it slight praise when I note that this is a very good series.
NEWLY ADDED MOVIES
New on Netflix: George Clooney’s The Midnight Sky (2020, 118 minutes) is a beautifully shot and sometimes banal post-apocalyptic drama that can’t balance dual storylines and similarities to many exceptional predecessors; a bracing 1920s Chicago drama about Black creativity and control, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020, 94 minutes) is headlined by exceptional performances from Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman.
New on SBS on Demand Tyro Russian filmmaker Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole (2019, 133 minutes) was one of the best films to reach Australian in 2020 – a wrenching drama about two women struggling to endure after surviving World War II; Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life (2011, 113 minutes) remains a vertiginous exploration of childhood wonder, with Jessica Chastain and Brad Pitt as contrasting 1950s parents.
New on Stan: Lizzie Borden’s under-appreciated Love Crimes (1992, 91 minutes) puts a flawed feminine spin on that most 90s of genres, the erotic thriller, with Sean Young as the investigator going undercover to catch Patrick Bergin’s predator; Wanted (2008, 110 minutes) is a faux-mystical and passingly pleasing assassin film where the set-pieces bow down to Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy gets ripped for the first time.
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