Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is actually the best Bridgerton

By James On May 4, 2023

I wasn’t expecting a prequel about Queen Charlotte, a real historical figure, and King George III, the man in Hamilton who sings “You will come back” (and a real historical figure too) would make me incredibly emotional, but here we are! Shonda Rhimes, you’ve done it again.

Not alone Queen Charlotte good, but it’s actually better television than the mainline Bridgerton series. Is that blasphemy? Maybe, but Queen Charlotte manages its expansive cast and multiple storylines with more finesse and pace than the main series – with the added challenge of two different time periods. It ambitiously tackles so much more, yet pulls it off with a steady hand.

Queen Charlotte is a prequel and a kind of interlude Bridgerton seasons. Set in the past, the main storyline focuses on a young Queen Charlotte (played by India Ria Amarteifio) and her arranged marriage to King George (Corey Mylchreest) – and the consequences that union had on English society. It is sprinkled with pieces of the main dish Bridgerton timeline, where Charlotte tries to pair her children with respectable matches after her oldest son’s wife dies in childbirth. Well-known characters such as Lady Danbury and Violet Bridgerton appear in both the past and the present. And in the end, the two time periods work well together; it’s fascinating to see how the decisions the younger versions of the characters have made and the hurdles they’ve had to overcome affect their view of the present day.

Photo: Liam Daniel/Netflix

A young King George caresses Charlotte's cheek as she confronts him next to his telescope.

In the current timeline of Bridgerton, Charlotte mostly rules alone as her rarely lucid husband’s mental health declines. That makes the blossoming romance just in it Queen Charlotte the more resonance. The core Bridgerton series tells us that Charlotte and George Are deeply in love, despite their current situation; Queen Charlotte shows how that love came about: a stubborn young woman and a troubled young man defied their own expectations – and the expectations of those around them – and found kindred spirits in each other. Both want to challenge societal expectations, and it is through Charlotte that George finds the strength to do so, even if his mental health issues make him feel like an outsider (let’s not think too hard about the actual historical facts here). They overcome all odds and find each other triumphant, even though all of that is interspersed with the bittersweetness of the present.

Young Charlotte, George and Lady Danbury are all magnetic characters, as are Brimsley and Reynolds, the Queen’s and King’s respective right-hands. Unlike the last season of Bridgertonwhich suffers from too many side plots that don’t really have anything to do with the main storyline, Queen CharlotteThe B-plots are all woven into the larger overarching plot and enhance it nicely. There’s so much that Bridgerton itself somehow couldn’t do that very well Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Fit for a queen.

King George, a tall dark-haired young man, extends a hand to Queen Charlotte, a young woman with an impressive afro

If there is an error with Queen Charlotteit is that the story inherited Bridgerton‘s weird approach to racing and can only do so much with it in the limited run of six episodes. Bridgerton exists in a blurry space between fantasy and reality, where racism existed at one point but hasn’t existed for decades — as such, the main show’s approach is usually something like, “Don’t think too hard! The love of Queen Charlotte and King George solved that problem ages past. Just dance to ‘Wildest Dreams!’”

Queen Charlotte however, is about that love, which means that the problem cannot simply be brushed aside. Still, the show never really commits to a deeper questioning of race. First, no one on the show actually ever say it’s about race. They simply refer to people of different races as “our side” and “their side.” The show highlights some of the characters, most notably the young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas), who prove their legitimacy with these new societal norms. But because most focus is about Charlotte and George’s blossoming relationship and the romantic arc of arranged marriage with real lovers – and not their time as rulers making the big decisions, even if some of those big decisions happen beyond their control – it never really hits its stride in how they have dismantled institutionalized racism. There’s the slightest hint at the end, but not enough to satisfactorily address the big question marks Bridgerton has tried to hide between a silk curtain wrapped in pastel shades.

A young Lady Danbury, a black woman in a dark turquoise robe, looks into the distance.

Reynolds, a tall blond white man, stands next to Brimsley, a short dark brown white man.

But as far as arranged-marriage-to-reluctant-allies-to-true-lovers-to-doomed-romance boast goes, Queen Charlotte rises. There’s palpable chemistry between Amarteifio and Mylchreest (whose chaotic yet charming performance is on par with Nicholas Hoult’s King Peter in Hulu’s The big – this is a compliment). And unlike Bridgertons-prior, where the bow felt rushed or too stretched, Queen CharlotteThe pacing of the game is definitely perfect. There’s just enough give and pull in the central romance to make it compelling. The trickiest part of a good romance is balancing internal and external tension. Too much internal tension and you wonder why the couple like each other in the first place, but too much external tension and their story threatens to fall by the wayside. But Queen Charlotte balances it all deftly.

Unlike the main one Bridgerton series, Queen Charlotte doesn’t end with a happily ever after swipe. The story of Charlotte and George was marked by tragedy from the start; fans of the original show (or the real-life couple’s history, I think) know this all too well. There’s an echo of sadness throughout the series, one that makes the happy moments more poignant and really highlights the tragic ones. It doesn’t end on a traditionally happy note, but it doesn’t end on a totally sad note either. Even with George’s declining mental health, fragments of the man he was – the relationship they used to have – are buried within him. We see that now, built up through these six episodes showing how these two fiery and complicated people challenged and fell in love. The final scene of Queen Charlotte is a well-deserved punch in the gut, one that hurts awesome with the same tenderness of The notebook, Titanicand other tragic love stories, emphasizing that love is always worth the heartbreak.

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is now on Netflix.