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CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
75
Mixed:
40
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
The GuardianJan 30, 2026
Season 1 Review:
Show every sign of having watched one too many episodes of Downton Abbey. ... I felt by the end of the first episode it had delighted me with its presence long enough, and yet … and yet … Was there not, after all, room for just one more? And, perhaps, another after that?
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The IndependentJan 29, 2026
Season 4 Review:
It is the closest a human could come to creating an AI slop Regency romance: distilling plotlines from classic novels and fairy tales, generating consistently perfect facial bone structure, rendering everything in lurid, over-saturated colour. And yet, Bridgerton remains perfectly enjoyable.
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The TimesMay 16, 2024
Season 3 Review:
Be in no doubt, though, that this is Nicola Coughlan’s series. You are basically here for her. Without Coughlan’s luminous, showstopping performance as the shy, overlooked and underestimated wallflower Penelope Featherington, plus the frustrating will they, won’t they? dynamic between her and Colin, it would be a fairly shallow affair.
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May 16, 2024
Season 3 Review:
In their steamiest moments together, Coughlan and Newton emit a tenderness that instantly wipes away any doubts a viewer could possibly have about the characters’ ardor for each other. On the whole, however, this outing lacks the giddiness of earlier ones. .... The delicious yearning that has been Bridgerton‘s bread and butter is dulled, significantly, by the fact that there’s not much actually standing between the would-be couple.
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May 16, 2024
Season 3 Review:
Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton excel as the couple at center stage, beautifully portraying the knife’s edge balance on which Penelope and Colin’s relationship sits. The first four episodes' primary weakness is an overabundance of irrelevant side plots, crowding the stage of the romance itself.
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Mar 24, 2022
Mar 22, 2022
Season 2 Review:
Despite its positives, Bridgerton is ultimately not as fully, effectively transportive this go-round. Even though both seasons rely heavily on the tropes of romantic storytelling, this one makes it easier to spot those tropes and become distracted by their presence. ... But the real scandal — Lady Whistledown herself would certainly confirm this — is that there’s less excitement.
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The TimesMar 21, 2022
Season 2 Review:
The performances of Bailey and Ashley are good, and make the series more substantial. Let's not get carried away, though: it's still candy-floss flimsy much of the time and packed with frocks, froth and cliche, but it is moreish, a splash of jolliness, glam and colour in a grim world (its timing is excellent).
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Mar 21, 2022
Season 2 Review:
But over the course of the season’s eight episodes running a solid hour-long each, this “Bridgerton” return too often feels like a luxurious carriage stuck in the mud, spinning its wheels before eventually heaving itself back on the road. ... The good news about Season 2, though, is that for as deliberately frustrating as the main love story becomes, the actors playing it are very, very good.
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Jan 4, 2021
Season 1 Review:
My empty, end-of-the-year brain was well served by the burlesque of selfish viscounts, conniving ladies of the house, and enterprising modistes. Less pleasurable were certain attempts at seriousness. ... The grafting of contemporary politics onto the period piece feels extraneous and vague. Maybe this interracial-love fetish would have jelled better in the Obama era.
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Dec 21, 2020
Season 1 Review:
Van Dusen and his team seem to bite off more than they can chew by giving each of their characters, brought to life by a charming cast, a hefty storyline that in some cases is flayed by the end of the season. That's compounded by its melodrama, which may attract those with a specific palate for this kind of fare, like Downton Abbey and The Crown, even with its flaws, but others may not be able to get past its foibles to enjoy the operatic escapades. Bridgerton is ultimately extravagantly decent.
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May 16, 2024
Season 3 Review:
Bridgerton has lost its charm, at least in part because Newton lacks the charisma of his male-hero predecessors. The sex scenes don’t evoke the same thrill they once did—and maybe, looking back, that was more the thrill of something new, not Bridgerton actually being good at depicting sex.
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IndieWireMar 21, 2022
Season 2 Review:
“Bridgerton” Season 2 tries hard to please everyone, but ends up feeling watered down. Gone is the sexiness in favor of a more chaste series that almost everyone can watch together. Simone Ashley is a gem this season, but there’s never enough chemistry between her and Bailey to get a fire started.
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Jan 29, 2026
Season 4 Review:
As charming as she is, Ha cannot make up for scripts that struggle to create narrative stakes, import or feeling. It's as if everyone involved in the juggernaut Netflix show is twiddling their thumbs, waiting for a more interesting Bridgerton sibling to take over the main story.
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May 16, 2024
Season 3 Review:
After watching the batch of episodes released as Part 1 of this new season, I—much like the “on-the-shelf” Penelope—confess myself exhausted by standing at the edges of all these endless ballrooms, watching these sumptuously dressed rich people do their dancing and exchange their speaking glances. After the fourth or so installment turning on the events at so-and-so’s musicale or so-and-so’s luncheon, I find myself thirsting for a different setting and different stakes.
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The Daily BeastMar 23, 2022
Season 2 Review:
There’s heat between Ashley and Bailey, but the delicious, simmering tension of Season 1 never comes. Rather than a slow boil, Anthony and Kate’s relationship sputters through all the familiar beats without much rhythm. The crackling arguments, gasping emotional beats, and some admittedly hot glove play are all there, but the spark is not.
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RogerEbert.comDec 24, 2020
Season 1 Review:
The result is an inconsistently paced effort that ultimately reveals itself as an entirely predictable “Pride and Prejudice” retread. “Bridgerton” is amusing enough and will scratch a certain thirsty itch, but its themes about love, marriage, and class aren’t quite as progressive as it would like to think.
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Dec 21, 2020
Season 1 Review:
It’s a fun show, for a while at least; the escapism quotient is high, especially at the end of a year without parties or gowns or skin-to-skin contact between people who don’t already share a bathroom. And it’s exciting to see Shondaland, which spent so many years chronicling the adventures of 21st-century professional superwomen, play around in a genre where feminist empowerment is harder to come by. If only the writing matched the production values.
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Jan 29, 2026The TelegraphJan 29, 2026
The TelegraphMay 16, 2024
Season 3 Review:
The dialogue, the gossip, the ballroom dances to Billie Eilish songs: it’s all there, just the same as it ever was. The writers seem to have given up. .... Fans of #Polin will be beside themselves when the pair finally get steam. Curiously, though, they have almost zero chemistry.
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The IndependentMay 16, 2024
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