Review: 'Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story' delivers extravagantly eye-popping entertainment
After only two seasons of the racy Shonda Rhimes series, "Bridgerton" has already spawned a prequel -- and lucky for Netflix viewers, the six episodes that start streaming this week are brimming over with delicious delights and wicked intrigue. As local gossip Lady Whistledown, impeccably voiced by Julie Andrews, might put it to her dear readers, "All's fair in love and war."
Rest assured, there's plenty of both and an unexpected touch of real-life gravity in "Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story." Here's just the origin story we need as the young Charlotte (India Amarteifio in a star-making performance) meets and marries England's gorgeous King George III (Corey Mylchreest with cheekbones for days) only to learn his shocking secrets.
But let's not rush. The series is framed by scenes of the mature Queen Charlotte (the indelibly imperious Golda Rosheuvel) facing royal pressure to marry off at least one of her 13 children to produce an heir. It's that pressure that sparks the queen to consider her youth.
Cut to Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Germany, who is only 17 when she arrives in court with her brother Adolphus (Tunji Kasim) for an arranged marriage to George, then 23. She's dreading the moment so much that she's trying to climb over a wall when George approaches her in a garden without telling her who he is. His charm and looks disarm her. And us.
So far so Shondaland, but "Queen Charlotte" breaks tradition by marrying fantasy to actual history. That's a first. Charlotte does not appear in the Bridgerton books written by Julia Quinn. But she was indeed real and believed to be the first British Queen of Black ancestry.
Despite her attraction to the king, Charlotte is appalled when he leaves her on their wedding night to isolate at another castle. His reason? A mental instability close to manic-depression that made him fear having children. Later, Charlotte slyly sidesteps George's quack doctors and his controlling mother (Michelle Fairley) to work out a relationship with this shy man she loves.
This story has been told onstage and in the Oscar-nominated 1994 film "The Madness of King George," starring Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren. The more fanciful "Bridgerton" version depicts a parliament-launched "Great Experiment," in which land and titles are bestowed on people of color to render interracial marriage -- shades of Harry and Meghan -- no big deal.
Fascinating stuff, as is the secret same-sex affair between the king's valet, Reynolds (Freddie Dennis), and the queen's right-hand man, Brimsley (Sam Clemmett). But the union that truly resonates here is between the queen and her chief confidante Lady Danbury, played with fire in youth (Arsema Thomas) and age (Adjoa Andoh). Both actresses are dynamite.
Above all, "Queen Charlotte" celebrates the long-lasting bond between Charlotte and George. The intimate details remain lost to history, especially when George's condition worsened in the final years of his reign. Leave it to Team "Bridgerton" to fill in the gaps with Amarteifio and Mylchreest bringing such heat and heart to their roles that you'll be swooning.
Rhimes and "Bridgerton" showrunner Chris Van Dusen had a goal: "We knew we wanted the show to reflect the world we live in today, and even though it's set in the 19th century, we still want modern audiences to relate to it and see themselves on screen."
The friskier challenge is to do all that while still making good on the "Bridgerton" promise to deliver sexy, sumptuous, extravagantly eye-popping entertainment. On those grounds, gentle readers, you need have no doubt.
