What’s Making Me Happy: January 8th

Back again! And let’s be very clear that I am VERY happy this week, because I finally binged Bridgerton on Netflix and now I’m a few hours into the first audiobook and I AM PLEASED, okay?

This week, Bridgerton and it’s sass and hotness and Britishness is what is making me happy.

I loved Gossip Girl, I liked Reign a lot in the early seasons, and the “fake dating” trope is beloved, so I was destined to love this series, wasn’t it? Simon is so hot it hurts me, there were some laugh out loud moments, and it wasn’t nearly as politically dull as the Crown (oops).

Bridgerton is an early-18th century, sexy Jane Austen-Gossip Girl crossover. Daphne Bridgerton is the eldest daughter of 8 siblings and needs to find a husband. To make herself more desirable, she and local Duke Simon Hastings devise a scheme to fake court so that she looks more desirable and the matchmakers get off his back because he never wants to marry and have kids. Well…you know how that goes. Along the way, there are the scandals and love affairs of the other Bridgertons, an attempt to unmask the Gossip Girl-esque Lady Whistledown, a sassy Queen and lots of sex. It’s sexy, yes, but if you think this is “too risque” than you better be talking the same crap about Game of Thrones, hm? At least no one gets decapitated in this one.

This was a perfect quarantine binge and frankly I might binge it again before quarantine is over. It’s fun, it’s sexy, it’s light-hearted, and it really drew me in.

I also loved its race-blind casting, if that’s the right term here. I’ve seen a lot of shows and adaptations push for that and it’s fun. Sure, it doesn’t address the real world racism of the time, but it’s also a show about sex and marriage and frivolity, so are we really surprised? I loved the cast–and I hope we get renewed for a season two.

Have you read the books yet? That’s my next conquest…even if I had 100 other books I should be reading instead. Oops!