The series of the moment of Netflix, born from the agreement with ShondaLand, offers emotions, food for thought and many curiosities: here are some of them.
Bridgerton arrived on Netflix on Christmas day and in a few days it registered a record of views. Even before its release, there was a lot of expectation: the curiosity was related to several aspects, from the books that inspired up to the production company ShondaLand, Shonda Rhimes' company, one of the most important American producers and showrunners (from Grey's Anatomy to The Rules of Perfect Murder).
The series is the streaming adaptation of the first of Julia Quinn's novels, "The Duke and I". It tells the story of a London high society family, the Bridgertons. It is a costume saga set in the early nineteenth century and tells the story of eight siblings, including four boys and four girls. The TV series stars one of the Bridgerton sisters, Daphne, and focuses in particular on her debut in society, in the season when the young woman reaches the age considered correct to take a husband. She meets the Duke of Hastings, with whom she falls madly in love. To complicate matters, there is the presence of the mysterious Lady Whistledown, whose true identity is unknown and who writes the much followed gossip newspaper read by the entire London society and able to influence it widely. This is the fulcrum of a series that has a lot of dynamics and small narrative and thematic revolutions, able to generate enormous curiosity and a heated online debate. Here are some of the curiosities that characterize the series.
Bridgerton: 7500 costumes created by expert tailors
Bridgerton is a costume series set in the nineteenth century with great attention to detail. Among the qualities stands out the attention to hairstyles and costumes.
How did the magnificent period dresses with perfect colors and decorated with mastery come about? Everything was handled by a veritable team of costume designers led by Ellen Mirojnick. All the dresses are the result of an in-depth study of portraits and sketches of the period. It came down to creating over 7500 costumes. The main character Daphne wore 104 dresses.
Daphne's style inspired by a great actress
Of the many characters, the one who has occupied the scene in the first season is Daphne Bridgerton, played by actress Phoebe Dynevor. The look of the actress is inspired by one of the main divas of Hollywood, Audrey Hepburn. This can be seen, for example, in the hairstyles and dresses with blue tones.
A character who was not in the books
Queen Charlotte is not present in the books of Julia Quinn. The Queen is played by actress Golda Rosheuvel. Queen Charlotte really existed, her name is Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz and she was the first bi-racial person in the English royal family, in fact she had African-American ancestors.
The voice of Lady Whistledown
Another curiosity concerns Lady Whistledown, the mysterious writer who keeps the London society of the TV series on its toes. She is the narrative voice that accompanies the viewer episode after episode. In the original language she is played by Julie Andrews, the actress who played Mary Poppins in the Disney classic.
The series was born from a multi-million dollar agreement
Bridgerton is the first series born from the multi-million dollar agreement between Netflix and Shondaland, the company of producer Shonda Rhimes, showrunner of numerous successful series such as Grey's Anatomy, The Rules of Perfect Murder and Scandal. After years of work in generalist TV ABC, Shonda Rhimes has therefore decided to move to streaming entertainment. The goal is to use the new medium to tell exciting stories, strong and capable of generating reflections on society.
There's nothing left to do but catch up and watch Bridgerton on Netflix.