[Instrumental from Bridgerton’s soundtrack]
DARASIMI BANKOLE: Dearest gentle reader…if you’ve heard that before then you’ve probably watched Bridgerton or been in the same room as someone watching the beloved Netflix show.
JANET LIN: “What I loved about Bridgerton, what I loved about producing, I think a lot of it is umm you know as a writer being able to actually control what you control like what you see and try to get as close to what you have in your head.”
0:06 – 0:17
DB: That’s Janet Lin, a producer and television writer from Bridgerton season one. She came to Northwestern for a Q&A the day after season 4’s part one release. After working on multiple different shows and projects, she says…
LIN: “[…] that is so much fun to be able to like kind of go through the steps to bringing your characters, these characters that you’ve nurtured in your ___ to life so yeah thats the pleasure of being a writer or producer.”
0:37 – 0:53
DB: Lin said her favorite season was season one, but she’s biased since she worked on it of course. But for Medill freshman Josie Belfer, season two remains her favorite season even now.
JOSIE BELFER: “Honestly to me, nothing can like compare to the second season because that one was just so amazing in my opinion but I really like the new season so far, I like how it’s going and I’m looking forward to the release of the second half of the season and hopefully that will be good as well.”
1:22 – 1:42
DB: And as for favorite scenes? Belfer enjoys the opening scene of the masquerade ball when the focus for this season, Benedict Bridgerton, first meets his love interest, Sophie Baek.
BELFER: “I really like this sort of moment where Benedict and the love interest of this season meet because its kind of like a Cinderella story and I think it sets, just the setting is really nice and I think they took some of the feedback from the previous seasons in terms of like, just like making it more kind of like time period accurate and it all looks very like pretty.”
2:00 – 2:28
DB: Medill sophomore Linda Montejo-Bartolon agreed.
LINDA MONTEJO-BARTOLON: “I hadn’t watched Bridgerton before, but this season definitely has me hooked and I’m excited for the next part for when it comes out.”
0:03 – 0:09
“I definitely liked it when they were all in the ball with the masks, I thought it was like very exciting and it was interesting seeing like all the characters return since that was the first time seeing them all there you know.”
0:25 – 0:36
DB: Bridgerton is well known for its use of modern songs with a classical twist in order to fit the historical time period. Belfer believes these songs give the series a whole new meaning.
[Bridgerton music]
BELFER: “I think it’s really cool how they do the sort of like classical covers of modern songs. I think that’s also like what I was saying before kind of like how the characters are really modern and like relatable to a modern audience, but also like they’e slightly exaggerated in this beautiful historical time period and I think with the songs like a song will play and its almost kind of funny because its like go okay, they’re playing Ariana Grande but a classical version.”
5:28 – 6:02
DB: Weinberg sophomore Jemilah Dowuonah agrees with this sentiment.
JEMILAH DOWUONAH: “A lot of the music is like modern songs that have become instrumentals so it’s kind of a connection of you’re in a period piece but it also connects you back to your real life which is pretty cool and honestly I think it’s one of the best parts of Bridgerton.”
1:05 – 1:19
DB: However not everyone shares the same opinions as Belfer and Dowuonah. Montejo-Bartolon has a different take.
MONTEJO-BARTOLON: “I think it’s annoying when pieces on time periods try to please a modern audience by using like modern music.”
1:18 – 1:26
DB: Part two of season 4 will come out on February 26th and viewers will be able to find out how Benedict and Sophie’s love story unfolds.
For WNUR News, I’m Darasimi Bankole.
