Review of Queen Charlotte: The Problem with Bridgerton (the show) and Commentary on Shonda Rhimes
I never show up to parties when I’m supposed to. I was always the last one to get to the trends growing up, and that hasn’t really changed. Nowadays, I’m late on purpose most of the time. I like to see how trends fair under the test of time. There aren’t many situations where waiting has yielded regret, so I’ll keep going.
I recently watched Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix. Recently meaning during September 2024 over a year after its release in 2023. While everyone was watching Penelope’s love story, I was feeding my curiosity with Queen Charlotte. Thinking back on how I’ve felt about Bridgerton this whole time, I understand now why this was so curious to me. More on that later though.
Bridgerton as a Whole
I’ve never been a fan of the idea of Shonda Rhimes buying the option for Bridgerton and producing it. I remember when the first season trailer was revealed and I saw Daphne Bridgerton being embraced by the Duke of Hastings. I was supposed to be in awe of the potential interracial relationships, but I guess years of being told how Black men prefer white women had jaded me enough to find the image unappealing. I was also supposed to be in awe of a Regency era form of media where Black people were featured. I wasn’t.
The biggest thing that annoyed me was the actual author of Bridgerton herself: Julia Quinn. I remembered the discourse around her and decided to watch the videos for myself. As an author of romance myself, I like to give other authors in the genre some benefit of doubt. I was in fact very generous. Not only had she never written the characters as anything other than cishet and White. This was all done intentionally. She couldn’t fathom a world in which there were Black or other racialized characters AND that her characters would be nice too. That would be too much revision of history for her.
Mind you, all of this is fiction, so writing a story in a fictional world where Black people aren’t treated like sh!t shouldn’t be very difficult to do, but here we are. She said this multiple times in different settings. In one setting she actually described what she would have to do in order to make this happen. She did it perfectly, might I add. Then said that wasn’t something she was interested in doing. So if imagining a world where Black and other racialized people aren’t treated terribly in a romance is too difficult or unwanted, how will you ever change this one.
Let me get back on topic here:
Julia Quinn is a racist woman that wrote racist characters and should not have been optioned by Shonda Rhimes. PERIOD. If you’d like to continue reading from here, I’ll give more.
Queen Charlotte was disappointing…
It was a beautiful story. I enjoyed watching India Amarteifio on the screen. She was amazing. The story was disappointing because it was supposed to be a romance, and it was instead a tragedy.
We got to watch Charlotte get forced into marrying a king the entire kingdom wanted to hide from the world due to his mental struggles. Then, she is neglected by the king for A WHILE before he finds a way to see her. Mind you, this is after he has subjected himself to torture at the hands of a “doctor.” Then, she is only partially neglected, so they can f*ck like rabbits in efforts to produce an heir.
After she finds out about the mental issues and the torture, she then becomes…guess what…his CAREGIVER!!! All before the age of 20, and I am supposed to be impressed and swoon. Do I think there was love between them, yes, but as Charlotte said, it was a love she had to choose to take on. At the end of the day, it was attraction that became love and then endurance. This is not a happily ever after. It’s a job.
The show flashes back and forth between “present day” Charlotte and young Charlotte. Present day Charlotte gets to lecture ungrateful children about the importance of producing an heir. Present day Charlotte gets to worry if her husband is finally dead because they STILL can’t live around each other.
I cried. I cried as if I was watching a tragedy, because I was. I like tragedies. Tragedies are great. They are a great way to give yourself a moment to expel pent up emotional energy under the guise of crying over a movie. Shonda is an amazing storyteller. I knew that already. She did great.
This wasn’t a romance. This wasn’t an empowering story featuring a Black woman as the lead for the first time.
This was regency-era “Scandal.” I didn’t care for that show either. In Scandal, I checked out when Olivia tells Fitz that she was feeling like Sally Hemmings, and he shoots that statement down because he doesn’t own her. She owns him. The biggest load of narcissistic bullshit ever. My goodness. This woman works for you and has no career if you even think of tossing her to the wind, but yes, let’s pity you more Mr. President.
Again, NOT A ROMANCE.
A friend of mine that watches Bridgerton told me of a Black couple that has a story. I told her that was great. They aren’t the main story. The second season of Bridgerton featured a Southeast Asian woman as the lead. I also appreciated that she was there. I heard it was a good season. Also, she was heavily melanated, so you couldn’t deny that she was nonwhite even though the parentage presented was multiracial.
Yes, I appreciated that one as well. It still doesn’t satisfy me personally. As a Black woman, I want to see Black women represented and get their love stories. As Brandy said, “Almost doesn’t count.” Speaking of Brandy, her version of Cinderella was actually color-blind casting. Everything else labeling itself that is obviously not. It’s literally like those calling themselves allies - you already know they aren’t as soon as they say it.
Here is another reason why season 2 doesn’t help the case for Bridgerton. As soon as the show got a chance, it went back to the original source material: white woman + white man…but wait…she’s plus sized. When I saw this, I actually laughed. Penelope is considered plus-sized as a technicality, but she is not a representation for the plus sized community. I’m not sorry, and she’s not. Shonda just made a season where two white people got together, but to make it more dramatic they broke it into two parts.
My Gripe with Shonda
My issue with Shonda is this: She jumped through a number of hoops to make this work. She bought the option, went through the writing process for television, went through casting and production. Then on top of that, the actors had to withstand all of this scrutiny and racist harrassment…for a book that never included them anyway. Julie Quinn wrote books that nonwhite people never existed in.
Shonda should have bought the option of a Black author.
There…I said it. I won’t take it back either. There are PLENTY of Black Historical Romance authors to choose from. She didn’t even pick a well known white regency romance author, to be quite honest. She could have her pick of authors to option because: SHE IS SHONDA f*cking RHIMES. Everyone knows who she is. Any author she selected would have been plucked from the bunch and elevated to the position Julia Quinn is in. In fact, a better writer would actually do better than Quinn. That person should have been a Black woman that writes Black Regency Romance!!!
I’ll give a list of authors I like that write regency romance, at some point. Needless to say, I will NOT be watching Bridgerton ever again. I also may not watch much more from Shonda after this either. As stated, she is an amazing writer. I really enjoy her stuff. Most of the Black women I have seen her write and produce are women that are STRUGGLING emotionally or mentally in a way that hits home too real. On top of that, they don’t get a “happily ever after.” That is fine. Honestly, the only thing that separates her from the men that do it (Perry and Daniels) is that she’s a better writer. I guess kudos for that…lol
That’s all for today, Loves. Until next time…
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
