Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 Review: Stays True To Its Style, Romantic, Elegant, and Visually Stunning?
Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 Review and Analysis
Cast: Luke Thompson, Yerin Ha, Nicola Coughlan, Luke Newton, Claudia Jessie, Ruth Gemmell, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Hannah Dodd, Victor Alli, Katie Leung, Daniel Francis
Director: Tramaine De Senna, Tom Verica, Andrew Ahn
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars)
Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 shifts the spotlight to his brother, who until now had remained more in the shadows. A fleeting artist, lover of pleasures, and a dreamer unfamiliar with the rules of a “good society” that until now had not taken him too seriously. A number two who, despite not having much prestige in terms of titles, still belongs to one of the most prominent families in all of London, and good popularity weighs as much as a noble recognition, in the Netflix TV series (For more information on the series and previously released seasons, we direct you to our Bridgerton Season 3 review).
The new season is divided into two parts, the first available from January 29, 2026, in four episodes, followed by a second wait for February 26, and finds its inspiration in the third book of the Julia Quinn saga: A Gentleman’s Proposal. Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 returns to tormented love, in this case, cloaking itself in a generally affabulatory verve. Fairytale love and the actual reality of a London with precise roles and rules dominate the entire unfolding of this first part, accompanying viewers on the journey of an encroachment that involves research and obsession, but also a clash with reality and reflection on what nobility entails and its most secret and delicate mechanisms.
The Netflix series continues to move within that deliberately artificial world made up of high-sounding dialogues, openly declared passions, and unrestrained romance, confirming itself once again as an experience more sensorial than realistic. It is a conscious choice, one that can divide, but one that remains consistent with the identity of the story: Bridgerton does not want to be measured; he wants to be excessive, decorative, and avowedly over the top. And that’s what his audience wants. This new season, changing protagonists as per tradition (format derived from the novels on which it is based, in which each volume is dedicated to a different couple), shifts the emotional and narrative center to Benedict Bridgerton, always a lateral figure, reckless and libertine, now finally called upon to bear the weight of the main story.
Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 Review: The Story Plot
Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 shifts its narrative center of gravity, as anticipated, to the character of Benedict, the second son of the family, an irregular and artistically driven figure, played by Luke Thompson. We had met him several times during previous events. We had seen him experience and let himself be carried away by passions, interact, and be supportive of his family. In this case, Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 chooses to explore it more deeply, as has happened with others before. Unlike his brothers, Benedict doesn’t seem at all interested in fitting into the folds of married life that everyone seems to aspire to, observing everything with detachment, almost as a compromise alien to his nature. His path is marked by a desire to withdraw from conventions, by a personal search that seems incompatible with the idea of a life already written. That kind of sentimental homologation doesn’t belong to him.
This deliberately precarious balance is, however, undermined by an unexpected encounter. The first part of Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 opens with a sumptuous masquerade ball right at Benedict’s house. As this unfolds, a mysterious presence captures his attention and introduces an element of discontinuity into the trajectory that until then had been refractory to any even remotely lasting constraint. A woman, unlike any other in London’s high society, wrapped in a silver dress, emerges from a context Benedict knows by heart. It almost seems like a luminous apparition in a frame of codified social rituals. Its hidden identity and the suspended context of the party transform the encounter into an out-of-time experience, capable of insinuating into him an obsession that is difficult to decode completely.
Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 Review and Analysis
There is nothing new in Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1, nothing shocking, almost no twists (Lady Whistledown has now been discovered, almost every member of the family has found a consort, and there are very few mysteries), yet this series continues to work. How does he do it? Harnessing the simplicity and effectiveness of a universal tale that speaks to all generations. Thus, Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 plays the card of impossible love between different social classes, a timeless classic, talks about female orgasm and (its problems), always a deeply felt theme, shows that you can fall in love and reinvent yourself at any age, addressing a more adult audience in this sense, and in doing so, manages to truly speak to everyone. Furthermore, it is a linear, mild season, and for this very reason, perfect for today’s audiences who are looking for easy and “background” entertainment from TV.
Being only the first half of the season, it’s clear that real emotional development is yet to come. Yet the first four episodes manage to lay a solid foundation for Benedict and Sophie’s relationship, building a romantic tension that, at times, is even more engaging than that between Penelope and Colin in the previous season. The feeling grows through accumulation, between glances, frustrations, and retained desires, without relying exclusively on the erotic component. Luke Thompson returns a still restless and ill-defined Benedict, perhaps not as in-depth as he could be, but finally central. Yerin Ha, for her part, makes Sophie a delicate but determined character, capable of puncturing the screen even in the quietest moments. It’s a pair that works more for potential than for immediate explosion, but that’s precisely why it intrigues.
Around the main story, Bridgerton continues to weave numerous subplots: Penelope grapples with the new balance after the revelation of her dual identity as Lady Whistledown, Francesca and her seemingly peaceful but more complex marriage than expected, and Violet discovers the possibility of wishing for more. Not everything has the same weight, and some story lines seem more decorative than necessary, but they help maintain that sense of chorality that has always been one of the series’ trademarks. The staging remains one of the main reasons to return to Mayfair: sumptuous costumes, luxurious sets, and rearranged pop music continue to make Bridgerton an irresistible visual spectacle, capable of being watched even in its least inspired moments.
Bridgerton remains, without too many turns of phrase, the quintessential guilty pleasure. It’s a series that’s a pleasure to watch even when it goes overboard, even when it indulges in redundant dialogue or forced situations. This fourth season does not revolutionize the formula, but expands it enough to avoid the feeling of tiredness, introducing new perspectives and new social dynamics. Not everything is perfectly calibrated: some episodes suffer from an irregular rhythm, and the feeling is that this first part is, above all, preparing the ground rather than really landing the blow. Yet the overall charm remains intact, thanks to successful central characters, a consistently polished visual imagery, and a narrative world that continues to function even when indulged in its excesses. While waiting for the second part, Bridgerton proves once again that he knows exactly what he wants to be and has no intention of changing paths.
Unlike previous seasons, in Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1, servitude plays a much more prominent role in the unfolding of events. This new season, at least in its first part, introduces the character of Sophie (played by Yerin Ha), a key figure in the main story, connected precisely to this dimension, allowing the narrative to go beyond the usual golden patina to enter the rooms of those who have always served and worked for the characters the public knows and loves. Class conflict is inevitable, as is the eviction of the infinite abyss between two practically close areas, always in contact, but still very distant. Such a work, of course, can only bring to mind the narrative modes that have made as serious as Downton Abbey true immortal gems of television entertainment. In Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1, the situation is much lighter, fundamental, however, in understanding the love currently underway and its possible future implications.
At the same time, we find a spirit continually suspended between the unattainable fairy tale and the actual reality of the facts (the references to Cinderella and similar are not random). Sophie’s journey and Benedict’s are practically opposites, yet complementary in some way. Her point of view gives the story a particular closeness to that of the spectators, given his naive nature and naturally surprised by a world that seems to have come straight from the paintings of James Tissot. Wealth and opulence, however, in the first part of Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1, they find an interesting obstacle to deal with: the inhumanity of its inhabitants. Not all families are like Benedict’s, and viewers know this well, and nobility, in fact, does not necessarily mean nobility of soul. The relationship and comparison with servitude, not surprisingly, become one of the key readings of a story in which love and social impossibility must, if they can, find their own meeting point, especially where the concept of “role” is something fixed and impassable.
The other parallel stories revolve around the events involving Benedict and Sophie, involving more successful narrative moments and still others that are quite sketchy and seemingly uninterested, perhaps even superficial. It remains, however, an added value is the fact that you can move between multiple events and multiple faces that support the choral nature of a world that still has a lot to tell, rediscovering all the formal elegance and that particular aesthetic impact that has always defined and distinguished it. The first half of Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 closes like an interrupted waltz, leaving suspended glances, unsaid promises, and social fractures that demand a continuation. The story carefully laid out its main themes. Moving between fairy tale and reality, masks and identities to be revealed, there is certainly much curiosity left in awaiting the new episodes, which for now can only be hypothesized, perhaps starting precisely from the literary dimension to which they belong.
A hardened bachelor, a libertine, he refuses marriage to himself. She seeks shelter from her mother, who is determined to make him enter into a good marriage, until she attends her family’s masquerade ball and meets a mysterious lady. The fourth season of Bridgerton is a retelling of Cinderella; the elements are all there: the stepmother and the two stepsisters, the “prince,” and the dance from which she runs away at midnight. The fourth season of Bridgerton moves on familiar yet emotionally solid ground: big dances, stolen glances, class secrets, and a romance that shamelessly embraces melodrama. The passing of the baton to Benedict Bridgerton as the protagonist works on paper and, in many ways, also on screen: the love story has a more intimate, almost fairytale-like feel, and the staging remains impeccable, with costumes and sets that continue to be one of the series’ absolute strengths.
The narrative focuses more on inner feelings and tensions, partially abandoning the chaotic chorality of previous seasons. This makes the season more collected, perhaps less explosive, but also more emotionally coherent. Romantic chemistry is there, and the topic of social barriers is treated with the glossy sensitivity that Bridgerton has always made his own. As far as I’m concerned, however, the only real flaw in this first part of the season is the almost total change in Benedict’s character. And it’s not about him being shown as a libertine — that’s always been a trait shared by Anthony and the Count too, and it’s never been a problem. The point is another: Benedict has always been the funniest, most unconventional, ironic character, capable of easing tensions with a joke or a sideways look at the world of high society.
In this season, however, it appears much more serious, introspective, almost stiffened, to the point of seeming like a different character at times. The emotional depth is understandable and even necessary to sustain its romantic narrative arc, but the risk is that it will lose the very uniqueness that distinguished it from other Bridgertons. The transformation is perhaps intentional, but it feels abrupt, especially for those who loved Benedict as an eccentric and unpredictable figure.
Bridgerton Season 4 Part 1 Review: The Last Words
Bridgerton‘s fourth season shifts its focus to the character of Benedict, an unconventional figure distant from traditional marital conventions, recounting a tormented love that navigates between fairy-tale inspiration and social rigidity. The first part of the season, elegant and story-telling, follows a particular falling in love, as it broadens the gaze on London at the time, analyzing the point of view of servitude in a more centered, if light-hearted, way through the character of Sophie.
The story stages class conflict and social impossibility, alternating successful narrative moments with both intriguing and sketchier and more fleeting choralism, but confirming the aesthetic strength, choralness, and formal elegance that have always defined the series. Bridgerton‘s fourth season is certainly not the best in the saga inspired by Julia Quinn’s novels, but despite this, it works, is a pleasure to watch, and, for the umpteenth time, makes us believe that anything is possible, even love at first sight during a masquerade ball, that the prince falls in love with the maid, and that life can give us great emotions at any age.
