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Why Bridgerton Is Not Just A Downton Clone
Netflix’s new Regency-era romance, Bridgerton, is far from being a clone of Downton Abbey. Bridgerton, which is based on a series of romance novels by Julia Quinn, was likely never meant to resemble Julian Fellowes’ hit show, but comparisons between the two shows were being drawn before Bridgerton even premiered. Bridgerton initially appeared to hit a lot of the same beats that would appeal to Downton Abbey’s fanbase – it is, after all, a scandal-centric period drama centered on a wealthy family with adult daughters who find themselves caught between their duty to marry for money and desire to marry for love. But the shows quickly diverge on several points.
Downton Abbey presented a whitewashed version of early 20th century England, where issues of class, race, gender, and sexual orientation were acknowledged, but neither historically accurate nor sincerely examined through a 21st-century lens. All of Downton Abbey’s protagonists expressed progressive views for the 1910s, which is understandable since Downton Abbey arguably had a responsibility to update outdated ideas or present them in a way that made it clear they were wrong. However, there was nothing truly radical about Downton Abbey in its presentation and ideas, whereas Bridgerton is a period drama like we’ve never seen.
First and foremost, Bridgerton’s leading man, Simon Hastings, is portrayed by Regé-Jean Page, a biracial British-Zimbabwean actor – and he’s not the only person of color who stars in Bridgerton. Especially compared with Downton Abbey (whose own director brushed off the topic by saying that Britain was not multicultural in 1920), Bridgerton’s cast is a breath of fresh air in a genre that has long featured people of color exclusively in service roles or erased them completely. But, of course, that’s not the only thing about Bridgerton that is a far cry from Downton Abbey.
