Review- Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

If you have been online at all since Thursday, you’ve probably seen at least one post (if not hundreds) of Netflix’s new show Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. I binge-watched the entire show in one day, so here are my thoughts:

Warning: Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

Queen Charlotte is a prequel to the very popular Bridgerton series. I absolutely love Bridgerton, and Queen Charlotte does an excellent job of giving the viewers a look into the history of some of the main characters while simultaneously building plotlines for future seasons of the main series.

Queen Charlotte takes us back to the beginning of Charlotte and George’s love story. Charlotte is from Germany and her brother Adolphus makes a deal to marry her off to King George at the young age of 17. The siblings travel to England for the marriage, and it is quite clear that Charlotte is NOT on board with the arrangement. When she arrives at court, this is even more apparent as she continuously asks everyone what George is like and if he is a troll or a monster. Of course, the servents don’t dare to say anything negative about their King so Charlotte is even more concerned that her betrothed is a terrible person.

On her wedding day, Charlotte tries to escape the castle by climbing over a wall. This is where she finally meets the handsome King George, who is conveniently walking by at the time. They have some witty banter before George reveals who he truly is, and you can tell is now happier about the arrangement. Charlotte follows through with the wedding and believes her happily ever after is on the way.

That is until they arrive at Buckingham House where George states she will live while he lives in another estate, not even spending their wedding night together. Of course, this is confusing to both Charlotte and the audience at the time, but it is later revealed that George is actually trying to help Charlotte in a roundabout way. He actually suffers from a severe mental condition, where he goes into bouts of mania and cannot determine what is reality. George believes he is giving Charlotte a better life by hiding his illness from her and keeping himself away, but Charlotte doesn’t understand because she doesn’t know the truth.

We see Charlotte stubbornly visiting George to tell him off, and they clearly start developing stronger feelings for one another. Meanwhile, George has been doing a very intense (and surprisingly dark) form of therapy to “cure” himself of his illness and believes after a time that he is actually cured. He finally gives in and moves back in with Charlotte, and they delve deeper into their romance.

Of course, George is not actually cured. Charlotte finally finds out after she wakes up one night to find her husband missing, and discovers him manically writing all over the walls and running into the garden to scream at the stars. We see George reverting back to his old, torturous form of therapy for a while and all hope seems to be lost. But finally, Charlotte discovers where George is being kept and banishes the creepy doctor who was doing the torturing and promises to help him through his issues herself.

Throughout the series, we also get flashes back into the future where the current Queen Charlotte is struggling to marry off her own stubborn children and produce an heir. These flashes are very similar to what we see in the main Bridgerton series, with Charlotte’s children seeming to be the more mean and evil replicas of the Bridgerton children. At first, it’s a little jarring to see young Queen Charlotte struggle with the idea of being forced to marry and produce an heir and then flashing to older Charlotte attempting to do the same thing to her own kids. However, in a sweet moment at the end of the series (which made me SOB), Charlotte gets to tell a slightly clear-minded George that their bloodline will continue and their hard work paid off.

We also get to see young Lady Danbury and how she moved up the ranks in society, becoming close friends with the queen and even having a secret affair with Lady Bridgerton’s father. We also delve into Lady Bridgerton struggling with wanting to move on after her husband’s death, which I’m hoping we see more of in future seasons of Bridgerton.

Another great (but sad) storyline that will hopefully continue in the main Bridgerton series is the relationship between Brimsley (Queen Charlotte’s right-hand man) and Reynolds (the same for King George) that blossomed throughout the series. We’re left with a flash of current Brimsley dancing on his own, implying that Reynolds has died in some way but leaving us with many questions.

I LOVED this series. The Bridgerton world is known for having a fun, colourful vibe interlaced with strong romantic relationships that leave viewers wishing for something similar in their own life. Queen Charlotte does NOT disappoint. In fact, I would argue that the romance between Charlotte and George beats the first two romances in Bridgerton. There is so much more substance to their love, which may be due to the flashes we see of them in the future and the decline in health the George suffers through, but there is just something about their love that really got me.

I was surprised at how dark this series got as well. Usually we’re used to the fun, lightheartedness in Bridgerton that focuses on love and balls and beautiful dresses. However, in Queen Charlotte, getting into what George was suffering from and the treatment (torture) he received to try to “fix” himself for his wife was incredibly sad and dark. We also see that they don’t get their happily ever after- while George is still alive when we see the older Queen Charlotte, its clear his illness has progressed even further, and is rarely himself. This would be heartbreaking for Charlotte to watch her husband suffer while also being left to rule and raise her children alone (as much as a Queen would raise her kids on her own lol).

I also really love a series that makes me want to look up the history behind it. Queen Charlotte and King George were real people, who ruled England in the 1700s. King George did suffer from mental illness, although his son George IV ruled in his place once he was deemed too unstable. King George and Queen Charlotte married only six hours after Charlotte arrived in England, and they went on to have 15 children together.

Queen Charlotte did a better job than the original Bridgerton series when it came to side characters and storylines. I always found the Fetheringtons in the main series to be too distracting and not super relevant to the main plot (other than Lady Whistledown herself, of course). In Queen Charlotte, the storylines of Lady Danbury and Brimsley maintained their own unique characteristics while simultaneously boosting the main storyline. And as I said earlier, it is set up so both of these stories can continue in the main series.

Overall, I rate Queen Charlotte a 4/5 stars. A fun and easy watch with a little more substance than the original series, but still gives you all of the romance and royalty you’re looking for.

Did you watch Queen Charlotte? Let me know what you think!