1 of 5 | King George III (Corey Mylchreest) marries Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio). Photo courtesy of Netflix
LOS ANGELES, April 27 (UPI) -- The Bridgerton spinoff, Queen Charlotte, premiering May 4 on Netflix, expands the Bridgerton universe with most of the trappings fans love. It also takes an interesting perspective on racial dynamics in Regency-era England.
The same Lady Whistledown (Julie Andrews) narrates the tale of Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), who presided over Bridgerton courting rituals. As a young German heiress (India Amarteifio), Charlotte travels to England to marry George III (Corey Mylchreest).
Young Charlotte isn't particularly interested in British royalty, let alone marrying a man she's never met. But, the opportunity for a Black European family weighs on her.
Charlotte's brother, Adolphus (Tunji Kasim), advises that marrying George would be good for their status. George's mother, Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley), is very attentive to the politics of her son marrying a Black woman.
Queen Charlotte introduces young Lady Danbury (Arsema Thomas) who still is close with Charlotte in Bridgerton. Augusta invites other Black couples to the wedding as a political move.
Lady Danbury uses this access to the royal family to ask that her husband (Cyril Nri) be included in royal activities. Sexism still reigns, so Lady Danbury gets no credit from her husband, who thinks he earned the clout of his own accord, and still shushes his wife.
Yet, Lady Danbury is the one who still provides Lord Danbury emotional support when he suffers.
Charlotte and George don't have the sexy, flirty romp that Daphne and Simon had on Bridgerton. Although George wins over Charlotte on their first meeting, he has some surprises that rightfully don't sit well with Charlotte.
By romantic comedy rules, the fact that they hate each other may mean George and Charlotte end up falling in love despite themselves. They still have ribald love scenes as they grudgingly try to produce an heir. No bodices are literally ripped, but they may as well be.
Charlotte endures a lot of dressing montages for fans of costumes, but those montages also convey Charlotte's loneliness and solitude. In a vast palace with everybody catering to her, Charlotte has no partner and doesn't talk to anyone.
Charlotte's most important relationship becomes Brimsley (Sam Clemmett), but even he won't speak unless spoken to. Brimsley is there more than George, and he won't stop serving Charlotte for anything, even if he does remain exactly five paces behind her.
Brimsley has his own romantic subplot and George isn't entirely unsympathetic. Augusta makes the rules, but attributes them to him, and he's stuck playing the role, though that doesn't excuse his aloofness toward Charlotte as a human being.
The costumes and palaces are just as lavish as Bridgerton. String quartets still cover modern-day pop music.
Queen Charlotte maintains the Shonda Rhimes sense of humor. One offscreen couple is called the Smythe-Smiths which is even more absurd when spoken aloud.
The show also flashes forward to Bridgerton-era Charlotte. Exploring her origin story explains Charlotte's later impatience with her insufferable kids.
Charlotte put up with so much only to see it nearly die out when none of her kids can be bothered to have a relationship and produce heirs.
Fans of Charlotte on Bridgerton will get to learn much more about her, both long before Bridgerton and in the portions of the story that are parallel to Bridgerton. If one is simply waiting for Bridgerton Season 3, Queen Charlotte provides plenty of royal drama in the same milieu.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001 a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
