{"id":1406688,"date":"2022-03-29T08:00:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T12:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1406688"},"modified":"2022-03-29T08:01:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T12:01:08","slug":"in-season-two-bridgerton-realizes-subtlety-is-sexier-than-sleaze","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/in-season-two-bridgerton-realizes-subtlety-is-sexier-than-sleaze\/","title":{"rendered":"In Season Two, \u2018Bridgerton\u2019 Realizes Subtlety Is Sexier Than Sleaze"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fin-season-two-bridgerton-realizes-subtlety-is-sexier-than-sleaze%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1406688&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/image-2022-03-28T143454.103-e1648492748888-1024x507-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>They looked into each other\u2019s eyes, rain pattering against the window, and when thunder cracked, she promptly fled the room. So goes the love story of \u201cBridgerton\u201d season two, released Friday \u2014 a romance marked by brushing hands, longing glances, and a notably reduced amount of provocative content for the hit Netflix series. The decrease in sexual content was an abrupt change from the show\u2019s previous pacing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s so much sexiness in just the looks across a room, and the hands grazing, and the fingers almost touching,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mamamia.com.au\/bridgerton-sex-scenes\/\">assured<\/a> executive producer Chris Van Dusen. \u201cYou can really feel that build from episode to episode.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last season, the show <a href=\"https:\/\/screenrant.com\/bridgerton-netflix-biggest-show-viewer-records\/\">broke<\/a> Netflix records as the platform\u2019s most-watched series, appearing in 82 million households in just one month. This one, trending No. 1 in the United States in less than 24 hours, is driven by the slow development of affection between the two romantic leads and largely platonic adventures for the rest of the supporting cast, with the occasional exception.<\/p>\n<p>Leading characters Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) spend the majority of their eight episodes dancing around each other in socially appropriate, biting conversation and trying to practice a lack of physical intimacy reminiscent of Jane Austen\u2019s novels and the films that retold her stories.<\/p>\n<p>The charm of this season is the same that makes the BBC\u2019s and Joe Wright\u2019s \u201cPride and Prejudice\u201d films hallmarks of romance. Entertainment doesn\u2019t require the sexual mania regularly produced by media to be engaging or even just interesting. The constant deluge of it makes viewers numb to increasingly graphic content and uninterested in remembering a time without it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe slow burn. The angst. The looks of longing. The banters,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/marienporfavor\/status\/1507446338585513984\">wrote<\/a> one fan of the new season. \u201cJust beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But as television produced by major streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime only continues to gain popularity, so does the commonality of oversexualized content.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s all those subtleties,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insider.com\/hand-flex-pride-and-prejudice-meme-tiktoks-interview-editor-2020-11\">noted<\/a> film editor Paul Tothill of 2005\u2019s \u201cPride and Prejudice.\u201d But in pop culture\u2019s current biggest hits, it\u2019s about almost anything but subtlety.<\/p>\n<p>The raving enjoyment of \u201cBridgerton,\u201d Hulu\u2019s \u201cNormal People\u201d and \u201cPam and Tommy,\u201d or of HBO\u2019s \u201cEuphoria\u201d displays how many consumers won\u2019t think twice about sexually explicit content in a variety of television shows \u2014 even when it\u2019s observed to be, as season one of \u201cBridgerton\u201d was, essentially soft-core pornography. Some scenes from the show, as well as from \u201cNormal People,\u201d wound up <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/01\/18\/netflix-struggles-to-keep-bridgerton-sex-off-of-porn-sites\/\">circulating<\/a> on pornographic websites, much to the chagrin of the actors and the contentment of marketing teams.<\/p>\n<p>Sexual content becomes a cover charge up-and-coming media pays just to get in the door to sufficiently compete with the explicit content produced by streaming services. It\u2019s easy to forget that just because something\u2019s typical, doesn\u2019t mean it should be.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, \u201cBridgerton\u2019s\u201d style of entertainment is fun and supposedly of little significance. Supposedly, sexual content doesn\u2019t have to be such a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>But that meaninglessness indicates modern media engages none of the faculties art ought. There\u2019s no employment of the imagination or unique mystery left in the end. The normalcy of explicit content in trending show after trending show just desensitizes the public to the fact that if sex sells, we\u2019ve never been buying it more shamelessly than we do right now. Content loses itself in shocking nothingness, hidden behind scenes that play to the most base of human interests.<\/p>\n<p>Viewers aren\u2019t challenged to think too hard about what they\u2019re absorbing. After all, there will surely be something onscreen in just a few minutes that numbs the mind and blurs the vision. Most entertainment is no longer about character interactions, clever dialogue, or consistent themes. It\u2019s become entangled with nudity, shock factor, and other attempts at catching any kind of attention. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cEuphoria,\u201d with its abundance of naked adults playing teenaged characters, and even season one of \u201cBridgerton,\u201d whose first three minutes include a shot of one of the main characters having sex in public, conveys a kind of desperate plea from their makers: \u201cAre you still watching?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s Michael Scott shouting \u201cSEX!\u201d at the rest of his office to ensure he has everyone\u2019s attention before proceeding with the real point \u2014 or, in the case of Netflix, even the possibility of a thoughtful plot. While Kevin\u2019s all in (\u201cYou had me at sex,\u201d he declares), Michael doesn\u2019t quite convince Phyllis. \u201cYou had all of our attention just by screaming anything,\u201d she says tiredly.<\/p>\n<p>With the advent of \u201cBridgerton\u201d season two\u2019s new, Austenian waiting game, a streaming giant at last acknowledges consumers\u2019 similar exhaustion at the overproduction of a modern, graphic romance-infused genre.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Meghan Schultz is a rising senior at Hillsdale College studying English and journalism. She currently interns at the National Catholic Register, and more of her work can be found on Twitter @schultzmeghann.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>They looked into each other\u2019s eyes, rain pattering against the window, and when thunder cracked, she promptly fled the room. So goes the love story of \u201cBridgerton\u201d season two, released<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":558,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1406688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/558"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1406688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}