2023 Netflix limited series
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is a historical drama limited series created by Shonda Rhimes for Netflix.[1] The series is a prequel spin-off of the Netflix series Bridgerton. The story is loosely based on the rise of Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz to prominence and power in the late 18th century. The series premiered on May 4, 2023, and consists of 6 episodes that are roughly an hour in runtime.[2]
The series received generally favorable reviews by critics, who appreciated the performances of Adjoa Andoh and India Ria Amarteifio. It was nominated at the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards for costume design, make-up and hairstyle, winning the later; Julie Andrews was also nominated for her voice-over performance. Shonda Rhimes won the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Writing, Drama Series and was nominated at the NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Drama Series.
Kris Bowers's score and soundtrack, containing reinterpretations of pop songs in a classical style, was well-received, with Alicia Keys's song If I Ain't Got You being nominated at the MTV Video Music Award for Best Video for Good.
In the first week after its premiere, the series debuted at number one in 91 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, South Africa and Canada, and topped the Netflix Global Weekly Top 10 on May 7, 2023.[3]
Premise
The spin-off miniseries revolving around Queen Charlotte consists of two plot lines: one in the present of Bridgerton, beginning in 1817 with the death of the royal heir Princess Charlotte, an event that causes the Queen to pressure her children to marry and produce another royal heir; the other begins in 1761 with Charlotte meeting and marrying King George. The latter explores the King and Queen's marriage and his mental illness.
Production
Development
The series was announced in May 2021, with Shonda Rhimes set as showrunner and writer. Rhimes also serves as executive producer with Betsy Beers and director Tom Verica.[4] Anna O'Malley serves as producer.[5] The series consists of 6 episodes.[6] In April 2022, production designer Dave Arrowsmith was fired due to bullying allegations on set.[7] In an interview for Netflix Tudum, the executive producer and screenwriter Verica talked about the creative process behind the series and why it was chosen to be based on the Charlotte Queen figure:[8][9]
We’re very clear about this world and that this is not a history lesson. This is fiction inspired by fact. It’s very important to me that people understand that, because I’m telling the story of Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton, not of Queen Charlotte of England. [...] Many historians believe that Queen Charlotte was of mixed cultural heritage. We wanted to take that in a different direction than what the history books have said happened which was basically to bury that and not deal with it. We wanted to shine a light on that element. We asked, "What if society embraced those differences in diversity and elevated people of color to prominent positions and ranks?"; "The Great Experiment" [which didn’t happen in real-life England] allows us to reimagine what that world could have looked like if that part of Charlotte’s identity had been embraced.
— Tom Verica on Queen Charlotte
Casting
On March 30, 2022, Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, Ruth Gemmell, and Hugh Sachs were announced to be reprising their roles from Bridgerton. India Amarteifio, Michelle Fairley, Corey Mylchreest, Arsema Thomas, Sam Clemmett, Richard Cunningham, Tunji Kasim, Rob Maloney, and Cyril Nri were also cast.[6][10] In June 2022, Katie Brayben and Keir Charles were cast in recurring roles.[11] One month later, Connie Jenkins-Grieg joined the cast as a young Violet Bridgerton.[12]
Filming
The series was previously set to begin filming in January 2022. Production began on February 6, 2022, under the working title Jewels, and was set to wrap in May 2022.[13] Director Tom Verica confirmed filming had started by March 28, 2022.[14][13] The series wrapped on August 30, 2022.[13] The filming locations included Blenheim Palace, Belton House, Merton College, Hatfield House and Waddesdon Manor[15] as well as Hampton Court Palace.[16]
Music
Kris Bowers, who scored both the first and second seasons of Bridgerton, also worked on two original soundtrack projects for the series through Sony Music.[17] The first one, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Soundtrack from the Netflix Series), was supervised by Bowers, with co-production by Max Wrightson and co-writing of some tracks by Alec Sievern and Michael Dean Parsons.[18] The second project, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Covers from the Netflix Series), provided for the reinterpretation in a classical music key of pop songs from Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, SZA, Dolly Parton and Whitney Houston discography.[19] Keys song "If I Ain't Got You" was recorded with Queen Charlotte's Global Orchestra, a 70-piece orchestra of women of colour and Keys herself, and has been used as a soundtrack song.[20]
Release
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story was released on Netflix on May 4, 2023, consisting of 6 episodes.[21]
Reception
In the first week after its premiere, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story debuted at number one in 91 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, India, South Africa and Canada, and the Netflix Global Weekly Top 10[22] ranking of the ten most-watched English-language TV series on the platform in seven days with a further 148.28 million viewing hours.[23] It peaked in week two with 158.68 million hours of viewing,[24] maintaining the top spot in the Global Weekly Top 10 in week three as well.[25]
Critics reviews
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 68 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "A resplendent romance between two of the most interesting characters in the Bridgerton saga, Queen Charlotte is a spin-off that arguably perfects the primary series' formula."[26] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, has assigned a score of 76 out of 100 based on 29 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[27]
Time ranked the series on The 5 Best New TV Shows of May 2023.[28] Judy Berman of the same magazine wrote that the plot "It’s a neat explanation and one that works well thematically, if not historically" found out that "Rhimes’ reimagined 18th century England has much in common with the contemporary U.S. It's a multicultural society, but one that is in the midst of a painful transformation".[29]
Lucy Mangan of The Guardian gave 4 out of 5 stars, defining the series as a "gorgeous six-episode romp from Shondaland" and "a rare exception to the rule of prequels and will hopefully set many of its younger stars on the road to success" especially appreciating the acting of Amarteifio.[30] Nicole Vassell of The Independent pointed out that "Queen Charlotte delivers everything a Bridgerton fan could want . . . with touches of social commentary that feel refreshing, rather than preachy".[31]
The Hollywood Reporter's writer Angie Han found the story a "delectable romantic treat", writing that "Queen Charlotte is the tension between the cotton-candy fantasy that’s made Bridgerton so beloved with the thornier ground already laid out for the central couple by the core series" in which "the challenge ultimately yields a spinoff that’s richer and more complex than the flagship series".[32] Lorraine Ali of Los Angeles Times wrote that "lighthearted romance and romps in the gilded bed still play starring roles, and the prequel offers plenty of splendid scenery", appointing that "there is finally a gay love affair in the “Bridgerton” franchise, perhaps in response to criticisms that the series lacked a same-sex relationship, but the subplot does not feel engineered or obligatory. It naturally dovetails with all the other affairs of the heart".[33]
Alison Herman of Variety wrote that Queen Charlotte "offers an ideal metaphor for what the best spinoffs can do; [...] In its brevity, Queen Charlotte can strip down the broad ensemble of “Bridgerton” into a more focused story".[34] Inkoo Kang, writer of The New Yorker, appointed that "this counter-history is hardly convincing as a remedy to ingrained prejudice. [...] But this is also an alternate universe where eighteenth-century musicians play twenty-first-century pop hits and the reigning English monarch is toe-curlingly handsome, so let us feel free to exercise some suspension of disbelief".[35]
Historian S. I. Martin, who specializes in Black British history, described the series as "an absurd take on Black history" and accused it of "inviting, or fomenting, the forgetting or overlooking" of the "time when Britain was the largest trader in human lives on the planet". Gretchen Gerzina, author of Britain's Black Past, fears that the series' race twisting "gives people a pass to say, 'Oh, it was all right. They didn’t suffer and they were wealthy.'"[36]
Accolades
