‘Bridgerton’ Explores Penelope and Colin’s Slow Burn Romance in Season 3

Fans of the hit Netflix series Bridgerton are highly anticipating the return of the period romance drama’s third season. With a storyline that has captivated millions from its debut season on the streamer, viewers are set to see what is in store for their favorite Bridgerton characters.

Season 3 is set to premiere on Netflix next month, promising even more romance, drama, and intrigue. The Bridgerton series, based on Julia Quinn’s bestselling book series of the same name, takes viewers on a journey through the glittering high society world of Regency-era London, where scandals have been known to run rampant but where love is always in the mix. 

Returning to the hit show’s cast are faces that we have come to know and love – Jonathan Bailey, who portrays the eldest Bridgerton son, Anthony, and his lady in crime, Simone Ashley, who plays Anthony’s wife, Kate Sharma Bridgerton. Fiery interactions that happened in last season’s episodes, Queen Charlotte kept us all chattering away about it on X, which used to be Twitter.

New additions to the cast for the third season include Daniel Francis as Marcus Anderson, Sam Phillips as Lord Debling, and James Phoon as Harry Dankworth. With such a diverse cast of talented actors, Bridgerton is sure to captivate an even wider audience of support when it premieres in May. 

Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and her longtime crush, Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), will take center stage this time around. Super Bridgerton lovers know that Penelope has been pining for Colin since day one, secretly wanting him more than anyone.

She has now chosen to move on, realizing that it’s now time “to take a husband, preferably one who will provide her with enough independence to continue her double life as Lady Whistledown, far away from her mother and sisters,” according to Netflix.

Returning from his travels, Colin is disappointed to find that Penelope is practically avoiding him.

“Eager to win back her friendship, Colin offers to mentor Penelope in the ways of confidence to help her find a husband this season,” Netflix added. “But when his lessons start working a little too well, Colin must grapple with whether his feelings for Penelope are truly just friendly.”

Fans can still expect to see more scandalously romantic entanglements, lavish balls with contemporary classical music being played (I loved hearing Alicia Keys’ If I Aint Got You on the orchestra strings!) and even more shocking revelations as the Bridgerton family continues to be who they are while still navigating London’s high society and love.

The swoon-worthy romances take me back to my sophomore and junior years in high school, when I would sit under a big fruit tree on the school’s playing field and gorge on Quinn’s novels. To see those books made into a scripted television show—at the hands of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal creator Shonda Rhimes—that conveys what most of us love about that period, but with a modern twist is a feast for the fictional literary senses. 

As anticipation continues to build for the season three premiere of Bridgerton, viewers will be able to catch up on previous seasons on Netflix. Or they can dive into the world of Bridgerton novels to familiarize themselves with the original storyline. I am an avid reader, so I read all of the books in the novel series …again, before I watched even one episode. To me, it helped provide context that you may not always get while watching an adaption. The passion, intrigue, and romance of the show promise to take us on a ride in a way that only Bridgerton can!