The much-anticipated second season of Netflix’s Bridgerton entranced fans with its impassioned characters and regency era aesthetic. This historical romance series, based on Julia Quinn’s novels, is an elegant insight into the world of courtship in 19th century London. This season features nuanced friendships, slow burn relationships, and emotional turmoil. While season one scratched the surface of morally grey character’s emotive backstories, this season is even more riddled with repressed feelings and inner strifes.

This season follows Viscount Anthony Bridgerton’s long-winded attempt to marry Edwina Sharma, who was dubbed the “diamond of the season” by the Queen. Yet, his attempts are repeatedly fouled by Edwina’s headstrong older sister, Kate Sharma, who disapproves of his transactional and loveless view of marriage. Their relentless hatred for each other soon turns into a passionate longing of which neither of them want to admit or own up to. Through a series of heated arguments, romantic tension, and prolonged eye-contact, Kate and Anthony unwillingly embodied a passionate enemies-to-lovers trope this season.

Anthony’s backstory is thoroughly explored in this season and serves as an explanation for his strict demeanor and harsh perspective on love. Immediately after witnessing his father’s death, a young Anthony was thrown into the crushing reality of being the eldest son, responsible for a grieving mother and seven siblings. Deprived of a time to mourn his late father, Anthony became emotionally unavailable and adopted a tyrannical sense of duty to his family. Similarly, Kate was also thrown into a caregiver role for her grieving mother and young sister after her father passed away. Both Anthony and Kate are obsessed with self-sacrifice and duties to the point where they abandon any sense of selfishness or love, which ultimately leads them to hurt the ones they care for in their headstrong denial.

Yet, this season doesn’t focus solely on Kate and Anthony. Anthony’s younger sister, Eloise, and her best friend, Penelope, are undoubtedly wrapped up in situations of their own making. Their storylines twist around each other to the point where both characters are blinded by the harsh reality of their nuanced friendship. Penelope is conflicted about her role as the mysterious Lady Whistledown, a gossip pamphlet that wreaks havoc.

Now, fans may be wondering what they should expect next. Luckily, Netflix has already confirmed a third and fourth season, both based off of the next books in the series. Each book is based on one of the eight Bridgerton siblings. The first was about Daphne, the second about Anthony, and, if the show goes in chronological order, the third will be about Benedict and the fourth will be about Colin. Additionally, there will be a spin-off about Queen Charlotte’s origin story.

Showrunner Chris Van Dusen is excited for the future of the series, saying, “It’s really any creator’s goal to create characters that can sustain the lifetime of a series, and in this case, I was able to even create characters that could sustain an entire franchise and multiple series, like what’s happening with Queen Charlotte… So, it’s a show that’s turning to multiple shows, and the franchise has really been able to expand, so I’m definitely excited to see where else you can go.”

If you want to be immersed in this period drama, make sure to watch the two seasons on Netflix!