The Roush Review

Bridgerton

Available now, Netflix

LUSTIER THAN THE average Masterpiece, with tongue planted firmly in rouged cheek, Bridgerton is power producer Shonda Rhimes’ stylish if overwrought series debut at the Netflix ball. With show creator Chris Van Dusen (Scandal) adapting books by Julia Quinn, this eight-part period romance is obsessed with the toxic consequences of scandal, albeit of a comparatively milder variety than on Rhimes’ outrageous ABC melodrama.

All of 1813 London, from commoner to imperious Queen Charlotte (a droll Golda Rosheuvel), hangs on every word printed in , an anonymously written