The post contains information about Bridgerton Season 2.
I am a huge fan of Enemies to Lovers. It worked for Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice in 1813, and it hasn't gotten boring yet, not for Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, not for Buffy and Spike, and not for Anthony and Kate.
The second season of The Viscount Who Loves Me is based on a novel by Julia Quinn. There was an opportunity for the couple and the genre. It all comes back to the bee scene.
Kate and Anthony hate each other when they meet. Anthony pursues Kate's younger sister even though he doesn't have feelings for her, and Kate is against the match. Kate and Anthony are arguing in the garden of Anthony's ancestral home. Kate was stung by a bee. Anthony's father died from a bee sting.
Can a single bee sting really kill you?
The book and the adaptation differ in where Anthony panics and Kate puts her hand on his chest. The two go their separate ways after sharing an intimate moment. In the book, Anthony feels he has to grab her breast in order to take out the venom.
He shook his head. “It’s not good enough,” he said hoarsely. I have to get it all out.”
“Anthony, I—What are you doing?”
He’d tipped her chin back and his head was closing the distance between them, almost as if he meant to kiss her.
“I’m going to have to suck the venom out,” he said grimly. “Just hold still.”
“Anthony!” she shrieked. “You can’t—” she gasped, completely unable to finish her sentence once she felt his lips settling on her skin, applying a gentle, yet inexorable pressure, pulling her into his mouth.
They have to marry because they are caught. In the show, the matriarch of the family sets up her daughter to get caught with a suitor, in order to get her attention. Kate and Anthony's engagement is when the real love story begins. They are enemies who are hot for each other and are now stuck together, a time-honored romance trope.
It is not attraction that forces Anthony and Kate into marriage. It is a bee.
I understand why the TV show doesn't stick to the source material, because there could be concerns about Season 2 being too similar to Season 1, in which Simon and Daphne are forced to marry after being caught in a compromising position. Theirs is a different kind of Stuck Together, because they are already in love with one another. Daphne wants to marry Simon. Simon doesn't want to marry her because he doesn't want to have children as revenge against his father, who would have wanted the family line to continue. Anthony and Kate are trapped-ness is different. They were not caught in the middle of seduction. Anthony was holding Kate's breast. Anthony and Kate are not attracted to each other. It's a bee.
The steamy, ridiculous book it is based on is the biggest changes between season 2 and season 3.
The Enemies to Lovers trope is one of the harder ones to defend for its cultural impact. It seems dangerous to think that you might be made for each other if you hate someone. It can be a lesson in not being too judgmental if you believe that a man who you dislike could be the man of your dreams.
The lesson of Enemies to Lovers is much easier to swallow than the one of Stuck Together. If you were trapped in the trunk of a car or in an elevator with someone you hated, you might have to realize that they are a human being. It would have made an amazing show if it had blended the two tropes like its source material does. You get more time for sex by forcing them into marriage sooner. The show didn't stay more faithful to the novel in this area.
The genius of the romance genre would be exposed if Seasons 1 and 2 were similar. Formulaic nature is one of the greatest gifts of romance novels. Because of romance's formulas, you can look into despair without fear of a trauma plot. A common framework can point out our universal thoughts and experiences, but it also gives the novels opportunities to explore the individual quirks, baggage, and personality of different people. We could look at a key difference between the heroes more closely if Seasons 1 and 2 had leaned into their similar tropes.
The TV show is trying to work around the repetitive nature of romance. Romance is special because of the repetitive nature. The impact of men's relationships with their fathers on their romantic relationships is an idea worth considering more than once. There is a difference between a marriage based in lust and one based in duty. Bridgerton should embrace the repetitive nature of romance. It is a formula because it works.
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