History Series / Bridgerton

The first season adapts the first book, ''The Duke and I'', and follows newly-minted debutante Daphne, who sees her chances of finding a good husband begin to dim when her older brother Anthony shoots down all her suitors. In a bid to retain relevance, Daphne enters into a mutually beneficial [[TheBeard fake courtship]] with her brother's friend, the dashing and eligible Duke of Hastings, Simon Basset (Creator/RegeJeanPage). Simon refuses to get married, so this arrangement keeps people from throwing their daughters at him while raising interest in ''her''. Naturally, they [[RomanticFakeRealTurn fall in love]] -- but their burgeoning feelings for each other are threatened by their conflicting desires for the future.

* TheBeard:
** Simon and Daphne pretend to be courting. For Simon, the illusion of being taken means "ambitious mamas" will stop trying to set him up with their daughters; for Daphne, the illusion of having a Duke's interest means she'll be a hot commodity again.
** In a more traditional use of the term, artist Henry Granville is in love with a young lord while being married to a woman. They imply to Benedict that this arrangement is mutually beneficial (i.e he's gay and she's a lesbian and they're using each other to hide it).

*** Women are often not seen wearing coats or bonnets when outside, when that would have been historically accurate. In the second season, they are wearing wedding hats, which weren't everyday wear either.

* HighClassGloves: Ties with The Gilded Age for the most gloves worn in any drama made so far in the 21st century. Gloves are worn by every major and nearly all minor characters at nearly all times except when the characters are at home and/or preparing for bed.

** Horses come up a lot around Anthony and Kate in season two. They first meet while horseriding, have a significant interaction at the horse races, [[spoiler: Anthony brings Edwina a horse only to learn that the horse she loved was fictional and only Kate is the passionate rider]], and [[spoiler:Kate being thrown from a horse is climax of the season.]]

* AwfulWeddedLife: [[spoiler: After the marital rape scene, Simon and Daphne's relationship deteriorates and they remain tense over the course of two episodes. Daphne even very nearly gives up on her marriage altogether before a pep talk from her mother convinces her to put in one final yet genuine attempt to salvage her marriage. It works, as Simon and Daphne reconcile and become HappilyMarried once again.]]

** What's sad about [[spoiler:Eloise and Penelope's fight is that they both are right. Penelope points out that the queen was going to blackmail who she thought was Lady Whistledown, and Eloise wouldn't be able to keep up the ruse. She also says that at least she is making a mark on the world, while Eloise is all talk. Eloise retorts that her friendship with Theo was supposed to be secret for a reason, so that he and the Bridgertons wouldn't get hurt by the potential scandal. Penelope betrayed her best friend's trust, even if it was for good intentions, and Eloise cannot forgive that. Not to mention that Eloise was befriending Theo ''precisely'' to figure out what she wanted to do with her life if she couldn't go to university or publish her book. She also asks how Penelope could betray her own family and Marina Thompson by posting about the pregnancy, something that especially abhors her. Marina deceived Colin, but Eloise understand she was in a desperate situation and Marina would have been happy with her brother]].

** Eloise constantly wears her hair loose about her shoulders, both at home and in public; only ''very'' young girls wore their hair down during this period of time. She does at least wear it up for super formal occasions like being presented to the Queen or the various balls that she's dragged to.

** Eloise's theory that Lady Whistledown is one of the servants (because the help is BeneathSuspicion) is hilariously shot down, since no servant in RegencyEngland would have enough time to both research/write a regular gossip sheet ''and'' do their actual day job. Added to that, a person with Lady Whistledown's income would have no reason to be employed in a servile job.

** In a pre-Internet society, anonymously publishing gossip is a much more difficult proposition since it involves an actual printing press and distribution of the physical sheets. Once the Queen gets them involved in finding out Lady Whistledown’s identity, the Bow Street Runners simply locate the printer and identify the schedule for the manuscript drop-off. [[spoiler:If Eloise hadn't intervened they would have easily caught her.]]

* HighClassGloves: More gloves are worn in this series than in probably any other drama made so far in the 21st century. Gloves are worn by every major and nearly all minor characters at nearly all times except when the characters are at home and/or preparing for bed.