WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Bridgerton Season 1, available now on Netflix.
The first trailer for Bridgerton, Netflix's new Regency drama, featured a gay sex scene, prompting many hopeful viewers to expect queer representation from the upcoming show. The final result, however, is anything but queer. There are no queer characters in any of the main storylines, and the featured gay sex scene involves a barely secondary character, thus adding little to the show. Bridgerton's inclusion of gay characters ends up feeling performative, disappointing and truly like queerbaiting.
Henry Granville is Bridgerton's queer character. A local artist responsible for the paintings hung in fancy galleries and rich houses of the London social elite, he's also a libertine, hosting parties with naked drawing models, drugs and rampant sex. Notably, Henry has his expected wife but also a male lover, whom he identifies as his true love. During one of these parties, they have sex, and another couple accidentally walks in on them while looking for their own room.
But Henry is hardly a main character. Bridgerton focuses on members of the Bridgerton and Featherington families, with some side stories of characters important to these families' relationships. Henry befriends one of the Bridgerton sons, Benedict. However, his lack of influence on any of the romance storylines means that he gets very little screen time and ends up as a secondary character at best.
Benedict Bridgerton becomes enraptured by Henry's cavalier lifestyle, however. The second of the Bridgerton sons and therefore not responsible for upholding the family honor and heritage, Benedict receives only slightly more screen time -- until his ill-timed critical remarks about Henry's art earn him an invitation to his den of iniquity. Benedict is mostly curious about learning to draw, using Henry's live models and freely available art supplies, but he quickly gives in and joins the rest of the crowd in more adult pastimes.
Another show might have used this opportunity to allow Benedict to explore his own sexuality in the absence of the binding societal expectations laid upon his older brother. However, Benedict does no such thing and instead uses this license for freedom to pursue his continued relationship with Genevieve Delacroix, the local modiste. Their romance may be illicit -- her a working woman and he a man of money -- but even this is not novel. Benedict's older brother Anthony has carried on with an opera singer, knowing that he is expected to marry into one of the noble families.
Benedict spends some time commiserating with his sister Eloise about the expectations of society, and both regret the roles that have been assigned for them. But while Eloise at least pushes for freedom for women to pursue exploits other than marriage, Benedict does nothing with his complaints.
Ultimately, Benedict's time with Henry earns him no new knowledge and makes no changes in how he interacts with his world. If Henry's queerness was not to be a feature of Bridgerton, it could at least have had a lasting impact on any of the main characters of the series. Instead, it's a novelty, barely a side-story and certainly not good queer representation.
The lack of any real queer storylines in Bridgerton is not only disappointing, but also somewhat surprising giving the pedigree of production company Shondaland. The focus on diversity in casting and representation in other aspects of Bridgerton -- including a Black Queen Charlotte and Duke of Hastings -- only serves to highlight how much substantial queer representation is missing.
The queer content of Bridgerton is a let-down, especially given its prominent placement in the trailer. While viewers are treated to one queer character and a fleeting glimpse of his lover, neither are central to any storyline or have lasting impact on characters who do matter. The absence of any meaningful queerness in Bridgerton is surprising, and makes the prominent inclusion of Henry in the trailer hurt that much more.
Bridgerton, which stars Phoebe Dynevor, Regé-Jean Page, Jonathan Bailey, Nicola Coughlan, Claudia Jessie, Ruby Barker, Golda Rosheuvel, Luke Thompson, Luke Newton, Ruth Gemmell, Polly Walker and Julie Andrews, is streaming now on Netflix.