Nothing Interesting Happens After "Happily Ever After," According to Bridgerton Creators
You got your happy ending, what more do you want?
Shonda Rhimes, the brains behind such mega-hits as Grey's Anatomy, Scandal, and Bridgerton, was recently interviewed in Town & Country with fellow Bridgerton producer Betsy Beers. When asked whether we could see a spinoff series for Kate and Anthony, the steamy enemies-to-lovers couple centered in Bridgerton Season 2, Rhimes responded:
"I don't know what story could be told. The beauty of this show is that we get to tell a complete love story from beginning to end, with a happy ever after every season. We don't have to manufacture reasons why a couple can't be together, we let them have their actual happy moment. And so, there are no spinoffs to be had because we'd have to find some way to break the couple up, and that feels very artificial…"
This attitude certainly explains a few things, like the fact that no couples on Grey's Anatomy have ever managed to stay happy very long… for 18 years of programming, mayhem has followed every romantic relationship on that show, often in the form of death, injury, cheating, and other dramatic ruptures.
It sounds like Bridgerton, while containing fewer plane crashes than Grey's (thank god) will chart a new course – rather than busting couples up to create drama, those who have been matched will be required to fade into the background. In a way, this makes sense: the series is based on Julia Quinn's romance novels, and the genre is very much designed to wrap each story with a happy-ever-after.
Like the books, every season of Bridgerton is meant to follow one couple through the trials and tribulations of courtship, until either they tie the knot (Anthony and Kate in Season 2) or sort out all of the baggage that they brought into the marriage (Daphne and the Hot Duke, aka Simon).
However, unhappy fans have been quick to point out the flaw in Shonda Rhimes' reasoning: there is plenty of tension and drama to be found in putting a couple through trials and tribulations together.
Conflict doesn't have to come by breaking couples up – conflict can come by asking a romantic couple to face down obstacles together, strengthening and growing their relationship while dealing with problems in their environment, issues within their families, or even just the practicalities of adjusting to married life.
Imagine an episode where Kate and Anthony have to deal with an unscrupulous suitor for Edwina? Or a honeymoon destination hit by a disastrous weather event? What about seeing Anthony as a fish out of water in Kate's beloved India?
Shonda Rhimes might be right that most romance stories end with the happily-ever-after, but Bridgerton is unique in its kind – not a single romance story, but a television romance series where we have the opportunity to see our favourite couples grow and change over many years. A relationship doesn't need to break up or be hurt in order to remain interesting, and it would be a mistake to imagine that there's no more story to be told after a couple gets it together.