Season two of “Bridgerton,” produced by Shonda Rhimes and released on Netflix March 25, was a true masterpiece, especially for the South Asian community. From Pride and Prejudice to Little Women, I’m a true period-piece fanatic, but for one of the first times in my life, I finally saw myself portrayed in one. 

This season follows up season 1 but instead focuses on the eldest son of the Bridgerton family, Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey), and his intention to find a wife, not for love, but rather for practicality. After pushing the thought of love away, Anthony decides to court Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran) as she is the “diamond of the season” and a sensible match. But soon he finds himself trying to win the overprotective sister, Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) whose contempt turns into a forbidden love. 

The representation was simply unmatched in comparison to modern television. Anthony’s love and attraction to Kate wasn’t portrayed as surprising with Kate being a dark-skinned South Asian but rather as a normal occurrence without any reference to her race, something that has been lacking in desi representation. 

Never once has the Sharma sisters’ beauty been seen as surprising, their culture seen as odd or their accents overemphasized within the show. 

They weren’t tokenized for their identity as brown women but rather presented as true normal people with little, but important, aspects of desi culture being incorporated, from the Haldi tradition to oiling their hair to the use of common desi language like “didi.” 

“Bridgerton” presented South Asian women as strong, multi-talented individuals and independent thinkers. 

The emotions of pride for my ancestors ran deep when seeing the true beauty of Indian culture portrayed in a popular show. To see Kate receive such a deep and passionate love was more than just a beautiful, romantic, tension-filled experience: it was reassuring that I, as a South Asian, can receive the same. 

The stunning representation aside, “Bridgerton” season two elaborated on plots such as Whistledown’s, the town’s drama/rumor author, progress and Eloise, another Bridgerton sibling, discovering her true purpose far deeper than season one did. The show also still kept the violin covers of classic songs and included a Hindi classic song “Kabhi Khushi Khabi Gham.”

The show, however, is not perfect as many other plots like the King’s condition or Colin’s journey to find his purpose fall flat as they are overshadowed by Anthony and Kate. Some plots were certainly unnecessary in the long run and stray away from the original inspiration of the books by Julia Quinn.  

But even so, “Bridgerton” season two is gold. With the romantic tension and some much deserved South Asian representation, I highly recommend a watch.