Bridgerton season 2 continues the legacy of the period drama’s Man in the Wet Shirt


©Columbia Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

In the Bridget Jones Diary films, which contains numerous references to Pride and Prejudice (including a brooding character named Mark Darcy, played by – you guessed it – Colin Firth), Hugh Grant finds himself fully clothed in a lake, and he and Colin Firth have not one but two fights while they’re both stuck in soaking wet clothes.

Then there are the filmmakers who convinced Colin Firth to recreate his iconic scene just because – well – it’s funny. In love in fact, a fully clothed Firth was sent diving into a lake to save the pages of his book. In St. Triniansthe scene is recreated almost perfectly with Firth coming out of the woods in a soaking white shirt, his suit jacket slung over his arm.

And then there are the photo shoots. In 2022, writer Caspar Soloman went viral on Twitter yarn A-lister Darcy types – Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Garfield, Tom Holland, Anthony Mackie, Oscar Isaac, etc. – who have been photographed in swimming pools wearing soaked white shirts or suits. “I don’t know exactly when it started,” he wrote. Well, I know – it started with Colin Firth.

Bridgerton is a natural next entry in this long line of men’s wet shirts. The whole series is a tribute to old school period dramas like the 1995 Pride and Prejudice. “Those are the gold standards,” said show creator Chris Van Duten. Weekly entertainment. “They’re so beautiful, and those images – Colin Firth in his white shirt, Darcy with a clenched hand – have been seared into my brain for as long as I can remember. That’s why I fell in love with the genre in the first place. .”

In classic period dramas, sexual tension is built through repression – things that can’t be said, impulses that can’t be acted upon. And what better to illustrate this than the subtlety of a slightly transparent white shirt? But the beauty of the wet white shirt is that it’s not just about building sexual tension – it’s also about building romantic tension. It offers an inside look at the intimate personalities of the most prominent men – personalities that are usually (symbolically) hidden behind layers and layers of ruffles, waistcoats and ties.

Although Bridgerton breaks somewhat from period drama tradition with its hearty sex scenes, Colin Firth’s callback in the new trailer suggests the new season might simmer the tension for a while.

After all, sometimes showing a little less skin — and a little more wet shirt — is what we really want.

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