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Hello fellow citizens of the internet! Andrew here. Welcome to today’s edition of Internet Insider.
It’s Wednesday, which means we have our “Now Streaming” column from our Culture Reporter Michelle. She writes about Bridgerton and how it is part of a “romance takeover” across the film and television industry.
Meanwhile, our top stories include a $625 million cryptoheist and an old Trump tweet getting the attention of Capitol riot investigators.
Let’s dive into the news.
— A.W.
BREAK THE INTERNET
CRYPTOHEIST: More than $600 million worth of cryptocurrency was stolen from Ronin Network, an Ethereum-linked sidechain used for the popular NFT-based game Axie Infinity. The hack is one of the largest cryptoheists to date. You can read more about how it happened here.
‘WILL BE WILD’: Investigators probing the Capitol riot are looking into whether former President Donald Trump incited the riot with a tweet. In mid-December 2020, Trump called on his supporters to come to the capital when Congress certified the election, urging them to “be there, will be wild!”
MOON KNIGHT: The latest Marvel Cinematic Universe show Moon Knight drops today. Our Culture Reporter Gavia has a spoiler-free review of the show where she calls it “satisfyingly chaotic” and the “MCU’s version of Venom in the best possible way.” Check out the full review here.
‘Bridgerton’ and March’s romance takeover
Before it finally dropped on Netflix last week, Bridgerton’s second season was easily among my most anticipated arrivals.
I adored the first season that introduced us to the escapist fantasy of Regency-era London and the start of one close-knit family’s journey to finding love, idiosyncrasies and all, and romance novels had become something of a salve for me during the pandemic. In the 13-month interim in which Bridgerton became a bonafide hit for Netflix, I went and read the entirety of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton series to find out what happened next. (The Viscount Who Loved Me, which serves as the basis for season 2, is my favorite.)
Season 2 was a lot messier than its predecessor and it was plagued with Netflix shows’ ever-persistent pacing issues, but it really nailed it where it counted: In the depiction of its central, enemies-to-lovers romance between the eldest sibling Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and the newly arrived Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).
It’s a Jane Austen-esque slow burn of the highest order, and while it means there isn’t as much sex this season, there’s a lot to offer in the array of lingering looks, hand grazes, and banter contributing to a powder keg of sexual tension ready to explode.
Much has already been said about whether less sex works (or if it should’ve used season 1’s raunchiness as a precedent), but that isn’t stopping people are tuning in: According to Netflix’s internal metrics, the new season set a viewing record in its first weekend out; luckily for fans, they’re guaranteed at least two more seasons.
I’ve had a few weeks to process the new season thanks to screeners, but what’s really been fueling me over the past few days as friends, family, and the rest of the internet are all catching up, are all of the reactions.
Sure, people are already examining the details and Easter eggs contained in the season such as costume evolutions or the fake Georgian-era artwork appearing on all of the walls; my favorite is a nod to Quinn herself in the first episode.
It’s also a fun arena to process the frustration of “Why won’t they just kiss already,” the satisfaction of a heavy-handed slow burn, and heaps of sexual tension (even if it’s to poke fun at all of the audible breathing).
People, naturally, stan Newton the corgi (although corgis probably wouldn’t have been around in real-life Regency England and the dog playing him was a massive diva), and might even argue about which Bridgerton is the best Bridgerton. (It’s Benedict.)
But really, the past couple of weeks have been nothing short of a boon on TV and in theaters for me and basically anyone who’s a fan of romance.
On March 20, the ITV/PBS series Sanditon, which is inspired by Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, kicked off its second season with promises of new romances after the exit of star Theo James. The critically adored British rom-com Starstruck landed on HBO Max on March 24. While it’s not primarily a romance, HBO Max’s pirate comedy Our Flag Means Death actually went there (and followed in Black Sails’ footsteps) in the season 1 finale by explicitly embracing its queer inclinations, also on the 24th.
And if you felt safe enough going to a movie theater, you could’ve seen The Lost City starting on March 25, which stars rom-com queen Sandra Bullock as a reclusive romance novelist thrust on a dangerous adventure with her cover model (played by Channing Tatum in full himbo mode) that harkens to the last rom-com golden age of the ’80s and ’90s (especially Romancing the Stone).
I haven’t had a chance to check out Starstruck or Our Flag Means Death yet, but they’ve definitely moved up on my watchlist.
It might be tempting to say that we’re in the middle of a “romantissance,” but that wouldn’t exactly be true. Romance novels remains an incredibly lucrative genre, The Lost City was the biggest hit at the box office last weekend (even over The Batman), and for some, the interest in romance never went away.
It’s just that Hollywood is starting to catch up. And good thing, too, because even with this haul to consume, there could always be more of them.
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