Bridgerton Scenepack Discussion
So there’s recent discourse on watching Bridgerton character scene packs vs watching the entire series, and it has me thinking about the future of the show, but also writing for an ensemble.
The interesting part to me is the data consequences of an audience that is turning to scene packs vs watching the entire series. Netflix counts viewership from people watching on their platform, and it ends up being useful data to them. So far, I’ve seen two levels of discourse— people saying new fans are only watching scene packs and not caring to watch the whole show, and people saying old fans will only watch scene packs of their favorite characters instead of supporting future seasons. The possible end result of both is that it will look like the show doesn’t have a loyal audience and could make it seem like there’s less impact overall, for example when it comes to the “Bridgerton bump” all the old seasons get in advance of the newest season coming out. The ratings value of a character with a multiple season arc having their lead season is the uplift that could come from people going back and watching the previous seasons to prepare, but that’s not a guarantee anymore.
Scene packs are relatively new when it comes to how people consume media and Netflix has mentioned before about how they try to react to trends in how viewers consume media, like the “second screen” phenomenon. I wonder if recognizing this trend in the data could possibly result in writers (on Bridgerton or possibly on different shows later in these writers careers) realizing they need to find better ways to integrate the ensemble together so that viewing a scene pack does actually feel incomplete. The reason scene pack viewing works on a show like Bridgerton is because of the low level of character overlap, and how separate the plots are. Integrating the subplots better and making sibling relationships more meaningful is actually a better writing strategy in a world where the show has to compete with out of context TikTok clips and scene packs. If the writers room makes some adjustments, it should start to feel like a failure if their audience can easily switch to a scene pack.
What most people want is for the characters to be fully integrated into the ensemble of the show. We want to see the family interact more, the siblings be together, and the storylines effect each other. But when they write the characters so removed from each other that they don’t have much cohesion, it’s easier for people to abandon the show as a whole in favor of stripping it for parts. I don’t judge anyone for just taking the pieces of Bridgerton that appeals to them and leaving the rest— the show has actually made it very easy to do so. But I would love to see how showrunners and writers respond to audiences cutting into their numbers with alternative viewing strategies by truly using the ensemble creatively.