While watching season 2 of Channel 4’s Big Mood, I was struck by the range of Nicola Coughlan’s acting. 

From the nervy teenager in Derry Girls, to the quietly poised and perceptive Penelope Featherington in Bridgerton – Nicola’s role in Big Mood is again totally different, but she embodies it with incredible ease. 

Written by Camilla Whitehill, Nicola plays Maggie, a young aspiring writer navigating life with bipolar disorder in London.  

At the end of the last season, Maggie suffers from lithium poisoning because of issues with her medication, and has trouble keeping her friendship on track with her best friend, Eddie (Lydia West).  

Maggie’s fight for this relationship while struggling with her own mental challenges would require an actor to take on a lot of emotional baggage, which Nicola carries effortlessly. 

In season two, Maggie assures her mum that she is in her ‘stable girl era’. She is ‘on medication that isn’t trying to kill [her]’ and uses ‘retinol and Hello Fresh’ – sure signs of maturity.

Not only this, but she’s also a ‘bridesmaid at a posh wedding’. The said celebration takes place on a country estate in Surrey and leans hilariously into the absurdity of a hen party’s duties, seeing Maggie removing leeches from the grounds’ fountain.  

As she isn’t trusted by the maid of honour (Marina Bye), Maggie is given a ‘junior’ bridesmaid’s sash and fights to prove that she isn’t the ‘loose cannon’ she has been somewhat unfairly branded. 

Nicola’s ability to switch here from humour to hurt, at incredible speed, is just a small example of the talent she possesses to convey such complex emotions with absolute sincerity, and marks her as a generational talent. 

We soon learn that Maggie’s biggest challenge is trying to repair her relationship with Eddie, who felt abandoned by her best friend at the end of last season. After agreeing to support Eddie through an abortion, Maggie didn’t show up. The pair then proceeded to have no contact as Eddie left for the US and found a new partner-in-crime called Whitney (Hannah Onslow).  

Acting next to someone as talented as Nicola is no mean feat, and Lydia’s characterisation lacks some of the depth that her co-star oozes. 

The scale of Lydia’s emotional range can feel stunted, especially in scenes that are designed to carry huge impact. For me, this came in the final episode, which serves as an emotional and pivotal moment for Maggie and Eddie.  

Like with the first season, every episode could stand strongly on its own, and each one has a uniquely distinctive feel to it.  

Highlights included the individual episodes with acting legends Robert Lindsay and Rupert Everett.

Robert, as Maggie’s dad, gave us more of an insight into Maggie’s backstory and revealed some of the battles she faces partly because of him. 

Set against the backdrop of a fancy restaurant, most of the episode remains in one location, requiring Nicola and Robert to retain the audience’s attention through the delivery of their dialogue and their ability to make conversation engaging – something which comes naturally to them both.  

An honourable mention should also go to Hannah as the insufferable Whitney – Eddie’s supposed saviour from the States.  

Her over-the-top American accent was perfect and her comedic timing spot-on as she tried to convince Maggie of her spiritual ways despite her contradictory lifestyle.  

Tying up all the loose ends from season one into six 30-minute episodes is difficult, granted. But there were some questions left unanswered and storylines that felt slightly neglected. 

I’d have liked to have found out more about how Maggie’s career was going, and I wanted more from Robert Gilbert’s character, Will. Specifically, details about how he now fitted into the lives of Eddie and Maggie.

While these plot points felt underdeveloped, it was clear that the focus of the season was once again the relationship between Eddie and Maggie.  

In this respect, I felt looked after as a viewer. The last episode featured flashbacks, showing exactly how they had met as friends and the ways in which they had leaned on one another throughout the years.  

If the first season was praised for its portrayal of mental health and friendship, then the second season only builds on this further, demonstrating the complexities, but also the rewards of persevering with both.

Big Mood season 2 premieres on April 16 on Channel 4.

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When Bridgerton hit Netflix in 2020, the dreamy adaptation of Julia Quinn’s steamy romance novels about a Regency family of eight gorgeous siblings looking for true love initially treated lead couple Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page) as its objects of obsession. Daphne’s seven other siblings were there, sure, but the show followed the sizzle of her early flirtations with the dashing Duke, the fun of their fake romance, the thrill of them admitting their true love, and their success overcoming their marriage’s first terrible obstacle. Subsequent seasons also successfully balanced Bridgerton‘s massive ensemble cast of characters while letting the new lead romance take center stage. That is, until Bridgerton Season 4.

Bridgerton Season 4 tells the story of how flighty and free-spirited second son Benedict (Luke Thompson) meets the love of his life first as a mysterious masked lady at a ball and then, in her true form, as the charming and clever ladies maid Sophie Baek (Yerin Ha). It’s “Cinderella” set in Bridgerton, finally opening up our understanding of the ton to include tetchy class politics. Bridgerton Season 4 is also the first time the series feels like it might have a “Bridgerton” problem.

There are so many characters vying for attention in Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2 that I sometimes felt like I was watching a Regency romance version of Adult Swim’s landmark 2014 sketch “Too Many Cooks.” Instead of Smarf and friends, though, Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2 has too many Bridgertons and not enough Benedict and Sophie.

Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2 picks up where Part 1 left off, with Sophie reeling from Benedict’s indecent (though period appropriate) proposal for her to be his mistress. In Benedict’s eyes, this is the only option available to them as a gentleman cannot marry a maid nor the illegitimate child of a nobleman. In Sophie’s eyes, being his mistress robs her of her virtue, ensuring she can never marry anybody else if Benedict later discards her, while setting her own potential children up to know the same hell she has endured being a bastard. Meanwhile, Sophie’s vile stepmother, Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung), has moved next door to Bridgerton House, ensuring a confrontation.

In Quinn’s novel, this is drama enough for the story, but Bridgerton continues to follow Lady Violet’s (Ruth Gemmell) romance with Lord Anderson (Daniel Francis), Lady Danbury’s (Adjoa Andoh) struggle to endear her chosen replacement, Mrs. Mondrich (Emma Naomi), to Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel), and Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) stress trying to be Lady Whistledon and Mrs. Bridgerton. Oh, and Kate (Simone Ashley) and Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) finally return from India with their new baby boy, little Bridgertons Hyacinth (Florence Hunt) and Gregory (Will Tilston) are tiptoeing into society with a cute recital, and Francesca (Hannah Dodd) is trying to understand why her husband’s sultry cousin Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza) is forcing such a wedge between her and Lord Kilmartin (Victor Alli).

If this sounds like a lot — on top of maid wars, the return of a beloved side character, and Eloise (Claudia Jessie) experiencing her first bout of growth in ages — it is. All of this together is enough to overshadow the season’s central romance. However, halfway through Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2, something major happens that is yanked straight from author Julia Quinn’s books, only it’s from a wholly different love story. The implications of this event, along with its profound ripple effects, don’t just touch Sophie and Benedict’s story, but everyone’s.

After having only seen the first part of Bridgerton Season 4, I was utterly charmed by new leads Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha’s chemistry, but I was already concerned the show was trying to juggle too much material. Now, those fears have been realized, resulting in a season of television that feels more cozy family ensemble drama than top tier TV romance. The irony is that Bridgerton Season 4 saves its most passionate love scenes for Part 2. Benedict and Sophie’s sex scenes don’t just sweep the audience away, but illustrate in real time how the power imbalance in their romance adjusts and corrects.

When we first met the Bridgertons all the way back in Season 1, we were told that they were a “shockingly prolific family,” but the clan has exponentially grown into the point of barely controlled chaos. Now the Featheringtons are all legally Bridgertons, Lady Danbury’s Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story-era affair with Lady Violet’s father makes her their spiritual grandmother, and the Mondrichs are essentially acting as cousins. Everyone is a Bridgerton!!!

All of these characters are charming and all of these characters have their own stories to tell. However, you can’t really explore the sacred bond of a love story unless you’re willing to show how it feels when two people connect and the rest of the world — the overpopulated, overstimulating, overstuffed world — falls away.

Bridgerton Season 4 Part 2 is streaming now on Netflix.