The fourth season of “Bridgerton” could have easily been a filler season if it weren’t for Yerin Ha.
The “Cinderella”-themed season focused on Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), the spare to heir Anthony (Jonathan Bailey). His dissolute, debauched lifestyle was due for a reckoning and could have sunk into tropes of the season’s theme.
But it was the introduction of Ha as Benedict’s mysterious love interest Sophie Baek that kept Season 4 from merely becoming a bridge between the eldest siblings’ love stories and the younger set’s as the show marks the halfway point in its eight-season plan to adapt the works of romance author Julia Quinn.
Ha (best known, until “Bridgerton,” for her work on Paramount+’s “Halo” and HBO Max’s “Dune: Prophecy”) brings a realness to “Bridgerton” I didn’t realize I needed until she showed up. We watch “Bridgerton” (or at least I do) for a gorgeous, sexy, lighthearted escape from our regularly scheduled programming. But Ha’s performance took me out of that, in the best way possible, and warrants a Primetime Emmy acting nod — while the show is big on nominations for below-the-line work, only Regé-Jean Page has earned an acting nomination, and that was in 2021 for Season 1.
