Netflix has just confirmed that the 5th season of the wildly popular Bridgerton series will center around Francesca (played by Hannah Dodd) and Michaela Stirling (Masali Baduza) as the romantic leads. This is the show’s first sapphic love story, and first openly queer couple to take front and center. Showrunner Jess Brownell is calling is a season of “queer joy” and “big-time yearning.” Sounds lovely, no? Well, it should sound lovely, but a certain subset of the internet is big mad, and I just want to know… where was this ragey energy a few months ago when you were all rabid for gay hockey players, sweetie?
Heated Rivalry premiered in November of 2025, and the show essentially broke the internet as large swaths of women drooled over the pretty male leads falling in love with one another. The show is based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series, and was adapted by an openly gay director, Jacob Tierney. The basic premise is as follows: Shane Hollander is a Canadian team captain for Montreal, and Ilya Rozanov is a Russian team captain for Boston. They’re both elite professional hockey players for rival teams— and they’re each secretly, desperately, and explicitly in love with one another. This show… it doesn’t fade to black for the bedroom bits. It is graphic and it is hot. Essentially everyone watched it and loved it, especially the BookTok girlies. It easily became one of streaming’s biggest hits. A second season was quickly announced, and then the leads presented at the Golden Globes, and carried the freaking Olympic torch. Straight women, gay men, and everyone in between had quite the time posting about their viewing experience online.
Meanwhile, some of the very same people clutching pearls over Fran and Michaela were sharing Heated Rivalry gifsets at 2AM. Both are queer love stories adapted from fictional book series, with queer-forward framing baked into the narrative. Francesca and Michaela’s story hasn’t received nearly the same fanfare— outside of queer spaces, that is— that Heated Rivalry enjoyed, and that disparity is important to point out. For some reason, a lot of people are perfectly fine with queer stories when it’s two beautiful men creating the visuals for their consumption, but they are significantly less fine when it’s two women taking front and center in a popular show that they already love. It’s selective queerness tolerance at best, and homophobia at worst.
The Bridgerton series is adapted directly from Julia Quinn’s romance novel series, and yeah, fine. In the original book, the character was Michael Stirling. A lordly dude. Shondaland gender-swapped Michael for Michaela, a creative choice that allows the show to breathe life into a different kind of love story. Here’s the deal: Julia Quinn has given Shonda Rhimes her full blessing to adapt, change, and reimagine any details as needed to tell the story that she feels needs to be told. The show has been fast and loose with Regency accuracy from the beginning (casting, music, vibes) — and that’s literally the whole point. If you’ve been chill with the anachronistic pop covers in the group dance scenes and the diverse casting choices, then a lesbian love story is not the hill to die on, babes.
Season 5 is currently filming, and Brownell has promised the same emotional stakes, humor, and swoon-worthy romance that the show always delivers. There will just be way more yearning, and significantly better hair. If the idea of two women falling in love and portraying sexual activity in a Netflix period drama is causing you distress, then I have an idea of how to cope: go outside and touch grass, then drink some water, and log in to see what Lesbian OnlyFans creators are up to. Just rip the band-aid right off, and prepare. In the end, Bridgerton has always been about love stories, and true love famously doesn’t care what you expected it to look like. The sapphics are getting their love story, and the timeline is healing. Maybe you should get on board.
