Dresden, GERMANY – Swirling dresses, love dramas, romantic kissing scenes and lots of skin – “Bridgerton’s” third season continues just as it did in the previous two seasons and the associated prequel “Queen Charlotte.”

And although the series continues in a similar vein to Julia Quinn’s original book and fans have been eagerly awaiting the series’ broadcast on Netflix, the third season of the Netflix hit disappoints with its significantly poorer quality compared to the previous seasons.

With its mid-June release, the romantic historical series is once again dedicated to the 19th century London marriage market of the upper classes – but this season breaks with the tradition of focusing on one of the Bridgerton children in search of love and a match.

Instead, the slightly chubby Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan), who publishes a sharp-tongued gossip magazine with the secrets of London’s high society under the pseudonym Lady Whistledown, is placed in the foreground with her search for a husband – along with her problem of having to remain anonymous as Lady Whistledown.

But while this plot should actually put Penelope center stage, this story is almost drowned out by the number of subplots.

It’s not just about the love story between Penelope’s long-time friend Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope, but also about Colin’s sisters Francesca (Hannah Dodd) and Eloise (Claudia Jessie), who are also on the marriage market in search of happiness.

While viewers are busy getting to know these characters, at the same time their attention is simply drowned in four other subplots: Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson) also seems to find his true love over the course of the season; the Mondrich family is suddenly elevated to nobility and Eloise and Penelope’s previous bully Cressida Cowper (Jessica Madsen) is also given an important place in the narrative along with Viscountess Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), who seems to find a new love, much to the dismay of her friend Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh).

While these many different stories are presumably intended to give a deeper insight into the characters and their motivations, this overload of stories quickly spoils the reader’s enjoyment and excitement of the story, because although the characters should probably be better introduced, their stories feel unrounded, incomplete and flat.

This is particularly true of the love story depicted between Colin and Penelope. The drama seems artificial, the emotions fake and too quick, the solutions to the problems too simple and due to logical flaws, they don’t quite seem to fit into this world with its countless rules of propriety.

It seems to be no problem for Penelope and Colin to kiss in the garden, nor to have premarital sex – although in the first season, Daphne had to fear for her reputation because of a brief moment alone with a man.

And while sex scenes are an inevitable part of “Bridgerton,” as was shown in season one, the sex scenes between Colin and Penelope just don’t seem to fit. After all, viewers have been shown Penelope’s reserved attitude in their friendship for two seasons – a slow burn romance would have been a much better fit.

Instead, due to the overload of subplots and short time, the two characters were not given a romance – as would have been appropriate for such a complex and interesting person as Penelope, since Lady Whistledown was one of the main characters since the beginning of the show – but a pure affair. There is lust instead of romance, which ends in a spontaneous, last-minute marriage proposal.

There is simply too little time for too many characters, making the plot seem uninteresting and impersonal to the viewer, so that no real drama can build up.

The series’ arc of suspense should actually reach its climax with Penelope’s revelation as Whistledown, but the scene only lasts a few minutes – and doesn’t seem to have any consequences. For the constant dramatic build-up to the search for Whistledown, this break in the arc of suspense is just as boring as the unpolished dialogue, and once again gives the impression that hardly any thought was put into the script for the third season.

At the same time, the concept of Chris van Dusen in the series must be praised. The third season of the already very inclusive series consistently continues its representation of minorities; and so the viewer is not only shown British sign language and polyamory, but also an old wheelchair from the Regency Era. Meanwhile, Coughlan as a plus-size model is convincing in her role as Penelope in a film world in which non-thin actresses are rarely represented.

A change of actors in the new season meant that Dodd particularly caught the eye. As the actor newly playing Francesca Bridgerton, she was able to realize her portrayal of the calm, unaffected Francesca brilliantly.

Despite Dodd’s outstanding acting performance, however, she was unable to overcome the gaps in logic – Francesca Bridgerton’s sudden appearance and supposed return from Bath seems rather implausible from the perspective of the last season.

The charm of the series, though, is created in particular by the set design and costumes. The almost historically accurate, elaborate dresses and the atmospheric sets and colors – which are adapted to the respective characters – make the series look like a romantic fairytale world.

At the same time, the series not only has a thoroughly modern feel due to its diversity, but also thanks to the classic adaptations of pop songs such as “Cheap Thrills” or “Happier than ever,” which fit perfectly into the mix of modern and classic that Bridgerton established in the first two seasons.

Viewers of the series may well have been looking forward to this one due to the ongoing hype surrounding the series and after the long wait for a new season, but were certainly disappointed in the quality of it.

Despite everything, the stories of Cressida Cowper and Penelope succeeded much better than previous seasons in portraying the real struggles of a woman in this age – despite the partly fictional and non-contemporary additions.

For “Bridgerton” fans, the third season is definitely worth watching – but it remains to be hoped that seasons to follow will return the series to the quality shown in the first two years.