Are There Actually Fewer Kanthony Scenes in Bridgerton Season 2?

The big question here, to borrow a bit from Clement Freud, was it actually less, or did it just seem like less?

An issue I hear a lot of people take with Season 2 was that there weren’t enough scenes of Kate and Anthony, and while, of course, I always want more scenes of such amazing leads, there are a couple important points I wanted to lay out about this argument.

Let’s define the parameters, shall we? If we’re saying we want more scenes of them because we love them, because that’s our taste, then that’s totally understandable and can’t really be argued against. But let’s look at it from the perspective of theme, to start with. Let’s say there actually are fewer scenes: why would that be?

Well, they are by definition a slow burn romance, and a forbidden one at that. It’s a love that’s doomed, at least for a time, to be frustrated, and we as the audience are forced to feel that same frustration. We are being forced to survive on charged looks, hand brushes, and almost kisses, just as Kate and Anthony are. They are forced to make do with paltry interactions in public that share far more meaning than they should or could for anyone else, punctuated by intense private moments that are utterly explosive. It fits very well with their romance as all of the scenes they get when they’re alone become even more powerful because they aren’t copious. Each moment is special and propels their relationship forward in dramatic and intense fashion.

So the audience sensation of breathless frustration, of anxiously awaiting the next moment these two can be alone, is precisely what they wanted us to feel.

Because there aren’t actually fewer Kanthony scenes, it just feels like it.

If we define it in reference to Season 1, that’s a good straight stick to judge how much is a “normal” amount for the main couple to be onscreen together in this show. Now, I’ll grant that seasons of a show can be different, that Season 1 had very different goals and a different energy than Season 2, but it’s the best comparison I had. And it’s a comparison people often make. So how do they stack up?

Looking at it in broad strokes, the Duke and Daphne spend about 97 minutes total on screen together. This includes group scenes like balls and dinners. Kate and Anthony spend about 103.5 minutes together, again including the group scenes. On the surface, those numbers look comparable, if anything with the edge going to Kanthony.

But the argument isn’t just about screentime, but about the interactions between the two leads. So I decided to recalculate while taking out the scenes where other characters are the main action. With that calculation, Simon and Daphne end up with about 92 of those minutes intact, and Kate and Anthony with 86.5. We’ve swung the other way a bit, but those numbers are still pretty close together. However, looking at the difference, about seventeen minutes of Kate and Anthony’s total screentime is spent while other people are featured more prominently. Again, that fits very well in the story they have, where they are existing in the background, wanting each other, while playing their parts in company.

Let’s look at it one more way, with how many significant moments there are rather than just how long they take. So I counted how many individual moments I recorded for both couples that heavily featured them and pushed forward their relationship. For Simon and Daphne, they had 39 such moments. For Kate and Anthony? 38.

Guys, I think I can call this an essential tie.

The one area where, of course, Simon and Daphne take the cake is in the sheer number of sex scenes. The Duke and Duchess have sex all over the place, literally. So if it’s that specifically that people are referring to, yes, absolutely, Kate and Anthony have fewer scenes. But in their case, I truly believe less is more (for all my thoughts on that, read my “Let’s Talk About Sex! In Bridgerton Season 2” blog post). Frankly, Anthony’s “bane of my existence” speech is as sexy as any sex scene, so reducing it to just when they’re stripping down is really not worthy of the impressive storytelling Bridgerton has given us.

What is my point with all this? Well, it’s to show that we had a truly impressive psychological trick played on us. They gave us what we asked for — quite a bit of Kanthony — and still made it feel like not enough. They made us feel the need, the desperate frustration, of the main couple while setting up an intimate, passionate relationship of equals who understood each other very well. They used theme to dictate the tone and the content, and it was masterful.