Similarly, Designated Survivor, Madam Secretary, Veep, House of Cards, and The Newsroom all attempted to maintain differing levels of believability throughout their political drama stories, but Shonda Rhimes’ iconic hit Scandal outdid them all by going for a soapier, campier tone. Instead of imitating the gravitas of The West Wing, Scandal was content to provide viewers with exactly what the title promised, and the show was rewarded with a successful seven-season run as a result.
Within this context, perhaps it should not come as a major shock that Netflix’s Bridgerton often shirks historical accuracy in favor of high drama. From the depiction of a racially diverse British aristocracy in the Regency Era to gossip columns whose explicit content flies in the face of Britain’s still-tight libel laws, Bridgerton plays fast and loose with its alternate history to provide an escapist fantasy that doesn’t hold up well to sustained scrutiny. In contrast, Disney’s South Korean fantasy romance The Remarried Empress offers a far more cohesive alternative.
The Remarried Empress Is A Superior Version Of Bridgerton
While Bridgerton is based on author Julia Quinn’s romance novel series of the same name, The Remarried Empress is adapted from a web novel by the author Alphatart. The show’s story follows Shin Min-a’s elegant Empress of the Eastern Empire, Navier, whose comfortable but loveless marriage is thrown into disarray when her husband, Ju Ji-hoon’s Sovieshu, demands a divorce so he can marry his mistress.
Realizing this divorce would cost her all of her political power and acumen, Navier instead takes a leaf from the iconic historical drama I, Claudius and starts scheming to hold onto her title with the help of the Prince of the Western kingdom, Lee Jong-Suk’s Heinrey. Now, the fact that Prince Heinrey can turn himself into a bird and uses this ability to spy on the denizens of Navier’s palace might lead some readers to understandably wonder just how much more realistic The Remarried Empress is than Bridgerton.
However, The Remarried Empress’s blend of real-life history and alternative history is somehow more artful than the imagined Regency Era of Bridgerton, bird princes and all. Rather than rewriting a real-life historical era in a way that erases the struggles of people of color during the period, The Remarried Empress invents a new fictional Eastern Empire and Western Kingdom that don't align with a specific real historical era or region.
Why The Remarried Empress Is So Popular On Disney+
This explains why The Remarried Empress has proven such a massive hit, since the contrast between its Western Kingdom and Eastern Empire allows the show to give major political stakes to its love story without getting bogged down in rewriting history. The success of everything from Prime Video’s two season hit Off Campus to Heated Rivalry has made one thing very clear.
It is now obvious that viewers are crying out for more romantic escapism. However, critics have understandably noted that Bridgerton’s use of real-life historical figures such as Queen Charlotte has the potential to mislead and seriously confuse viewers.
Similarly, the show’s inconsistent escapism integrates people of color into the aristocracy while rarely addressing the class of servants beneath them. While these issues are occasionally addressed in passing by Bridgerton’s alternate history, The Remarried Empress was smart to simply start afresh with an entire imagined alternate history setting.
Release Date
November 3, 2026
Network
Disney+
Directors
Jo Soo-won
Writers
Yeoh Gee-na
Cast
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Shin Min-a
Navier Ellie Trovi
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English (US) ·