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Kind Netflix viewers know it’s a universal concession of the “Bridgerton” universe that “reformed swingers make the best husbands.” This truism will be put to the test during the fourth season of the streamer’s period romance, which follows arguably the Bridgerton family’s most debauched brother, Benedict (Luke Thompson), as he embarks on his own unexpected fairy tale.

This season’s Cinderella story begins in our favorite drawing room in Grosvenor Square, where the servants are busy opening the curtains, uncovering the furniture and preparing the tea service to welcome Francesca (Hannah Dodd), her new husband, John (Victor Alli) and Eloise (Claudia Jessie) from Scotland. Of course, there’s also family matriarch Violet (Ruth Gemmell) overseeing preparations for her children’s reunion.

After three seasons and a spin-off, the whole scene feels delightfully familiar. That is, until Violet gracefully places her hand on a plate of no longer warm buns, prompting Mrs. Wilson (Geraldine Alexander) to offer to take some fresh ones out of the oven. That’s when it becomes clear that this season of “Bridgerton” will be different. The camera follows the family housekeeper as she carries the cold pastries downstairs to the kitchen, laundry room, and utility area.

While “Bridgerton” has always delved into the social limitations and class expectations of its protagonists, it has rarely juxtaposed those social stories with the experiences of the servants who make the family’s idyllic life of leisure possible. The show has never had a top-down dynamic like other era favorites like “Downton Abbey” or “The Gilded Age.” The closest it’s come is the rare upward mobility of Will (Martins Imhangbe) and Alice (Emma Naomi) Mondrich.

That changes this season as “Bridgerton” continues to build its universe through the cross-class love story of the rakish brother who is least likely to become TV’s next big “wanting man,” but who will eventually sigh as deeply as “The Summer I Turned Pretty”’s Conrad Fisher and “Heated Rivalry’s” Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander.

In the season’s opening scene, as the siblings gather to drink tea and coo over Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin’s (Luke Newton) new baby, there’s one notable blemish: Benedict’s absence, and Violet requests a carriage to pick up her son. She arrives at his bachelor room to find the hipster artist who recently explored his bisexuality in season 3 in a drunken, naked dream with not one but two unguarded women.

What follows is one of Violet’s motherly but authoritative conversations in which she firmly tells another of her sons that it is time to find a wife and become a respectable member of high society, the upper echelon of society. Benedict disagrees. While they are charming, he discovers that these ladies “show no real animation, no zest for life, no personality.” He declares that he will probably never marry.

However, as fans of the show know, a Bridgerton man who rules out marriage is someone who protests too much and is about to have his worldview shaken. For Benedict, this happens at the first ball of the season, a masquerade ball, where he meets a self-possessed “Silver Lady” who doesn’t know how to dance and speaks her mind. At midnight, he runs home, leaving Benedict without his name but with only one glove. He is in love.

Liam Daniel/Netflix

Sighing deeply, Benedict draws sketch after sketch of the woman who charmed him, but is unable to capture her face. What follows is an exhaustive search for his silver ingénue, but this search becomes complicated when his path crosses paths with Sophie (Yerin Ha), a maid he finds himself inexplicably attracted to when they are trapped in her cabin (fans of the book will be excited to know that, yes, The Lake Scene exists, and fans of “Heated Rivalry” will surely enjoy how this cabin also plays a crucial role in the plot).

Suddenly, Brother Benedict, who has never been interested in taking a wife, finds himself torn, longing for the fantasy of the mysterious lady he met at the ball and pining for the reality of a lower-class maid he cannot be with in any real way. This is the romance that underpins season 4, and I found its development charming.

After Season 3, there was widespread criticism that “Bridgerton” was becoming too cliché and stale, but I argument that the show uses traditional tropes of romantic storytelling to amplify women’s voices through a genre that is often dismissed for its content, especially its inclusion of sex that prioritizes female pleasure. Furthermore, as evidenced by the recent success of a show like “Heated Rivalry” about a same-sex hockey romance and the continued popularity of a series like “Bridgerton,” love stories, especially sexy ones, have cultural power.

“Bridgerton” season four is just more evidence of how a personal Cinderella story can point to broader political truths about the stratification of a society and the roles people are always forced to take.

This is highlighted in this season’s subplots. Violet’s garden has been “in bloom” since “Queen Charlotte” premiered in 2023 and she wonders if she can put aside her role as a mother long enough to deal with it. Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh) is ready to lay claim to a future that will test her sharp social acumen in the present. Francesca is discovering the different levels of desire and intimacy one experiences within the confines of a marriage. Penelope faces social pressure and the power of being known to everyone as Lady Whistledown. Hyacinth (Florence Hunt) is eager to enter society, while Eloise, as always, wishes she could escape it. In addition to these “upstairs” stories, there are also multiple “downstairs” subplots involving the maids of various households and what they want for themselves. A new family is also added to high society, the Penwoods, who create conflicts for everyone due to Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung) and her high social aspirations for both herself and her daughters, Rosamund Li (Michelle Mao) and Posey Li (Isabella Wei).

Ultimately, the first four episodes of this season are about these broader delineations: the markers that separate the suitors from the suitable, the “top” from the “bottom,” the socially relevant from the socially striving, and the ladies from the queen they await.

What makes these stories come to life is that they are based on deeply felt love stories with complex stakes, which is what has always set Shonda Rhimes’ shows apart. The fourth season of “Bridgerton” excels in this space, and I’m excited to see how the love story of Benedict, possibly my favorite reformed rake, ends when the fourth season returns with its final four episodes on February 26.

The fourth part of season 1 of “Bridgerton” is streaming on Netflix.