Shonda Rhimes has made more than her share of era-defining TV drama, but there is one British classic she reveals she wishes she had made herself.
Rhimes, the creator of Bridgerton which returns for a third season on Netflix in May, told The Times of London she enjoys watching other TV shows including Succession, Beef and The Bear, but there is one she wishes she had created –the UK’s longrunning sci-fi epic Doctor Who.
She said: “I have been obsessed with that show for ever.”
And when she met Doctor Who’s show-runner, Russell T Davies, credited with rebooting the show over a decade ago and bringing it to new heights? “I was so nervous.”
Rhimes’s achievements are of similar size. Having created Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, she told the newspaper she was persuaded to move to Netflix because she wanted to have fun – she didn’t mention the lure of a reported $150million deal – and said the streamer’s bosses told her, “Just make the shows you want to make.”
They have been rewarded for their trust. On Bridgerton’s debut on Christmas Day 2020, it broke Netflix records becoming its most-watched English-language show. The second season broke that record two years later.
Rhimes told The Times why she thought the show had found such a huge fanbase, with its offer of an antidote to the current world of dating apps and Tinder:
“I think there’s this desire for something simpler, where there are rules to courting. We just said, how do you meet somebody? Well, back then you met somebody because you went to these balls, your parents talked and you had a dance. People seem to love that sort of order to a world, where the rules of love are so clear. There were rules of interaction, like a map, and that doesn’t exist anymore. There are no rules of engagement now in anything.”