Tudum notes the season is adapted from Julia Quinn’s An Offer from a Gentleman. E! includes a quote from showrunner Jess Brownell who emphasizes that Sophie isn’t a passive figure: she “is no damsel in distress” and “is someone who has chess moves and is always thinking two, three steps ahead”.

Luke Thompson adds: “What’s striking about season four is that it’s the struggle between a proper old school fairytale … The romance of it, and the actual reality of the world”.