The Unfettered Critic – April 2026

PERHAPS YOU SHOULD think of these columns as loosely-connected chapters of a slowly-emerging magnum opus.

In our previous installment, you may recall, we recommended that you stream the latest season of the Netflix series Bridgerton, a great high-society show that we’ve noted previously. We also nudged you toward the latest installment of Star Trek (and those of you keeping track of such things can certainly roll your eyes over how much time we’ve spent over the years discussing that franchise): Starfleet Academy.

Well, now that those two shows’ streaming seasons have concluded, we realize that we neglected to mention one salient aspect of both shows’ demeanor. So, as the platinum-selling hip-hop group Salt-N-Peppa once suggested: “Let’s Talk About Sex.”

Yes, S-E-X.

This shouldn’t be a surprise to those of you who have encountered episodes of Bridgerton. The series often features visible skin. A lot of visible skin. Buttocks. An occasional breast. Gasps of pleasure abound.

We saw a lot of that this season, primarily during the romance between Benedict Bridgerton (perhaps the most randy of the Ton’s residents—certainly the least likely to settle down with a wife) and a lovely servant named Sophie. Sophie initially believes herself to be parentally illegitimate, making her unsuitable for marriage to any Bridgerton.

(Or is she?)

We won’t spoil that revelation for you. Instead, we suggest you reminisce about the classic saga of Cinderella: the fable of a lovely servant girl who longs to attend a fancy ball. She manages to do so with the help of some friends (cutely, but not necessarily, mice and birds) who help her into threads fancy enough to make her appearance at the ball quite striking (especially to the Handsome Prince, er… Benedict).

Additional points of Cindy’s poignant fairy tale may foreshadow supplemental Bridgerton moments. But unlike Cinderella’s adventure, (here it comes!) there’s a lot of…umm…skin-to-skin action in Bridgerton’s Season 4. And Sophie and Benedict aren’t the only ones getting it on this year. Some of the Bridgerton family members who united in earlier seasons live up to expectations. Even Lady Violet, the widowed matriarch of the clan, gets some gratifying time in the sheets.

As for Starfleet Academy…

You’ll find sex there too, which may attract the attention of viewers who have little interest in other, more traditional, Star Trek elements (like phasers and transporters and warp drive). After all, this seemingly everlasting series of series originally aired on network television in the 1960s. Granted, there was a lot of fooling around in the real world during that era, but the network wouldn’t allow such activity on a family TV show. And while some of the costumes worn by the various alien species were quite titillating, nary an illicit body part, nor a rumpled bedsheet, was to be seen. In fact, the only overt reference to such activity in early Star Trek was a brief glimpse of Captain Kirk kissing an attractive visitor in his cabin. Following a brief fade-out that implied “an unspecified amount of time has passed,” we see Kirk again, this time sitting on the side of his bed while pulling up one of his signature Starfleet-issue boots. In the background, we see the attractive visitor standing before the mirror—fixing her hair.

As George Takei (Sulu) might say,
“Oh my!”

Starfleet Academy, the newest Star Trek endeavor, features a group of young cadets learning about all facets of life. All facets. (For instance, is it possible that the Klingon cadet could be… gay?)

Notably, no one at the network, some sixty years post the franchise’s debut, is saying “CUT!”

Oh my!