Netflix is contractually obligated to make a PG version of Bridgerton for Nicola Coughlin’s mom

Today, in “Censorship, but in a charming way” news: Netflix is apparently contractually obligated to make a version of every episode of Bridgerton with all the really horny parts cut out, for an audience of one: Star Nicola Coughlin’s mom.

Coughlin, who plays Penelope Featherington in the Netflix romance hit, revealed in a recent interview that it’s part of her contract with the streamer that they have to send her parents a “PG” version of the show to watch. “It’s literally written into my contract,” Coughlin said in a recent interview with SiriusXM (via Vulture). “People think I’m saying it as a joke. I just don’t want to. I grew up Irish Catholic. That’s just not how we vibe.”

Coughlin, who picked up international fame as one of the stars of Derry Girls, notes that her mother was shocked the first time she saw all the “bottoms” in the show (a very bottom-forward series, given that, in Coughlin’s own words, “you get a bottom, Jonathan Bailey’s lovely bottom, about two minutes into the first episode ever. And she was like, ‘What is this?’ But then, now she thinks it’s fantastic and really funny, and she keeps talking about bottoms.”)

We’ll be honest: We just think it’s extremely funny that there’s some editor out there whose job includes cutting all the many, many sex acts out of Bridgerton to make a special version just for Nicola Coughlin’s parents. We like to imagine them contemplating a particularly hot-and-heavy moment, asking: Would Nicola’s mum enjoy this, or does it go too far? (We assume the final cut of episode 6 of the show’s first season, for instance, must have been about 5 minutes long in total).

The first half of Bridgerton’s third season arrives on Netflix on May 16, and (we’re guessing) at Nicola Coughlin’s mum’s house as soon as Dave The Video Intern has had a few stiff drinks to prepare himself for the work ahead.