Somewhere in the middle of my multiday bingewatch of Bridgerton—the sexy Netflix period drama which returns today for its fourth season—I started thinking about the Patagonian toothfish.
The Patagonian toothfish, to be clear, is not a character on this show (although the name does have a certain “Argentinian nobleman” ring to it). Instead, his filleted corpse awaits you in the seafood section of your local grocery and on the menu of upscale steakhouses. He has a mild flavor, flaky flesh, and, in fact, you’ve probably had him once or twice—albeit without knowing it. Because the Patagonian toothfish isn’t just a fish; he’s one of the greatest branding success stories out there, courtesy of a Los Angeles seafood retailer named Lee Lantz. It was 1977 when Lantz realized that a toothfish by any other name would taste as sweet, but that as names went, “Patagonian toothfish” was absolutely terrible. The fish needed a glow up—like when Facebook rebranded as Meta, or fat farms quietly transformed into wellness retreats.
And just like that, the Chilean sea bass was born.
What does this have to do with Bridgerton? Only this: that Netflix, in a genius marketing move of its own, has managed to persuade an entire generation of women that they’re consuming the Chilean sea bass of period dramas, a tale of feisty, independent women who defy sexist stereotypes and 19th-century social norms alike to have absolutely spectacular sex with their chiseled, handsome gentleman husbands. But make no mistake: While audiences might think that Bridgerton is something fresh and unprecedented, what they’re really consuming is nothing less than the exquisitely rebranded Patagonian toothfish of patriarchy.
It is astonishing, truly, that they managed to pull this off.
