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The Bridgerton effect ripples ever outwards as the number of period dramas with scant regard for historical accuracy but a serious budget for pop songs continues to expand. After a charming if flighty debut, The Buccaneers, Apple TV+’s lively interpretation of Edith Wharton’s last novel, arrives for a second season. The book was unfinished, which allows the series to go in any direction it chooses. It seems to be entering an angsty phase, which somewhat dulls its shine.
Set in the 1870s, this young-leaning drama originally followed a group of wealthy American women as they arrived in London, made their society debuts and attempted to find rich English husbands. By the end of the first season, lead socialite Nan St George (Kristine Froseth) had succeeded in her task. Nan is now the Duchess of Tintagel, having lovelessly married the amiable Theo, Duke of Tintagel (Guy Remmers). Season two picks up in the immediate aftermath of their lavish wedding, at a party where she appears to be having some buyer’s remorse.
The Buccaneers is an unapologetic melodrama and it stacks its plates high, leaving them teetering precariously amid the soapy suds. Nan is actually in love with Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome), but has sacrificed her own happiness in order to save her sister, now on the run, from an abusive marriage. Nan has also discovered that she is illegitimate, and the family secrets her mother Patti (Mad Men’s Christina Hendricks) has been keeping for years are finally coming to the surface. In a clever bit of casting, that nods to the series’ teen TV heritage, Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester joins the show as Patti’s long-lost sister, Nell.
Despite some outrageous wigs and moments of beauty, it seems to have lost its sense of fun, which previously made its excesses and clumsy dialogue much more easy to digest. There is a newfound seriousness here, which jars with the music-video aesthetic and the wildly broad storytelling. The Buccaneers still has moments of appealing vim, but it leaves a sneaking suspicion that other shows are capable of doing what it does with much more assurance and wit.
★★☆☆☆
On Apple TV+ from June 18
