Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Buccaneers’ On Apple TV+, Where A Group Of American Girls Shakes Up London Society In The 1870s

Let’s face it: People love shows where 19th century society folk fall in love and lust with each other. A new Apple TV+ series, based on Edith Wharton’s unfinished final novel, adds a cultural conflict between Americans and Brits in 1870s London into the mix. Will the series satisfy fans of shows like Bridgerton and others?

THE BUCCANEERS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A box full of flower bouquets are delivered to a mansion as preparations are underway for a celebration of some sort. A young woman in a green dress grabs the flowers and carries them up the stairs of the mansion.

The Gist: The occasion is the wedding of Conchita Closson (Alisha Boe) to Lord Richard Marable (Josh Dylan). The woman taking the flowers to the room where Conchita is getting ready is Nan St. George (Kristine Frøseth). Nan finds her friend in a state of panic because, despite the fact that most of the guests have arrived, Richard isn’t there yet. She’s afraid he’s backed out of the wedding, given how unusual it is for someone from British aristocracy to marry an American woman, especially one that’s already carrying their child.

Nan and the other bridesmaids — sisters Mabel and Lizzy Elmsworth (Josie Totah, Aubri Ibrag) and Nan’s sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) — are all close friends of Conchita’s, and they’re from families who are “new money” in New York society, having been neighbors in upstate Saratoga up until five years prior. In fact, the house where the wedding is being held is owned by Nan and Jinny’s parents (Christina Hendricks, Adam St. James)

Richard finally arrives, and for a moment hesitates to go in, knowing that Conchita is too dynamic a woman to fit into British society. But Nan, having scrambled down the building after climbing out the window, convinces him to through those doubts to the side and continue the good vibes of their summertime romance. He agrees and the wedding goes forward.

During the reception, Nan, the more free-spirited and opinionated of the St. George sisters, has a meet-cute with Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome). As they start to get to know each other, he has to leave to catch the next ship back to England; his mother is dying and he wants to make sure he gets back to take care of her. Nan gives him her name, but he doesn’t reciprocate, figuring they’ll met up again.

Richard informs Mrs. St. George and Mrs. Elmsworth (Viss Elliot Safavi) that his mother, Lady Brightlingsea (Fenella Woolgar) has invited their daughters to London in order for Jinny and Lizzy to participate in that year’s social season, and be presented to the queen during that year’s debutante ball.

When the girls arrive in London, Conchita is now showing, leading to titters among society types about how quickly that happened. During a very awkward dinner at the home of Lord James Seadown (Barney Fishwick), Conchita is already bemoaning the fact that society wives are left alone most of the time and are generally seen but not heard. As the friends hang out that evening, laughing and joking around, Richard tells her that she should “behave” now that she’s in London. Nan assures Conchita that she’ll be there for her when the baby is born.

At the debutante ball, Nan runs into Guy again, and ends up making a scene, dropping a shoe into a cake. Jinny is so distraught over her sister outshining her that she lets drop a bombshell over who Nan’s real mother is. And while Mrs. St. George fiercely defends Nan, she does agree that she should go with her governess, Laura Testvalley (Simone Kirby) to Brighton for a few weeks. There, Jinny meets the catch of the season, Theo (Guy Remmers), the Duke of Tintagel. He is immediately taken with Jinny, who has no idea that he’s a duke, something he’s been looking for in a mate.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Buccaneers, based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel, seems to have elements of both The Gilded Age, Sanditon and Bridgerton. This is the second time The Buccaneers has been adapted for television; the BBC turned The Buccaneers into a 1995 miniseries, with Mira Sorvino and Carla Gugino the most notable names in the cast.

Our Take: This version of The Buccaneers, created by Katherine Jakeways, leans heavily on the trope of the carefree, “vulgar” Americans trying to fit into the stuffy, tradition-bound world of Victorian London society. The first episode takes pains to point out the differences between the group that Nan, Conchita and their friend group and the world they’re entering. There’s going to be conflict, love triangles and other story beats that fans of bodice-ripping period dramas look forward to. But we have no idea if there’s any kind of meaty story underneath all the romantic machinations. In fact, we’re not even sure there will be any of the ripping of bodices that fans of such shows look forward to seeing.

That’s more or less what struck us when we watched the first episode. Sure, there are places for Jakeways and her writers to find conflict in those differences, but it doesn’t feel like the story is going to go much deeper than that.

All four of the girls who follow Conchita over to England are destined to find husbands, with Nan and the duke being the most prominent of those couples. But, given that the women are all Americans, they won’t be content to just be society wives. Will things get any more interesting than that, though? Maybe a commentary on how women in the late 19th century started to assert some independence? It’s still possible. But we might be looking for something this story just isn’t able to give.

For fans of some of the shows we cited above, the romance and culture clash may be enough for them. But, given the anachronistic dialogue and modern soundtrack of this version of The Buccanners, we get the feeling that people looking for something more will get tired of all of that pretty quickly.

Sex and Skin: It’s all pretty chaste in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Nan walks down the beach after her meet-cute with the Duke, and he looks at her walking away thinking he just met the exact kind of woman he was looking for.

Sleeper Star: We didn’t realize that Christina Hendricks was in the “society mom” phase of her career, but she does make Mrs. St. George into a force to be reckoned with.

Most Pilot-y Line: As soon as Nan tells Conchita that she’ll be there when she has her baby, you just know that she won’t be. So the sequence where Conchita goes into labor while Nan is in Brighton isn’t exactly a surprise.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Buccaneers is entertaining enough, but just doesn’t feel like it’s going to go much deeper than the Yanks vs. Brits trope we see throughout the first episode.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.