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The Buccaneers returns with a fun, albeit messy, season 2

Apple TV+'s Edith Wharton adaptation presses on with an unpredictable batch of episodes.

The Buccaneers returns with a fun, albeit messy, season 2
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The first season of The Buccaneers ended on a triumphant note for its young characters, one accompanied by the girlboss anthem “Long Live (Taylor’s Version).” Nan (played with heartbreaking stoicism by Kristine Froseth) marries a duke she likes, but doesn’t love, to serve as a distraction that allows her sister to run from an abusive partnership. But that triumph is short-lived, as season two of the Apple TV+ series smashes the spirit of that finale to pieces. But this reality check isn’t just about the societal repercussions of doing something so reckless. It’s also about the emotional ones. 

In this adaptation of Edith Wharton’s unfinished novel, five young female characters with distinct personalities are looking for husbands. If you haven’t seen the show, its setup and ads might make you think that it’s similar to Bridgerton and Downton Abbey. But The Buccaneers feels more like Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette meets the “marriage is an economic proposition” speech from Greta Gerwig’s Little Women with a dash of Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants

The women in this show pursue their own love stories. They confront the men who have wronged them—but not before doing a costume change—and waver back and forth between parties and their adult responsibilities. The messiness of this show befits the fact that it’s adapted from a book written by an author who resisted the urge to set her heroines on a course towards a loving marriage or a traditional happily ever after. Wharton’s other works, like The Age of Innocence and The House Of Mirth, had bittersweet if not downright tragic endings filled with extramarital affairs, divorce, and death. 

In season two of The Buccaneers, new love and old dangers further complicate the lives of these American women who have ventured across the pond to be in London’s high society. When left to their own devices, Conchita, Nan, Lizzy, Ginny, and Mabel are accepting of one another. They’re happy when their friends are happy, and they actually cheer at the revelation that Mabel prefers kissing girls. It’s only when men (and the occasional older woman set in her ways) interfere that they’re pitted against each other. “We should be the love story,” Nan sputters in frustration at the end of the season, referring to how she and her friends have been torn apart yet again. 

One of the season’s best storylines belongs to Alisha Boe’s Conchita, who seeks employment taming unruly, know-it-all American debutantes who are only about five minutes younger than herself to maintain her wealthy lifestyle. (Her frustration with the micro-generational gap is all too familiar.) Another highlight is the wryly hilarious Josie Totah as Mabel and The Phoenician Scheme breakout Mia Threapleton as Honoria, whose romance began back in season one. They find ways to make the most of their limited circumstances, and they communicate far better than any of the series’ heterosexual couples. Between that and the privilege they gain from not being the oldest siblings (and therefore not under as much pressure to make an advantageous match), they may be the happiest characters on the show. 

As for the new players this season, Grace Ambrose’s Paloma is a free spirit who befriends Guy and Ginny abroad. Jacob Ifan takes on Hector Robinson, a mustachioed politician. There’s also Greg Wise as an old beau of the Dowager Duchess of Tintagel. (Wise portrayed Guy in the 1995 miniseries adaptation of The Buccaneers, opposite Carla Gugino as Nan, and he’s particularly good at yearning here.)  

But there are low points in this season, including one affair that lacks chemistry despite some melodramatic proclamations of love, a cartoonish villain, and Leighton Meester’s limited screen time. Those hiccups aside, The Buccaneers remains a fun and unpredictable watch—even when you’re tearing your hair out over these young, often flighty characters’ choices.    

The Buccaneers season two premieres June 18 on Apple TV+   

 
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