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- Apple TV+
- Nov 7, 2023
- Apple TV+
- Nov 7, 2023
Summary The newest adaptation of Edith Wharton's unfinished novel of the same name from Katherine Jakeways follows a group of wealthy young American heiresses (Alisha Boe, Kristine Frøseth, Aubi Ibrag, Josie Totah, and Imogen Waterhouse) as they seek husbands at London's debutante season during the 1870s.
- Apple TV+
- Nov 7, 2023
- Apple TV+
- Nov 7, 2023
The Buccaneers (2023)
Season 1
Season Premiere: Nov 7, 2023
71
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Summary The newest adaptation of Edith Wharton's unfinished novel of the same name from Katherine Jakeways follows a group of wealthy young American heiresses (Alisha Boe, Kristine Frøseth, Aubi Ibrag, Josie Totah, and Imogen Waterhouse) as they seek husbands at London's debutante season during the 1870s.
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 Critic Reviews
71
75% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
20% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 20 Critic Reviews
71
75% Positive
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
20% Mixed
4 Reviews
4 Reviews
5% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
The Buccaneers has its flaws, but those flaws become easier to forgive the more you spend time with it and realize it knows exactly what it is and isn't afraid to show it.
We’re left with a group coming-of-age adventure, something that feels as if it could easily be set, instead, on an undergrad semester abroad, in 2023. And yet—the romance is compelling, and the wisteria is wisteria. I watched all eight episodes of the series in a white heat, and I am ready for more.
It is also largely a romcom rather than a fully Whartonly astute piece of social and proto-feminist commentary. But we are allowed some nonsense now and again, and there is nothing more joyfully restorative than when it is done as well as it is here. It is enormous fun without being unresonant with today’s concerns.
Purists might recoil at the soundtrack, the slang and the sexiness, but all in all this is a fabulous way to reintroduce Wharton to the world. Especially when compared to Julian Fellowes’s lavish but dreadfully dull The Gilded Age, here is a period drama that has managed to hit the sweet spot between modern whimsy and actual intellect.
Romance isn't the main objective, even if the series might flirt with it on occasion by incorporating a range of scenes from hands subtly, illicitly touching to characters falling into each other's arms with passionate abandon. Instead, the finishing touches here are more realistic, and often more cynical, but whether they'll leave a sour taste in the mouth depends entirely on what viewers are hoping to see from the story itself.
All told, The Buccaneers is neither a resounding success nor an utter failure. It’s a perfectly adequate teen drama with corsets and carriages, which might well be enough to satisfy its target audience and should keep anyone else with a passing interest in the subject matter and nothing better to watch reasonably entertained.
Wharton’s emotional architecture—the unspoken, subtextual longing and frustration and ambition—is made dully explicit, in writing so leaden and staged that it feels ripped right out of Selling Sunset. .... Only if you think in terms of an algorithmic TV pitchbot does the show make sense.
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