Why Aren't You Watching Apple's Excellent The Buccaneers?

Minor spoilers for The Buccaneers Season 1 and Season 2 follow. You have been warned!

Picture it: You are sitting in your high school history class, and your teacher is droning on about the Victorian era, trying to express the restrictions placed on women in England and the expectations of servitude that wives were shackled with after marriage. It's all going in one ear and out the other for most of your classmates, and it's got your eyes glazing over.

Then, all of a sudden, as your teacher broaches the subject of high-class courting rituals and highfalutin parties of the aristocracy, Chappell Roan's ubiquitous hit "Good Luck, Babe!" starts to play over the intercom of your school. Attentions focus up, the story being preached at the front of the class suddenly comes alive like it's happening in real time and the dusty volumes of the past feel a little less divorced from our present.

That's what it is like watching Apple TV+'s sublimely entertaining The Buccaneers, an open-minded rendering of England's Victorian era through a restless American lens. For the uncultured, the series is based on Edith Wharton's unfinished, posthumously published novel about five young American socialites who ship off to England and find themselves participants in the marriage market. In front of them is the opportunity for titles and generational wealth, often at the expense of love and autonomy — an exchange rate that rubs this ahead-of-its-time friend group the wrong way. Cultures clash, feelings are forged, and hearts are broken as they navigate a changing world that they are at the forefront of, even as their elders fight to protect the status quo.

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The aforementioned Chappell Roan interlude is actually a scene in the third episode of Season 2, playing out this summer on Apple TV+. Distracted by their own relationship issues and marital strife, the majority of the Buccaneers — Nan (Kristine Frøseth), Conchita (Alisha Boe), Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag), and Mabel (Josie Totah) –– attend a Midsummer Night's Dream-themed birthday party where tensions are high. Nan's marriage to Theo (Guy Remmers), the Duke of Tintagel, is crumbling. Conchita's new role prepping spoiled princesses for their own societal debuts is off to a rocky start. And birthday girl Lizzy is literally running from her feelings for Theo while rising-star politician Hector tries to put a ring on it.

It all seems too first-world problems (oh no, you don't love the handsome duke who made you a royal?). But when the needle drops on this song that was inescapable for a whole year in our time, everything stops. Suddenly, these traditions and dilemmas of the past don't feel too far removed from our own moments of confusion and unruly emotions in our 20s. Although these young women have always been presented as champions of tolerance and acceptance before it was cool, suddenly their own time feels accessible and recognizable. Their world is anchored in the voices of our present, played out on the faces of our past. In other words, it's fun! More importantly, it makes history fun, and too often the realism of this historical genre of television forgets to remember that even people of the past had their fun. Especially this upperclass that had money to burn.

This isn't the first time the show has deployed a hell of a needle drop. In the Season 2 premiere, Nan declares her disruptive arrival on the scene as a duchess by wearing a scarlet red dress to a black-and-white ball, a look she debuts by stepping out of a carriage to "Looking at Me," a commanding deep cut from Sabrina Carpenter's discography. Last season also ended with a well-timed use of "Long Live (Taylor's Version)" as the Buccaneers organized the thrilling escape of Nan's sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) from her abusive husband.

With the assistance of people like music supervisor Matt Biffa and creator Katherine Jakeways, the show understands the power of connecting eras divided by time, customs, and oceans. But even more than music, The Buccaneers knows that good drama never went out of fashion. Hollywood has been letting the royal courts and the wealthy class of centuries past behave badly since the silent era. But these women are blazing a path through history in a way that feels fresh and liberating in a moment when our own history feels regressive.

More than once in Season 2, the clever combination of current needle drops, stunning costumes, and feminist fury will give you chills (at least that was the case for this writer). There is an indescribable pleasure in bearing witness to even a fictional disruption of well-rooted customs that need a refresh, both past and present.

But if inspired history lessons aren't what you are looking for, The Buccaneers also offers the kind of soapy drama that just goes down better when played out against the backdrop of a countryside manor. In Season 2, the series introduces a second love triangle involving Theo, who is now smitten with Lizzy. That makes for a torrid Venn diagram of romances muddying the waters of the central friend group. Even Theo's mother, the Dowager Duchess (Amelia Bullmore), rekindles a love from her past this season, giving the parents a chance to stoke the fires of passion. Add in some family drama with the arrival of someone from Nan's past (new cast member Leighton Meester), who also happens to be related to Nan's stand-in mom, Patti (Christina Hendricks), and this show is dripping in more than just jewels.

So why aren't more people getting in on the fun? Yes, we know Apple TV+ doesn't have the reach of Netflix (home of Bridgerton), but we also know everyone watched Ted Lasso. The Buccaneers found an audience in Season 1, but not nearly what it deserved. Season 2 completely ups the stakes and doubles down on this contemporary-minded take on a story that many people thought they already knew. Bridgerton has found acclaim and legions of fans for doing something in a similar mold, with sex-positive stories, lavish wealth, and violin renderings of modern music. The Buccaneers isn't a mere copycat of that formula but rather a worthy companion to it. Where Bridgerton has sometimes struggled under the weight of its own popularity, The Buccaneers is just now getting to enjoy the pleasures of its own rebellious spirit. 

There has always been a stuffy, stilted reputation for costume drama stories of aristocracy and tradition, and The Buccaneers relishes in the chance to loosen the corset of those expectations. With ballroom bangers and rousing disobedience, this series is having a damn good time following its progressive heroines' lead.

New episodes of Season 2 of The Buccaneers stream Wednesdays on Apple TV+.