Mad Men star's new Apple TV+ series gets impressive RT score
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Apple TV+'s The Buccaneers has premiered to mostly positive reviews, becoming certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
An adaptation of the unfinished novel of the same name by Edith Wharton, The Buccaneers follows a group of American socialites entering and disrupting the marriage market in 1870s London.
It had been a while since the platform had put out a deliciously anachronistic period drama and those mourning Dickinson might find some solace in this Bridgerton-like story.
Related: Bridgerton star explains how show changed the game for "whitewashed" period drama
Consisting of eight episodes, the series stars Mad Men's Christina Hendricks as former belle of the ball Mrs St George, who relocates to this side of the pond with her daughters, Nan (Kristine Frøseth) and Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse).
Set to stream its season finale on December 13, The Buccaneers also stars Alisha Boe as Conchita Closson, Josie Totah as Mabel Elmsworth, Aubri Ibrag as Lizzy Elmsworth and Mia Threapleton as Honoria Marable.
Digital Spy hailed the period drama from creator Katherine Jakeways as a celebration of female friendship and sisterhood more than a straight-up love story, with our review arguing that the show "[makes] girl power the main event as opposed to an accessory to the romance".
Read on for more critics' thoughts on the new show, which is currently sitting at a 75% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Related: Bridgerton boss reveals the inspiration behind the show
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.
Consumed entirely on its terms, The Buccaneers works reasonably well as a soapy distraction for those willing to check their brains at the ballroom door.
It doesn't so much loosen the corset strings on Wharton's nicely modulated tale and sharp social commentary as do away with them all together. And so the drawers fall down, making for a perilously cartoonish psychodrama.
The show fails to capture Wharton's voice and, more disastrously, fails to find a voice of its own.
The characters are endearing, the story never drags, and, despite the tropes, it often chooses to zag where we might expect it to zig.
Anyone with a taste for historical romance is likely to be at least a little charmed from the start.
Ultimately, it's a feminist manifesto for girls eager to find love and adventure, free of the restraints of traditional society.
Despite its frenzied pacing, The Buccaneers is endearing. The ladies' colourful skin-forward costumes, pink poodles and loud giggles contrast against the deafening silence of British polite society.
It's been so expertly made that you have little choice but to just surrender to it. Resistance is futile.
The Buccaneers is streaming on Apple TV+.
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