
Oh dear. Another literary classic gets unnecessarily updated. But not really updated because the story still supposedly set in its original historical period, but everything else — the dialog, the manners, some of the plot, and many costume details — are modernized in an attempt to make the book “relatable” to Gen Z or whatever kiddos are the audience for this crap. Yes, I’m talking about The Buccaneers (2023), the new take on Edith Wharton’s unfinished novel set in the 1870s, and in no way to be confused with the much beloved 1995 BBC miniseries far more accurately based on Wharton’s tale.
Because I love you and apparently hate myself, I’m watching the whole damn series, but I’m breaking up my review into two parts as it airs. This first review covers the first half (three eps dropped on November 8, 2023, and the rest air weekly), and I’ll finish up when the series ends in December 2023. And since I went overboard in screencapping and have Many Opinions, yeah, this was a Patreon post, but consider that the $2-per-month cost to read my rant [when the show first aired] is cheaper than the $9.99-per-month to subscribe to Apple TV and actually watch this junk, so I’m really providing a service here ;)
First, let’s get some (but not all, because there are plenty!) of my problems with the story out of the way. Actually, I’m going to quote Meg Walters in Glamour UK because she really nails it:
“Where the show becomes a little grating is in its determination to prove just how feminist it is. Numerous recent period dramas have fallen into the trap of doing away with subtlety and subtext in favour of giving their heroines on-the-nose feminist speeches. …
It seems that The Buccaneers falls into the trap of so many recent period dramas — instead of trusting its audience to read into the subtleties and nuances of what the characters don’t say, it turns its heroine into a feminist warrior who, at 16, apparently sees the sexism embedded into Victorian society with the clarity of a woman in 2023.”
We’ve complained about anachronistic feminism in frock flicks plenty of times, and while sometimes that’s putting women into situations or jobs that were nonexistent or highly unlikely for women in a particular time period, it’s also anachronistic to give a female character a big ol’ speech about women’s rights (unless she’s actually a suffragist). In this version of The Buccaneers, most of the young American women alternately proclaim or complain about their status as women in super duper modern ways. It’s not a subtext, it’s the text, brightly stamped across their foreheads. This helps make the dialog clunky as hell. It’s half diatribe, half rom-com, nothing 19th-century about it.
Which is why I laughed out loud when I read this from Katherine Jakeways, the show’s creator, writer and executive producer, in The Times UK:
“Edith Wharton did a big part of the work for us. We’ve been as careful as we can be to not be inaccurate in speech and dialogue, but some of the ways the girls relate to each other, and the way they move as a pack, as a gang, feels very different from anything you might see in a more static period drama.”
What the actual serious fuck is she on about? Was she misquoted? OK, this isn’t as wildly inaccurate in speech and dialog as that super-shitty version of Persuasion that Netflix barfed out last year. The 19th-c. characters aren’t saying “he’s a 10” and talking about “exes,” but they aren’t spouting Wharton’s prose either.
There’s an interesting article in the Washington Post recently about director Sophia Coppola and the aesthetic of her films.
“The look of her films often is the plot. She has said that she wanted ‘The Virgin Suicides’ (1999) to resemble a 1970s hair commercial, and for ‘Marie Antoinette’ (2006) to feel like a music video. You’re meant to put together what’s going on by examining a woman’s face or pile of stuff, or by listening to the soundtrack. Which is very much how teenagers, notoriously reticent creatures, also communicate. …”
“If there’s a unifying message, it’s that the surface level is always worthy of scrutiny, celebration and lingering. You shouldn’t overlook the superficial. Prom, or cupcakes, or a bouffant, or even Paris Hilton’s handbag collection are worthy pleasures, and pleasure is something to be treated tenderly. Your flaws — a messy room, a wig addiction (looking at you, Marie Antoinette), your need for fame or your need to shirk from it — are not just faults but are also revelatory of your feelings, your humanness. That so many women seem drawn to the same obvious things, such as pink, Chanel jackets and bags, and floral perfumes, is not a sign that they are suspect. It means they should be embraced as totems of one’s identity. They’re an aesthetic!”
Coppola communicates using the visual language of young femininity to speak about complicated women’s lives, and she does so in historical periods (the 18th century, the 1960s) and modern times. Her film work is relatable, but she doesn’t make trendy modern cliches. There’s nuance and room to contemplate the meaning within her movies. All of this is sorely lacking in The Buccaneers.
The positive reviews I’ve seen of this series compare it to Bridgerton, and yeah, I see the basic similarities, but this is a shitty knock-off. Both focus on young women, both have fancy dresses and are set in fabulous castles, and both use modern pop music. That’s where the comparison ends. Bridgerton has far better writing and acting, and while the costuming and hair choices are controversial among those of us who enjoy historical styles, Bridgerton‘s costume aesthetic is stronger and more fully realized. I also wonder if that series has a bigger budget because it just looks more rich and embellished in each season, while Buccaneers is very stripped-down and basic.
The Buccaneers has three different costume designers — Giovanni Lipari (his first historical production) did episodes 1 and 2, Sheena Napier (Howards End, Enchanted April) did episodes 3 and 4, and Kate Carin (Around the World in 80 Days, The Book of Negroes) did the last couple episodes (thought I’m not sure yet exactly which yet). I do feel like the costumes settled down and got a bit more historically minded in episode 3, except the debutant ball in ep 1 was beautifully accurate, while the duke’s ball in episode 3 was a mixed bag. So having multiple costume designers is neither an excuse for inaccuracy nor guarantee of better! They all had the same brief, according to Lipari in an interview with Stylist:
“The team wanted the show to be more appealing and young-looking. So, the whole conversation we had at the beginning was about, ‘How far are we allowed to walk away from the period?’”
Yup, period accuracy is not the goal here. sigh Lipari also specified the time period, such as it is:
“The script [initially] said it was 1870, and I told them straight away that it’s a very awkward period of time. The wigs are really big and the women are wrapped in a lot of fabric and it was going to be really hard to make that into a more appealing style. So, I said, ‘Can we please move this 10 years later?’ The 1880s is much easier. You see the shape of the body and everything is much lighter. I suggested if we kept the shape of the ’80s — the bustle, the skirt, and the top — then we could use brand-new materials to freshen it up. You know, we could have even used denim to make those skirts and those tops.”
DEAR GOD PLEASE DON’T USE DENIM, YOU ARE NOT SANDY POWELL, YOU WILL FUCK IT UP.
Ehem. So I’ll just dive in and go through the first half of the series here, screencapping and sharing my thoughts and analysis as I go. A little personal background: when I do recaps, during my first watch of the show, I have my iPad open to make quick notes at the same time. I usually just note brief plot points and then describe costumes so I can go back and screencap. I’m just writing stuff like “Nan green eve gown.” But this time, my notes were peppered with “da fuck” and “THIS IS SO DUMB” over and over again. Just warning ya!
Costumes in The Buccaneers, Episode 1, Designed by Giovanni Lipari
Conchitta (Alisha Boe) is getting married and her gal pals are bridesmaids in matching green dresses from David’s Bridal and corsets worn on the outside. Nan (Kristine Froseth) is apparently her bestie, though she’s the youngest of this girl gang. Oh and she gives a dumb modern voiceover to start this and seemingly every episode, as if to warn you how stupid things will get.


In Fashionista, the costume designer said:
“The bridesmaids are the thing I’m most proud of. It’s more of a 1950s style. It was really a made-up shape and, once again, a combination of styles .In the end, [the dresses] feel like something a lot more modern than that.”
Wuuuuh? This is not a 1950s style, but yes, it’s made-up.

Did you know that Conchitta had a poodle? Edith Wharton mentions that in her book. Pretty damn sure she didn’t specify this:

Conchitta is knocked-up before the wedding, and she’s afraid her dude won’t follow through. At this point, not yet 10 minutes into the show, I need to tell my eyeballs to pace themselves on how much rolling back inside my head they’re doing.
Then Conchitta drops an earring out the window, and Nan goes to get it. Like this:

That’s her “meet cute” with Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome), who is totes impressed by Spiderman Bridesmaid. I CAN’T EVEN HERE.
In the novel and the 1995 adaption, Nan’s governess Miss Testvalley (Simone Kirby) is a key figure who introduces the girls to London society and acts as Nan’s confidante. But in this version, she’s a bit player with hardly any lines and just one outfit per episode. sad trombone
When Nan isn’t climbing outside buildings, she explains the plot, such as it is. The girls toast to themselves saying “we always come first” and they “swear on that in blood or champagne” eyeroll
Time to get that chick married … In that Fashionista interview, Giovanni Lipari said of Conchitta’s wedding dress:
“It’s really modern fashion. We forgot the 1880s. It just all of a sudden did not make sense for us anymore.”
And in Stylist, he said:
“With Conchita’s wedding dress, the family wants to enrich it with all these flowers, whereas she says, ‘No, I want to go with an Armani style — very simple and sharp and white.’ So, there are still differences between the generations.”
I just said “MEH.”
For comparison, here’s some bridal fashion plates from the period. They’re late 1870s, but that’s when the slimmer natural-form style was first worn and this seems to be the shape the costume designer is thinking of, as opposed to the fuller mid-1870s bustle (or even the more aggressively protruding mid-1880s bustle).

So much gorgeous trim and detail! Pity this show DGAF.

But what killed me is when the girls are walking down the stairs to the wedding, they’re bopping around like it’s a music video and then this happens:

To quote from my original notes: “THIS IS SO DUMB. If this is how Gen Z girls are, then I hate how vapid utterly shallow and zero internal voice they are.” Or at least how the showrunners are presenting them.
Thing is, the series can’t commit to shit like the stupid neon names. Is it going to be a Taylor Swift video or not? Pick a lane! Episode 1 almost goes there, but not quite, and then the next episodes continue to scale back. Was this just for shock value? WEAK.
Next, there’s a criminal underuse of Christina Hendricks as a giggly “cool mom,” not to mention someone on the wardrobe team was unclear on how to fit larger breasts in semi-historical fashions. Most of her costumes look kinda dumpy, which is purely a tailoring problem because she is a statuesque beauty who looks fantastic in clothes that fit her body.

Blah blah Conchitta’s new husband, Richard (Josh Dylan), who is an English lord, invites the girls to London for The Season. Which is not really how it works but nothing is in this little fantasy world.
Speaking of the U.K., we get a glimpse at moody emo boy Theo (Guy Remmers), Duke of Tintagel, whose mom (Amelia Bullmore) is telling him he needs to marry and carry on the family line. As if he wouldn’t have known that from birth, but of course the audience is utterly clueless about ye olden times and needs to get hit over the head with this stuff.
The American girls arrive and act like lunatics, hanging out of their carriages, screaming, and gawking at English stuff. It’s like the worst cliché of American teenage tourists ever. GAG.
For contrast, at their London host’s home, Conchitta’s mother-in-law, Lady Brightlingsea (Fenella Woolgar) tells her second son Lord James Seadown (Barney Fishwick) — who’s the older son in the novel, btw — he needs to get married too. OK WE GET IT. All the young people need to shack up! We are aware. That’s how society has worked for a long time — kids grow up, get married, have babies, it’s the circle of life, cue Disney tune.
Conchitta is hugely pregnant when the rest of the girls arrive. The American moms look forward to marrying off their girls because that’s what moms do, as noted.

This series seems to have just one point: the British are STUFFY, and Americans are CASUAL. That’s it. That’s the story. Summed up in these two pix — the Brightlingsea family before dinner…
And the American girls after dinner…
Y’know, there’s a lot of things that could have been updated and addressed in this story. Like race — Conchitta is Brazilian and rumored to be illegitimate in the novel, which puts her a step behind the English family she marries into even before they get into any culture clash and the actual marriage problems she experiences. In this adaption, there’s just one brief line of dialog that might possibly reference race, when Conchitta wonders what her baby will look like. Her ‘not fitting in’ is always explained as a personality conflict, she’s loud and showy and Too American. But with some deft writing, this could have been framed as racial microagressions and explored with more depth and insight. This is just one of the wasted opportunities in the show.
The dinner scene has more shitty dialog and ho-hum costumes, all in a very pretty room. It feels like they shot their wad on production design only.


There’s a scene between Guy Thwarte and his father after Guy’s mother has died, and this is another wasted opportunity when it comes to discussing race, IMO. Both Guy and his father are Black, and it’s alluded to that Guy’s mother was white, but if that’d been switched and Guy had a white father and Black mother who died, Guy could take advantage of his father’s presumed connections for his political ambitions (as in the book). While at the same time, he would encounter resistance as a Black man trying to advance in the 1880s, which has interesting dramatic possibilities. Instead, this is color-blind casting, and race doesn’t matter, which fine, I guess. Not everything has to be an Important Dramatic Story but does this have to be so fucking shallow instead?
Onward to the big debutant ball where the two older girls are getting presented to the queen (“if the queen offers you her hand, you lick it,” actual dialog) and paraded in front of England’s marriageable men.
Let it be known that this is a SMOCK-FREE PRODUCTION. Welts for everyone!
Conchitta whines that she can’t go because she’s so pregnant, and she talks to Nan about her upcoming baby so horribly modernly that I threw up in my mouth a little.
But the ball itself looks quite good! All the girls are in white formal gowns and wearing the requisite ostrich feathers. It’s a lovely scene, and apparently it’s a Big Deal that they got the rights to use a Taylor Swift song. eyeroll

Nan’s big sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse) has an appropriately 1880s basque-bodice gown with lace, trim, and bows.
Is this numbers thing real? I can’t find any reference to it where the debutants held up a number so the men could take note and basically order a girl by number. Marriage has been transactional for centuries, especially for the wealthy upper classes, but I don’t know when or where literally picking numbered women out of a line-up was standard practice. Feels like an exaggeration or misinterpretation.
The court presentation scenes in Bridergton are more realistic since those emphasized that the “girls in white dresses” bit was purely to meet the sovereign, and this event opened the social season. After that, the girls were considered “out” and available to socialize and make marriage arrangements. There’s a similar scene in Downton Abbey where Rose is presented at court, showing how the ceremony changed little over the course of a century. FWIW, Queen Elizabeth II discontinued the practice.
I can’t decide if I like Lizzy Elmsworth’s (Aubri Ibrag) hair or not. The front is curled up almost like an 1880s style, but it looses steam as the hair goes back. Her dress is nicely trimmed.
The rest of the no-name girls are dressed well, in the proper silhouette, well-fitted, with slight variations on white / cream / very pale pastel, and soft trims. This is definitely the one stand-out scene of the first half of the series.
These costumes are a decent representation of “full court dress.” In the period, this required a gown with a low bodice, short sleeves, and a train, all in white, though the dress could be trimmed with either white or colored flowers. Unmarried ladies must wear a plume of two white feathers. They should also be wearing long white gloves. Carrying a white fan and small bouquet were optional and often done.
Dresses of these sorts would have been worn:


The American moms stand out in their jewel-tone gowns. Mrs. Elmsworth (Viss Elliot Safavi) has crazy fringe that’s reasonably historical, Miss Testvalley is wearing her one nice dress again, and Mrs. St. George gets an interesting color combo of bright teal and brown stripes.

Nan wears a bright blue princess-line dress that could be 1880s if it didn’t have this big ol’ 1950s collar.

I can’t be the only one who sees this:


While watching the debs stand there with their numbers, Nan overhears an older man ranking the debs and dissing the American girls specifically. Nan whips around and tells him off. DA FUCK?!? Sure, it’s cute and so very Girl Power to have her tell the Old Establishment Man that ‘women are not cattle.’ But not only is it entirely inaccurate since no 1880s woman would say that out loud to a man in a social setting, it’s incredibly unlikely that a young woman in 2023 would say that out loud to a man in a social setting!
One of my favorite past-times is reading advice columns like Carolyn Hax, Ask Amy, Captain Awkward, and heck, even Dear Abby. The number one problem all of the people writing to these columns have is Not Being Able To Use Their Words. People today just can’t say what they mean, what they need, what they want, or what they think, and they certainly cannot do so out loud, in the moment, to the person who should hear it!
Movies and TV are fiction, and so it’s wish-fulfillment that one would be able to say That Perfect Thing in the moment to whoever deserves to hear it. I get it. But this version of The Buccaneers waaaaay over-indulges in that fantasy. So much. So often. All the fucking time. Everyone just says what’s on their mind, loudly, in simple words, to everyone. The American girls do this the loudest, because I guess that’s how Americans are? IDK. But all the characters do this to some extent because there is zero subtlety in this script.
After Nan tells off that rando, she runs into Guy, of course, so they talk about his dead mother. While Jinny is dancing with Lord Seadown, Nan drops her shoe from above into a cake next to her sister dancing. DA FUCK. When Jinny chews out Nan for the whole thing, she lets slip that Nan is illegitimate due to their father’s “dalliances.” This plot twist only exists to mess with Nan’s head, it has nothing to do with Edith Wharton.
The next morning, Miss Testvalley takes Nan to Cornwall for a tour of castles ‘n stuff. Coincidentally, that’s where Theo lives (a Cornish castle). So we see his mom quizzing him about the debutant ball, why did he ignore the girls, blah blah get married. We know, we’ve heard this all before.

Arriving in Cornwall, Nan ditches her governess and her clothes to run on the beach, then swim. We see the most predictable reverse double Darcy! They “meet cute” while they’re both in wet clothes.


Theo also has painting gear at the beach because he’s a Sensitive New Age Guy. Their dialog is PAINFUL.
Costumes in The Buccaneers, Episode 2, Designed by Giovanni Lipari
Another fucking voiceover as Nan and Miss Testvalley finish up their Cornwall roadtrip.

Having given birth to a baby girl, Conchitta needs to get away and has rented a house for a girls’ weekend where champagne will be drunk and no shoes will be worn. eyeroll



Conchitta’s sister-in-law Honoria is there for some reason. Chaperone? Kill joy? Or maybe just Nepo Baby since she’s played by Mia Threapleton, daughter of Kate Winslet? Nah, she’s one of the better actors in this thing and holds her own. Plus she shows off a gorgeous black lace fan.

This girls’ weekend is where the costuming goes nuts. It’s super casual, letting it all hang out, bodices open to show corsets, skirts flying up and around, barely a hairpin in sight. Of course that’s intentional and supposed to reinforce the modernizing of the story (gag). In Fashionista, Giovanni Lipari said:
“We can be undone. We purposely want to be undone. In the 19th century, you would never go out without a hat or something. This is the progressive part messing with [the traditional norms].”

In an interview with Stylist, the costume designer said of Nan’s outfit
“I found a gorgeous authentic period short jacket. In a different fabric, we would call it a biker. We remade it with new material, one with a collar, one without. So, this short jacket, it became her thing. It became ‘my leather jacket’, you know?
She wears one when she’s going to Cornwall and she’s wearing this almost knitwear jacket in a peachy pink and all of the binding is in denim. That fabric was from the 1960s originally. Then she does wear long skirts and evening gowns, but they were never really exposing. She doesn’t care about that — you know, she’ll lose a shoe in a cake.”
I’ve seen short jackets like what Nan’s wearing here but in the late 1880s / early 1890s. Then I found this fashion plate that’s similar but in the longer line that was popular right around 1880 and remarkably in similar colors that the designer used in the show.

So I guess Giovanni Lipari wasn’t totally off base with that one!

Continuing in Stylist, Lipari said of Jinny’s costumes:
“I used some colours on her that would slightly disagree with her colouring sometimes. She’s blonde with very light colouring, and we used some greens that would slightly disagree with her. There’s a bit of an oddness to her, purposely, because there’s an ambiguity about her personality. You can tell she can be very sharp and cruel, but she is not necessarily always that person. You can tell straight away there’s something not quite OK with her.”

Randomly, a bunch of guys ride into this “girls’ weekend” so now Conchitta’s husband Richard and his brother Seadown plus other dudes are there for the party. And they head to the lake to swim in their underwear. Hate to break it to ya, but swimming in 19th-c. underwear is nothing like swimming in 21st-c. underwear, no matter how “casual” the historical undies are styled.

Honoria’s outfit is more historically accurate — because she’s stuffy and boring, right? Only priggish old-fashioned English ladies are stuck with actual period costumes like this!

Btw, gals, you don’t go swimming in your corset one minute and then throw on a ballgown over it. A corset would take AT LEAST a day to dry out! That’s a thick, sturdy garment, and you could’t throw it into a drying machine, even if you have one (and they obviously don’t). And those guys wearing their pants to swim? Do they have other pants to wear later? Hell, even drying one’s hair in a pre-electricity age is gonna take some time. Logistics, people!

The costume designer said in Stylist about these scenes of the girls half-dressed:
“I was afraid it would look too much like, ‘We are missing a skirt here.’ That’s why we started building underwear in colours that matched their outer layers of clothing. They would be just a simple white or off-white normally.”
Conchitta has a party planned for that night and tries to be ironic saying it’ll be small, tasteful. But this script wouldn’t know irony if it smacked folks in the face.


Some of the evening dresses in this scene are pretty good. Jinny wears a yellow/green gown with delicate, sparkly lace on the front that’s a very stripped-down evocation of the period.
Conchitta’s dress is especially lovely, though hard to see or screencap. It’s a princess-line gown with a train in a silvery blue tone with lace and netting on the skirt and floral appliques at the neck and waist. Unfortunately, she spends most of the party getting drunk and giving her husband a lap dance.

Compare with:

Snooty jerk Lord Seadown isn’t happy about the party’s antics. He avoids Jinny in favor of a slow dance with Lizzy, who’s wearing a green brocade gown.

The bodice, if not the skirt, of Lizzy’s gown is similar to this painting (she just needs more bustle):

Nan is bored at the party, so first she flops about on a couch:

Then she decides to head outside to the garden. I found her yellow satin dress really distracting because it didn’t seem to fit her correctly. You could say that’s because Conchitta loaned her the dress, but she loaned dresses to all the girls and the others fit well. Only Nan’s is off.




Barefoot Nan (this girl has an aversion to shoes!) finds Guy outside, of course she does. The dude turns up when ever she’s alone, like an imaginary friend.
Honoria and Mabel also escape the party for a moment in the garden. Clunky foreshadowing is clunky.

I don’t find the color and trim on Mabel’s dress terribly flattering, but there’s a historical precedent for fugly:

Back in the party, Conchitta and Richard are getting it on, while Seadown and Lizzy are still locked in their slow dance. Jinny wants to make a scene with Conchitta, which turns into hide and seek (what, are they toddlers? eyeroll).
Mabel hides in a closet (GET IT?), and Honoria finds her. They get friendly and almost kiss.
Lizzy and Seadown get friendly in an empty bedroom, where he tells her to take off her dress. When she’s naked, he just stares at her, then leaves. Later, his valet comes in and tells Lizzy that Lord Seadown has gone to bed. DA FUCK?
Outside, Guy and Nan have been talking, joking about cheese, and being “casual, breezy” (actual dialog). Just kiss already. Nan tells him she’s illegitimate, and he kinda freaks out, which is fairly historically accurate for a change. By the end of the evening, Nan goes back into the house and kinda makes up with Jinny.
Richard and Conchitta fuck in a boat on the lake. But the next morning, she overhears him saying his mom was right that Conchitta doesn’t fit in England. So she’s down on love when she talks to Nan and tells her to lower her expectations of marriage.


The costume designer described Nan’s costumes in Stylist interview, saying:
“She is the tomboy. She’s not a girly girl. In fact, when she wears an evening gown, she could become slightly awkward — ‘This skirt is not for me; this neckline is not for me.'”
Sheesh. You could show that she’s a tomboy with actual period styles instead of her being sloppy with clothing. The 1880s had both fussy, overly trimmed stuff AND clean, tailored lines. For example:

That would have been a great contrast to the other characters. sigh Anyway …
Lizzy tells Jinny nothing happened with Seadown, she doesn’t want him but doesn’t say he’s a freakshow. And OMG Lizzy is wearing a lovely historical costume! The camera pans up over her so there isn’t a clear full view, but this still looks remarkably correct.
Ruffly white dresses were popular from the 1870s through the end of the 19th century, such as this:

Conchitta’s all about the champagne breakfast and open bodice.


Mabel (with dress open again, ugh), Honoria (wearing an 1890s suit), Nan, and random guys play croquet.

Lord Seadown proposes to Jinny in front of everyone.

If I were generous, I’d say that wrinkled bodice front was attempting to look like a gathered front, which could be a feature at the time. But I know this is an open bodice with a wrinkled underbodice, and it’s just weird.

Everyone else goes for another swim in their clothes. Jinny and Lizzy sit it out, while Lizzy low-key tries to warn Jinny about her new fiancé.
Guy apparently didn’t leave last night and is roaming the garden. Nan didn’t go swimming and also wanders the garden, where she sees Theo nearby. Wut? He tracked her down from Cornwall. Wut? A servant tells the swim party that the Duke of Tintagel is here, so they get out of the water in time to see Theo propose to Nan, which Guy also observes.

Costumes in The Buccaneers, Episode 3, Designed by Sheena Napier
Everyone’s going to Tintagel Castle! Well, just Nan, Conchitta, and Mabel. The Brightlingsea folks are already there. And finally, an episode where I don’t hate the majority of the costumes! It could be the new designer — who I can’t find any press from for this series — or it could be that the setting is more formal and the show got the stupid stuff out of its system. TBD!


You can see similar elements of both of their gowns in fashion plates such as:

Nan runs off to the beach to meet Theo, because that’s what they do. UGH.


Lord Seadown and Jinny arrive, telling everyone they’ve eloped. Guess he just wanted to fuck right away.

Mabel and Honoria chat about family obligations with incredibly SHITTY DIALOG (my notes had it in all-caps so it must have been bad; when I screencapped this, I had the sound off).


Her tailored ensemble reminds me of this sort of thing:

The dowager duchess (Theo’s mom) gives Nan a talking to, so Nan buttons up her jacket.

The dowager shits on America, tells Nan she knows nothing Jon Snow, and in the only slightly redeeming line of the series, says “it’s possible to care about the state of the world and dresses.” Nan tries to say nice things about the dowager, but that doesn’t work.
So she goes on a nature walk with Theo, and he shows her his “art studio,” as if he’s a real painter. They do a stupid thing with finger-painting. They are DUMB. Ugh. What rom-com was this recycled from???

They almost kiss but not! Ugh. WTF. BS. So they go riding on the beach. WHATEVER. Is that sublimated sex?
Then Nan rides off the beach and runs into ta da Guy on a horse, but she’s FINE she doesn’t need his HELP. Btw, Guy is Theo’s oldest friend. That’s their “meet awkward.”

Time to get ready for the ball! Everybody chafe!
And practice your shitty curtsey! (Kendra has promised a round-up of shitty curtseys in frock flicks for a future Snark Week.)
Jinny comes in to borrow stuff, Nan wants a sisterly pep talk, doesn’t get it.


Guy bursts into her room (DA FUCK?) because “they’ve given you the yellow room, you’re more important than me” (stupid stupid script). Nan asks if Guy will tell Theo about her being illegitimate. Guy says he’s never lied to Theo. IDGAF.
Out on the terrace, the Brightlingsea parents decide that Jinny is the good daughter-in-law and Conchitta is the terrible one. Jinny is also a complete suck-up and Conchitta whines, so that helps.

Honoria shows everyone how a well-fitted dress can look on a larger bust. YES PLEASE.

Time for Nan to make her entrance at the ball. Mabel gives her a stupid pep talk, including “you were born for this.” I hate this dress’ neckline, it’s not period and it’s not flattering.

This neckline, like so many on this show, is too low and too straight across. Armpit cleavage wasn’t a thing in the 19th century! Take a look at these period examples:



Those are all rather low cut in the front, but the strap is on or at the shoulder. It’s more functional that way, and I think it’s more attractive. Even the scandalous “Madame X” painting which notoriously had only the barest hint of a strap on the lady’s gown has a more flattering sweetheart neckline.

That straight-across neckline isn’t doing Nan any favors, IMO.


That neckline started to be fashionable in the late 1940s and the ’50s, such as:


The first dance is Theo and his mom with very modern music, and it looks WEIRD.
At one point during the ball, Conchitta throws a hissy fit about Jinny being accepted by their in-laws, so she goes up and asks them “will I ever be good enough? what is it about Jinny?” See my previous notes about People Don’t Use Their Words. The scene is dumb and annoying and fake, among so many dumb, annoying, fake scenes in this series.
Mabel is doing a very modern boogie-down dance to the (now) not-modern music, and Honoria notices her. They bitch about the heteronormative couples.


Nan ends up slow-dancing with Guy, of course. Conchitta runs into the rain, Richard looks for her. Mabel and Honoria randomly end up outside in the rain too, it’s just an excuse so they can finally kiss.

Richard finds Conchitta, and they make up. Nan bitches at Conchitta for making it all about her, saying she’s an “attention-seeking mess,” which is true, if modern.
Nan finds Theo, they go the beach yet again, and she officially says yes to marriage so they finally kiss, snooze. She’s going back to New York to talk to her mom, and Theo wants to come along, to know “who you really are.” MEH.
Costumes in The Buccaneers, Episode 4, Designed by Sheena Napier
We’re back in New York City, and no more voiceovers, thank the gods. Mrs. St. George is in rag curlers (I think she should have more) and is prepping herself and her hubby for the day.

For the party that makes up the majority of this episode, she’s wearing that peachy dress that was one of the first pix released for this show. I’m more pleased with this look now than when I first saw it, maybe because I’ve seen what other crap they put her in otherwise. FINALLY this is a costume that fits her well!


Her dress has a lovely 1880s style. Compare with these:

Also, because I’m watching The Gilded Age concurrently and I’m bugged by the back closures of the 1880s gowns in that show, here’s an example of how neat, tidy, and unobtrusive late Victorian back-lacing should be:
The Buccaneers has some clunkers in this department, but hey, I can point out what is right when I find it!
Back in Cornwall, Guy is keeping the dowager company, AS IF they’d be pals. She asks if he’s in love, and she pushes Guy to go after whatever rando girl he’s hot for ‘like his father did.’ DA FUCK? She even has the nerve to say “a life without love is a life half lived” but she DGAF about her son’s feelings. This is such shitty rom-com tripe and totally not 19th-century anything.
Obvs Guy is thinking of Nan, so he writes a letter while he’s drunk. Because that makes sense.
Back in New York City, the girls arrive with husbands and fiancé in tow, plus Miss Testvalley and Conchitta’s baby. I think the street scene is CGI because it looks more tidy than the street scenes in The Gilded Age, where exteriors are mostly filmed in Troy, New York.

Their girls’ arrival outfits are decently period, although I think someone really likes this pattern below because Mabel, her mom, and Jinny have all worn riffs on it in the first four eps:

Nan’s in yet another of her same jackets, now in blue satin, and she is criminally incapable of buttoning up the damn things.
WTF NAN’S HAIR. This whole episode she wears her hair down, which I must note, is cut in a shoulder-length bob a good 40 years too early. She looks like a child, and sure, she’s the youngest of the group but C’MON.

They go inside and ignore Mrs. St. George in favor of Lizzy, who greets them with “look who’s lowering the tone” (actual dialog). The girls glom onto her and ask crap like “who have you been doing?” (actual dialog). DA FUCK?
I love the colors of Lizzy’s dress but whoa, too much armpit cleavage.


Back in Cornwall, a hungover Guy regrets sending that letter. Dumbass. There are too many scenes of the letter being sent by telegraph and delivered by carrier. LOOK AT YE OLDEY TIMEY TECHNOLOGY, LET US SHOW YOU THAT OMG YES SOMEHOW PEOPLE COMMUNICATED BEFORE TEXTING!
Lizzy tells her mom she won’t go back to the U.K., so her mom says Mabel will have to stay in the U.S. too.

Nan is pouting in her bedroom and finally lets Mrs. St. George in the room, just so she can throw a ‘you’re not my real mom’ hissy fit. She’s self-centered and blames her mom for everything that ever went wrong in her life, says she’s nobody. What a little bitch! This woman took you in even though her husband fucked around.

Back at the party, Colonel St. George (Adam James) introduces Lord and Lady Seadown for a first dance. It was hard getting full screencaps for any of the girls’ party dresses, sorry they’re all small and fuzzy. Just trying to show the overall look.

Mrs. St. George angrily drags the Colonel out and tells him Nan knows now. He only gives a shit about their public reputation, while she’s “do you realize what we’ve sacrificed for you” and trying to keep the family together and make it alright.
Meanwhile, Conchita and Richard are doing some crazy modern dancing and then go off to fuck somewhere.

Some random girls congratulate Jinny and Lord Seadown. They’re dippy as shit, and I guess this scene is supposed to show how catty the New York social scene is, but that’s purely a guess because the dialog falls flat.
Also, I was distracted by the women’s hair! First, there’s Jinny:

Compare with these period styles, or scroll up to any of the fashion plates.

But it’s the rando chicks whose hair is worse!
Is she wearing one of of these?


These two randos also talk to Theo, as if to impress him, but he disses all America as “new money.” Not wrong there.
Meanwhile, that telegram from Guy is delivered, but a servant just leaves it on a table, of course. Theo wanders around the party and finds Guy’s telegram and reads it, OF COURSE.
Colonel St. George finds Nan in his office, looking for details about her birth mom. He has a STUPID convo with his daughter about about being old and wishing he was young like you kids. Then he makes excuses for having fucked around and knocked up a girl, saying he doesn’t remember much, not even her name, just she was hot, and anyway she’s dead now.

Mabel has a thing with a servant girl, who asks if there’s anyone in England “like us.” They kiss, and Mabel’s mom interrupts.

There’s more modern dancing at the party, and it’s not just the young people, it’s old ladies. It’s like when Grandma starts doing “YMCA” at a wedding — it’s cringy. This show doesn’t understand that people in the 19th century weren’t secretly yearning to twerk. They waltzed because that was the sexy dance of the times. Think about it, in a waltz, a man can put his hands on a woman’s body and the two people are touching and moving, all to music, all in public, this was hot shit. Compared to historical set dances where you stood shoulder-to-shoulder and barely touched fingertips, the waltz was practically fucking on the dance floor. These folks don’t need to shake their groove thing a la 2023, they’ve already got killer dance moves.

Conchitta talks with Miss Testvalley, who warns her that the Brightlingsea house is bad news. She mentions that Richard is first born (he’s the second son in the book so I’m confused here), and “no Englishman will choose freedom over power.” eyeroll

Mrs. St. George comes to Nan and makes nice. It’s a very deeply modern monologue straight outta 2023, but it’s sweet as she convinces Nan that she’s been her mother since day one, despite her father’s fuckup. Nan says, “I want better than a lifetime of lies.” Oh honey. We still don’t get all that in the 21st century, and it was nigh impossible in the 19th.
Theo is butt-hurt because his BFF is in love with his girl. Then the Colonel interrupts the duke and Nan to make them dance, but Mrs. St. George gathers round for everyone to dance, so Nan and Theo skedaddle to a closet.

They kiss, and it’s not hot. Nan tries to tell Theo her big secret, he doesn’t want to hear and says let’s just get married.
Lizzy and Jinny talk, and Lizzy is still low-key trying to figure out if everything’s OK in Jinny’s married life. With Jinny, Seadown gets rants about the party being vulgar and demeaning and her mom should apologize.
So Jinny, being the dutiful suck-up, tells her mom that the party is vulgar and her husband deserves an apology, then Seadown interrupts and says he feels welcome. Nan also sticks up for her mom because “she’s a queen.” And there it is, plop my eyes have rolled right out the back of my head for good.
Conchitta asks Richard to stay in New York and suggests that she and their baby will stay without him. Lizzy says she’ll go back to England and Mabel can come back with her. Mabel tries to explain to her mom about what she saw earlier, but mom just says to find a husband.
After the party ends, Richard goes to Miss Testvalley’s bath. So yes, in the novel, a young Richard made some kind of ill-advised play for Miss Testvalley when she was a governess at his house. It was acknowledged by the family that he was at fault, and she was let go with a good reference. It’s a hint that Richard’s a rake even before he marries an American girl.
Because, in the book, all of these English men already have massive flaws that are perfectly good plot points. Richard is also a spendthrift and a drunk who gets syphilis from cheating on his wife, and she gets pregnant when she cheats on Richard. Seadown has a long-standing kept mistress from before his marriage, plus at least one more, though he finally gives up his side-pieces for his wife. The Duke of Tintagel is a dud who loves clocks more than anything else. Guy is poor, but his dad has political ambitions for him. There was plenty to work with in all that!
I don’t know why this was all changed into weird mind-games for Seadown and a post-marriage affair with Miss Testvalley for Richard, not to mention the Duke’s now an artist and Guy is just … some guy? Really what does he do other than fall in love with Nan? He’s a manic pixie dream boy, I guess.
Anyway, there’s more random drama thrown in at the very last scene when Mrs. St. George tells off the Colonel since she saw him hitting on a chick at the party, but she still tidies up after him. Then the Colonel says not to worry, he didn’t tell Nan the real truth about her birth mother. Dun dun duh! But not really, this is all still dumb!
Have you dared watch the 2023 Buccaneers?
Find this frock flick at:
Wow! What an article. I shall have to go through it more thoroughly.
My first reaction is that the costuming is just lazy.
As for the feminist reworking, ‘Bridgerton’ was a modern take on a modern writer’s modern take on a time well in the past. Neither TV series, nor book were accurate to the period, but it doesn’t really matter very much. This, however, is a modern take on a book written about what women’s lives were really like in a certain place and period in history by an author who was living one of those lives. I want to know what it was like then; I already know what it is like now.
Well said – as we’ve written about anachronistic feminism in frock flicks, it’s more legitimately feminist to show how womens’ lives were in the past to make a critique of that, instead of show women as magically liberated or rebelling in a modern way.
I love the original series too much to even look at this one…yikes
Saw the trailer and first thing that came to mind was Reign
In the way it treats the story, yes. But the costuming take its own track & the characters go yet another direction! So a unique hot mess, hah.
They took away Conchita’s Brazilian accent and love for cigars, I guess in an effort to “humanize“ her, but it just removed her original vibrant personality that made her so lovable in the first place
How you suffer for Us! Thank you, from the bottom of my heart!
We love you back though
Thanks for taking one for the team! Oh, the horror. :)