If you need something to watch while Netflix completes Bridgerton season 4, Apple TV+’s romantic period drama, The Buccaneers, may be exactly what you’re looking for. It’s hard to deny that Bridgerton reignited the world’s love of period romance. The fictional niche has a long history, though, with beloved authors like Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Diana Gabaldon, Beverly Jenkins, Lisa Kleypas, Bridgerton’s Julia Quinn, Alyssa Cole, and hundreds more shaping this beloved romance sub-genre. Bridgerton wouldn’t exist without those previously published works. Part of what makes Netflix’s Bridgerton such a rousing success is that it doesn’t just focus on romance (though that is, of course, a key facet of the show); it also focuses on the Bridgertons as a family unit, their individual wants and needs, female friendships, and how those friendships help young women survive in an unjust patriarchal society. Bridgerton works because it is an ensemble period drama with lavish costumes, beautiful and complex love stories, and intriguing characters. Apple TV’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1937 novel The Buccaneers is very similar.
The Buccaneers Is A Great Period Drama With Similarities To Bridgerton
While Bridgerton is a Regency period drama, set between the late 18th century and the early 19th century, The Buccaneers’ tale begins a few decades later, in the 1870s, during the Gilded Age. This means that the wealth, clothing, politics, and social expectations endured by the women of each show are relatively different. Even so, both Bridgerton and The Buccaneers excel in examining women’s place in society and what it means for them to find real, honest love, rather than being forced into an advantageous, loveless marriage.
Both Bridgerton and The Buccaneers excel in examining women’s place in society and what it means for them to find real, honest love.
During both historical eras, young women from wealthy families were expected to be presented to society to find husbands, a tradition loved by some and scorned by others. Like in Bridgerton, each young Buccaneer has ideas about their needs and wants, but their future is always uncertain. What will happen if they aren’t chosen? Who will they become if they do not marry? Every romance has an underlying tension, as the stakes are much higher for these young women than for men, and neither Bridgerton nor The Buccaneers shies away from that.
Eloise (Claudia Jessie) and Penelope’s (Nicola Coughlan) friendship is arguably the heart of Bridgerton, and that made their separation in season 3 hard to watch.The Buccaneers takes the importance of friendship to a whole new level. The relationships between Nan (Kristine Frøseth), her sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse), Conchita (Alisha Boe), Lizzy (Aubri Ibrag), and Mabel (Josie Totah) are even more important than the romances. That doesn’t mean the romances are any less fun or devastating to watch, though – the love story between Nan and Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome), for instance, is gorgeous. There’s a wonderful balance between all aspects of the show.
The Buccaneers Has A Bigger Book Adaptation Challenge Than Bridgerton
Any book-to-screen adaptation faces certain challenges. Netflix’s Bridgerton adaptation is no different, though Quinn’s novels provided an easy-to-follow framework for the show. Each season focuses on one Bridgerton sibling’s love story, and the rest of the family moves around them until it’s their chance to shine. While Shonda Rhimes’ show has taken some liberties with the original storytelling, the romances have largely adhered to those written by Quinn. This has made it easy to plan for future plots, though it has also inevitably invited criticism when things aren’t adapted in a certain way.
The Buccaneers has a very different kind of challenge to overcome. While the show is based on a book, too, The Buccaneers was Edith Wharton’s final novel, the one she never got to finish writing before her death. It was published posthumously along with the author’s original outline, and decades later, Marion Mainwaring finished the story. The Buccaneers doesn’t follow Mainwaring’s version, though. Instead, it’s modernized and built on Wharton’s original unfinished manuscript, giving the creators more leeway to play with the characters and the narrative while also having to produce something that respects Wharton’s original vision.
Between 2019 and 2023, ITV and PBS released another three-season romantic period drama based on an unfinished manuscript: Jane Austen’s Sanditon.
Bridgerton has just been renewed for seasons 5 and 6; The Buccaneers might not last that long, given the limits of the source material. That said, the show has been genuinely successful so far. It’s a beautiful blend of modern ideals, feminism, friendships, romance, and the added dimension of the culture clash between the “new money” Americans and the “old money” Brits. We know Bridgerton season 4 will premiere in 2026, but that’s still a long time to wait; why not give The Buccaneers a chance in the meantime?
