The Buccaneers: Historically Speaking, the Apple TV+ Drama Is More Than Just the Next Bridgerton

In the 19th century, few things annoyed the aristocracy in England more than the pesky American nouveau riche who threatened to bulldoze centuries of tradition to build their burgeoning empires.

This battle between the past and the future has played out in countless movies and series, most recently Netflix's Bridgerton and HBO's The Gilded Age. It also serves as the backbone for the latest addition to that pantheon — Apple TV+'s The Buccaneers.

The new series, based on the 1938 unfinished book by Edith Wharton, is being heralded as a young adult Bridgerton with its lavish costumes, debutante balls, and romantic politics. But historically speaking, The Buccaneers is not a Bridgerton knock off. In fact, it doesn't even take place in the same time period.

Bridgerton largely exists in the 1810s, known as the Regency era, when George IV stepped in to govern as regent (aka temporary king) for his father, King George III, who had descended further into illness. That story has played out in Bridgerton and its prequel, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. For the Bridgertons and their neighbors, this moment in history was only a generation or so removed from the American Revolution and the vicious severing of ties with King George's former colonies.

The Buccaneers creator explains why her show is different from Bridgerton

The Buccaneers, however, takes place in the 1870s, a decade after the Civil War when American industries were starting to boom on a global scale and the aristocracy that had ruled England with an iron fist for centuries began to feel the pressure of a changing world. This tension is already palpable in the first episode of the eight-episode series when Conchita Closson (Alisha Boe), the heiress to a newly struck American fortune, marries Lord Richard Marable (Josh Dylan), whose well-born English family turn their noses up at the loud, uninhibited American lifestyle. And their wedding doesn't even happen in a castle or church in England, but rather a grand Fifth Avenue home in New York City. Oh, the times they are a-changin'.

It is only when Richard aka "Dicky" invites Conchita's friends — Nan St. George (Kristine Frøseth) and her sister Jinny (Imogen Waterhouse), and Lizzy Elmsworth (Aubri Ibrag) and her sister Mabel (Josie Totah) — back to England to participate in the annual debutante debut at Queen Charlotte's Ball does the raucous next generation of new money comes face to face with the old ways.

Unlike other series set in this world of high society and unfathomable money, The Buccaneers doesn't lean heavily on real-life figures to tell its story. Queen Charlotte, a character in Bridgerton and the person for whom the ball was originally founded in 1780, has long since died by the time Nan and company are bursting onto the scene in England. Decades had passed and the iconic social season backdrop retained its lavish sheen for the rich in England, and the debutante ball and so-called marriage market remained a lauded means of courting and coupling for the upper class through the end of the 19th century.

The main conflict for the eponymous Buccaneers, outside of their various romantic entanglements, will be the pushback they get from English society and the families of the people they will begin to court. Fans of the British Royal Family today know that deep-rooted tradition is a hard mold to break, and it was even more stubbornly entrenched in the 1870s. These young women, with the reputation of American frivolity on their names, will be looked down upon as spitting in the face of the traditional systems (i.e. class systems) that sought to mold the rest of the world into its own image. The Buccaneers is, first and foremost, a tale of friendship between five women and the moves they had to make — showy and subtle — to protect themselves and each from the stringent rules that sought to keep them in their place. Viewers will be treated to their wild defiance of that system in Season 1.

If anything, The Buccaneers shares a striking resemblance not to Bridgerton but to The Gilded Age, which draws its action from the ballrooms of Fifth Avenue in New York City in the following decade — the 1880s. That homefront depiction of new money vs. old money may be confined to the warring families stateside, but the appeal of what's happening overseas is still undeniable. In the current second season of the HBO series, the potential eligibility of a duke from England on American soil sends heads spinning as to what it could mean for their debutante-age daughters.

Even into the more recent past, the attractiveness of a title can transcend money, old or new. Embracing or resisting that will be a key component in Nan's story in The Buccaneers as she finds herself drawn to Theo, the Duke of Tintagel (Guy Remmers). But it wouldn't be a good drama if she wasn't also pulled in another direction by the alluring Guy Thwarte (Matthew Broome).

As The Buccaneers evolves its various stories for the young women in Season 1, it will tackle issues of financial independence, the pains of marriage and the male ego, and more. Like many of its predecessors in the genre, it is a history lesson dressed up in the finest silk and intrigue. But perhaps its most unique trait will be its ability to narratively traverse the ocean a time or two to indulge in the culture clash between a thriving America fully independent from its founder and an England completely threatened by what that might mean for the future.

The Buccaneers is now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes premiere on Wednesdays.