Katherine Jakeways has made just enough tweaks to Edith Wharton's "The Buccaneers," to draw comparisons to "Bridgerton," Netflix's wildly successful series in which girls just wanna have fun.
But the new adaptation, now airing on Apple TV Plus, can't quite commit to the party.
For those who fell asleep in classic lit class, the unfinished novel champions five American socialites let loose in 1870s London. They're Swifties crashing an opera.
The rebels are led by Nan St. George (Kristine Frøseth), dancing and giggling their way from one ball to another. They're supposed to be looking for suitors, but you quickly get the sense that they'd rather be playing beer pong.
The group has to grow up quickly, though, due to pressure from society and their parents who are just as eager to be accepted into high society as the characters in HBO's "The Gilded Age," another current series set around the same period.
Like "Bridgerton," it takes place in a color-blind world with contemporary music, most of it written and performed by all-female groups. Emily Kokal's theme song, "North American Scum," sounds like a long-lost Go-Go's track.
If only the dialogue was as irreverent as that ditty's lyrics.
The series can't quite decide how modern it wants to be. One minute, the cast sounds like members of "Mean Girls," the next they're uttering dusty lines like "I don't give a fig."
