To much media fanfare and growing public anticipation, the Disney+ adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals (1988) begins on October 18. Cooper’s novel, first published in 1988, is a key “bonkbuster” text – a largely forgotten genre of women’s writing from the 1980s.
Bonkbusters have three key components: they’re full of sex (the bonking) and wildly over the top in terms of storylines and characters, and they were extraordinarily popular (the buster part).
However, like its televisual sister genre, the soap opera, the bonkbuster receded into the background of popular culture in the 21st century. So why is the bonkbuster having a cultural moment in 2024? What is the appeal of adapting a text like Rivals?
