I’m somehow an Edith Wharton fan without ever having read one of her books. I hope that’s allowed. I’m even more of a fan now, because she has given us The Buccaneers. By which I mean Apple TV+’s take on her unfinished, posthumously published novel of the same name, starring all sorts of young actors who all merge into one beneath my benevolent but ageing croneish eye, as characters who get into all sorts of ahistorical costumes and scrapes but power the whole thing along with sheer youthful exuberance.
We meet the gaggle of girls whose romantic fortunes we will track over eight energetic episodes, as they prepare for the grand New York society wedding of one of their number, Conchita (Alisha Boe). She is known as Connie in the book but they call her Conchi here, which I find ineffably upsetting and feel some etiquette or linguistic expert should have been on hand to prevent it. Anyway – Conchita is due to marry Lord English of Englishtown (actually Lord Richard Marable, played by Josh Dylan, but I’m conveying the vibe here not the facts). She almost doesn’t because his parents Senior Lord and Lady English (played by Anthony Calf – Anthony Calf! What a lovely surprise! – and Fenella Woolgar, last seen as Margaret Thatcher in The Reckoning and only slightly less terrifying here) Englishly object. Her best friend, and our main heroine, Nan (Kristine Froseth) saves the day, and lucky she does, because Richard has already impregnated his fiancée and time is a-wasting.
