Period dramas have a reputation for being a little 'dusty', design-wise. We're all too used to a gray-toned London serving as a backdrop for even our favorite historical soap operas, but dark drawing rooms and stuffy heritage homes don't necessarily offer heaps of inspiration for the interiors-obsessed among their audience.
However, shows like Apple TV+'s The Buccaneers are reimagining what the period drama means through its set design. With a maximalist, saturated color palette, the sets that the headstrong protagonists inhabit reflect the sense of disruption to the status quo that the characters, themselves, bring to the story. Based loosely on Edith Wharton’s unfinished last novel, this transatlantic drama tells the story of a group of wealthy American girls who are dropped into the rigid hierarchy of Victorian London. But, how does the set design tell this story?
