“The Buccaneers” creator on inevitable “Bridgerton ”comparisons: 'The whole point is the culture clash'
"The way Edith Wharton wrote it was in the modernizing of it," Katherine Jakeways tells EW.
A series about independent, curious young women seeking husbands in 19th century England set to pop music and dressed up in colorful, modern costumes might sound very familiar — but we're not talking about another Bridgerton spinoff.
The Buccaneers creator Katherine Jakeways acknowledges there will be comparisons between the Netflix historical romance and her new Apple TV+ series starring Alisha Boe, Kristine Froseth, Imogen Waterhouse, Aubri Ibrag, and Josie Totah.
Like Bridgerton, which is based on Julia Quinn's romance book series, The Buccaneers is based on written material — Edith Wharton's final, unfinished novel. And Jakeaways credits the source material for The Buccaneers' modern flair.
"The Bridgerton comparison is an absolutely valid one and an inevitable one," she tells EW, noting that its development started before Bridgerton came out. "It was never a, 'Oh, let's try and do something like Bridgerton.' But obviously, we were aware of it and I've admired so much of what they've done. But the modernization of it is the way that period dramas have been done in the last however many years, and it would have been how we would've always wanted to do it. The way Edith Wharton wrote it was in the modernizing of it and actually embedded into the story of The Buccaneers."
Producer Beth Willis first brought The Buccaneers to Jakeways, who was drawn to the relatable storytelling. "I immediately fell in love with the world of it and the characters," she says. "It's such a rich starting point for so many stories, some of which are already in the book, some of which we were able to expand on or invent in some cases. The characters were all there on the page, the young women particularly."
"They already felt so cohesive as a group and so modern, despite [Wharton] having written it 100 years ago and set it 150 years ago," Jakeways continues. "A lot of the job of what I needed to do was already done for me by Wharton."
The story follows a group of young American girls — including heiress Conchita (Boe), outspoken Nan (Froseth), her sister Jinny (Waterhouse), flirtatious Lizzy (Ibrag), and shy Mabel (Totah) — who travel to England in search of aristocratic husbands and find adventure and intrigue.
Much of the show's modern voice comes from the juxtaposition of the ebullient Americans and the stuffy Brits. "The whole point of the story is the culture clash between the buttoned up, stiff, English, traditional, period-drama families and this new whirlwind of these vivacious, wild, free girls who've arrived," Jakeways adds. "The tone of it was informed as much by the fact that Edith Wharton has put that in her book and that's fundamental to the story as it was trying to make it feel contemporary to a contemporary audience."
The Buccaneers and Bridgerton are hardly the first to introduce modern pop music and actors of color into historical storytelling. Lately, it seems to be everywhere from Dickinson to Hamilton.
"It allows us to explore those stories in a much more empathetic and real way," says Jakeways of the trend. "The way that period dramas used to be done, it feels a little bit like you're looking at a painting of people in costumes. It's like you're reading a history book which doesn't quite relate to you. By making the characters feel like people that you might have met in your life or that people you might be related to or the groups of friends that you've had, and by doing things like making the music feel more contemporary, it allows you to understand the characters in a different way. It makes you think, 'Gosh, they were not just characters in a book or characters on a painting.'"
Jakeways also points out that these characters are barely 19 years old, and though they would've had different expectations than today's 19-year-olds, they are still impetuous young people finding their way in the world.
"They were young women who had come over on a ship on an adventure of a lifetime with their best friends," Jakeways says of the titular buccaneers. "They're thinking they were going to have these amazing adventures and these experiences of meeting these new people — and doing it with their mates and collapsing on the bed at the end of the night after a party and going, 'Oh my God, can you believe that she said that to him?' and behaving in the way that every young woman in history has ever behaved."
Jakeways wants viewers to understand that we have more in common with historical characters than we might think.
"The way that Wharton has set this up and the way that we hope we've continued it is to say they were just like us," she concludes. "It's all themes that are very familiar to us, but you don't always necessarily relate those to yourself when you're watching a period drama."
The first three episodes of The Buccaneers are now streaming on Apple TV+.
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