Ahistorical amusements

• Published date: 14 November 2023
• Publication title: Signal

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...