What the Hell is Happening with the Buccaneers?  Spoilers

Cheating's bad, guys.

Don't do it. Especially if the guy is mediocrely hot and a lord.

So, here's the thing, I'm always up for a fun, mindless story about taboo or forbidden love. I can sit through a couple of hours of super cringey moments, that random declaration of love, that realization that nothing can come of anything because the love of her life is taken. Cue the longing stare. The whisper of his fingers brushing against hers.

I will eat that up, no hesitation.

Yet, somehow, The Buccaneers managed to ruin that for me.

If, by chance, you haven't gathered what I'm talking about, the newest season of The Buccaneers is out and although the first season was pretty bad, I just had to watch the second one to make sure it didn't have some random comeuppance.

It did not.

But it definitely tried to, and in the weirdest way possible.

Showing Trauma Isn't Deep

So, the thing about this show is that it tries to sell female empowerment in a way that is campy and cringey. In the first season, it was all about sisterhood and being wild. We get so many random dance montages and sister-bonding montages, and montages that don't really need to be montages. The second season is about gaining liberation through divorce.

Now, the thing about this show is that it randomly slaps you in the face with super depressing storylines, including ones about domestic violence. We first were introduced to Jinny and James Seadown in the first season. Their love story quickly deteriorated into something volatile and the rest of their story involved Jinny trying to escape her marriage. The interesting choice, though, was to keep her story sidelined, consistently hidden behind Nan's struggle to decide between Guy or Theo.

The show does this quite a bit. It introduces something serious, something that ensures that viewers know to take the narrative somewhat seriously, but then it never explores these themes enough for it to mean anything. Which, you might say, is a good reason to not analyze this show, but yeah... that's not who I am.

I see this show as wanting to be too many things at once. It wants to be lighthearted and taken seriously simultaneously. As a result, it successfully does neither.

It's not taboo if everyone is doing it.

I get it, there is a genuine appeal in the infidelity trope. It magnifies the stakes. It also magnifies the inevitability of the two love interests coming together. Above everything, their love for each other overcomes all obstacles.

The thing is, this show had already done that in the first season. We had Nan, Guy, and Theo, the main love triangle. Due to circumstances and maybe even a little bit of love, Nan and Theo's relationship carried the potential of actually turning into something meaningful... And, the infidelity trope kind of worked to make the appeal between Guy and Nan grow (they really don't have much chemistry otherwise)... Guy's threatened, Nan wants a taste of that forbidden fruit... and then the season ends with Guy and Nan having sex the night before she marries Theo.

Cliche, maybe, but at least it's somewhat cohesive.

The second season, then, begins with Nan lamenting her new life (because Guy's gone), and also, in the background, we are introduced to the topic of divorce when Nan discovers that her parents' marriage also isn't going too well.

Okay, so at this point, we can suspend our disbelief (and also the lack of chemistry between any of these characters), and say, yes, drama! The love between Guy and Nan becomes all the more desirable because it is both forbidden and untouchable. Nan and Theo are just not working together. There needs to be an out but society keeps them stagnant; there's too much at stake, too much stigma. Nan can't afford being a divorcee. I mean, I hate this show and I could still be invested enough to want Nan to step up and be like: Divorce time! Let's free the two unhappy people and let them live their lives. Let's give women room to feel safe asking for a divorce.

Then, the mom's story makes more sense, too. Her struggle to divorce her cheating husband works because it actually spells out the risk Nan and Theo would be taking. It's about reputation and honour, and Nan's love for Guy could determine it all. Or, better yet, her being inspired by her mother could help showcase that it takes a generation of women to spread change.

Moreover, we can sympathize with Theo because he's also trapped in a relationship where love is unrequited. Everyone is losing in some way or form. The stakes aren't overbearing, but they are there. And, I can take that divorce storyline a bit more seriously because it actually has some relevance.

Instead, The Buccaneers does something super strange when it takes the infidelity trope and applies it to almost every character. Which, in my opinion, takes away from the fun, and makes me care less about every relationship.

I couldn't figure out whether they just needed a reason to rationalize Nan's behaviour, or whether everyone felt sad for Theo, who was lonely in his marriage. Whatever the case, we now had two cheaters: Nan with Guy, and Theo with Lizzy.

Fine, whatever, it balances things out, and the show also adds that Theo and Nan can't get divorced, so this was the only other alternative. But then, the show's like, nope, actually Lizzy is also getting engaged to some moustached dude, so she also ends up cheating on him with Theo.

You'd think that'd be it, right? Nope. We get Guy marrying some irrelevant Italian side-chick by accident, so that also becomes another obstacle between Nan and him.

At this point, I think the show accidentally (or intentionally, who knows?) made cheating a fad.

Calm Down, It's Just Part of the Genre

There is no real surprise when it comes to how unhinged this show can get. At the very least, it stays consistent in randomly introducing characters and subplots.

Soap opera or not, the issue is that by adding so many storylines where everyone is cheating and ends up doing whatever they want, the show inadvertently removes the stakes. I mean, what is the relevance of Nan's mom's fight to get divorced if she could technically go cheat on her husband anyways? That's what's happening with Nan, Theo, Guy, and Lizzy. The four of them are married to the wrong person and yet nothing really prevents them from being with each other. They don't even face the stigma of what they're doing because it's the norm now. And, if the mom is taking a moral stance against cheating, then having three other people commit the same act seems contradictory.

What Are We Actually Rooting For?

I know that taking this show seriously is probably not the best idea for my mental health; however, the show has taken social media by storm and the stories we are being told matter, which is why I think it's important to note what we're actually being fed.

The show sells a really skewed sense of empowerment because it uses women's rights as a way to rationalize really problematic behaviour. Is cheating empowering? I mean, in Nan and Lizzy's case, it gives them a form of liberation. At the same time, the show also says cheating is bad. Nan continuously makes decisions that hurt a lot of people around her, but when faced with any consequence, whether that be a confrontation or a fight, she validates her choices under the guise of wanting agency and empowerment. You can't argue against it because then you're arguing against her rights as a woman, which isn't fair.

It's too easy to call it mindless crap; the show takes itself seriously when it includes speeches about women's rights. Jinny's story reminds viewers how marriages entrap and oppress women. Nan's mom standing for herself, Conchita making her long-ass speeches about liberation and embracing the wild woman, even Nan's long spiel about how her life sucks as a woman, all mark the show as one that posits itself as female empowering. The show keeps selling the rhetoric that women can do anything they want, which is a fine sentiment and all, except then it leads to these weird scenarios where nothing really matters, nothing is really at stake, and every woman can do whatever toxic thing she pleases because, hey! #Womenmatter.