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<\/p>\nIn the fictional English county of Rutshire, the feud between Corinium Television head Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) and the gang at rival TV station Venturer escalates as Tony seeks revenge against all who have wronged him, starting with journalist Declan O\u2019Hara (Aidan Turner) and Conservative MP Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell).<\/p>\n
Streaming on: Disney+<\/p>\n
Episodes viewed: 5 of 12<\/p>\n
Remember when hair was bigger? When\u00a0shoulders were\u00a0padded? When TV was\u00a0fun\u00a0with a capital\u00a0\u201cF\u201d? In its second season,\u00a0Rivals\u00a0continues to delight in the hedonism of Dame Jilly Cooper\u2019sracy\u00a0book series with\u00a0\u201980s flair and cheeky schoolboy antics. Bums\u00a0abound in this preposterously silly yet addictive adaptation, where it feels like everyone is having\u00a0a good time\u00a0in the way only two (or more) people can.\u00a0But beyond all the willies and hairspray,\u00a0Rivals\u2019 second helping manages somehow to go deeper.<\/p>\n
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Amid the melodramatics and endless shagging,\u00a0Season\u00a02\u00a0expands the world of\u00a0Rutshire\u00a0to spotlight many secondary female characters who were previously sidelined. Beyond the central rivalry, it\u2019s women like Sarah Stratton (Emily Atack) and Lady Monica\u00a0Baddingham\u00a0(Claire Rushbrook) who intrigue the most now, as they navigate the inherent misogyny\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0unavoidable both\u00a0at\u00a0work and\u00a0home. Rupert Campbell-Black MP (Alex Hassell) also moves past caricature into something more nuanced in his evolving relationship with Taggie (Bella Maclean), which felt a bit one-note before.<\/p>\n
As such, it\u2019s tempting to suggest that\u00a0Rivals\u00a0has become more serious, maturing in its second year. While that is true to some degree, have no fear: men still rip their pants and shirts off with soothing regularity, while debauchery continues to (Buck’s) fizz with wild abandon. This time, however, the writing juggles comedy, drama and sheer horniness with more finesse.<\/p>\n
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One standout kitchen sequence in\u00a0Episode\u00a02\u00a0ambitiously combines all three, calling to mind British sitcoms of yesteryear.\u00a0The only occasional drawback is that all this excess sometimes proves a tad, well, excessive. Plus,\u00a0certain elements (such as a key storyline for Gary Lamont\u2019s Charles Fairburn) do feel slightly rushed.\u202fStill, watching acting royalty like David Tennant\u00a0chew on the scenery (and his cigar)\u00a0remains delightfully fun with a capital\u00a0\u201cF\u201d. And that’s something we\u2019re in short supply of these days.<\/p>\n
Season 2 of this undeniably enjoyable Jilly Cooper\u202fadaptation comes with more heart, this time around \u2014 yet other organs still abound in TV’s silliest, most decadent bonkbuster.\u202f<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the fictional English county of Rutshire, the feud between Corinium Television head Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant)…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-448043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}