"Almost a year ago, on the night the world was absorbing the news of Trump's return to the White House, I escaped somewhere else entirely. While doom-scrolling and half-listening to the anxious rhythm of the BBC, I opened Disney+ and found Rivals, the glossy adaptation of Jilly Cooper's 1980s novel about ambition, betrayal and unapologetic pleasure."
"I had no idea who Jilly Cooper was, but by the end of the first episode I was lost in a world where the most serious problems involved were unfaithful husbands, incompetent gardeners and having it all."
A viewer fleeing the anxiety of Trump's return to the White House found solace in the Netflix-style gloss of Rivals on Disney+. The adaptation evokes a 1980s world centered on ambition, betrayal and unapologetic pleasure, where the gravest troubles are unfaithful husbands, incompetent gardeners and the pursuit of having it all. The tone prioritizes desire and spectacle over political dread, offering escapist pleasure that reframes domestic dramas as arenas of ambition and rebellion. That imaginative indulgence functions as a means for women to resist external anxieties and reclaim pleasure and agency.
Read at Independent
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