Rivals Review: David Tennant Stars in This Shamelessly Soapy Limited Series About Feuding Aristocrats

To understand Jilly Cooper's brand as an author, all you need to do is look at the iconic cover art for her most famous book, Riders: a picture of a woman's butt, clad in tight white riding jodhpurs, being firmly groped by a masculine hand. A fixture on U.K. bestseller lists in the 1980s and '90s, Cooper's raunchy "bonkbuster" novels draw inspiration from upper-class British society, taking place in a world of adultery, tabloid sleaze, and snobbish friction between blue blood aristocrats and new money.

Hulu's Rivals adapts the follow-up to Riders and stars Alex Hassell as Rupert Campbell-Black (the owner of the groping hand), opposite David Tennant as his nemesis, Lord Tony Baddingham. Both are powerful, unscrupulous and posh — although Rupert is posher than Tony, and won't let him forget it. Rupert is also considerably more glamorous: an Olympic show jumper turned politician, and a notorious Casanova. He's a product of generational wealth, while Tony made his fortune as a media mogul, marrying into the aristocracy. Around them floats a constellation of wives, mistresses, frenemies, and business ventures, providing ample fuel for infighting and intrigue.

6.9

Rivals

at Hulu

Like

• Hassell and Tennant nail their roles as a feuding pair of upper class Englishmen
• You'll be surprised by who you root for after a few episodes of character development!
• This show is unafraid to embrace its trashy side

Dislike

• Episode 1 is undeniably dull
• The story's dated sexual politics certainly won't appeal to everyone

The tone of Rivals lies somewhere between a high-end soap opera and a trashy 1980s version of Mad Men, beginning with the launch of a new talk show on Tony Baddingham's TV station, Corinium. In an attempt to grab viewers from the BBC, Tony hires ambitious TV host Declan O'Hara (Aidan Turner) as Corinium's headline star.

Declan's family is less than enthused about being forced to move to the countryside for his new job — that is, until they realize Rupert Campbell-Black lives nearby, prompting thirsty curiosity from O'Hara's glamorous wife Maud (Victoria Smurfit) and excitable teenage daughter Caitlin (Catriona Chandler). His older daughter, Taggie (Bella Maclean) — a sensible wallflower type — is less impressed by Rupert's particular brand of celebrity, which mostly revolves around sex scandals.

Taggie's disapproval is an obvious sign that she's destined to become Rupert's main love interest, offering a 1980s riff on the rake/debutante dynamic of so many historical romances. However, Jilly Cooper's world is far more cynical than the fairy tale nostalgia of something like Bridgerton.

Love stories do happen in Rivals, but they're outnumbered by callous philandering and unrequited lust. In fact, Rupert seems like an outright slimeball at first, making it all the more impressive when the show persuades us there's a soft underbelly beneath all the smug flirtation. Unfortunately, Bella Maclean is too limited an actress to make their relationship as interesting as it might be, spending much of her screen time cycling between the same two big-eyed expressions. But that isn't a dealbreaker. The main draw here is the titular rivalry between Tony and Rupert — plus Declan, who soon has his own skin in the game. 

There's a long tradition of depicting the British aristocracy — a fundamentally un-sexy demographic — as figures of heightened romance. Rupert's strong jawline and macho charisma belong to that fantasy, and Rivals makes a few other concessions in the name of palatable entertainment. Most obviously, it tones down the volume of racism we'd expect to see from a cast of posh, judgmental English people in the 1980s. Their real-life counterparts were surely much worse, visibly reflected in Jilly Cooper's own writing. For the most part though, Rivals is an amusingly unflattering portrait of upper class culture. Half the characters are cheating on their spouses, and they're all terminally uncool. Not to mention the distasteful political backdrop, with Tony as a major donor to Margaret Thatcher, and Rupert as a prominent member of her conservative government.

In 2024, Cooper's trademark horniness now feels rather quaint. Instead of attempting sincere erotic drama, the show's attitude toward sex is more like vintage James Bond, complete with silly wordplay. "Brevity is the soul of wit," quips Rupert, upon seeing Taggie in a short skirt. "And I can almost see your brevities." One self-aware running gag pokes fun at Corinium's flagship TV series Four Men Went to Mow, a rural drama where shirtless farmers flex their muscles for female viewers.

Before we get to the good stuff though, Episode 1 is kind of a dud. Imagine the first act of a mediocre celebrity biopic, full of clumsy introductions and corny historical name-dropping. This awkward scene-setting provides an unappealing prologue to the spicier material later on, but by Episode 3, things are in full swing. David Tennant is always good value, Alex Hassell nails Rupert's morally ambiguous charm, and the supporting cast includes enough sympathetic subplots to balance out the scoundrels and snobs.

Appropriately enough for the source material's dated reputation, this is a show for people who enjoy problematic faves. Its sexual mores are firmly rooted in the 1980s, and its central romance — between a 20-year-old naif and a divorced, middle-aged cad — is not exactly feminist. Yet in some ways it feels less conservative than the rose-tinted lens of many British dramas about landed gentry. Rivals wears its ugly side on its sleeve, letting David Tennant sink his teeth into a juicy villain role while embracing the shameless entertainment value of a primetime soap.

Premieres: Friday, Oct. 18 on Hulu
Who's in it: Alex Hassell, David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Bella Maclean, Nafessa Williams, Katherine Parkinson
Who's behind it: Dominic Treadwell-Collins and Laura Wade (lead writers), Elliot Hegarty (lead director and executive producer), Jilly Cooper (novelist and executive producer)
For fans of: Dynasty, Downton Abbey, David Tennant
How many episodes we watched: 4 of 8