Sanditon – Season 2 Episode 1 Review

After a three-year hiatus the period drama Sanditon has returned for a second season. The first episode of the second season sets up the major storylines for the series.

It has been months since Sidney broke Charlotte’s heart by marrying another woman. Charlotte receives some tragic news that forces her to return to Sanditon. Her sister, Alison joins Charlotte at Sanditon because Alison seeks a potential husband.

Since Charlotte has been away Sanditon and its residents have changed. Sanditon has developed into a prosperous town. Tom has become Georgiana’s guardian but Georgiana resists all suitors because she sees them as gold diggers.  Esther has also returned to Sanditon to visit Lady Denham after a personal tragedy. Just outside of Sanditon the army has set up camp and Sanditon’s residents see potential personal and business opportunities.

Sanditon became incredibly popular in the US, more so than in the UK. Fans campaigned for the second season and PBS in America obliged. The second season premiered in America first and on Britbox in the UK. It has only just started to be broadcast on ITV in the UK.

This episode’s job was simple. It needed to show the changes that have happened since Season One and Two, set up the characters’ goals, and the storylines for the season to come. Love interests were set up for Charlotte, Alison, and Georgiana, Esther had suffered from a miscarriage and was warned that another pregnancy could kill her, and Edward had joined the army and seeks to make amends with Lady Denham. The episode also established that Charlotte needed to find employment to support herself.

The episode showed several strong-willed women. In the first season of Sanditon Charlotte was a typical Jane Austin protagonist because she had a love-hate relationship with Sidney. In this episode, Charlotte believed she needed to make her own way in the world and she stood her ground against her potential employer because he wanted his female wards to follow typical gender roles. However, a potential issue for Charlotte was the handsome army colonel, Francis Lennox (Tom Weston-Jones.) Georgiana was wealthy enough to ensure she was free to marry anyone she wanted to, and she was leading a sugar boycott.

Two new characters introduced in the episode were Augusta (Eloise Webb) and Leonora “Leo” Colbourne (Flora Mitchell), two young cousins who Charlotte got to know. Augusta was a forthright young woman who was far from being ladylike. Leo was tomboyish, she was even mistaken for a boy because she had short hair and was dressed in a British army redcoat. Leo was a rough-and-tumble young girl who followed the army when they marched through Sanditon and she was nearly trampled by a horse. Both girls were seen as feral children who couldn’t be tamed.
Alison stood in contrast to her older sister and her new friend Georgiana. Alison wanted to go to Sanditon to find a good-looking, wealthy man, and she scouts the army for potential suitors.

This episode also brought in some political themes. Lady Denham mentioned that there was a wave of radicalism which was spreading across the country. The episode took place in 1820, five years after the Napoleonic Wars and even though Napoleon was defeated, his ideas were still present. The Peterloo Massacre only happened a year before the events in the show.

Georgiana was leading a sugar boycott because she was protesting against slavery and wanted to see it abolished. Lady Denham saw things differently because she saw the boycott as a pointless endeavour. As a history nut I appreciated this detail and it reminded me of the first episode of Gentleman Jack where Anne Lister argued against the Great Reform Act of 1832.

Episode One of Season Two was a perfectly functional season opener.  It did the job of introducing the new characters, setting up the storylines, and establishing the changes since the first season.