'Sanditon' Season 2: Episode 1 Recap

Against all odds, period drama Sanditon is back for a second season. No matter how some of us might feel about the necessities of casting changes and other assorted changes and economies caused by its very belated renewal, we should take the opportunity to simply rejoice in the fact that the show is back at all. If the Season 2 premiere is anything to go by, the series has kept much of the same colorful charm that characterized its initial outing. Granted, there are some not insignificant differences that will take some getting used to, but in all honesty, the show's return is better than it has any right to be. (And better than I expected.)

Sanditon's second season premiere shows off a changed town, introduces over a half-dozen new characters, and reintroduces us to Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams). She's got more sharp edges in the wake of her break-up with Sidney Parker (Theo James) at the end of last season and who seems quietly devastated by the news of his untimely death.

Before we get into the specifics of the episode itself, we should probably talk about this proverbial elephant in the room. Sidney's offscreen death is likely to deeply upset a fair number of fans, even if his burial on a faraway shore is the catalyst that brings much of this season's arc into focus. To be fair, Sanditon didn't have a lot of choices in the situation. James, who played Sidney, has been fairly adamant about the fact that he only ever intended to do one season of the show and had gotten himself another job (on HBO's upcoming prestige Steven Moffat series The Time Traveller's Wife) in the wake of its initial cancellation. As much as many of us (read: me) might have wanted to hang on to the dream James would one day change his mind; Sidney would gallop back into town, suddenly single and mysteriously free to be with Charlotte, it's not something that would have ever realistically happened—either from a storytelling or a casting perspective.