Rivals Season 2 Kicks Off Bigger, Messier, and Yes, Still Addictive

Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0

4.5

Oh, how I have missed the delicious slice of life that is the Cotswolds.

Back and messy as ever, Rivals returns just as sexy, raunchy, and bold as its predecessor, but also decidedly more ambitious.

But does Rivals’ increased ambition elevate the show’s success, or does it risk losing its appeal?

One of the best parts of Rivals Season 1 was that it played like a soap opera, yet even with a robust cast, the storylines remained streamlined enough not to be overwhelming.

Soap operas work because you’re peeking into the lives of the residents of Port Charles or Genoa City five days a week, which is plenty of time to get acquainted with characters and storylines.

Television shows that air once a week don’t have the luxury of time and familiarity, so it’s much harder to sell a series with a million characters flitting in and out. It’s impossible to keep up with everything.

Rivals did a masterful job of connecting its stories and characters in the first season, making it fun and easy to digest.

Rivals Season 2 expanded the narrative even further. And while the start of the season is near-perfect at times, it does become noticeable that some of the key characters are being sidelined, and it takes away from some of that first-season joy.

Rivals Season 2 Episode 1 was all about the return of Tony, who, unsurprisingly, did not die after Cameron hit him in the head and left him for dead.

Tony’s death would have been a genuine shock because his rivalry with Rupert, Declan, and now Cameron is literally the foundation of the series. It’s the entire hook.

There may be times when it appears that one side has triumphed over the other, but the back-and-forth, push-and-pull of those characters will always be the emotional core of the series.

Meanwhile, Cameron was holed away with Rupert in some private house way out in the middle of nowhere, having sex and decidedly not dealing with the problems back home.

While I am a Cameron girl through and through, the Rupert/Cameron relationship is such a hard one to swallow because it’s temporary.

Rupert ended the previous season practically confessing his love for Taggie, and he ran away with Cameron out of a sense of obligation rather than love.

And the early parts of the season lean into getting to know the real Rupert beyond his Playboy persona and the past.

Rupert and Taggie are so obviously endgame, and even with Rupert carrying on a relationship with Cameron that he seems committed to, every interaction with Taggie is charged with longing looks and things left unsaid.

Rivals is full of morally grey people, and so many relationships hang on by these loose threads of obligation and time, which makes Rupert and Cameron’s dynamic stand out because they aren’t bound together by children or history, yet it’s so obvious there’s something missing.

Rupert may have a messy past and an ex-wife who loathes him to a borderline unhealthy degree, but he’s trying to be a better person. And it almost feels like he’s using the situation with Cameron to prove to both himself and the outside world that he can be more than what people think he is.

He can be dependable. He can be someone who makes the right choices. And this is also reflected in his place at Venturer.

Venturer is positioned as the antithesis of Corinium, but to start, that part of the rivalry seems far more subdued and in the background, which isn’t a bad thing.

If you’re looking to watch a show about corporate espionage, you’ll need to look elsewhere than a series that would rather give us copious shots of David Tennant sucking on a cigar than get into the nitty-gritty of boardroom politics.

Much of the first hour is spent catching us up on where the story left off and where it’s headed, like Gerald getting engaged to a woman but still being head over heels in love with Charles, and Fred Fred, and Lizzie failing to stay away from each other.

It all leads up to a polo match where Corinium and Venturer face off, with camera crews trying to one-up each other, and it also perfectly encapsulates what makes the show so great.

There’s always a surprise around every corner, and the big one at the match lies with Cameron making her move against Tony, who thinks he’s one step ahead of her through sheer intimidation.

When she gets him to admit on camera that he slipped and that’s how he hurt himself, leaving her out of the whole thing, she slags him off immediately and returns to Rupert’s side.

It’s a big moment that feels slightly tempered by the fact that even though Tony has way less backing than the other side, his anger more than makes up for what he lacks in other areas.

This becomes apparent during Rivals Season 2 Episode 2, when Tony, after what one would consider a pretty devastating loss in losing Cameron to Rupert AGAIN, only doubles down on a secret that haunts the hour.

Of the three hours that dropped for some reason, the second is the most fun.

Sarah’s always been a character in service to others’ storylines, but propelling her into her own story in which she’s carrying Tony Baddingham’s illegitimate baby? Well, that was a stroke of genius, if only because we got the ridiculousness of that dinner party from so many different angles.

Tony’s villainy knows no bounds, and his callousness about the situation was completely on-brand because he loves to skirt responsibility and hates losing control.

The people parading in and out of the kitchen and hiding allowed others to overhear various secrets and act accordingly, though it also helped bring Rupert and Taggie closer together when he came to her rescue. Shocker!

I have such a love-hate relationship with Rupert because he plays too many games, especially with people’s hearts, and the thing is, at times, I don’t think he’s coming from a bad place when he does it.

He thinks he’s sparing Taggie the pain of having to fall in love with him and eventually be hurt by him, but he’s leading Cameron on, even though he does like her.

But he doesn’t like her enough.

Helen, a recast Hayley Atwell for all you Marvel fans, makes such an insane first impression when she walks in on Rupert and Cameron and then drops the kids at Rupert’s feet.

And while I do think there’s room to flesh the characters out more, I’m not sure how much we needed to expand into Rupert’s ex-wife and her new husband (which becomes more prominent in the next hour), if only because that’s time we could have spent with Cameron and Declan in Ireland.

Or even with Fred Fred and Lizzie, who are hands down the best clandestine romantic pairing this show has to offer.

Even though Taggie is physically present throughout much of this one, it does feel like we’re not hearing from her enough. She’s clearly struggling with the Rupert of it all, but I wish we saw more of her outside of Rupert, because we see a lot of Rupert outside of her.

Having said that, there were many lovely scenes of Taggie fitting seamlessly into Rupert’s home dynamic, which, again, only serves to show how little Rupert and Cameron are meant to last.

By the time the big exposé drops at the end of the hour, it feels inevitable that things were going too well for Rupert in the lead-up to the election.

There are times when you can forget for a second that the show is set in 1980s England, but then that segment in Rivals Season 2 Episode 3 on Rupert plays out, and you’re quickly reminded what a different time that was.

Rupert’s finished, or so it appears that way, especially on the eve of the election, when he’s running as part of Margaret Thatcher’s conservative stronghold.

If this season is headed towards Tony methodically ruining Rupert, Declan, Cameron, and Freddie, I’d actually not be that mad about it.

With Rupert, Tony’s hitting him where he believes it will hurt him the most: public perception. And it does hurt him, especially in the ways it keeps him from his children and gets him ousted from Venturer.

With Venturer just beginning, I can see why being attached to Rupert would be a hindrance, but at the same time, Cameron was right about why they started that company in the first place.

They want to be the very opposite of everything Tony stands for, and the opposite of a network that publicly humiliates a man just because they can.

I was once again floored by Cameron’s devotion to Rupert, but then again, he says and does all the right things.

Rupert’s destruction may have been at the forefront of Tony’s mind, but man, was Tony granted a gift with Maud, and it’s clear as day how this storyline will play out. But again, that’s not a bad thing on Rivals.

If you can guess exactly where every story is going, then that’s probably the sign of a show that’s too predictable to stay interesting. But that’s not really the case with Rivals, because it’s so damn delicious.

Tony will use Maud’s aspirations and need for validation, which are the driving forces in her life, to turn her against Declan. Or at the very least, gain some kind of advantage over the man and thus Venturer at large.

If he can cost Declan his marriage, that would be the cherry on top, of course, but more than anything, I think he’ll just want to make Declan spiral, which will, in turn, hurt Venturer.

Declan and Maud’s marriage makes absolutely no sense, and considering we also have married couples like Tony and Monica, Lizzie and James, Paul and Sarah, and Freddie and Valerie, that truly says a lot.

There’s passion and love, but no respect or understanding. Declan’s not the partner Maud needs, and they’ve outgrown a marriage that was once fulfilling but now leaves them both unsure of their place in it.

You can smell that divide from a mile away, and Tony’s going to pounce on it gleefully. But not after he celebrates ruining Rupert.

Rupert’s resignation after his win was bittersweet, but also felt like the thing that might get him to start being more honest with himself.

I’ve never seen Rupert more emotionally present than when he was talking to Malise, and maybe the scandal was the kick he needed to start seeing a bigger picture of himself.

Even so, Rupert’s fall from grace capped an immensely entertaining foray back into a time and a place filled with big hair, zany jumpers, and enough ego and excess to make all three hours feel chaotically perfect.

Rivals Footnotes

• I shudder to think about the day Tony finds out about Lizzie and Freddie because he’s going to blow up both of their lives, and they do NOT deserve it.

• Speaking of Freddie, though, unlike Lizzie, whose marriage to James is steeped in dishonesty and quiet disdain, he does have love for Valerie. And while he’d choose Lizzie, that doesn’t make the love he has for Valerie any less real.

• Sarah’s return to Paul was inevitable because she had nowhere else to go, but where does she go from here? Could she be the next person to make the switch from Corinium?

• Is there anyone else there besides me waiting for Cameron and Rupert to break up so she can see that the guy of her dreams is a hair’s breadth away and he’s Irish and has a super stylish 80s mustache?

• Helen was so real when she told Malise that a woman would have gotten it so much worse than Rupert ever would. That was true in 1986 and remains true in 2026.

• I pray for the day Monica finally lets Tony have it, because I fear that’s the only way he will ever be completely destroyed.

• Patrick being around more feels like a win in general, especially if he’s given more to do than just follow Cameron around. Though I do like their friendship.

• The funniest moments of the three-hour block were all the kitchen shenanigans at the dinner party, Maud kicking a naked Declan out of her hotel room, and Val screeching at the skinny dippers.

Rivals is the perfect springtime entertainment because it’s pure escapist fun.

You want to kick your feet up with your favorite drink and get lost in something that feels breezy, glamorous, over the top, and the right amount of ridiculous.

My biggest gripe? Just drop it all at once.

I would usually argue against that, but the soap opera-ness of Rivals lends itself to a binge. Oh well, when this show hopefully gets renewed, we’ll get it back.

Alright, guys, what did you think of the first 3 episodes? Let me know in the comments.

The UK Original returns in two six-episode batches— the first on May 15 with a three-episode premiere and the second later in the year—on Hulu, and Hulu on Disney+for bundle subscribers, in the US and Disney+ internationally.