Harlots - Season One Review
Sunday, July 15, 2018 at 10:14PM by Nathaniel R
Morton and Manville face off every week in "Harlots"
The underdiscussed Hulu show Harlots has returned for a second season. Since we didn't cover the first (having discovered it so late) but want to cover the show going forward here is a quickie through the first season with our coin pouch out to tip the ladies. Harlots is not without a few wrenching dramatic moments but it's a helluva lot less depressing than The Handmaid's Tale. But back to the show in which women have more power of their own bodies, even if they're self-exploiting them for meager economic gains or survival in a sexist world. If you aren't watching Harlots, please do. We really think it's right up the alley of TFE readers. There be much actressing!
But if you need more info before you watch here's a quick synopsis / review of Season 1 (without much in the way of spoilers)...
Lesley Manville as amoral merciless Lydia Quigley
The series revolves around two brothels in London led by notorious "bawds" (aka Madames) Maggie Wells (Samantha Morton) and Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville). There are four major plot threads:
- Wells decision to move her house to a finer neighborhood which puts her at considerable financial risk; selling her daughter Lucy's (Eloise Smyth) virginity is but the first complicated attempt to put the finances right.
- Wells' star attraction Emily (Holli Dempsey) leaving the house for what she assumes will be better prospects at Quigley's; Emily immediately regrets it but by then the two houses are already at war.
- The hostile relationship of Charlotte Wells, Maggie's eldest daughter (Jessica Brown Findlay of Downton Abbey fame) and her "keeper" Sir George Howard (Hugh Skinner) which is so messy and public that it spills into both the low class brothels and high society dinners.
- Lydia's decision to procure anonymous girls who won't be missed (no question asked) to shady powerful men, some of them government figures.
Hugh Skinner and Jessica Brown Finlay in "Harlots"
There is so much more but basically every story and dozens of juicy characters played by fabulous actors get tangled up in these threads. When they all intersect towards the end of the season it's wildly entertaining television. I wanted to kiss the show-runner for actually understanding their job! In this way Harlots is the polar opposite of many streaming series. So many series in the golden age of television, even the good ones, are filled with dead space within scenes and tedious repetitions of plot or filler drama that doesn't serve a larger purpose just to fill out their prescribed episode counts. By contrast Harlots Season 1, which is 8 episodes long, has enough plot for two full seasons and it all dovetails beautifully.
Is the show perfect? Nah! But that's what second or third seasons are for (when a show usually peaks)! I'd argue that the most obvious area for improvement is in the characterization of Lucy. The writers or perhaps the actress have not fully made up their minds as to precisely what Lucy feels about whoredom. She's clearly no good at it but the writing around even that is uneven about the whys (she was raised in a whorehouse after all) and her sudden switch in temperament at the end of the season is rushed and far too vague in origin.
The show also feels anachronistic in its racial dynamics for 1763 in England. Anachronisms are fine if you commit to them. Initially I honestly thought they were going with color-blind casting (totally fine) because the diverse casting and interracial relationships were casually presented. So I was thrown for a moment when a slavery subplot surfaced involving visiting Americans. (Slavery was actually still legal in the British Empire at that time.)
One final quibble: the show moves too quickly. Though we're glad there's no dead space Harlots could stand to slow down a little and flesh out the secondary and tertiary whores at Wells house and especially at Quigleys. Otherwise it runs the risk of reducing them all to flesh puppets which is surely not the intent; the show's creative team is largely female and there's definitely a welcome feminist streak in the writing.
Before we hit Season 2, a quick round of fun with Season 1 to get us fully caught up. Since our trousers stiffen for gimmicks and the show is heavy on transactions, we're divvying up our coin purse to tip our favorites ladies and favorite parts of the show's first season. Since we are not British and do not live in 1763 we have no idea how much money we're spending!
5 pounds for these two shots
If the climactic standoff between whorehouses in episode 2 doesn't hook you, it isn't the series for you. I have since fantasized that a storyboard of this scene was used in the pitch to get Hulu to pick up the series.
3 pounds for whoever named the characters
The naming of characters in fiction is an underheralded art and the characters names in Harlots are so repeatable, descriptive, and fun. My favorite name in the show is Haxby (Edward Hogg) because it just describes his stiff sycophantic servant so perfectly. But all of them are awesome: Violet Cross. Betsey Fletcher. Anne Pettifer. Lord Fallon. Kitty Carter. Mr. North. Florence Scanwell. Justice Cunliffe. I just love 'em.
2 pounds for Maggie
Because we will watch Samantha Morton in everything and she delivers as usual here. The depth of sadness in her compromised life isn't exactly scripted but Morton slides it in. We especially love her witch's cackle, sometimes because she thinks something is funny, but more often than not to announce that she's laughing at you...or someone else. You're welcome to join her.
a half pound for Charlotte
Jessica Brown Findlay is a wonderful unsung actress and I hope Season 2 gives her loads of juicy material. Her flow in scenes between boredom, sexual provocation, bruising wit, and especially the way she pushes away darker feelings to replace them with one of those aforementioned specialities is something. Charlotte is known all around London for her beauty and wit and Findlay sells that infamy with ease.
a crown for Amelia
There's something about Amelia... at first the pious Florence Scanwell and her daughter Amelia were the most annoying part of the show, a purposeful thorn in the side of our enjoyment of the debauchery as they preached damnation in the streets. But Amelia, (very well played by Jordon Stevens) develops affection for the prostitute Violet (Rosaline Eleazar) and clearly has a ton of compassion to go around -- especially for society's outcasts including the queer characters (who are not labelled as such given, well, 1763). She also shows reserves of courage and strength that shock given the initial meek impressions with her frequently downcast gaze.
a half-crown to Harriet
Pippa Bennett-Warner makes quite an entrance!
two-bobs, a sixpence, and a ha'penny to Franny and her 'trouble'
Franny (Bronwyn James) is the jolly big girl among the whores and very popular with the clients. James absolutely aces every scene she gets, especially any scene with a john. That scene when she tells her favorite Constable Armitage (swarthy-sexy Gerard Monaco) that she's going to have a baby is comic, sad, tender, and revealing at once.
two-bob for the Lucy and the Stable Boy scene
This subtle scene is by far my favorite Lucy moment. It's one of only a few scenes where she seems to take real agency and her interior reasoning is fleshed out rather than sketched in.
a bob and ten pence for Lydia in any scene with men, especially when she's cutting deals
Pictured above is a scene between Lydia and her mollyboy snitch Prince Rasellas (Joseph Altin from Game of Thrones) . These scenes are always icky and demeaning and faux-pleasant just as such scenes should be. She's especially good when she feels she's won a war nobody else was yet thinking to play (her 'gotcha' scene with Lord Fallon is amazing) Manville sure can delineate.
a bob for "There's no money in this room"
Charlotte's slow-building romance with fellow sex-worker Daniel Marney (Rory Fleck-Bern) is crafted from hoary tropes and would look great on a Harlequin romance novel paperback cover but it totally works.
ten pence for Sir George Howard, the ass.
And also: his ass, frequently displayed.
a farthing for the goat
A brilliant absurdist touch. Love the shot of it wandering the halls after the decadent masked party to up the ante at Wells flailing new house.
Reader Comments (8)
On my MUST watch list already - excellent post.
Anyone else watching Claws? Carrie Preston is running circles around most of the EMMY nominees there every week and it's SUCH a gay show. It must be discussed! Ha
I was a huge fan of the first season!
I kind of want to see it because I love Morton, but another part of me feeks sorry for her, since sge is BIG SCREEN leading lady material. She's as good as Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett, and shouldn't settle for leading a streaming series
Manville + Morton = sign me up. Just waiting for a time to start watching with my bestie.
Does anyone know how/where we can watch this in the UK?
Amazing show. My husband and i are hooked. We binge watched first season. Them couldnt wait to see season 2. We love it.
Any scene of this show is better than the horrendous trailer of Mary Queen of Scots.
Let's hope we get a Gerard Monaco frontal in S2
speaking of actressing, just read my first review of hulu’s Castle Rock and it said that Melanie Lewinsky stole the spotlight. anyone see?