{"id":7545,"date":"2018-09-11T15:57:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T13:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/?p=7545"},"modified":"2018-09-11T15:57:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T13:57:21","slug":"six-reasons-harlots-is-the-best-show-youre-not-watching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/blog\/2018\/09\/11\/six-reasons-harlots-is-the-best-show-youre-not-watching\/","title":{"rendered":"Six Reasons ‘Harlots’ Is The Best Show You’re Not Watching"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Season two of Harlots, Hulu\u2019s critically acclaimed series about warring brothels in 18th-Century Georgian England, is now first and only on Showmax. If you\u2019re late to the show that Variety described as \u201cDownton Abbey meets Game of Thrones,\u201d Harlots follows Margaret Wells as she struggles to reconcile her roles as brothel owner and mother to daughters Charlotte and Lucy – while fighting off Lydia Quigley, a rival madam with a ruthless streak. GQ recently called Harlots \u201cthe best show you’re not watching… If you haven’t been keeping up, then you’re missing out.\u201d Here are six reasons why:<\/p>\n

1. The cast features two Oscar nominees; Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey; and now Liv Tyler<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harlots\u2019 cast includes Oscar-nominees Samantha Morton (In America, Sweet and Lowdown, The Walking Dead) and Lesley Manville (The Phantom Thread, River) as the rival brothel owners. Screen Actors Guild winner Jessica Brown Findlay (aka Lady Sybil from Downton Abbey) plays Charlotte Wells. And now another Screen Actors Guild winner Liv Tyler (aka Arwen in Lord of the Rings) has joined the cast as Lady Isabella Fitzwilliam, heiress of Blayne.<\/p>\n

2. You\u2019ll realise just how bad things used to be for women – and that things are improving<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Georgian England, the age of consent was 12. If a woman (or child) married, her body was considered her husband\u2019s property, as was her actual property. Even if she inherited money, like Lady Fitzwilliam, she couldn\u2019t control it – a male relative would keep it for her until she married, when it would pass to her husband. So perhaps it\u2019s understandable that one in five women made a living selling sex in London in 1763; as Eloise Smyth, who plays Lucy Wells, says, \u201cBeing a prostitute was the only way for young women to make their own money and have ownership of their money.\u201d<\/p>\n

3. It\u2019s a rare show entirely written, directed and produced by women<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harlots is driven by a rare all-female creative team of writers Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre) and Alison Newman; Oscar-nominated executive producers Alison Owen ((Elizabeth, Anne With An E) and Debra Hayward (Les Mis\u00e9rables, Love Actually), with Alison Carpenter; BAFTA-nominated lead director Coky Giedroyc (The Killing, Seven Seconds); and BAFTA-winning producer Grainne Marmion (The Borrowers, Doctor Foster).<\/p>\n

The result? It\u2019s been praised for its \u201cwhore\u2019s eye view\u201d by Vanity Fair; hailed as \u201cone of the few shows on television to master feminist sex scenes\u201d by Decider; and celebrated as \u201ca much-needed break from the male gaze\u201d by Bustle.<\/p>\n

As Liv Tyler says, \u201cHarlots could go in a totally different direction, I think, if it was written by a man.\u201d<\/p>\n

4. Georgian England was \u2018very rock \u2018n roll\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Georgians were pretty rock \u2018n roll,\u201d says Eloise Smyth, who speaks with authority on rock \u2018n roll comparisons, since her dad was Cathal Smyth – Chas Smash in the British band Madness. \u201cIt was only when the Victorians came that we got that British \u2018stiff upper lip\u2019 thing. The Georgians were pretty punk and cool and had great parties, wore lavish clothing and were quite bawdy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samantha Morton agrees, adding that she\u2019d love to see the male fashion from the era make a comeback. \u201cI love it. I really do. I think if you are a man in society today and you want to be flamboyant, it is really suppressed. Back then it didn\u2019t affect your masculinity at all if you had a nice jacket or a bit of a heel on the shoe. That\u2019s why I loved Prince because he did all that. Pop musicians get away with it but for men in today\u2019s society, they go to the shops and what is there for them?\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Despite the dark subject matter, it\u2019s funny and warm<\/strong><\/p>\n

As AVClub says, \u201cRarely has a show about such wretched people been so delightful to watch\u2026 Harlots is never as dark as it could be \u2013 and is often grimly funny \u2013 because it\u2019s never only about the fact that the fight is unwinnable. It\u2019s about the people you can fight beside. Even in a world held under the thumb of powerful men, family is possible. Connection is possible. You can endure.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Critics love it<\/strong><\/p>\n

Harlots currently has a 96% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.<\/p>\n

As Refinery29 puts its, \u201cThe show’s premise involves a difficult balancing act. It must depict sex work without glamorizing it, deliver on a world of intrigue and power struggles without getting too bogged down in historical nitpicking, underscore these ladies’ crackling wit and joie de vivre without glossing over the very real dangers they face, all with a healthy dose of camp aided by a lavish costume budget. And good thing for us, [Harlots] delivers on all of the above. Inspired by the story of real women, Harlots is a story about sex workers, yes \u2013 but it’s also about family, female friendships, gender dynamics, and money\u2026 All in all, it’s the perfect way to escape the increasingly Handmaid’s Tale world we’re living in. Forget Gilead \u2013 Georgian London is where it’s at.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Vox and The Guardian described the feminist workplace drama as \u201caddictive,\u201d with Vox pitching it as \u201cwhat would happen if The Sopranos and Gossip Girl had filthy, complicated sex\u201d and The Guardian calling it \u201cTV stuffed to the heaving bosom with sex, gin and glorious insults\u2026 Expertly evokes the sleaze and virginity-auctioning of the Georgian age\u2026 A fully realised, filthy and believable world, which also happens to be hugely entertaining to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can now binge-watch Harlots first and only on Showmax<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7PHX5gpjro0&feature=youtu.be<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Season two of Harlots, Hulu\u2019s critically acclaimed series about warring brothels in 18th-Century Georgian England, is now first and only on Showmax. If you\u2019re late to the show that Variety described as \u201cDownton Abbey meets Game of Thrones,\u201d Harlots follows Margaret Wells as she struggles to reconcile her roles as brothel owner and mother to… Continue reading Six Reasons ‘Harlots’ Is The Best Show You’re Not Watching<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-7545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-online","tag-showmax","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samdb.co.za\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}