From Harlots to Medici: A Summary of All of the TV Costume Dramas I've Watched or Half-Watched
In DepthIt’s been a long winter—the kind of winter that demands the comfort of wrapping yourself up in romantic visions of the past; the particular kind of comfort that’s only found in bad history, good costumes, and a variety of regional British accents. Even though I don’t live in a part of the country that has “winter” per se, cold weather is the only possible reason that I can think of to excuse the obscene amount of period television—much of truly terrible—I’ve consumed in the past months.
To be clear, I’m not necessarily suggesting that any of these shows are “good” in the critical and common use of the word. Some of them are delightfully bad and some, well, I’m just positing that they exist and I have watched them or, at least, half-watched them. The forces of the universe compel me to watch costume dramas regardless of quality and since it’s been a while since the BBC produced a mini-series that I could watch on repeat (give me another North & South!), here’s a sampling of what I’ve forced myself to watch.
Harlots
Harlots is Hulu’s latest entry into the costume drama but instead of soft-core romance, the show offers a delightfully earthy take on eighteenth-century prostitution. Inspired by Harris’s List of Covent Garden Ladies, an annual directory published through most of the second half of the eighteenth century that described the sexual specialties of the neighborhood’s best-known whores, the show stars Samantha Morton as Margaret Wells, a no-nonsense brothel owner who has pulled herself up from the proverbial gutter. Jessica Brown Findlay sheds the doe-eyed innocence of Downton Abbey’s Lady Sibyl and here plays Charlotte Wells, Margaret’s daughter, who has capitalized on her mother’s working knowledge of the flesh and climbed the prostitute social ladder from common whore to much-desired courtesan. Eloise Smyth plays Margaret’s sensitive younger daughter whose virginity is twice auctioned off to the highest bidder while Lesley Manville is Lydia Quigley, Margaret’s scheming rival madam.
Created by Moira Buffini and Alison Newman, Harlots is written, directed, and produced by an all-women team. It’s clear that the show was made by women; its depiction of sex (there’s obviously a lot of it) is simultaneously performative, funny, and practical. There’s plenty of nudity but it too feels necessary rather than bodies blatantly being offered up for the delight of the gaze. Whoring is treated as labor—the work of women whom history has allowed few other choices—and the showrunners have no interest in moralizing the trade or any of the kinks they depict (Kate Fleetwood as the very businesslike S&M mistress Nancy Birch stands out). That’s not to say that the show isn’t visually appealing; like any show making its bid to be a respectable costume drama, the set and costuming are both elaborate and striking, particularly the employment of both to reiterate the show’s underlying narratives: class and gender.
At its heart, Harlots is a show about value, particularly the value of poor women. There’s a Peaky Blinders-esque streak running through Harlots: a criminal enterprise built by a uniquely indefatigable and visionary individual. Like Cillian Murphy, Morton plays that role well; she has that particular blend of aristocratic ease and working-class grit that these shows need to work. But it also means that Morton has some terrible lines to deliver and a backstory that’s more melodramatic than Moll Flanders. Morton’s Wells reminds her daughters that her mother sold her to a madam at the young age of ten for a pair of shoes. At one point, Morton looks into the dirty London skyline and says, “This city is made from our flesh, every brick, every beam. We’ll have our piece of it.” Brown Findlay also has her share of maudlin lines but the two actresses are committed and talented enough to make it work.
Should You Watch It: Yes. It debuts on March 29.