Well, this show is something different.
It is London 1767 where a shocking one in five women earn their living by selling themselves.
Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton) owns a hostel with several whores but she is also a mother and her daughters drive many of the plot lines.
Her eldest daughter, Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay, dear Sybil from Downton Abbey) is already an estate manager's (Hugh Skinner) keeper (aka mistress) but she is flighty and her attention often strays elsewhere. And she's a horrible gambler. Young Lucy (Eloise Smyth) is still a virgin but her virginity is sold at a high price as men are sick.
Margaret also has a feud with another woman who owns a higher class brothel with elevated and well-trained women, Lydia Quigley (Lesley Manville) and their feud also drives the series. In fact, one of Margaret's girls (Holli Dempsey, also a prostitute on one episode of Call the Midwife) switches sides only to regret it as Lydia locks her girls in and keeps them in her debt with the fine gowns she provides for them, plus she doesn't care how cruelly the men (or culls as they are called) treat the girls as long as she gets paid.
Plenty of stuff happens but it all comes to a head in episode six when Lucy stabs her new keeper, formally Charlotte's keeper who forces himself on her as he now owns her. It is inevitable. Poor Lucy is so young and rather reluctant to become what every woman around her is.
There are other characters as well. Probably a stand-out is former American slave, Harriet (Pippa Bennett-Warner) the 'wife' of one of Margaret's former lovers from long ago, who is desperate to get back her children after their father suddenly dies and eventually comes to terms with being a whore and probably the best whore in the house. Margaret's current lover (there is no explanation as to what happened to Mr. Wells) is a freeman, William North (Danny Sapani), forming a rare interracial couple on either television or film. They even have a young son together. Though they are not legally married, Margaret still refers to William as the girls' Pa, though that cannot be the case.
Also from Call the Midwife is the pious, though former whore, Mrs. Scanwell (Dorothy Atkinson) who starts out as a spy for Mrs. Quigley though she soon starts to like Margaret better.
There is plenty more that happens. So watch the show for yourself.
I don't have many problems with the show, as it does create that authentic grimy atmosphere of London in 1767, but that one glimpse of Howard, Charlotte's keeper, in a wig holding a dress up to him, when in reality he was incredibly horny just felt odd, all things considered. And these girls don't understand love. Charlotte doesn't know how to have sex if there is no money in the room. And what sort of mother would force her daughter into that field. Margaret does change her tune after covering up a murder for Lucy, but it was too late by then. Though Margaret has love, more or less, she knows that the only power for women is in money and she loves money.
Another thing that shocked me is that only one of the prostitutes is pregnant and hopefully Margaret won't force her to turn her baby away. It isn't far, Margaret would do anything for her children but her girls cannot keep theirs. Though this is a bizarre show, it is still well done and I need to see what will happen to these characters. Grade: B+
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