Newsweek

New Drama 'Harlots' Shows a Bawdy London Past

ITV and Hulu’s co-produced series is not really a costume drama, it’s more a take-off-your-costume drama.
Daniel Sapani with Samantha Morton as Margaret Wells, a brothel-keeper in Georgian London.
Harlots

,  ITV and Hulu’s co-produced series about life in two brothels in 18th-century London, is not really a costume drama, it’s more a take-off-your-costume drama. The first five minutes pass in a blur of dirty satin hems dragged through puddles, blond ringlets flying and naked breasts quivering, all to a headache-inducing soundtrack of rock and hip-hop.  Within 10 minutes, we’re treated to sex in the street using (almost) every position imaginable. This is the TV equivalent of what English people of

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