Dope Girls

Julianne Nicholson's character has a seriously ruthless streak in "Dope Girls." The series is set in Britain in the aftermath of WWI, and her character is inspired by real nightclub queens selling (then) illegal liquors to customers. I have rarely seen her wield such authority and guile in a role. Her guarded, subtle smile and side-way glances that have served her well in shy wife and girlfriend roles translate surprisingly well to a menacing, murdering callousness, although she maintains tender if complex relationships with her daughters.

Some call this series a spiritual heir to "Peaky Binders," which I have not seen; there are far too many TV shows glamorizing gangsters already. This one is different because it is so women-centric. Her eldest daughter, abandoned early in life, now works in the club and they have a fraught relationship; the youngest is on her way to becoming a sociopath. One central character is one of the first female cops in London, and she is as cut-throat as the rest. They are pitted against corrupt police superiors and cocaine kingpins. Despite the 1910s setting, the style (including modern title cards and inscriptions) is as contemporary as the (im)morality. And "Dope Girls" makes it clear Nicholson's character hates "dopes," unlike too many gangster shows which glorify drug use. Too bad it is cancelled after one season.

Nicholson seems to have parlayed her Emmy award into exciting lead roles. In _Paradise_ she plays a tech tycoon lording it over surviving humanity, and may or may not be the arch villain of that streaming series.

She is plenty tough as a hostage in _Monos_ too. Hard, isolate, stoic, a killer, and so forth. One of the best American actresses finally achieves the recognition and success she deserves. It has happened really late in her career, but is so well deserved.

I didn't even see the title, all i noticed was that it was a Bad Wolf production, so i was hooked in....... Not sure what's happened at Bad Wolf but this misses more than it hits.

Woke from start to finish is probably the best thing i can say about this. The characters are unbelievable, the plot even more so and overall the production seems to have been robbed from 'Peaky Blinders' and put through the wringger.

Now admittedly at the start they say it's a fiction.....well that's the truth. They've taken liberties with just about everything of that period, which is a shame, as you just know the younger generation, (who will end up watching this), will think that's what it was like just over 100 years ago.....here's a spoiler for you...IT WASN'T.

If you manage to make the entire series apply to his majesties government for a medal, you deserve it.

Please Bad Wolf assign this to the bin.

Shame, really, I like Julianne Nicholson in most things she has appeared in but whatever possessed her to appear in this latest piece of BBC revisionist historical based drama is unclear. Have attention spans sunk so low in today's generation that the commissioners at Bonkers Broadcasting Corporation keep producing tick box dramas that pay no attention to entertaining fact based well written thought through storylines with acting that doesn't always try to be weird or shocking and direction that doesn't leave the viewer confused or disorientated in trying to follow it. Also, the sound quality was shocking as was confirmed by the fact that to listen to it comprehensively the volume had to be turned up high and then quickly turned down again when the conclusion was followed by a trailer for Match Of The Day. Another disappointing failure in the long line of terrible BBC big budget drama shows of the last decade. Stop trying to get down wif da yoof and cater for people who actually watch television.

Dope Girls is a fantastic dramatic and complex styling of smart, strong women in deeply repressed brutal environment. It brings dramatic tension to new levels. Hypnotic primitive soundtrack. And an unnerving and uncanny ability to make the existential stories of a past time resonate with contemporary women's experience.

I started off quite expecting some female led criminal gangsterism. At first I just found it unbelievable. After a while I just started treating it as a farce and from then on found it quite amusing. The anachronisms are just laughable. In the knock out female police cadets there are two non white applicants. There would be no black female police officers for another fifty years! Wpcs until relatively recently were restricted to ferrying children about and being with distressed women. Completely different from today when female cops are just regular cops. The atmosphere in the clubs and private party was nothing if not contemporary! The entire notion of this being shortly after WW1 is farcical! Nothing of the period is accurate in the slightest. Having now seen all six episodes I can say that is a shameful waste of a decent cast and shed loads of money. The dialogue is painful. The main character Kate Galloway seems to have been on strike! She's supposed to a tough ruthless woman but when someone speaks to her she just stares gormlessly into space! The story line is repetitive and I've seen enough satin underwear to last me a lifetime. I fear there may be a second season. I'll give it a miss..