Dope Girls

A bit freaky and dark. Sex drugs and rock and roll in post WWI. Everyone is unhinged. There is a blend of realism with artistic licence IE hyper stylistically quasi fantasy. Even to the point of modernising the characters rather than reimagined them as quaint and 'so in the past'. The first episode seems to focus on character woes and opposites... We are clearly set up to see a rise of the abused and tossed aside women into forces to be reckoned with. For me personally it could tone down the artsy stylistic liberties and 'keep it real, yo' a bit more. But as of eps 1 I will tune in further. I gave it a 7 but it was close to an 8.

An excellent drama, with a totally fascinating storyline, great acting and superb dialogue. It manages to be both colourful and murky at the same time. 'Dope Girls' goes some way to blowing away the cobwebs left by the usual stodgy (3 episodes before anything much happens) old TV thrillers. It doesn't have to be factual - it's got a damned good plot. It's hard to pick out one performance ahead of the others; they're all believable and well-rounded. There are scenes that are a bit raunchy but, given the plot and the grim reality of the lives on show here, it's not 'sexy'. I liked the parallel drawn between the obviously villainous and wicked crime family and the obnoxious exploits of the police. Even the central female characters are flawed - there really are no 'good guys'. Having said all that, it's not a 'depressed-fest'. A lot of the camera work is stunning and imaginative, and, as they used to say in the sixties quite 'trippy'!

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.