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.

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.

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.

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..

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'!