This isn’t your standard period drama, Harlots is done in a similar vein as Peaky Blinders but with worse writing and some really annoying male leads. I could overlook the modern soundtrack and the overall style if there was an interesting story behind it all but it’s not there. it feels cheap and hollow.

Most of the men are just so unbelievably horrible you can’t wait until they’re off the screen. Problem is they are central figures in the show so they’re in a lot of scenes. The ones that seem like they could be interesting, like Margret Well’s partner, are written so thin it’s a wonder they have a last name.

Another thing that stood out is the cavalier way Harlots handles serious subjects such as rape, murder, pimping etc. Like mere formalities it has to go through before it can go back to showcasing the characters jaunty antics. There are moments when characters reflect the emotions you’d expect for a given subject but it rarely leads anywhere. There is very little growth overall.

I don’t understand the great reviews this show has. I gave it until the third episode in season 2 to improve but if anything it only got worse.

Overall I'm pretty fond of this show. Especially the first season. It had me sucked in right from the first episode. I do think this show has the rare problem of being a little too fast paced. I don't think this is a that big of a problem, as it is only a little bit, but its probably the reason why some people here say it feel likes they skip over the serious subjects. Because that's just kind of how they treat everything, and it stands out more with the obvious things you'd expect to have a more long-term effect. The show probably would've benefited from making the seasons a bit longer, so they could have taken the time to give everything the attention it deserves.

I think the major problem with this show is one many shows have, in which it seems like they have no real long-term plans and just make the story up per season. This always makes for a really rough transition between seasons. The story doesn't flow together well and its hard to get into again each time. 'Harlots' seems to take this particularly hard. At the end of the first season, there are a lot of arcs they just kind of drop. Like they're just got tired of it and said "yeah we're done with this", instead of actually giving it a logical and satisfying conclusion (some examples: [spoiler]Harriet getting her children back, Charlotte's plans to run away with Daniel Marney[/spoiler]). It also has one of the biggest character purges between seasons I've ever seen. Almost all of the supporting cast disappears. Some get a quick, not very well thought out moment which explains their leaving, but most get some one-line mention or are just never seen again without any explanation at all. Which I think is shame, because there we're a lot of interesting characters among them of which I would have liked to have seen more (eg. [spoiler]Daniel Marney, Thomas Haxby, Marie-Louise D'Aubigne, Betsey Fletcher, Rasselas, Benjamin Lennox, Lord and Lady Repton, Caroline Howard, Christopher Rutledge[/spoiler]). And it makes all the new supporting characters that were added to replace them feel a lot more shallow and empty.