Harlots is a period drama set in the 1760s focused on a community of sex workers in the Covent Garden area of London. It’s a bit of an ensemble cast, but if there’s a main protagonist, it’s Margaret Wells, the bawd of a working-class brothel whose daughters are also in the industry, and if there’s a main antagonist, it’s Lydia Quigley, a wealthy, upper-class bawd with whom Margaret shares a fierce rivalry and a complicated past. There’s also a mysterious murder cult targeting virgins, and characters in other professions and social classes feature as well, but the heart of the show is about the Wells family and their community.
You know, I wrote out a whole long, academic thing here about what makes Harlots so good – how the characters are so well crafted, how it tackles difficult subjects really smartly and sensitively, etc. – but it made it all sound so Serious™, and that’s just not the appeal of Harlots at all. Yes, the characters ARE well crafted, and yes, it DOES tackle difficult subjects really well … but I first fell in love with it because it’s also just so FUN. It’s bright, beautiful, funny, clever, colorful, energetic, romantic, heartfelt. It has a lot to say about feminism and patriarchy and privilege but it never feels preachy or miserable; it deals with death, sexual assault, grief, and trauma, but also with love and joy and friendship and solidarity, and it never feels like one of those grimdark shows that thinks it’s #cool and #edgy to punish its audience for caring.
Not to mention that I simply adore so many of the characters. Even some of the most reprehensible ones are also inescapably sympathetic and human. All the actors do an awesome job, too.
So if you like witty, women-led period dramas with beautiful aesthetics, a bangin’ soundtrack, and fantastic characters (a handful of whom are POC and/or LGBT, and all of whom are really well crafted), please do give Harlots a try. If you’ve got Hulu, it’s all on there. And thanks, I’m glad you like my art!
Hahah I’m surprised Hermann just kinda lets himself be lead around in this scene. He looks almost upset Newt doesn’t approve of the salute he totally doesn’t practice in front of a mirror sometimes.
This part really does illustrate the height difference though. Newton what are you doing here? You are late for your interview with the lollipop guild.
On one hand, I’m glad they cut this scene because it tries to setup a conflict between Newt and the Jaeger pilots that doesn’t really go anywhere. The takeaway should be Newt’s frustration that no one is really looking into Kaiju motivation deep enough (foreshadowing his solo Drift), but his confrontation with Raleigh overpowers it.
Plus, there’s enough in-fighting with Chuck vs Raleigh, we don’t need any scientists vs jocks bullshit. So, again, very glad for the cut.
BUT on the other hand, it’s fun to see Newt be an impulsive, passionate, spastic asshole. It’s about time he be the antagonizer – in the rest of the movie, Hermann tends to be the one who has the more snippy attitude.
It’s also hilarious how long-suffering Hermann is in this scene. Really, it’s amusing how quickly the two go from sniping at each other to forgetting about it. The entire scene from open to close of elevator basically plays out as:
sniping
sniping
shared frustrated looks over Stacker’s new charge
long-suffering eyerolls from Hermann while Newt blows up
half-hearted snipe from Newt
immediate appeal to Hermann from Newt about he how doesn’t like the new guy
walk into the sunset elevator together
Seriously. They are totally marriedwork-married besties, even if they don’t know it yet. (In the scope of their relationship arc, I’m also glad they cut this scene because the Kaiju Bros feel too close here. It’s great for head-canons to hint so early on that they actually like each other underneath the barbs, but less satisfactory for drama.)
Also, don’t get me started on the salute. That makes THREE now. Herman is absolutely a wanna-be soldier type who sees Stacker as some kind of father-figure. It is adorkable and another delightful little characterization that plays against the tweedy-professor archetype.
I think the most telling thing is that Hermann even allows Newt to touch him like that. Has anybody mentioned THAT yet? I mean he just lets Newt manhandle him back into the elevator. Its the kind of familiarity through touch you see with people who have either been together a long time or touch each other casually all the time. Also He doesn’t outright push Hermann back because he is aware of his bad leg. Its more like herding him around. Its oddly personal.
Also I think him pointing out Hermann isn’t a soldier is a bit of a compliment. He obviously has trouble with authority figures. Hermann has the opposite problem he NEEDS authority figures. Newt has more respect for scientists then he has for soldiers (as we just saw with him screaming at Raleigh) He almost says your not a soldier like hes demeaning himself by acting like one. I think this kinda shows up to with his protest flashbacks in the drift. Brains over brawn.
The other thing is that hes still talking about the ranger to Hermann not because he thinks the man is going to agree with him but because he knows he will at least LISTEN. From this confrontation with a random stranger I imagine he does this shit with just about anybody and the only person still patient enough to tolerate it is the one guy still sticking around the lab with him after everybody else has given up the ghost.
Why are you guys so INTERESTING.
STOP BEING SUCH INTERESTING CHARACTERS.
ABSOLUTELY!
They have a similar sort of quiet familiarity in the Hannibal Chau briefing scene. That could have been a “get-along shirt“ moment in which Stacker forces them to work together, but there’s no need.
And excellent point on the contrast in how they feel about authority. I think half the reason Newt shouts, “MOVE OVER YOU FASCIST” to Herc in LOCCENT is that he just. can’t. help. himself. It’s so ingrained within him to be anti-authority.
This scene interests me on a lot of levels. (The most superficial being that I love seeing men terrified and crawling on the ground, so, win there)
But this scene is funny to me because Newt does the classic thing that people (mostly women) do in horror movies, where they break a heel or fall over or something when running from a monster, and instead of getting back up and sprinting, they do this. I think it’s always a ridiculous trope, because survival instincts take over in a situation like this and really you’d get up and sprint. But what if there’s a reason for it here?
In the novelization, it’s explicit when Newt meets Otachi that he’s still ghost-drifting with her, still partially thinking with/for/like her. What if the same thing is going on here? What if the reason he doesn’t even appear to trip so much as throw himself down onto the ground and then crawl around like this is because that’s how Baby Otachi moves? You’ll notice in that first gif that Newt goes down at exactly the same time as Baby Otachi does, and then his crawling on all fours closely echoes what the kaiju is doing behind him.
When he turns over in the final gif, it’s like an assertion of some part of him through the foreign impulses in his brain—he may be down and crawling like the monster, but he’s at least going to look at it and see that it’s not him.
Avelera 