“Harlots” Renewed for Second Season
Hulu has renewed “Harlots” for a second season, Variety reports. The series, which is set in an 18th-century London brothel, is set to return to the network in 2018.
“Harlots” centers around brothel owner Margaret Wells (Samantha Morton, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”) and her daughters Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay, “Downton Abbey”) and Lucy (Eloise Smyth, “The Frankenstein Chronicles”). The first season of the show saw Margaret’s livelihood — and that of her two daughters’ — put in jeopardy by the machinations of a rival madam (Lesley Manville, “Maleficent”), as she struggled to fulfill her ambition of serving a better class of patron.
Very much a woman-driven production, “Harlots” is the brainchild of Moira Buffini (“Jane Eyre”) and actress Alison Newman (“EastEnders”), who also executive produce the show along with Alison Owen (“Saving Mr. Banks”), Debra Hayward (“Atonement”), and star Manville. The show’s first season was written, directed, and produced exclusively by women.
“It was very important to us from the beginning to make it about the female gaze,” Owen has said. “We were determined to make something different. Our hope from the beginning was, ‘Everything from the whore’s eye view.’”
