American actor Julianne Nicholson and Australian actor Eliza Scanlen star as British women trying to establish themselves in a vile men’s world in BBC’s Dope Girls. The 1918-set show centers on a bunch of women (and men) in a post WWI London, as they all get tangled in a chaotic conspiracy filled with murder, treachery and torment. We’re going to summarize the events of Dope Girls here before sharing our take on the show.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Show?
When British men had to leave their home to serve in the First World War, it was the women who took the reins of the society. Our show kicks off right after the end of the war, with the men returning to take back control, as if nothing ever happened. Obviously that’s never a good thing, under any circumstances. Life turns into a cesspool of problems for Kate when she’s fired from her job at a local pub, her husband kills himself for his inability to set up a successful business post-war and she loses her home. Not only does she have to get her life back on track, but she also has to pay for her teenage daughter Evie’s education at a prestigious private school. Evie doesn’t seem to be all that keen on that, though. Anyway, desperate to find her footing, Kate arrives in London and takes shelter in Billie’s flat in the Soho area (which is famous for its nightlife culture). Billie happens to be Kate’s daughter, whom she had when she was a teenager and then gave up to an orphanage. Only recently have the two of them seemed to connect, and Billie is not too happy about that. She has a (justified) grudge against Kate for abandoning her; there’s a point in the show where Billie wonders if it was because she’s Black (Kate is White, effectively meaning whoever she had Billie with was Black). Billie’s gay friend Eddie lives in the same flat. Both Eddie and Billie are expressionist dancers who find it difficult to make ends meet. Billie has a job at a local club, Danton’s, though, where she’s forced to sell drugs by enticing customers, mainly men. The club is run by Silvio Salucci, the heir to the notorious gangster family, the Saluccis, who practically run Soho. The guy also appears to have a penchant for mistreating and humiliating everyone, especially the women who work for him. When Billie takes Kate to Danton’s, Kate doesn’t waste any time getting into business. In the span of one night, she steals Silvio’s stash of money, keeps it in a safe place, tips off the police, and causes a raid. Her original plan must have been to flee with the money, but she unfortunately gets caught by the police, along with a few others.
Meanwhile, young Violet Davies aspires to join the police force as one of the first female officers in the country. And she wants it anyhow, even if that means getting physically involved with fellow aspirant, old Mrs. Fisher, and then crying wolf about being sexually abused. Inside a police lockup, Violet has to mercilessly beat Kate in order to prove her worth to her volatile superior officer, Frankie. Once out, Kate returns to Danton’s to retrieve the money, when she has quite the encounter with Silvio Salucci and ends up killing him by violently stabbing in the neck with Billie’s hairpin. Billie, who was also there to collect her wages, witnesses everything and automatically becomes a part of it. Realizing the Saluccis—mainly Silvio’s father Damaso—are going to get suspicious if she goes away, Kate decides to stay and open a nightclub by herself with the stolen cash as seed money. Despite being skeptical, Billie gets on board with her long lost mother.
Violet’s dream of serving in uniform gets squashed after Frankie orders her to go undercover to investigate Silvio’s disappearance. Frankie is in the pockets of Saluccis, although it’s more of an obligation than a choice, considering the crime family has the tendency to practice extreme punishment like cutting out the tongues of their enemies and feeding them to their matriarch – Damaso’s mother. Following Frankie’s orders, Violet befriends one of the Soho girls, Lily, through whom she finds a way into Kate’s new club, named ‘The 33.’ The club opens well and instantly becomes the talk of the town. But Kate can’t escape the wrath of the Saluccis, as Damaso and his brother Luca pay a visit and threaten her to pay them off regularly for ‘protection’ if she wants to run the business. Kate has no choice but to accept for the time being, which frustrates Billie, given the whole point of the club was to do something better—without the drugs and prostitution—but the involvement of Saluccis makes that impossible.
When Violet discovers Silvio’s gun—with his name engraved on it—in Kate’s drawer, she realizes what happened. Without wasting any time, she takes it to Frankie, and Frankie takes it to Luca—arguably the most threatening of the lot. I should mention here that Damaso’s erratic brother has also returned from the war and is having difficulties in adjusting. It’s another matter that he’s a terrible man who’s possibly suffering from BPD, which basically means he’s a ticking time bomb for everyone. There’s also this big rivalry going on among the brothers—Damaso has always been (justifiably) jealous of Luca, given how their mother doesn’t try to hide that Luca is her favorite, despite the fact that the elder Salucci is the one who’s keeping things together. Luca, on the other hand, is twisted enough to not tell his own brother the truth about Kate. Instead, he blackmails Kate and forces her to run drugs for him through the club. What he failed to take into account was the fact that Kate is as unpredictable as him and also smarter. Manipulating Damaso into killing his own brother is an audacious move, but she pulls it off, which solves all the problems, at least for the time being. Dope Girls closes with Violet finally being able to fulfill her dream—of being a police officer—and making a deal with Kate. You can find a detailed discussion about the ending here.
Final Thoughts
I like when a story shows urgency in getting into the meaty part, which is the case with Dope Girls. Silvio’s murder—which sets off a chain of events—happens about half an hour into the first episode, which allows the show to go berserk for the rest. While it does exactly that, the writing is smart enough to keep you hooked. The sharp editing makes sure that the pace never suffers, which is a huge advantage.
Both the lead actors, Nicholson and Scanlen, are proven talents in recent years, and they’re expectedly at the top of their game, and so are the rest. I’m particularly happy for Nicholson, a phenomenal actor, who’s finally being recognized (that has a lot to do with HBO’s superlative Mare of Easttown, by the way). I’m not quite the fan of Dope Girls trying to tell the story in the form of a graphic novel, but I can see the novelty in it. Had it not been overdone, I probably would have been impressed. I cannot particularly comment on the historical accuracy of the show, but I don’t think that matters much here.
The only issue with the show is, perhaps, the entire subplot around Kate’s daughter Evie. As a standalone story of a teenage girl not being able to move on from her father’s suicide and embracing black magic as a coping mechanism, it does work quite well. But other than a few threads, it doesn’t quite tie up with the main plot and kind of ruins the chances of the show being something truly great. However, Dope Girls still works, thanks to its bold, colorful approach, strong performances, and a genuinely exciting story, which might be set in the past but still has relevance.
