Period drama Harlots is coming back for a third season, Hulu announced Monday.
Harlots explores the lives and fortunes of Margaret Wells and family, who are running a brothel in 18th-century Georgian London. Family head Margaret (Samantha Morton) has been sent to America in chains, while Margaret’s rival brothel owner and former madam Lydia Qualley (Phantom Thread Lesley Manville) has been defeated and cast off Bedlam. The new season follows the Wells girls, freed of their mother’s rival, now dealing with new enemies as owners of the lucrative family business. The series comes from a woman-led creative team, which includes Moira Buffini, Alison Newman, Alison Owen, Debra Hayward and Alison Carpenter.
Paste’s Amy Glynn praised the first season of Harlots for its refreshing take on the women who engage in and profit from sex work, although parts of the show’s character and sexual dynamics seemed to grow stale by the show’s second season. As Glynn mentions in our piece on Harlot’s most recent season, Margaret and Lydia’s rival maneuvers got predictable, as did the show’s oppressive take on violence committed by wealthy male clients against women sex workers.
With Margaret and Lydia now off the table, Harlots will hopefully pick back some of its mojo in its forthcoming season. As with the last two seasons, the third season of Harlots will run eight episodes, airing weekly in the U.S. on Hulu.
No word yet on a return date for the series.