Hulu's 'Dope Girls' Trailer Is Gritty and Full of Atmosphere

Gritty six-part period drama Dope Girls is finally set to premiere in America this month, and if the new Hulu trailer is anything to go by, it's going to arrive with a bang. The story, which feels like nothing so much as a more feminist take on gangland favorite Peaky Blinders, is set to explore the birth of the modern nightlife industry, which many will likely be surprised to learn was guided and shaped by female endeavour. During the First World War, a generation of women found themselves newly empowered in an economy when most men were being sent off to fight. Unwilling to relinquish the modicum of self-sufficiency they'd gained during the war years, many of them turned to more illicit and often dangerous activities.

Inspired by Marek Kohn’s nonfiction book Dope Girls: The Birth of the British Drug Underground, the drama is set in London in 1918, when women were running the clubs in London's SoHo neighborhood on their own terms, often dealing drugs and other illicit substances in the process.

The series stars Julianne Nicholson (Mare of Easttown) as Kate Galloway, a single mother who opens a nightclub in post-World War I London, embracing a criminal lifestyle to provide for her daughter Evie. Eliza Scanlen (Little Women) plays Violet Davies, a member of the first wave of female officers to join the Metropolitan Police, who is assigned to go undercover to investigate Soho's illicit underground scene. These two women are clearly on a collision course with each other, and the only question will be how they manage to cross into each other's lives.

Here's the series synopsis. 

It’s the end of WWI and London is changing as returning soldiers find a society changed by a newly empowered generation of women. In Soho’s emerging underground club scene, women begin to seize opportunities, both legal and illegal, and shape the nightlife industry. 

Alongside Nicholson and Scanlen, the series also stars features Umi Myers (Bob Marley: One Love) as Billie Cassidy, Geraldine James (Silo) as Isabella, Rory Fleck Byrne (This is Going to Hurt) as Luca Salucci, Dustin Demri-Burns (Slow Horses) as Damasco Salucci, Eben Figueiredo (The Serial Killer's Wife) as Matteo Rossi Salucci, and Sebastian Croft (Heartstopper). 

Other notable cast members include Michael Duke (Get Up Stand Up), Ian Bonar (I May Destroy You), Laura Checkley (Detectorists), Will Keen (His Dark Materials), Fiona Button (The Split), Harry Cadby (Everything Now), Nabhaan Rizwan (Kaos), Riya Kansara (Polite Society), and Jordan Kouame (Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light). 

Dope Girls is created by Polly Stenham (The Neon Demon) and Alex Warren (Eleanor), who also serve as lead writers. They're joined by Matthew Barry (Industry), Matthew Jacobs Morgan (The Rig), and Xiao Tang (You Killed My Robot). Shannon Murphy (Killing Eve) is the lead director with Miranda Bowen (Women in Love) also helming episodes.

Stenham, Warren, and Barry are also executive producers, alongside Kate Crowther and Jane Tranter from Bad Wolf, Michael Lesslie for Storyteller Productions, and Rebecca Ferguson for the BBC.

All six episodes of Dope Girls will premiere on Hulu on Monday, July 28.