Julianne Nicholson and Eliza Scanlen Try to Dig Their Way Out of the Dirty Depths in DOPE GIRLS

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Describing her new six-part limited series DOPE GIRLS, Eliza Scanlen said, “there’s something very punk rock about this show, which I really like.” Scanlen’s point is well stated. There is, in fact, something edgy and dangerous about DOPE GIRLS, which premieres Monday, Feb. 24 at 9 p.m. ET on CTV Drama Channel, CTV.ca, and the CTV app, and streams the next day on Crave. But to be clear, while DOPE GIRLS is set in London, England, it is far removed from the punk rock era of the 1970s. Starring Australian Scanlen (HBO’s SHARP OBJECTS), and American Julianne Nicholson (an EMMY® Award winner for HBO’s MARE OF EASTTOWN), the series takes place in the immediate aftermath of World War I, as the victorious nations in 1918 embark upon one of the biggest extended parties in history, for better or worse. Nicholson plays Kate Galloway, a widowed housewife and mother who makes a bold attempt to capitalize on the nightlife boom of the armistice by challenging cutthroat gangsters and setting up her own nightclub. Scanlen plays Violet Davies, one of the first wave of female police officers in England, who is assigned to go undercover and investigate the illicit world of drugs, booze, and prostitution in Soho. “I love that concept of not being able to put that back into a bottle,” said Scanlen, talking about how the tensions and stresses of wartime still needed outlets in the post-war world. “I think it was a time of a lot of change, spilling over with euphoria. I can only imagine that feeling of liberation, just contagious and all-consuming. It took many forms, and I guess this show looks at it through a female lens. I also think the criminalization of drugs at that time is really interesting. It has been explored before, but not with this much nuance.” Although Kate and Violet travel very different paths to be where they are, they share an icy instinct to survive. But even allowing for those wide parameters, both characters do things in the first episode of DOPE GIRLS that are truly shocking. “Yeah, how fun to be shocked!” Nicholson agreed enthusiastically. “Especially if you’re watching a lot of television, like, what a relief. It’s so nice when I think I know what’s coming, and something else happens. What I love is that none of these characters is one thing or another. You can be a loving mother, you can have a beating heart, you can want to do good in the world, but you may not have the luxury of those circumstances. So then you have to get scrappy, and try to figure out how to keep going.” Nicholson credited DOPE GIRLS executive producer and director Shannon Murphy with “bringing everybody’s energy up, so you feel these street rats, really just doing whatever they have to do. And in our case, in a pretty exciting, colourful world.” Both Kate and Violet are accused at times of having a street-rat mentality, with a certain degree of moral bankruptcy. But as their lives and circumstances change in DOPE GIRLS, do their outlooks change as well? “I think for Kate, she goes in thinking it’s a one-off, it’s a way to make money, and get on her feet, and have enough for herself and her independence,” Nicholson said. “But when she gets a little taste of that power and that lifestyle, I think it surprises her how much she enjoys being in that position, and being in that very rich, very colourful world. And then I think she might want to stick around a little longer than she had originally anticipated.” Violet, as it turns out, has underlying personal reasons to push ahead in this violent existence. But an end game for her is harder to define. “What is central to survival is not being able to think ahead, so Violet doesn’t,” Scanlen said. “It’s just taking one step in front of the other. If she had a dream, it would probably be a modest dream. As the show progresses, she develops this kind of unlikely bond with the people in the club. And it becomes a question of, what life does she want to have? Does she want to live that life of the lone wolf, or does she want to have a ‘found family,’ and be content with that? So she grapples with those two dreams, I suppose. But in the same vein as Kate, I think once Violet gets a taste of power, she gets a bit hooked on that feeling.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv