S01.E01: Episode 1

[Tara Ariano]

Quote

Brothel owner Margaret Wells struggles to raise her daughters in London during the 18th century.

[Primetimer]

Or is it all talk and not enough action?

View the full article

[spaceghostess]

From the review:

Quote

 The choice to set the series in the Georgian era (around the same time as the French Revolution, and fifteen years before the American one . . 

Just a nitpick: The French Revolution did not pre-date the American Revolution; it was, in many ways, informed and inspired by the American Revolution, which began in 1765 and ended (in 1783) years before the French Revolution began in 1789. If this is set in 1763, it predates both.

That said, I was glad to learn that this is better than its promos!

Edited March 27, 2017 by spaceghostess
Quoting to clarify

[Tara Ariano]

9 hours ago, spaceghostess said:

Just a nitpick: The French Revolution did not pre-date the American Revolution; it was, in many ways, informed and inspired by the American Revolution, which began in 1765 and ended (in 1783) years before the French Revolution began in 1789. If this is set in 1763, it predates both.

Fixed.

[hincandenza]

Hulu kept showing this in their suggestions (naturally), so last night after finishing the latest episode of "The Path", I gave this one a try.  I ended up making it about 10 minutes or so before exiting out, as it just wasn't working for me.  

The review linked above captured some of my immediate issues: the dialogue and modern feel/moralizing seemed so jarringly out of place, along with a shiny "Why are 18th-century prostitutes- and most everyone else- so clean-faced and photogenic?" look that didn't fit at all.  The brief amount I watched just made me realize that "Copper" was something of an underrated show: it looked and felt and probably smelled like the period it was from.  

If it somehow turns out I'm missing a gem here, I'll wait until popular opinion nudges me to give this one another try.

[OtterMommy]

58 minutes ago, hincandenza said:

Hulu kept showing this in their suggestions (naturally), so last night after finishing the latest episode of "The Path", I gave this one a try.  I ended up making it about 10 minutes or so before exiting out, as it just wasn't working for me.  

The review linked above captured some of my immediate issues: the dialogue and modern feel/moralizing seemed so jarringly out of place, along with a shiny "Why are 18th-century prostitutes- and most everyone else- so clean-faced and photogenic?" look that didn't fit at all.  The brief amount I watched just made me realize that "Copper" was something of an underrated show: it looked and felt and probably smelled like the period it was from.  

If it somehow turns out I'm missing a gem here, I'll wait until popular opinion nudges me to give this one another try.

I'm only about 10 minutes in so far--mostly because I realized that this was not a show I wanted my kids to walk in on while I was watching.  I'm definitely going to go back to it, though.  But, I also find the modern feel jarring.  I'm not sure if it is going to be an impediment to my enjoying it as the show goes on, but we'll see.

[megsara]

I'm hooked!  Loved the dynamics between Margaret and her daughters.  They love each other, of course, but there's so much under the surface.  The girls resent being pushed into this life, by their own mother, but I think both of them get on some level why she did it.  It's the only like Margaret's known and is at least trying to do better for them than her mother did.  

[OtterMommy]

I will say that the first episode was enough to get me to tune back in.  Even if I do wish they'd tone down the soundtrack a bit.

[nodorothyparker]

It's funny to me that I first learned about Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies that was the basis for this series from one of the Outlander books, but I never quite envisioned how it really must have read.  So it was apparently an 18th-century TV Guide for whores.  The girls reading the entries about themselves from it was pretty amusing. 

I do like that this is being presented so completely from the female gaze and point of view.    This could have been a really tawdry squicky thing otherwise, or at least much more tawdry and squicky than it already is by default when you're talking about auctioning your young daughter's virginity to the highest bidder. There's a real sense of practicality and world weariness throughout, especially in the scenes between Margaret and Charlotte.  Margaret's clearly seen enough of the world that she knows you have to work with what you have and there's no room for to be frivolous or sentimental about it, while Charlotte obviously understands this too but is resentful that this is what her mother set her up for just the same.  The bidding for and deflowering of Lucy were hard to watch, even if the lack of anything at all done to her hair was a little jarring in an opera house full of serious wigs and coifs.  Samantha Morton has come a very long way from one of my favorite if very proper adaptations of Jane Eyre.

Because it's TV, I'm okay with everyone not being grimier.  I can already well imagine that none of those dresses smell very good, seeing the girls service one customer after another in them.   

[pamplemousse]

I tuned in because I'm a sucker for anything set in the Georgian era, the clothing and wigs and makeup are so much fun. Also, Dangerous Liaisons is one of my favorite films of all time.

The music was annoying the crap out of me, it was so loud and unpleasant. I hate this trend of historical shows using modern music. I'll keep watching, though, I'm also a sucker for Samantha Morton (terrific actress who I've liked in everything I've seen of her) and I'm curious to see where this is all going. All the prostitutes did look too clean and photogenic, I kept thinking that as I was watching, but like someone else said since this is tv I'm fine with it.

The older daughter's raspy voice (my gf informed me that she was on Downton Abbey) made me want to pass her a bag of throat lozenges.

[dleighg]

I also am enjoying this. I found myself thinking about it at random times later during the day-- which means it has struck a chord!  I found the sex scenes "refreshing" in their frank honesty (and what a lot of unattractive man-butts!)  A very intriguing show.

[kieyra]

I'm a little ways in--past the 'inciting incident' of the raid. The might be a little reductive/simplistic, but the first thing I thought of with the bouncy, jazzy, hip-hoppy music was that they were trying to capitalize on the Hamilton phenomenon.

They probably don't need to do that. 

[dleighg]

10 minutes ago, kieyra said:

I'm a little ways in--past the 'inciting incident' of the raid. The might be a little reductive/simplistic, but the first thing I thought of with the bouncy, jazzy, hip-hoppy music was that they were trying to capitalize on the Hamilton phenomenon.

 

I recall that The Great Gatsby (Leonardo DiCapprio version 2013) also used modern music. It didn't really bother me (in either case) I think it makes a connection between "then" and "now".

Edited March 31, 2017 by dleighg

[nodorothyparker]

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette gets a big share of the credit or the blame, depending on your viewpoint, for the trend of modern music in period pieces. That's been going on a decade now.  Sometimes it works really well and sometimes it just ... doesn't.

[kieyra]

(The outfits are bananas! I'm a Tudor-era girl.)

Edit to avoid dupe posts:

Overall it worked for me, mostly on the strength of Samantha Morton and the actresses playing her daughters. They also eased up on the music in the second half. 

I like that it's very female driven. I kind of love the ... fop? Is that the right word? The guy who is obsessed with Charlotte and being a whiny babyman about it. I like that in general the men are buffoonish and the direct antagonists are all women, but I assume we won't get out of this without things getting considerably more rapey. 

Edited April 1, 2017 by kieyra

[mustbekarma]

I was drawn into this. I particularly liked the juxtaposition of high fashion and pretty settings with the gross reality of the sex acts. They certainly weren't romanticized. The acts were ugly, awkwardly humorous, and/or vicious. I was really worried for the younger sister. I was waiting for Lord Fop of the Pineapples to brutally rape her as revenge.

I really want NotLady High Class Whore to get her comeuppance. In the grand scheme of things, she has deluded herself into thinking she's untouchable. All the art, music, and French don't change the fact that she's in the same profession as her rivals. NotLady is just one dissatisfied customer away from a public whipping and being shipped off to a penal colony.  She's just forgotten that little fact.

[Kuther2000]

Does anyone know if Jacob the little black boy is Margaret's son? I know she said she prayed for boys at the end, but she could just mean she hoped to never have a girl.

[kieyra]

Second pass through, I really like it so far. The characters are pretty well drawn and I'm picking up on stuff I missed the first time around. 

Somehow I even like Mrs Quigley's son. They could have gone the route I expected, making him cruel/stupid/thuggish, but he's an interesting villain type that doesn't immediately seem cookie-cutter. 

Edited April 3, 2017 by kieyra

[Ripley68]

I enjoyed it.  Margaret did admonish her girls to clean themselves, and you saw one taking a wet cloth to her nether regions.  The perv going down on the one girl surprised me.  Whenever they show a guy "pleasuring" a woman that way anytime before the 1940's just kind of squicks me out.  It had to have been a smelly journey down there.

The traitor harlots "none alive" comment about having children makes me wonder if she had abortions, or killed them when they were born, or if they died naturally.  I missed it, how old is the youngest daughter?

[pamplemousse]

On 3/31/2017 at 5:22 PM, dleighg said:

I recall that The Great Gatsby (Leonardo DiCapprio version 2013) also used modern music. It didn't really bother me (in either case) I think it makes a connection between "then" and "now".

It did and was my most disliked aspect of that film. I actually liked the film overall and I liked the modern music, I just didn't like them together. It was very discordant.

I would say even before Coppola's Marie Antoinette (I didn't mind the modern music in there so much maybe b/c she has better musical taste than whoever chose the music for this show and her choices were usually a tad more subtle), I have Baz Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliet to thank for the trend. Although it didn't bother me as much in that film either. I think what really bothered me with the music on this show is how it seemed so much louder than everything else on the show, the music chosen was shite, and it didn't fit at all (even if it's modern music in a historical show, it should still somewhat fit).

[ItCouldBeWorse]

19 hours ago, Kuther2000 said:

Does anyone know if Jacob the little black boy is Margaret's son? I know she said she prayed for boys at the end, but she could just mean she hoped to never have a girl.

I believe he is, although I don't know if he knows.

[dleighg]

On 4/2/2017 at 0:28 AM, Kuther2000 said:

Does anyone know if Jacob the little black boy is Margaret's son? I know she said she prayed for boys at the end, but she could just mean she hoped to never have a girl.

I'm rewatching it with closed captions (as I missed a bit of the fast talk the first time around) and when they were hiding from the raid, she did call him Jacob, son. Not definitive, but I would say yes, he's hers.

14 hours ago, Ripley68 said:

The traitor harlots "none alive" comment about having children makes me wonder if she had abortions, or killed them when they were born, or if they died naturally.

I figured abortions, but of course I don't know

[dleighg]

I admit I know more or less nothing of the customs of mistresses. Whose house is Charlotte living in? A house bought by her guy? Whose bedroom was she in? Who was the "butler"? He let Lucy in to her bedroom; was he the same who "ratted her out" on her evening activities? What house was her guy "preening" in when the butler ratted her out? She came "home" it seemed and he was waiting for her to give her a scolding, then he ran out the door. I was just very confused. 

[Ripley68]

Quote

I admit I know more or less nothing of the customs of mistresses. Whose house is Charlotte living in? A house bought by her guy? Whose bedroom was she in? Who was the "butler"? He let Lucy in to her bedroom; was he the same who "ratted her out" on her evening activities? What house was her guy "preening" in when the butler ratted her out? She came "home" it seemed and he was waiting for her to give her a scolding, then he ran out the door. I was just very confused. 

 

Well to do men would either buy or rent a house for their mistresses, or in some cases keep them in the house they already owned.  The wife would be back on the family's country estate.  Charlottes house didn't look very big, so I'm gonna say the guy bought or rented it for nefarious purposes.  All staff are paid for by the patron, so unless the mistress makes a friend with her dresser or maid, everyone is going to report her goings on to the rich dude.

Edited April 3, 2017 by Ripley68

[ItCouldBeWorse]

1 hour ago, Ripley68 said:

Charlottes house didn't look very big, so I'm gonna say the guy bought or rented it for nefarious purposes. 

It could be the home he uses when in London. It seems to be fully staffed.

I'm interested in what signing the contract would mean for Charlotte,  She obviously gets money, but what happens if she breaches the contract (sleeps with other men, isn't available when requested?)  Could she be imprisoned?  In what way would he "own" her?

[dleighg]

A question to anyone who may know of such things; at the opera one of the odious men wanting Lucy was wearing lipstick. Was that "a thing"?

[nodorothyparker]

A lot of what I know about these arrangements comes from a mix of historical fiction and women's history reading, so take that for what it's worth.

Usually these arrangements meant that she would be exclusively faithful to her patron and readily available to him as he required.  Her duties could range from sex on demand to escorting and hostessing at city events while the wife was back home at the country estate.  He in turn would provide financially for her and any children she might produce.  The terms of the arrangement could include purchasing a home for her, setting her up in her later years, or even helping to arrange a respectable marriage or a new courtesan setup with a new patron after their association ended.  Because these things tended to exist between wealthy titled men and women of lower social rank and fortune, the men generally held most of the power and could find ways to end the arrangement with few repercussions.  There are accounts of these women who successively serviced numbers of men in society for years at a time and made comfortable livings for themselves.

In this particular case, George is clearly much higher born than Charlotte but seems besotted with her.  Rather than just ending it and cutting any financial ties for not complying with his terms he was trying to get back at her by "purchasing" her sister.

[dleighg]

Thanks @nodorothyparker. That is very helpful. It seems in this episode that the wife of the guy at the opera who wanted to buy Lucy's virginity was quite complacent ("He *loves* hymens). Not sure how accurate that is. I suppose a marriage was a different sort of thing in the upper classes.

[nodorothyparker]

Marriage among the upper classes had as much to do with fortune and social standing and connections as anything else.  Still, that seemed a little out there for me too as English society was generally more conservative than French society at the time where it largely was anything goes.  I don't have trouble believing that the wife is fully aware that her husband has extracurricular activities as much as I doubt she would know the particular details of them, but who knows.

[kieyra]

Incidentally--are most people posting watching from the U.K.? I'm in the US and it's a bit difficult to, erm, procure. I just looked on ITV's site to see if there's a service I can pay for to watch it, but the site sucks.

[dleighg]

I'm watching on Hulu (which I have a subscription for mostly because I like to watch Top Chef)

[OtterMommy]

34 minutes ago, kieyra said:

Incidentally--are most people posting watching from the U.K.? I'm in the US and it's a bit difficult to, erm, procure. I just looked on ITV's site to see if there's a service I can pay for to watch it, but the site sucks.

Hulu purchased the US rights and is showing it as a "Hulu Original"....

[kieyra]

Oh thanks, had no idea there was a US provider. I might have to do Hulu for a short while. 

[Ripley68]

Quote

A question to anyone who may know of such things; at the opera one of the odious men wanting Lucy was wearing lipstick. Was that "a thing"?

During those times, it wasn't unheard of for men to wear more makeup than women.  Dangerous Liasons got it pretty accurate. 

[stanleyk]

On 3/30/2017 at 5:10 PM, nodorothyparker said:

The bidding for and deflowering of Lucy were hard to watch, even if the lack of anything at all done to her hair was a little jarring in an opera house full of serious wigs and coifs.  

I thought having her hair down was odd at first too, until I realized Margaret was probably trying to make her appear as young, fresh and virginal as possible. It was a pretty sharp contrast to Charlotte's insane get-up and wig.

On 4/1/2017 at 7:11 AM, mustbekarma said:

I really want NotLady High Class Whore to get her comeuppance. In the grand scheme of things, she has deluded herself into thinking she's untouchable. All the art, music, and French don't change the fact that she's in the same profession as her rivals. NotLady is just one dissatisfied customer away from a public whipping and being shipped off to a penal colony.  She's just forgotten that little fact.

I noticed that she herself does not speak French, despite her pretensions for her girls. She makes a nice foil, and it will be interesting to know whether there's more to the history between her and Margaret beyond her originally pimping Margaret out. I assume her vitriol towards Margaret is based on some idea that Margaret was disloyal to her by striking out on her own. 

On 4/2/2017 at 4:15 PM, kieyra said:

Somehow I even like Mrs Quigley's son. They could have gone the route I expected, making him cruel/stupid/thuggish, but he's an interesting villain type that doesn't immediately seem cookie-cutter. 

Yes, it does seem like he might be a bit interesting! Though he was super-gross with Emily, somehow he still has a kernel of likeability. 

On 3/31/2017 at 6:02 PM, kieyra said:

I kind of love the ... fop? Is that the right word? The guy who is obsessed with Charlotte and being a whiny babyman about it.

I believe Charlotte's baronet also played a sort of similar character on Poldark - a dimwitted high-class fop who believed he was due the affection of a rich, beautiful woman as a matter of course, despite having no personal charms to recommend him. 

And I'm interested to see what role the street corner prostitute will play! I'm not sure if she was there just to show the range of situations a woman might find herself in, to sing a melancholy song, or to illustrate Margaret's point about women's only power being money (when she upped the price for the dick who'd abandoned her when the cops raided). Or perhaps she will take Emily's place in Margaret's house and become a direct player.

Edited April 5, 2017 by stanleyk

[ItCouldBeWorse]

15 hours ago, stanleyk said:

On 3/31/2017 at 7:02 PM, kieyra said:

I kind of love the ... fop? Is that the right word? The guy who is obsessed with Charlotte and being a whiny babyman about it.

I believe Charlotte's baronet also played a sort of similar character on Poldark - a dimwitted high-class fop who believed he was due the affection of a rich, beautiful woman as a matter of course, despite having no personal charms to recommend him. 

He was also the boyfriend on Fleabag.

[kieyra]

46 minutes ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

He was also the boyfriend on Fleabag.

Ah! I knew I'd seen him somewhere, but it was difficult with the makeup. 

It seems he's being cast to a certain type. 

[ItCouldBeWorse]

23 minutes ago, kieyra said:

1 hour ago, ItCouldBeWorse said:

He was also the boyfriend on Fleabag.

Ah! I knew I'd seen him somewhere, but it was difficult with the makeup. 

It seems he's being cast to a certain type. 

I only know because I looked him up as he seemed familiar.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 3/31/2017 at 2:41 PM, pamplemousse said:

I tuned in because I'm a sucker for anything set in the Georgian era, the clothing and wigs and makeup are so much fun. Also, Dangerous Liaisons is one of my favorite films of all time.

The music was annoying the crap out of me, it was so loud and unpleasant. I hate this trend of historical shows using modern music. I'll keep watching, though, I'm also a sucker for Samantha Morton (terrific actress who I've liked in everything I've seen of her) and I'm curious to see where this is all going. All the prostitutes did look too clean and photogenic, I kept thinking that as I was watching, but like someone else said since this is tv I'm fine with it.

The older daughter's raspy voice (my gf informed me that she was on Downton Abbey) made me want to pass her a bag of throat lozenges.

 

On 3/31/2017 at 3:22 PM, dleighg said:

I recall that The Great Gatsby (Leonardo DiCapprio version 2013) also used modern music. It didn't really bother me (in either case) I think it makes a connection between "then" and "now".

 

On 3/31/2017 at 3:29 PM, nodorothyparker said:

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette gets a big share of the credit or the blame, depending on your viewpoint, for the trend of modern music in period pieces. That's been going on a decade now.  Sometimes it works really well and sometimes it just ... doesn't.

The first period movie I remember using modern music was A Knight's Tale!

On 4/2/2017 at 4:51 PM, Ripley68 said:

Margaret did admonish her girls to clean themselves, and you saw one taking a wet cloth to her nether regions.  The perv going down on the one girl surprised me.  Whenever they show a guy "pleasuring" a woman that way anytime before the 1940's just kind of squicks me out.  It had to have been a smelly journey down there.

Most modern women don't deep clean their vaginas with a power nozzle so I don't know why the assumption is that women from ye olden times all had smelly pussies.

[nodorothyparker]

I completely forgot about A Knight's Tale.  That movie was such a weird mix of everything.  Poor Heath.

[hatchetgirl]

Quote

Most modern women don't deep clean their vaginas with a power nozzle so I don't know why the assumption is that women from ye olden times all had smelly pussies.

In this instance, I think it has more to do with what may have been in rather than smell...

The modern music reminds me so much of The Knick. There, it was part of the background and scenery, here, it seems to be overkill. 

I'm enjoying the show, but damn, it's dismal.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I saw this article today and although it was written about the Tudor era, I thought it might be of interest since the idea of body odor in ye olden tymes came up here. The author tried the method proscribed by a physician in 1545 (rubbing her body with a linen cloth each night instead of bathing/showering, wearing linen undergarments which were changed regularly) and a colleague did the opposite (showering daily but wearing the same linen smock):

A historian attempts to follow Tudor hygiene with a daily regime of linen underwear

[spaceghostess]

On 4/16/2017 at 6:35 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I saw this article today and although it was written about the Tudor era, I thought it might be of interest since the idea of body odor in ye olden tymes came up here. The author tried the method proscribed by a physician in 1545 (rubbing her body with a linen cloth each night instead of bathing/showering, wearing linen undergarments which were changed regularly) and a colleague did the opposite (showering daily but wearing the same linen smock):

A historian attempts to follow Tudor hygiene with a daily regime of linen underwear

Fascinating article--thank you!

[rubinia]

On 4/6/2017 at 2:03 PM, hatchetgirl said:

In this instance, I think it has more to do with what may have been in rather than smell...

I can't imagine anyone smelled what modern society would consider "fresh," so natural body odor on others probably wasn't really an issue for people. Some people even get off on it.

Edited May 9, 2017 by rubinia

[LittleIggy]

Nitpick: a baronet is not referred to as "Lord Whatever." He is referred to the same as a knight is.

[NutMeg]

Just started watching, and I'm in. Regarding the use of modern music, I raise you one, the first time I noticed it was in La reine Margot/Queen Margot, back in 1993, where I found it extremely powerful because I felt it conveyed feelings similar to those that people at the time would have felt hearing music that would have a much different affect to us today. (Also, that movie is really worth watching). Kind of how I felt about the music choices for the most recent Great Gatsby.

[dleighg]

2 minutes ago, NutMeg said:

Kind of how I felt about the music choices for the most recent Great Gatsby.

Totally agree. Jazz is now kind of "old school traditional" so using music of the time would not have the same shock value that it must have been then.

[aradia22]

I wasn't sure how to feel at first. It gave me Sofia Coppola Marie Antoinette vibes. Period costumes and language + jarringly modern music. Lucy's accent was tough. I'm usually good with British accents but I needed the subtitles.

I hope they're going somewhere with the dominatrix one... Nancy? Otherwise that seems like a pointless jarring detail.

Also, all the blonds at blending together. I wish they had more interesting names. I'm never going to remember them all. 

I don't think there were police yet. Maybe Bow Street or something equivalent? Or was this too early for that even? Either way, I was very confused when people came in the night who seemed to be religious extremists who somehow had the authority to arrest people? Like, is this chaos mob justice or is this sanctioned by the crown? 1763 would be the Georgian era. Off the top of my head, I can't think of the monarchy being particularly harsh about morality. 

Is no one going to be charged for the girls who were hurt and murdered in the raid? The tone of the show is off. 

The pacing was kind of off. There were lots of slow scenes and moments like a period piece. But when there would be more exciting sequences like the raid they didn't build any momentum. I think this goes back to the confusion with whether it's supposed to be period or contemporary. The sex scenes don't have a sexy vibe. They aren't playing music to glam it up. It's a lot of tedious thrusting like what I imagine happens on HBO and other premium cable shows. 

I did get a laugh at Haxby dodging the pineapple.

If Margaret is in a relationship with William (not sure what his job title is) then is the little boy running around their son? I'll be interested to see if anyone makes a fuss about the interracial relationship as they move up in the world. 

I forgot about those old-fashioned corsets. They really create such an odd silhouette but it does achieve the heaving bosoms thing. I appreciated those details as well as the castrati and the sedans. I think I would rather have a show with the historical trappings but that feels like a campy soap opera. I feel like the show isn't fun or soapy enough yet. It's still trying to be too prestige. But I'm holding out hope. Lesley Manville is at least evil enough to be bordering on camp if they would play up the music and the direction.

I mean, Margaret has a point about Charlotte being the village idiot. If she is going to keep sleeping with the baron, then it benefits her to be a proper mistress and have a contract. It's security for her as well. 

On the one hand, Lucy dodged the two older lechers. On the other hand, this baron was so in love with her sister that her first time was terrible and humiliating. 

The girl singing towards the end was better to me than the classical singers in the rest of the episode. Too much of that. Again, bad pacing... too slow at times. 

I did think there were some good ideas. Like having Margaret vomit after getting the money for Lucy. And the girl upping the price from 5 shillings to 8 for her forgiveness. In that line of work, everything can be bought. You can't afford to hang on to pride or grudges.

I'll stick around to see Quigley get what's coming to her.

[aradia22]

Quote

The traitor harlots "none alive" comment about having children makes me wonder if she had abortions, or killed them when they were born, or if they died naturally.  I missed it, how old is the youngest daughter?

I assume abortions or miscarriages and natural deaths from things like malnutrition and disease. Killing your children feels a little too Sweeney Todd, even for this universe. 

Quote

A question to anyone who may know of such things; at the opera one of the odious men wanting Lucy was wearing lipstick. Was that "a thing"?

Depends on the time period, but yes. In England, makeup goes back at least as far as the Elizabethan era. Rouge, lipstick, and various lead-based creams/powders like you usually see in depictions of Queen Elizabeth I. Men have also worn makeup on and off. The stuff I read is usually more Regency than Georgian but I think it's safe to still consider men wearing a lot of noticeable makeup in the fop/dandy sort of category, especially since the show seems to be making a distinction between them and the non-makeup wearing men that's about more than class.