A quick look at Anne Lister’s Wikipedia page will let you know that the English landowner lived a full life. She dutifully attended to her tenants, traveled widely, wrote frequently, and loved oh so deeply. With Gentleman Jack, a nickname Lister received during her lifetime, Director Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley) gives her story justice by telling it with sufficient skill and sensitivity. Wainwright isn’t afraid to explore her voracious sexual appetite, her intellectual rigor, and her at-times questionable stance on land tenure. Wainwright’s decision to make the show as much about Lister as the servants and tenants is reminiscent of dramas like Downton Abbey, which give us a fuller picture of life back in the 1800s. Though it can sometimes make the show tonally discordant (is this a lesbian erotica, a day in the life period piece, or a family drama?) it ultimately adds to the richness of the story.
"Am I a monster, or is this show's tone inscrutable? The answer is both: You are in fact a monster, and this show is pretty hard to read."
— Cameron Esposito
"Precise, attentive, and beguiling, Jones is such a gust of fresh air, it's tough for the series around her to keep up."
— Ben Travers
Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, 1832. Anne Lister attempts to revitalize her inherited home, Shibden Hall. Most notably for the time period, a part of her plan is to help the fate of her own family - by taking a wife.
Co-produced by HBO and the BBC, Gentleman Jack is a series based on the diaries of Anne Lister, a landowning English diarist considered by many as “the first modern lesbian.”
The fact that in the 1800s, you’d have to be as rich as Anne to pursue true love and independence, but even then you’d be hounded by extreme homophobia and prejudice.
Gentleman Jack walked so Dickinson could run (kidding, they’re both sorely underrated shows that you should watch now if you haven’t yet).
