The Hour (2011-2012)

I talked a lot about series 2 of this British period drama back during Capaldi Fall, thanks to Peter Capaldi’s stunning turn in that season.  However, the show itself is splendid, and after a recent rewatch, I wanted to give it a more holistic write-up (I’ve been rewatching The Thick of It as well – signs that I’m antsy for Who to return?)

Set in a gorgeously-realized 1950s London, The Hour follows a BBC news show of the same name, a weekly one-hour program that hungers for putting out real hard-hitting news with no ads, padding, or fluff.  Bel is the ambitious producer, given the sink-or-swim opportunity to run her first major program.  At her side is longtime best friend Freddie, a clever, dogged reporter who’s obsessed with spy tales and chases great stories at all costs.  Also on Bel’s team is Lix, a hard-drinking, dry-humored veteran journalist with her finger on the pulse of the world’s tempestuous political situation – the Suez Crisis is a major series 1 plot, and nuclear armament in the Cold War factors into series 2.  The newcomer of the bunch is Hector, the charismatic “face” brought in to present the program, who’s not used to having to work to get what he wants.

I know I ran through the main characters in my old episode reviews, but they’re so instrumental to show’s success that it bore repeating.  Though all have hints of archetypes in them – from the career woman with something to prove, to the charming but philandering TV personality – each is executed with beautiful specificity.  (I should reiterate that Peter Capaldi’s Randall in series 2 is almost wholly original from the start; I just love that no-nonsense but deeply-empathetic head of news with OCD.)  They all jump off the screen magnificently.  The show’s overarching narrative threads can be pretty involved, juggling weekly news plots, ongoing investigations into season-long mysteries, significant historical context, and a handful of internal/interpersonal character arcs, and the characters allow the various elements to come together in a cohesive way.

The series does a nice job exploring mid-20^th-century issues of gender, class, race, and sexual orientation.  I especially like how the first is handled.  Bel, Lix, and Hector’s wife Marnie are all pretty complex characters; Marnie in particular becomes fascinating as the show goes on.  All three, along with many of the men, address gender inequalities, but in such a way that they never feel like mouthpieces.  For example, when Bel asks why women have to be “married” or “not married” (in other words, why they’re defined by their relationship status) while men do as they like, she’s expressing a universal problem, but she doesn’t say it like Everywoman.  She says it like Bel, in a scene of overwhelming frustration, after we’ve seen weeks of accumulating microaggressions lobbed at her as a woman in an important position.  The series also shows women calling out men for entirely failing to recognize certain imbalances or their own privilege as men.  This is significant to me, because again, while the story doesn’t crusade or anvil-drop, it holds its characters accountable for passive discrimination as well as overt, understanding that one can be sexist even without a “women belong in the kitchen” mentality.  That’s something I wish I heard half so often on TV, and I’m thrilled that The Hour takes the time for it.

Warnings

Sexual content, violence (including offscreen domestic abuse,) drinking/smoking, language (including racial slurs,) and thematic elements.