The Hour

When receiving a lengthy series of quality, my usual pace is about two hours a night; with The Hour, I went for three, easily, and was hard put not to stay up past midnight and watch the entire series. This outstanding BBC thriller is many things--conspiracy and spy thriller, mystery, romance, period drama--and certainly much more. It has been exquisitely mounted, with lots of convincing period detail, and is acted by a unified ensemble, laying out numerous vivid characters in a plot that begins confusingly, but soon weaves a seductive plot-line that is not merely a whodunit but also reflects social concerns nations face today, about the power of governments and the behind-the-scenes manipulation of events. Its often funny, brilliantly paced, and is intelligent entertainment

Fast moving, very well written show about spies and TV Broadcasting in 50's Britain. The cast is uniformly superlative both as individuals and collectively (sorry about the 'socialist' term - but it is 50's Britain)... sorry, 'Ensemble' is the word. All great down to the smallest parts. Excellent script, good period atmosphere, lighting, photography, set design. There's even some James Bond references which I think is premature but by 1956 Fleming had published three books.

I've never seen Mad Men so I can't relate to the comparisons and I have yet to see Series 2. I watched this on DVD (remember those?) in two 150 minute chunks and both parts held interest from start to finish. Outstanding.

The Hour is a great series made from an interesting angle: media in post-War Britain. Since I have a media background, the story line of a BBC news show that is made under influence of the government appeals to me very much.

What I especially like about The Hour are the characters. None of them are either good or bad and their behavior and views seem very realistic. There's no crude division between good or bad which gives the overall story line a layered kind of dynamics: the overall story line as well as the personal drama interested me from the beginning to the end. How I 'grew into' the characters while watching the series reminded me of The Wire. Acting is well done by the way, which pushes the series to a very high level.

This is the first series I saw after seeing the American-made Homeland and it is such a relief to me that the British do not seem to fall for the blunt simplifications of good and bad as portrayed in American drama.

Bravo!

I didn't think The Hour was perfect, but overall for me it was very good and intriguing. The Hour does have a slightly slow start, but the pace soon picks up just in time for the tense finale, and I personally loved how ambiguous the ending was. I do also agree that some of the dialogue is rather anachronistic, however in the final episode especially it has several intense and intelligent moments. For any problems The Hour has, it does have potential to grow and there are many things to redeem it. The story is intriguing and full of twists and turns that are brought in and resolved nicely without the drama feeling rushed. The production values are wonderful, right down from the setting, to the photography, to the lighting to the fashions. The music is memorable and not over-bearing or generic like some programmes this year. The characters are interesting with like the series potential to grow. The acting is very good too, especially from Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai, but Julian Rhind-Tutt, Juliet Stevenson, Tim Piggott-Smith and especially Anna Chancellor also make a positive impression. Overall, while imperfect and leaves room for growth, I thought The Hours was very good on the whole. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Now available on disk from Netflix and streaming on Amazon Prime, this smart, stylish BBC series, set in the mid-50s, really hits its stride by the end of its first season. Sumptuous Bel and geeky Freddie (Romola Garai and Ben Wishaw), escapees from the BBC newsreel floor, are the offscreen talent behind the eponymous news program; Hector (Dominic West) is the hearty, "highly corruptible" frontman. The plot lines are a little over the top at times—Mr. Kish, the palefaced spook who self-destructs when he fails to hit the target, is straight out of the old "Avengers" series (not necessarily a bad thing)—but the interplay among the main characters is beautifully portrayed. Anna Chancellor and Peter Capaldi are great together as a pair of prickly ex-lovers, and Oona Chaplin, at first mainly decorative as Hector's neglected wife, has an amazing scene in which she kicks her latest rival to the curb in the kindest, gentlest way.

The first season is built around the Suez Crisis and the Burgess-Maclean spy scandal, but the political backdrop is pretty much self-explanatory; the second season reverts to more familiar hardboiled themes—bent cops, shady nightclubs, showgirls in jeopardy and a porno racket (innocuous b&w photos in this case)—before getting back to the big stuff, high-level corruption and the nuclear threat. A "behind the scenes" clip on the second DVD focuses on the obsessively detailed production design, which, as with "Mad Men," is a big part of the show's appeal.