The Hour: More Thoughts
Aug. 24th, 2011 10:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shapinglightFirstly, thanks to everyone who left me writing prompts. Some of them are great, and maybe something will come of them. I hope so anyway.
More thoughts about the finale of The Hour and the series in general behind cut. Lots of spoilers.
On further reflection, I'm still not disappointed, though parts of the finale did have a bit of a 'it's the last episode, there won't be another series, have to tie up all the loose ends' feel about it. Which is not to say there won't be a second series (Abi Morgan is apparently writing it as we speak), but the BBC hasn't greenlighted it, no matter what the Sun says.
Re: the finale itself, I found it unbearably tense up until Freddie's interview with Lord Elms began, but afterwards felt a little deflated (was disappointed in Hector, truth be told, even though his bottling out and putting his career first was in character) because the revelations when they came - what happened to Ruth Elms, who was the BBC mole - felt rather trite and predictable. Also, Romola Garai didn't convince me as Producer Bel (a character we've not actually seen a lot of of during the course of the series, as, for a show about a TV show, there hasn't actually been a lot in it about the TV show) and so I didn't really feel she deserved the round of applause at the end. I wish the Bel/Lix roles could have been reversed, in fact, though that would have changed the whole dynamic of the series. But Lix would have worked better as the producer and Bel as some kind of cub foreign affairs reporter.
Also, not to detract from Anton Lesser's performance, because he just is that good, Clarence's motivations felt confused to me and I ended up wondering what on earth the show was trying to say about the politics of the BBC (if anything). However, I suppose a lot of spies have muddled motivations. Clarence was clearly one of the idealistic kind of spy, not the venal kind, so it's perhaps not surprising that his idealism led him to make some very bad/wrong choices, because idealism often does.
On the personal level, I liked Marnie Madden very much in this episode. Some steel under the veneer of wifely concern in the scene where she brought Hector his razor and toothbrush. I also liked the Freddie/Bel stuff, which I thought a nice portrait of a genuine friendship between a man and a woman. Best of all, though, I liked the Freddie/Hector scene in the gents, which was slashy perfection.
So overall, I'd give the finale 7 out of 10, with points detracted for confusing/predictable elements (and they never did explain why Kish killed himself), but the series as a whole I'd give more to - say 9 out of 10. Whatever anachronisms may have crept into it, I enjoyed the mystery, and most of all enjoyed the characters because of some stellar acting from all concerned. Oh, and it was way, way better than the majority of the stuff on TV these days. So there.
More thoughts about the finale of The Hour and the series in general behind cut. Lots of spoilers.
On further reflection, I'm still not disappointed, though parts of the finale did have a bit of a 'it's the last episode, there won't be another series, have to tie up all the loose ends' feel about it. Which is not to say there won't be a second series (Abi Morgan is apparently writing it as we speak), but the BBC hasn't greenlighted it, no matter what the Sun says.
Re: the finale itself, I found it unbearably tense up until Freddie's interview with Lord Elms began, but afterwards felt a little deflated (was disappointed in Hector, truth be told, even though his bottling out and putting his career first was in character) because the revelations when they came - what happened to Ruth Elms, who was the BBC mole - felt rather trite and predictable. Also, Romola Garai didn't convince me as Producer Bel (a character we've not actually seen a lot of of during the course of the series, as, for a show about a TV show, there hasn't actually been a lot in it about the TV show) and so I didn't really feel she deserved the round of applause at the end. I wish the Bel/Lix roles could have been reversed, in fact, though that would have changed the whole dynamic of the series. But Lix would have worked better as the producer and Bel as some kind of cub foreign affairs reporter.
Also, not to detract from Anton Lesser's performance, because he just is that good, Clarence's motivations felt confused to me and I ended up wondering what on earth the show was trying to say about the politics of the BBC (if anything). However, I suppose a lot of spies have muddled motivations. Clarence was clearly one of the idealistic kind of spy, not the venal kind, so it's perhaps not surprising that his idealism led him to make some very bad/wrong choices, because idealism often does.
On the personal level, I liked Marnie Madden very much in this episode. Some steel under the veneer of wifely concern in the scene where she brought Hector his razor and toothbrush. I also liked the Freddie/Bel stuff, which I thought a nice portrait of a genuine friendship between a man and a woman. Best of all, though, I liked the Freddie/Hector scene in the gents, which was slashy perfection.
So overall, I'd give the finale 7 out of 10, with points detracted for confusing/predictable elements (and they never did explain why Kish killed himself), but the series as a whole I'd give more to - say 9 out of 10. Whatever anachronisms may have crept into it, I enjoyed the mystery, and most of all enjoyed the characters because of some stellar acting from all concerned. Oh, and it was way, way better than the majority of the stuff on TV these days. So there.