The Hour - "Episode Six"

A damn fine episode

“All news is personal Clarence.

If it’s not personal, then why write about it?”

-Freddie

Now this is the kind of episode I have been expecting from both “The Hour” and The Hour. As I said last week, I was surprised when the show has turned out its strongest episode to date, and all by suddenly focusing on and strengthening the elements that up until that point hadn’t been delivering good drama, specifically the titular news program. Now part of this was that “The Hour” wasn’t really a focus, as the show kept pulling Freddie into a vast conspiracy, and Hector into Bel. (See what I did there?) It was a bit of weird planning that placed the emphasis on the more overtly exciting yet dramatically less filling storylines (like the conspiracy plot, or the love triangle) while it went about slowly lay the groundwork for the more complex, and ultimately more satisfying plotlines (the evolution of “The Hour”, the show’s particular depiction of the Suez Canal Crisis).

The real centerpiece of tonight’s episode was the airing of the crew’s final (for now) episode of the news program, in which Bel, Freddie, Hector and the rest all tip-toed around the various gag orders placed on the BBC. It was an unbelievably tense scene, as the show tested and teased those in power, all the while unsure what fate their “treasonous” acts would bring down upon them. Writing it out now, it’s hard to pinpoint just how it is that these scenes could be so tense – or how Isaac’s satirical sketch could make me laugh without ruining the tension – but I guess I’ll have to chalk it up to all of the ground work Abi Morgan’s scripts have been laying over the past five weeks.

But even those scenes that weren’t directly related to the Suez crisis were fairly fantastic as well. Thought I rather deplored the love triangle as easy, hooky kind of television – albeit a hook that was fairly well done – they two served a purpose of laying groundwork. What’s interesting about tonight’s episode is that it’s only after Bel and Hector have broken up, and the love triangle has presumably died, that the interoffice relationships have taken on a real intensity, now that they are put up against the backdrop of  behind-the-scenes news making. Seeing Bel freak out at Hector when he told her that he loved her, or Hector lash out at Freddie when he was trying to show compassion all were great scene, as they perfectly captured the troublesome intersection of personal relationship and high-risk news making. (And all those scenes of the crew struggling to keep the show going mostly by ad-libing and improvising whenever they hit a snag was just icing on the cake.)

Unfortunately, these scenes had to be followed up by silly conclusion to the spy subplot. Though the scene was well acted by both Ben Wishaw and Anton Lesser, which did help make it easier to swallow, there was something ridiculous in the matter-of-fact way that it was revealed that Clarence was a spy, a reveal that just helped to hightlight the very herky-jerky way that the rest of subplot had been unfolded. I have no problem with Clarence actually being a spy, but that’s not because I think it’s a believable conclusion or anything like that. The idea of their being a mole in the BBC was never really explored all that fully, and at the point it seems that no one would be any more or less logical a fit of being a mole, outside of the three main characters.

Beyond that, I find that I don’t have much else to say about tonight’s finale, mostly because A) the episode was very efficient, wringing out drama from just a few ideas/scene and B) talking at length about great TV is hard. And that’s what this episode was – great television. Given the show’s rather choppy and at times rather bland start, I never would have imagined that the show would end up with as great an episode as this. The only question now is if Morgan can deliver this level of quality when season two comes back next year. Though she has already stated that she will drop the spot plot next season, I have to wonder about some other things. Is this the end of the Bel/Hector romance? How will these three return to “The Hour”? And what new historical event will Morgan play off of? Is there one as interesting as the Suez Canal Crisis that took place around the same time?

Morgan may have written herself into a few corners for next season, but if tonight’s episode is any indication, she’s certainly up to the challenge of overcoming them.

Next Week: The rotating cheese wheel that is “Dramaville” swings around to present us Luther’s second season.

Quotes, Etc:

“It’s heaps of fun having a mistress, heaps of fun being a mistress. It’s what every marriage needs.”

“The trick is to get very, very drunk, and then dance till you’re sick.”