In this particular episode of The Hour, the team prepares and executes their latest episode of the program, each of them aware that the government is watching their every move, especially Angus, who threatened them last episode. Angus plans to watch the episode in the same building so he can be close at hand if they do not question the government. The news team planned various ways to get around the obstacles that allow them to report the news closer to how they wanted to. Freddie tells Bel that he has a last minute mystery guest to express his or her opinions about recent events. Meanwhile, Hector has started sleeping anywhere other than his own home, and both his father-in-law and wife come by the show to remind him of his duties.
But obviously, since this is the last episode of the miniseries, it is all about the way the various storylines wrapped up (or did not wrap up, in some cases. The writers are smart to have at least some of the problems in this series go unresolved). Bel’s problem — that she cannot neither marry Hector nor stay as his mistress — is particularly compelling. Few television shows deal with women and their difficult social position, where Bel is working in a man’s world but is not allowed to behave as they do.
The twists of this episode were generally disappointing. Lord Elm was the obvious choice for Freddie’s mystery guest. The only other characters who knew (Lady Elm, Clarence, Angus, Freddie) were either uncooperative or were working on the show. Lord Elm is also an old friend of Freddie, so it makes sense that he would do this favor for Freddie. The reveal that Clarence was the spy inside the BBC and that he had picked Freddie as his brightstone was not particularly surprising, either, though less expected than the mystery guest. We already knew Freddie was on a list of potential brightstones, and Clarence had obviously protected and manipulated Freddie, which was exactly what Peter Darroll and Tom Kish had done to Ruth Elms.
One of the few things I did like about this episode is the inevitable close of Bel and Hector’s affair and Hector in general. Bel and Hector’s affair has always been grounded in the characters and managed to make Marnie, Hector’s wife, both the sort of woman you feel sorry for but also feel a little justified for disliking; after all, she hates gay men. What the affair also brought out was how Hector was clearly controlled by his in-laws. Hector’s father-in-law reminded Hector how he had to put up the appearance of being a good husband, but that he did not care if his own son-in-law cheated on his daughter. Hector’s father-in-law has barely been in this series, and yet this scene did an excellent job of illustrating how controlling he is of Hector’s life. It was easy to extrapolate Hector’s backstory, one where he has always been a puppet of this family. Hector could have easily been a stereotype of someone dumb and entitled, but this show made him rich by spending time on his motivations.
The Hour has all this strange commentary on the show itself. Right at the beginning of the episode, Bel comments to Clarence that she “has sixty minutes to fill,” and it strangely feels like much of this episode was filler. During Freddie’s interview, Lord Elm mostly rambled about the connection between the personal and the political, which in theory is all very good, but the dialogue felt gooey; it was awkward, false, and full of moralizing. If someone had actually been watching just the show itself, it would have been impossible to tell what Lord Elm’s remarks and the death of his daughter, Ruth, had to do with anything else going on; it was barely understandable given that the series had spent five plus episodes explaining it.
For a miniseries that has been anywhere between good to riveting, this last episode was surprisingly unimpressive. The episode focused more time on the show itself instead of the story of these journalists and producers struggling to investigate and report the news. Ruth Elms, the mystery that began the series, was mostly forgotten and given minor lip service, but that storyline basically resolved itself the episode before. This episode was just a chance for the storytellers to hammer home their political views, which why perfectly valid, were handled clumsily, and it took away from the overall story.
Courtney Hilden is a recent graduate of Michigan State University. She is the former Poetry Editor of The Red Cedar Review.
Clacked by Guest Clacker
on Sep 22, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
