The Hour

[bennet_7]

Anyone else watch the first episode of The Hour? I really liked it. I know that some have been calling it the BBC's answer to Mad Men but they feel like different beasts to me.

Things I loved:

- The awesome ladies.
- How quickly and thoroughly it passed the Bechdel test.
- Ben Whishaw.
- The costumes. I'll take one of everything in Bel's closet, thank you.
- Lix, the super cool foreign correspondent.
- Bel and Freddie. What the hell is their history, their relationship? I need to know!
- This:

Freddie: After I gave you that lamp we had that terrible Chinese.

It's an angled poise because you press your face too close to the page when you read and there's never enough light. And you won't wear glasses because you say your nose is too small and with glasses you'd look like a mole. Which you don't - wouldn't. They'd suit you, you'd look just as...fairly beautiful as you are. It's yellow because you said no one wants a yellow lamp, so I thought if I got it for you in yellow then maybe no one would steal it from your desk.

I do give these things quite a lot of consideration, you see. The devil's in the detail.

- In comparison to this:

Bel: How did you know that I liked them?

Hector: All beautiful women like orchids.

- The way Freddie lashes out when he's hurt.

- The fact that Freddie does truly seem to believe in Bel, but that he also has a realistic-for-the-time sense of entitlement.

Things I am intrigued by:

- That Hector, while ostensibly just the pretty face of the program, is rather well-informed.

- The murder of the professor and the big conspiracy. Wasn't expecting that - thought it would be more about office politics and fighting the system.


Here is an interesting article on the costume design and how it differs from Mad Men.

And I thought this show was really pretty so I made some icons.









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Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Oooo just watched it last night and am very much enjoying it, for all the reasons you listed. Also, IDK why, but I find myself intrigued by lead-girl's hair color. It's not quite blonde, not quite brown, not quite reddish, i just find it interesting for no reason I can put my finger on.

Also, I went from thinking Freddie was nice enough to loooooving him in the course of the episode, so that's good, and i love Romola Garai (have since emma).

[bennet-7.livejournal.com]

Ha! I was trying to figure out if she was wearing a wig.

Yeah, I just adore Freddie with very little to go on aside from the fact that he's passionate about his work, he buys the best gifts, and Ben Whishaw, for all that his face is very strange, is magnetic on screen.

I loved Romola in Daniel Deronda but wasn't a fan of her Emma. She's winning me back in this. I like Bel a lot.