I was psyched to hunker down for the second season of BBC America’s “The Hour” — but I was also a bit skeptical.
After all, Season One was riveting in taking us inside the world of “The Hour,” a startup BBC TV news show in 1956 London. Had the series ended then and there, I would have been satisfied.
In the six-episode first season, writer/creator Abi Morgan didn’t miss a beat, expertly mixing the lives and loves of her flawed protagonists with an enthralling spy drama — set against the backdrop of the very real Suez crisis which pushed England to the brink of war.
That being said, I wondered if, in Season Two, the “The Hour” could retain the dramatic excellence it achieved in its maiden voyage.
The answer is yes — with a caveat.
Season 2, which kicked off last Wednesday, unfolds nearly a year after the Season 1 finale. The staff of “The Hour” is still dealing with the repercussions of the spy scandal exposed by dogged reporter Freddie Lyons (Ben Whishaw) — which sent their former boss, Clarence Fendley (Anton Lesser), to prison.
Fendley’s replacement, Randall Brown (Peter Capaldi), is a curt, no-nonsense Scotsman whose attitude, especially toward womanizing, hard-drinking anchor Hector Madden (Dominic West), is a drastic departure from Fendley’s paternalism. He also has a past with Lix (Anna Chancellor), “The Hour’s” cynical foreign-news editor.
This Wednesday’s second episode, airing at 9 p.m., features a lot more of Freddie, while the increasingly erratic Hector, who’s being courted by upstart ITV, finds himself embroiled in a scandal — while his producer, Bel (Romola Garai), butts heads with Randall and continues to struggle with her conflicted feelings towards Freddie.
The caveat to which I referred earlier are this season’s thematic devices — a West London crime spree and the rise of Oswald Mosley’s fascist movement — which will propel “The Hour” forward.
These plot devices, while interesting, lack the oomph of last season’s spy scandal (at least to me). Maybe it’s because “The Hour” is no longer a new experience and we’re already familiar with its lead characters.
But, that being said, I’ve only seen the first two episodes of the season — and I have a sneaking suspicion that, over its next four installments, “The Hour” will ratchet-up the drama and intrigue and retain the excellence it’s achieved thus far.
Don’t miss it.