Blu-ray Review "The Hour: Series 2"

Created by: Abi Morgan
Actors: Dominic West, Ben Whishaw, Romola Garai, Peter Capaldi, Hannah Tointon and Tom Burke
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: January 8, 2013
Run Time: 360 minutes

Series 2: 4 out of 5 stars
Extras: 1.5 out of 5 stars

When I saw the first series of “The Hour”, I had no idea about it but fell madly in love. I had known of (and even met) Dominic West and was a big fan but no one else. Since the first season, Ben Whishaw is now one of my favs after his amazing role in “Cloud Atlas” and even “Skyfall”. There has been a huge gap between the first and season series of “The Hour” and I had my fingers very tight for more.  Luckily BBC came to its senses and signed up for more of this very gripping show.  There is something about it that really delivers and keep your entertained from the minute each episode starts. Abi Morgan is the creator of this show and also the screenwriter of the Oscar winning “The Iron Lady”.  She really set you up to sit on the end of every word spoken by this wonderful cast.  I feel that the second series is a nice improvement over the first season and I can’t wait till series 3! I just hope we won’t have to wait as long.

Official Premise: Season Two rejoins “The Hour” team in 1957 with the introduction of two new characters played by Capaldi (The Thick Of It, The Nativity), Tointon (The Inbetweeners) and Burke (State of Play). They strive to broadcast the stories they believe in while grappling with the looming specter of the Cold War and changing social mores. With the emergence of the Space Race and the threat of nuclear annihilation looming, Britain grapples with an era of unprecedented scientific advancement, economic opportunity and cultural change in the face of new immigration from the Commonwealth. The members of “The Hour” team live in a world of cover-ups, sexual intrigues and lurking fascism.

This is the first time that this show has aired on BBC America during its original broadcast and hopefully it left enough of an imprint to grab a new audience.  The episodes on the Blu-ray look much better in their 1080p transfer then they did on television.  The audio on this Blu-ray includes a sharp DTS-HD 2.0 track, which works with the dialogue and the score.  Last series, Daniel Giorgetti delivered some really great music. This season Kevin Sargent take over and continues making this show very intense and nail biting through the score. This two-disc Blu-ray set contains all six second-series episodes. I wish this series was longer than just six episodes but what is good is that they work well for repeat viewings.  The bad part of the release is that there is only one behind-the-scene featurette.