Posts tagged The Hour

Will Romola Garai be the next Christina Hendricks? More importantly, is this noir?  I don’t really think so.  But it’s a darn good show.  It easily could have been a noirish, hardboiled spy thriller à la Graham Greene or Eric Ambler.  Think The Third Man diluted by Mad Men-style office politics and shenanigans.  I love Mad Men, but there’s a reason they stick to Don Draper’s personal drama and haven’t made him a CIA plant.  Hell, James Bond (in the Ian Fleming novels, if not all of the movies) is a secret agent and still has rather hardboiled, pulp sensibilities.  I like this show, but wish they’d upped the noir factor a bit.  The two halves of The Hour—i.e., the Mad Men-wannabe office drama and the Cold War spy plot—are curiously bifurcated. 

Will Romola Garai be the next Christina Hendricks?

More importantly, is this noir?  I don’t really think so.  But it’s a darn good show.  It easily could have been a noirish, hardboiled spy thriller à la Graham Greene or Eric Ambler.  Think The Third Man diluted by Mad Men-style office politics and shenanigans. 

I love Mad Men, but there’s a reason they stick to Don Draper’s personal drama and haven’t made him a CIA plant.  Hell, James Bond (in the Ian Fleming novels, if not all of the movies) is a secret agent and still has rather hardboiled, pulp sensibilities.  I like this show, but wish they’d upped the noir factor a bit.  The two halves of The Hour—i.e., the Mad Men-wannabe office drama and the Cold War spy plot—are curiously bifurcated. 

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