I really needed this.

Clockwise from lower right: Ben Whishaw as Freddie Lyon, Romolas Garai as Bel Rowley, and Dominic West as Hector Madden.

The Hour series 1 (6 episodes)

I said I was going to be it episode by episode. But then I went and watched all of it. So here’s the first series in one fell swoop.

I have to say, after the train wreck that is Downton Abbey series 3, I needed this.It is such a fantastically written series. Just brilliant.And it’s timely. It talks about censorship and the government telling journalists what to say in the ’50s just when we are worrying about these things today.

Set in the ’50s, The Hour revolves around a new news programs on the BBC called, you guessed it, The Hour. Freddie Lyon is disappointed he gets home affairs but takes the position because he’s bored of his job and he wants to continue working with Bel Roawley. Bel, who is named producer of The Hour, is Freddie’s best friend, and she’s also the woman he’s pining for. Hector Madden is the charming presenter. And the rest of the team is filled out by the badass Lix Storm, the hopeless Isaac Wengrow, and the chipper Sissy Cooper. Together, the team hopes to present a fair and balanced story, even if it means giving airtime to those who disagree with the government. With the Suez Canal Crisis building and Freddie uncovering a government conspiracy, this isn’t going to be easy.

So this is the agenda

I’ve decided on a bunch of different series, movies, soundtracks, books I’m going to watch, listen to, read. Most of them are British. I’ve picked out which ones I’m going to write posts for. This is the list, just don’t expect them in this order:

Hey, Gena here!

I haven’t done any posts because a) most of my shows are on mid-season break or between seasons and b) Downton Abbey has really really upset me. It was never really that well written, but it’s really hit badly and inconsistently written soap opera this series. But now I’ve discovered The Hour and The Paradise and I’m going to start those soon. So look out for posts about those. And maybe I’ll finally get around to Copper and writing those Elementary posts I said I’d write. Maybe I’ll watch The Sweeney (a film) and tell you what I thought about that. I’m only really watching it for Allen Leech, my celebrity crush right now.

I’m done writing about Downton Abbey

I can’t even be interested in the series anymore past Tom and baby Sybil. And they barely get any screen time. Robert and Carson are just insufferable, Clarkson was coerced into lying and emotionally manipulating Cora so she would forgive Robert (because God forbid any is angry with Robert, God forbid anyone call him out on his bad choices, God forbid Robert has to apologize for anything, God forbid Cora grieves properly), the whole “Daisy likes Alfred who likes Ivy who likes Jimmy who is fighting off advances from Thomas who is taking O’Brien’s horrible advice” thing downstairs is so convoluted, Ethel is uninteresting (seriously, her cooking a meal? that’s her big plotline?). I’m only around for Edith and Tom. And even then, Fellowes is seeming to foreshadow (as delicately as hitting the viewers with a bag of bricks) that Tom will give baby Sybil to Mary and Matthew. I know this week he told Matthew that he will never be separated from baby Sybil as she is all he has left of his wife, but Fellowes threw in a scene where Tom gives Mary and Matthew the baby to hold and he looks at them a bit strangely. And Fellowes has no concept of character consistency, so anything Tom says this week is moot. Fellowes even already did this storyline with Ethel! Like, two episodes ago! But repeating storylines hasn’t stopped him before. I hate how I have to legitimately worry about these things. All because Fellowes cannot make his characters act consistently.

Anyways, I think that’s it for me on commenting about Downton.But maybe I’ll put up a review of World of Downton Abbey. My copy came in the other day. And maybe I’ll do one on Chronicles and such. I dunno right now.

Fellowes, you have murdered your series

I just really cannot. I am so full of seething rage right now. I’ll write something coherent later about it, after I finish writing my angry letter to Julian Fellowes.

Suits is renewed for a third season

It official! I really wanted this. Though I don’t know what they’re going to do plotwise! But I have more Harvey and Donna, more Jessica being awesome, more good-looking guys in suits throwing around witty banter and film references. I hope it’ll still have the heavier-than-usual-USA-fare stuff I love about this show. (Sources: Zap2it, THR)

I’m not going to write a post speculating on the next Downton Abbey

I’m serious, the theories I’ve read, the rumours I’ve heard, everything I’ve seen, it makes me too heart heavy to even think about it. Worst part is, it’s keeping me up at night. It’s pathetic, it’s sad, but I literally cannot sleep because of this. It might have even made me physically ill this morning. I thought I wasn’t too worried about it, I thought I would be able to get over it, I thought I could handle it. But apparently not. I will probably collapse putting together a post about what people are predicting will happen. So, I just won’t.

I literally feel all this anxiety scrolling down my Tumblr dashboard and seeing Tom and Sybil all over it. I had to Tumblr savior them, Allen Leech, and Jessica Brown Findlay. When I couldn’t see them anymore, I literally felt so much better. All of my anxiety disappeared. I am taking this way too seriously, and it’s so sad when I’m reading this back. But I’m serious.

Selling my soul to Hollywood is always an option

Sometimes I just want to become a screenwriter and write a wonderfully successful and critically acclaimed period television drama just to show Julian Fellowes that an American can write a post-Edwardian costume drama and that American can write one better than he can. Yes, I think about these things instead of doing actual work.

I was promised a Tom and Sybil episode….

Downton Abbey 3.04

Tom shows up at Downton Abbey alone when he is wanted by the Irish police for allegedly instigating the arson of an aristocrat’s home.

So why weren’t they all over this episode, Fellowes? You have some explaining to do… I only care about the Bransons and Edith, really.

I’m going to start out by saying that there was waaaay too much Bates storyline in this episode. I think the Bates storyline should just hurry up and get finished. I honestly don’t care about Bates in prison. I don’t even know what’s going on in prison. I just to know who killed Vera and why.

I really didn’t like Ethel, but I was so sad when she gave her son away. But I thought her scenes were over-long.

So, to what I really care about.

So it has come to this

I finally learned how to make gifs. My gifs aren’t gorgeous, but they’re decent. This isn’t looking good for my ability to get things done. And with the ability to make gifs, I suddenly gain an intense desire to write meta posts and analyse every character’s internal sigh, side glance, and even what they’re  doing in the background (because I now can make gifs to present as supporting evidence I guess instead of saying “Tom’s internal sigh while Strallan was commenting on how ‘every family should have one [tame republican].”) Carry on what you’re doing, this was a random milestone in fangirling post.