Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Set behind the scenes of the BBC newsroom as an investigative news program is launched, the drama plots the personal lives, professional interplay, and jealous ambition between aspiring journalist Freddie Lyon (Ben Whishaw), ambitious young producer Bel Rowley (Romola Garai), and Hector Madden (Dominic West), the face and lead anchorman of this rising television news team. A love triangle ensues and the intense ambitions between the rising news team plays out against the backdrop of a mysterious murder and Freddie's controversial and dangerous investigation.

The BBC has been churning out some pretty entertaining programs lately with Sherlock and now The Hour. This six episode set starts off very slow and it almost lost me, but I was hooked once I got to know the characters and Freddie began to unravel the mystery behind the murder.

For some reason the BBC is releasing most of its shows with 1080i encodes, although you'd be hard-pressed to pick out many flaws with the presentation. Shadow detail is stunning due to inky blacks and stable contrast. Resolution is crisp and detailed and flesh tones look very natural. The audio is only in LPCM 2.0 stereo, but with the show being dialog-centric, this doesn't bother me that much and there are no glaring issues.

Extras include a featurette on the sets and a behind the scenes featurette.

Hollywood hasn't produced that many good movies the past few years and I'm finding myself gravitating back to high quality TV shows that are making their way to Blu-ray. While The Hour took a couple of episodes to warm-up to, once it grabbed me it wouldn't let go. Recommended.

Ratings

Picture:4 /5
3D-Ness: N/A
Sound: 3.5/5
Extras: 2/5
Interactivity: N/A

Disc Specs

Studio: BBC (2011)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio Format: LPCM 2.0
Length: 344 Min
MPAA Rating: N/A
Director: Coky Giedroyc, Harry Bradbeer, Jamie Payne
Starring: Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw, Dominic West