During the dead time of the end of the summer, at least a full month before September television premieres began, BBC’s six-part mini-series “The Hour” debuted on BBC America.
    
While at times it feels like a campy spy thriller, a throwback to a previous decade or a mostly forgotten television genre, at its best, it’s fascinating just to watch the characters interact and stew in their situations.
    
Obviously the excellent ensemble cast has a lot to do with that. The show stars Dominic West from “The Wire,” Romola Garai, who stole the show in the middle timeline of the movie “Atonement,” and the sarcastic wit of Ben Whishaw. The three make up the core of a fictional new BBC weekly news program called “The Hour,” which sets out to be the most important hour of television in viewers’ weeks.
    
In the pilot, viewers are introduced to reporters Freddie Lyon (Whishaw) and Bel Rowley (Garai), who are both stuck covering sports and debutante balls for BBC newsreels when they would rather do crusading news coverage about important political events of the time. But as Freddie is covering a celebrity’s engagement, he discovers the wife-to-be is a childhood friend. This leads him down the road of her eventual death and the murder mystery of what happened.
    
All the while, Freddie is madly in love with Bel, one of those unrequited loves that viewers are supposed to hope for with all their hearts. As the classic story goes, Bel sees Freddie as merely her best friend. Freddie wants to read more into the situation but never has the guts to take the next step.
    
Clarence Fendley (Anton Lesser) is putting together “The Hour,” and Bel and Freddie hop aboard the staff, seeing the chance to break into important news coverage. But while Freddie has desires to be lead anchor of the program, Hector Madden (West) is the charismatic outsider who nabs the job. Hector and Bel immediately forge a romantic connection, leading Freddie into jealousy both over Hector’s work and romantic successes.
    
The love triangle turns out to be the most compelling part. At different times, “The Hour” comes off as different shows. Sometimes episodes delve into the spy game, with all its tropes and clichés. Most frustratingly and cheesily, clues seem to fall out of the sky for Freddie whenever he dons his spy cap. The fact that crossword puzzles bring a clue here, just as they do annoyingly in AMC’s half-baked “Rubicon” pilot, gets the most groan-worthy reaction.
   
At other times, “The Hour” flexes its journalistic muscles. But the one-note drama of “we are journalists, and we will tell the truth at all costs” can only work so many times. And this part of the show feels so much like the crusading journalistic George Clooney film “Good Night, and Good Luck” about CBS’ Edward R. Murrow versus Joe McCarthy’s Red Scare.
    
However, much of the arguments about integrity and freedom of speech pay off in a big way in the first season finale. “The Hour” staff ignores the government and goes through with a controversial program on the Suez crisis, complete with coverage of an anti-war rally in London and a satire. Footage of the show is intercut with reactions from government agents angrily viewing the telecast. The tension and high stakes behind this sequence make it gripping television.
    
But what is most interesting about “The Hour” is the character interactions between the ensemble cast involving their romantic entanglements. Inevitably and predictably, Bel and Hector become romantically intertwined, but the fact that Hector is married throws a ripple in the romance. Of course, Freddie pines away for Bel, but one drunken night with fellow co-worker Lix Storm (Anna Chancellor) complicates both his work life and his romantic one. (Also, Chancellor strikes a remarkable resemblance to Kate Winslet. It is enough to make one wonder if Winslet took a supporting role in a mini-series, if only for a second.)
    
While “The Hour” has its cheesy flights of fancy, the excellent acting and keen sense of throwback style make the show worth watching. The intriguing twist in the final moments of the finale provides an excellent segue into where the show might go from here, and it has already gotten renewed for a second season.
    
It’s only six episodes, a mere six hours. That’s only six weeks of a regular, 22-episode American television season. It’s worth digging back through the on-demand listings and checking it out.

— Robby O’Daniel is a graduate student in communications. He can be reached at rodaniel@utk.edu.