History YMMV / TheHour

* HarsherInHindsight: Early in Season Two, Lix tells Randall to stay calm when she tells him bad news, and not to start rearranging his desk. At the time, this is a bit of Lix's typical {{Deadpan Snarker}}y about his SuperOCD, but when [[spoiler: they find out that their daughter (who they've never seen and Randall spent years trying to track down,) died in an air raid]] we see that Randall does in fact try to cope with extreme stress by rearranging his desk, and it's not funny. [[{{Tearjerker}} At all]].

** Freddie and Hector. They spend a lot of time staring jealously at each other and sniping over Bel. Plus all of 1.03 and Hector showing off at the hunt for Freddie.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Thomas Kish and Adam [=LeRay=] tend toward this with fans, considering they're played by [[{{Torchwood}} Burn]] [[PacificRim Gorman]] and [[Series/{{Sherlock}} Andrew Scott]], respectively.

* DesignatedVillain: Angus [=McCain=]

* HarsherInHindsight: Early in season 2, Lix tells Randall to stay calm when she tells him bad news, and not to start rearranging his desk. At the time, this is a bit of Lix's typical {{Deadpan Snarker}}y about his SuperOCD, but when [[spoiler: they find out that their daughter (who they've never seen and Randall spent years trying to track down,) died in an air raid]] we see that Randall does in fact try to cope with extreme stress by rearranging his desk, and it's not funny. [[{{Tearjerker}} At all]].

** Hector and Laurie in season two. They used to be in the army together, and Laurie is apparently very accustomed to putting drunk, handsy Hector to bed. There's also a ''ton'' of tension when Laurie participates in the debate on the Wolfenden Report; it's almost as if Hector is angrier at him for hiding his own possible homosexuality and still carrying out the law than the deal with Kiki.

** Season two also garnered a number of fans of ''Series/TheThickOfIt'' due to Peter Capaldi. The series itself also received a large influx of people discovering it for the first time when Capaldi was named the new [[Series/DoctorWho Doctor]].

* TheScrappy: In season one, it's Sissy and/or Isaac, before they [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap get more characterization]].

** Season two also garnered a number of fans of ''TheThickOfIt'' due to Peter Capaldi. The series itself also received a large influx of people discovering it for the first time when Capaldi was named the new [[DoctorWho Doctor]].

* AlasPoorVillain: The mole in the BBC, [[spoiler: Clarence Fendley]], confesses to Freddie that they wish they could be as brave and as opinionated as Freddie. You have to feel sort of bad for them.
* CompleteMonster: Rafael Cilenti. Bribery, blackmail, prostitution, drug-dealing, extortion, murder . . . and we barely scratched the surface of the guy.

* JustHereForGodzilla:
** People other than [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Ben]] [[Theatre/TheTempest Whishaw]] are in this?!
** Before Ben Whishaw got famous, it was common for fans of ''Series/TheWire'' to tune in for Dominic West.
** Season two also garnered a number of fans of ''TheThickOfIt'' due to Peter Capaldi. The series itself also received a large influx of people discovering it for the first time when Capaldi was named the new [[DoctorWho Doctor]].

** Season two also garnered a number of fans of ''TheThickOfIt'' due to Peter Capaldi.

* JustHereForGodzilla: People other than [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Ben]] [[Theatre/TheTempest Whishaw]] are in this?!
** Before Ben Whishaw got famous, it was common for fans of ''TheWire'' to tune in for Dominic West.

* TearJerker: Oh ''god''. Just try to get through the season two finale without breaking down. If [[spoiler: Randall's OCD fit and subsequent breakdown]] don't get you, [[spoiler: Lix's silent, heartbroken reaction]] will. Or [[spoiler: Hector's stunned, gut-punched reaction to Marnie telling him she's pregnant (with a child that cannot ''possibly'' be his, considering his infertility)]]. And that's discounting the entire last 15 minutes of the show, where [[spoiler: Freddie pulls a ''two hour long'' HoldingTheFloor, taking a hellacious beating from Pike and Cilenti, in order to give the Hour time to air Kiki's tell-all on Cilenti. Bleeding, broken Freddie is juxtaposed with Bel finally reading the letter she never sent him, telling him she does love him, but that she's too cowardly to take the leap with him. The final scene is a frantic, terrified Bel finding Freddie's body on the street outside Lime Grove, his possible last words being "Moneypenny".]]
** In 2.05, the scene with Lix and Randall in the pub, where they've just discovered that [[spoiler: the girl they found isn't their daughter.]] Lix is cold, telling Randall off for "waking her up", making her remember the past, and out of nowhere, calm, authoritative Randall ''breaks down''. The final shot of the scene is [[HeartwarmingMoments heartwarming]], but also incredibly sad, as Lix curls up beside Randall, holding his hand.
** Bel's stunned, heartbroken reaction to meeting [[spoiler: Freddie's wife Camille]], just when she'd decided to tell him she loved him.

* HeyItsThatGuy / RetroactiveRecognition: ''Everyone''.
** Freddie has become ''much'' more well known as [[Theatre/TheTempest Ariel]] and [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Q]].
** Bel is [[TheCrimsonPetalAndTheWhite Sugar]].
** Hector is [[TheWire Jimmy [=McNulty=]]] and [[TheDevilsWhore Oliver Cromwell]].
** Lix is [[{{Fortysomething}} Estelle Slippery]] and [[{{Spooks}} Juliet Shaw]]. Not to mention [[{{FourWeddingsAndAFuneral}} Duckface]].
** Marnie is [[GameOfThrones Talisa]].
** Thomas Kish is [[{{Torchwood}} Owen Harper]] and he's married to [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS3E8HumanNature Nurse Joan Redfern]].
** Commander Stern is [[TheBorgias Ascanio Sforza]], [[TheThickOfIt Geoffrey Holhurst]], and [[WireInTheBlood DCI Eden]].
** Camille is [[Series/AmericanHorrorStory Grace]].
** Randall is [[TheThickOfIt Malcolm Tucker]], [[{{Torchwood}} John Frobisher]], [[{{Skins}} Mark Jenkins]] and [[{{Neverwhere}} the angel Islington]].
** Adam [=LeRay=] is [[{{Sherlock}} Moriarty]].

* CrowningMomentOfFunny:
** Isaac bumbling around in the astronaut outfit from 1.02 and Freddie's hilariously unsympathetic response.
--->'''Isaac''': Um, Mr. Lyon? I can't breathe.
--->'''Freddie''': Take it up with NASA.
** Hector Madden: Fashion Police.
*** To Freddie from 1.03, when he's wearing his usual shabby-reporter chic to dinner at the Maddens' country house.
--->'''Hector''': Freddie, you can't possibly wear that jacket! (double take) And those shoes!
*** To Freddie again, in 1.05. It's not just that Freddie's dressed as a woman, with a scarf knotted around his head, it's that Hector stops him from taking it off by saying "a lady ''never'' removes her hat in a gentleman's car".
** Bel and Freddie's blase recounting in 2.02 of what they've been up to.
--->'''Freddie''': Where have you been?
--->'''Bel''': Buying pornography. You?
--->'''Freddie''': Picking up fascists.
** Virtually all of Lix's [[DeadpanSnarker Deadpan Snarkery]] and patronizing of the younger journalists.
*** The capper has to be her comment to Hector in 1.05:
---->''Oh, beautiful tie, Hector! It goes SO nicely with your eyes. Weren't you wearing it yesterday?''

* JustHereForGodzilla: People other than [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Ben]] [[TheTempest Whishaw]] are in this?!

** Freddie has become ''much'' more well known as [[TheTempest Ariel]] and [[Film/{{Skyfall}} Q]].

** Hector Madden: Fashion Police, from 1.03.

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: Clarence]] and [[spoiler: Laurie]].

* AlasPoorVillain: [[spoiler: Clarence]].
* HarsherInHindsight: Early in season 2, Lix tells Randall to stay calm or he'll start rearranging his desk. At the time, this is a bit of Lix's typical {{Deadpan Snarker}}y about his SuperOCD, but when [[spoiler: they find out that their daughter (who they've never seen and Randall spent years trying to track down,) died in an air raid]] we see that Randall does in fact try to cope with extreme stress by rearranging his desk, and it's not funny. [[{{Tearjerker}} At all]].

** Lix is [[{{Fortysomething}} Estelle Slippery]] and [[{{Spooks}} Juliet Shaw]]. Not to say [[{{FourWeddingsAndAFuneral}} Duckface]].

* TearJerker: Oh ''god''. Just try to get through the season two finale without breaking down. If [[spoiler: Randall's OCD fit and subsequent breakdown]] don't get you, [[spoiler: Lix's silent, heartbroken reaction]] will. Or [[spoiler: Hector's stunned, gut-punched reaction to Marnie telling him she's pregnant (with a child that cannot ''possibly'' be his, considering his infertility)]]. And that's discounting the entire last 15 minutes of the show, where [[spoiler: Freddie pulls a ''two hour long'' HoldingTheFloor, taking a hellacious beating from Pike and Cilenti, in order to give the Hour time to air Kiki's tell-all on Cilenti. Bleeding, broken Freddie is juxtaposed with Bel finally reading the letter she never sent him, telling him she does love him, but that she's too cowardly to take the leap with him. The final scene is a frantic, terrified Bel finding Freddie's body on the street outside Lime Grove, his possible last words being "Moneypenny".]]

** Lix is [[{{Fortysomething}} Estelle Slippery]] and [[{{Spooks}} Juliet Shaw]].

* TearJerker: Oh ''god''. Just try to get through the season two finale without breaking down. If [[spoiler: Randall's OCD fit and subsequent breakdown]] don't get you, [[spoiler: Lix's silent, heartbroken reaction]] will. Or [[spoiler: Hector's stunned, gut-punched reaction to Marnie telling him she's pregnant (with a child that cannot ''possibly'' be his, considering his impotence)]]. And that's discounting the entire last 15 minutes of the show, where [[spoiler: Freddie pulls a ''two hour long'' HoldingTheFloor, taking a hellacious beating from Pike and Cilenti, in order to give the Hour time to air Kiki's tell-all on Cilenti. Bleeding, broken Freddie is juxtaposed with Bel finally reading the letter she never sent him, telling him she does love him, but that she's too cowardly to take the leap with him. The final scene is a frantic, terrified Bel finding Freddie's body on the street outside Lime Grove, his possible last words being "Moneypenny".]]

** Randall is [[TheThickOfIt Malcolm Tucker]], [[{{Torchwood}} John Frobisher]], and [[{{Skins}} Mark Jenkins]].

** Thomas Kish is [[{{Torchwood}} Owen Harper]].

* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap: Sissy, who comes off as annoyingly naive in the first series, gets a bit more development and backbone in series two.

** Camille is [[AmericanHorrorStory Grace]].

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: George has taken to explaining key issues and proceedings of the 2011 Canadian Federal Election using party leader bobble-heads. The results are fantastic!
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