A Journey Through Time

      

     Those looking to travel back in time need not secure plutonium for Doc Brown’s DeLorean or seek out H.G. Wells’ time machine. A much more convenient way to be transported is to visit the Museum of London, which traces the city’s history from prehistory to present day. A day at the Museum of London feels more like a journey through time than a display of historical items.

     From the outside, the museum is an uninviting black cylinder. I would have never been able to guess that this building holds such immense treasures. Once you find your way inside, it’s time to start walking through the history of London. The museum smartly lays out the rooms chronologically, so a visit through every room feels cohesive and has a narrative structure. The history of London clearly unfolds and progresses before your own eyes as prehistory turns into Roman times, Roman times into medieval times. The farther I journeyed into the museum, the more interested I became. The pre-historical section was interesting, but there are only so many flint replicas I can look at before becoming bored. The Roman section, however, does a better job at pulling the museumgoer into the time period. The scale models of the city centre provide insight into the way the city was originally laid out. I could see where the original London inhabitants lived, where they shopped, and where they went to gather and speak. By the time you reach the Great Fire of 1666, it is hard not to be swept up by the compelling story of London and its ability to rebuild itself after various types of devastation.

       Downstairs, the haunting Leisure Gardens feature creepy, dark mannequins dressed in authentic late 18^th-century clothing as a video with period actors plays on a loop. The sounds and feel of this room is surreal, and I found it hard to walk away without sitting on one of the benches for a few minutes to soak it all in. Next, the Victorian walk replicates an 1848 neighborhood street filled with shops, pharmacies, and offices, decorated in exhaustive detail. The banker’s office was perhaps the most detailed. A beat up desk sat in the middle of the room and looked as though the baker had just left for the day. His papers and pens were spread out all over underneath an exquisite lamp. This tucked away section of the museum is a creative success and made me want to go back, just in case I missed any minute details.

    The modern section covers the 20^th century, and though it is more thrown together than the other sections, I enjoyed walking through it. The cases in this part feature hundreds of artifacts including notebooks, advertisements, and even a wax head of a girl who died from syphilis. While this is all very interesting, it felt to me as if the museum curators had decided to throw a bunch of items from the same time period in a case together without a common theme. Another concern I had about the modern section was the lack of attention given to the bombings of World War II. This significant part of London’s history should have been prominently featured, but instead this era lacks the detail and attention given to earlier time periods. The war section is kept hidden in the back behind a wall, while the central displays feature hip outfits from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Perhaps the wounds from the war are still healing, but other devastations that London has faced were given more detail and attention, so the lack of depth about the bombings left me feeling as though this section could be improved.

       Despite the minor hiccup in the modern section, I felt as though the time I spent walking through the entire museum was well worth it. I urge anyone who is the least bit interested to visit the Museum of London. Walking through the thousands of years of history solidifies the notion of London as an impermeable city. Even though London has seen such tragedies as the Black Death, the plague, the Great Fire, and the WWII bombings, the city’s history doesn’t stop. London rebuilds itself and life goes on. The story of London is a story of death and rebirth, but above all it is a story of hope. And there’s no better way to experience the story than walking through it, step by step.

     The admission, like most London museums, is free of charge, although donations are encouraged. The museum is located within walking distance of several tube stops, including St. Paul’s, so it’s easily accessible.

Reviewing BBC’s “The Hour”

         Shortly after making the wisely hermitic decision to watch more good ol’ British telly, I heard about “The Hour” and I was immediately intrigued. I admit the hook for me was the fact that it has been touted as “British Mad Men” and also that “Wire” alum Dominic West holds a starring role. Upon learning that the show is about journalists, I knew I would be tuning in. Although it took me a week after the premiere to watch it on BBC’s online player, for the most part, I was impressed with what I saw.
        “The Hour” centers on the BBC newsroom in 1956. For the time period alone, the series has been inevitably been compared to “Mad Men.” Yes, the costumes and time periods are similar, but “Mad Men” and “The Hour” are very different. “Mad Men” is a quiet character piece while “The Hour” features a faster paced thriller aspect. In fact, “The Hour” more closely resembles AMC’s short-lived series “Rubicon” which centered on an intelligence analyst who slowly works to uncover a conspiracy.

      The premise of “The Hour” features journalist Freddie Lyons (Ben Whishaw) gunning to secure a news series of his own in which he can tell the “real” stories. Lyons is fed up with the cushy superficiality of the BBC News, and decides he needs to reveal the darker, truer stories to the public. Along side Lyons is Bela Rowley (Romola Garai), a seemingly long time colleague and friend. The two banter and bicker a bit, but in the end they share the same goal. As Freddie explains his vision for the new series to a higher up at the BBC, he describes it as “the hour that people won’t want to miss,” and suggests that he be in front of the camera since Bela is already behind the scenes as the producer of the program.

       But the men running the stations have a different idea about who should be in front of the camera. They choose charismatic Hector Madden (West) as the new program’s front man. He clashes with Bela, although there seems to be some type of love triangle being put into place between Freddie, Bela, and Madden. I don’t find this particularly interesting, and is heading into the cliché love triangle formula that TV lovers know all too well.

       Additionally, Madden acts as the mouthpiece for the heavy-handed sexism that feels shoe horned into the script. The show’s writers used this to beat it over the audience’s heads that the show takes place in the 50’s. As if it isn’t obvious enough by the costumes and props, the contrived social commentary is a poor attempt to highlight how workplaces have changed in the past 55 years. It is clear that the writers are trying to contrast Freddie’s radical, forward thinking ideology to the older, more conservative Madden. There are more subtle ways for the writers to do this, and hope they figure out how in the remaining five episodes.

     The episode also introduces a parallel murder mystery/conspiracy story that is tied into Freddie’s quest by the episode’s end. Freddie’s sister alerts him that a professor has been killed and that there is more to the story than meets the eye. How she knows this information is not made clear, and it seems a bit too convenient that she is around to blurt out a bunch of information to Freddie and send him on a mission to figure out what is going on. She is nothing more than a MacGuffin, and the series gets rid of her by the end of the episode.

     For now, “The Hour” is interesting enough for me to check out the next 2 or 3 episodes. I’ll reserve a lot of my judgments until we’re a few episodes into the series; since the mystery storyline is just beginning and we’re still getting to know the characters. Even though I’ve only seen the first episode, I found myself very much enjoying Whishaw’s performance as Freddie. I think if the show can rely less on West, then the series could be worthwhile and less contrived. Overall, though, I’d say “The Hour” is worth a look for anyone interested since it has the potential to become a compelling and interesting series. So go ahead, tune in Tuesday nights at 9 on BBC 2. And for those of you in the States, the series premieres August 17th on BBC America.