Monday, February 4, 2013

De Jour. Belle de Jour.

Melodramatic Mondays
****

Belle is hired to help a client fulfill his fantasy of being James Bond, but her favor with the client is put at risk when she and Duncan run into he and his wife. After a drunk Ben and Byron confront Duncan about Hannah, Hannah decides to sever her ties to Ben completely.

Previous: Taking Chances

Hannah (Billie Piper) had briefly retired from escorting during her relationship with Alex (Callum Blue), and so she has never had to deal with a boyfriend that was aware of her extracurricular activities. With her complete honesty with Duncan (James D'Arcy), Hannah is offered the chance to share her life as Belle with the man she loves, and it appears that dating an escort is completely different than dating a former escort.

This episode has one of the few instances where Belle is shown to be nervous before meeting a client, noting that he "has spent as much time thinking about [their session] as the average girl does thinking about her wedding," worried that she won't match up to his fantasy. When Stewart (Justin Edwards) arrives, and the 007-themed fantasy gets going, Belle really gets into it, playing to her role with immense pleasure, but she never quite loses her uncertainty about her performance, flubbing the script from time to time and even laughing, at one point, at how ridiculous the situation becomes, forcing herself to change her genuine laugh into that of the Russian femme fatale she's playing. It's always fun to see Belle out of her comfort zone, and this is a fantastic example of how she isn't always as prepared as she'd like to imagine.

Duncan takes Hannah to the opera, and though neither actually enjoy the show, they both make an attempt to pretend that they do for the sake of the other. Duncan soon admits that he simply thought that she was "into that kind of thing," as she had complained in her book that she only ever gets to see the first half before the client takes her back to the hotel; Hannah appreciates that Duncan was doing something he hated because he thought she'd enjoy it, but the two soon leave for something more exciting. While it's easily stated that Duncan will make an effort to reconcile his feelings for Hannah with her work as Belle, this is proof that he's actually capable of taking what Belle says and applying it positively towards his relationship with Hannah, her dislike of opera withstanding.

Ben (Iddo Goldberg) acts really cold toward Duncan, and while it's understandable given his history with Hannah and the feelings he likely still has for her, he seems incredibly petty here. Hannah tries to warm them up to one another by stating that the book was Ben's idea, which Ben then flat-out denies, and his lie here not only makes no sense but makes him appear all the more childish, especially since this is how he had acted towards Alex previously. Later Ben and Byron (David Dawson) drunkenly intrude on Hannah's date, offending Duncan in the process, and he absolutely refuses to apologize for his behavior the following day. Ben argues that Hannah's been acting like a different person ever since the publishing of her book, going on to say that he's done with her, and it's in this moment, as Hannah spits back that it's she who's done with him, that she is completely justified. Hannah is not always the model of a good friend, but Ben has been terrible toward her for the majority of this series, and given his recent relationship with Jackie (Joanna Bobin) he really has no right to tell Hannah that she's been terrible to him. The longer this series progresses the worse Ben is shown to be, and it's becoming questionable why Hannah would even want him in her life any longer anyway.

During her date with Duncan, Hannah runs into Stewart, and though she points out how uncomfortable her presence may be making him, Duncan can't stave his curiosity and makes numerous attempts to sneak a peek at him. Stewart later approaches Hannah asking that she keep things quiet, as he's out with his wife, and she admits that this is the first time she's ever run into a client outside of work, so she, too, is unsure of the protocol. Their interaction is perfectly innocent in this instance, but Duncan's jealousy grows out of control to the point that he confronts Stewart, stating that "she's not at work," and that he's her boyfriend, effectively losing him as Belle's client. As her boyfriend it's understandable that Duncan may get jealous from time to time, but as her publisher one would imagine that he wouldn't torpedo her material in this way. This wouldn't be such a sticking point had Hannah not explained to Duncan, moments prior, how important it is that he not confront Stewart, and as a result Duncan comes off in a bad light here.

While Piper often has to portray different kinds of characters through this series, this is the first time that she's playing one character (Hannah), playing a second character (Belle), playing a third character (Olga). Piper manages to get across a clear division between all of her roles here, and it's enjoyable to watch her juggle them as the other actors work around her.

Director China Moo-Young clearly has a lot of fun with this story, from the James Bond-inspired music to the gun barrel sequence as Belle gets into the character of Olga. While it's played, in part, for laughs, there are a lot of small references in Belle's scenes with Stewart that are quite fun to catch, and it's obvious that both Moo-Young and writer Richard Hurst are fans of 007. Hannah and Duncan later play a game of "spot the escort" that perfectly blends their attempts to romance each other with balancing the pressures of Belle's work on their relationship, and it's a good display of how the two of them can make things work, regardless of how their night comes to an end.

Hurst's script has a big focus on the nature of escorting, opening with Belle's statement that role play's not just about the props and costumes, but about making sure the client feels the way he wants to, gets into the role completely, and it's only then that it's a job well done. Byron later comes to Duncan seeking advice on dating a prostitute, noting that Bambi's (Ashley Madekwe) out on a job at that moment, and he feels strange about it, wondering how Duncan reconciles his feelings for Hannah with the reality of Belle. Though both Byron and Duncan have stated in the past that they're comfortable with the lifestyles that Hannah and Bambi lead, they're shown here to be equally bothered by it, with Duncan lashing out in anger at Stewart and Byron instead relying on alcohol to numb whatever feelings he has toward the subject.

It's unlikely that Hannah and Ben's friendship is given a clean break here, and it's only a matter of time before the two either run into one another again or a confrontation between Ben and Duncan takes place. Byron's concerns about Bambi seem to be seeded in this story, but whether this means an end to their relationship, or Bambi's eventual retirement, remains to be seen.

Next: Episode 3.7

0 comments:

Post a Comment