Invitation Only

_***½

Belle is taken to a prestigious event where she grows evermore distracted by a longtime crush and a desire to abandon her client.

The review for "Stockings and Stilettos" can be read here.

Hannah (Billie Piper) proves to be a very interesting character, as she seems to live vicariously through her alter ego Belle and has an incredible fear that her secret life might be found out. It's interesting to note that our protagonist does truly enjoy sex, and has a certain excitement when she's given the chance to explore her own sexuality.

Belle's asides to the camera are quite good in this episode, especially when her client Alex (Aleksandar Mikic) is describing his fantasy to her, involving her growing more aroused as the night goes on until she's absolutely desperate to sleep with him; she looks to the camera so incredulously, asking the viewer if it's just her or if he truly as delusional as she thinks he is. It's these brief moments of interaction between Belle and the audience that humanize her character and lend to her credibility as a sympathetic figure.

One would imagine that a client who takes an escort to a high-end orgy would be open and ready for anything, so it's interesting that, while Belle is curious to partake in the action, Alex is instead incredibly possessive of her, effectively killing any chance she has to enjoy and participate in the festivities.

While Belle's desperation to escape from her client is understandable, she is, in fact, working for him and it seems incredibly unprofessional of her. Not only does it reflect poorly on her but it could be damaging to her agency's reputation as well. It's not as though his requests are unreasonable or put her at risk, he simply has a very specific scenario that he'd like her to play out, and should her madam receive word of her attempts to evade her client I imagine she might get into some kind of trouble. I understand it's unlikely that she would take him as a repeat client, but she doesn't appear to care much about her own reputation and livelihood here.

Hannah makes surprisingly little effort to hide her activities from her family, wearing her feathered arm band to the hospital to visit her sister, and allowing her wig to peak out from her hand bag. I imagine she would have hidden the wig at the bottom of the bag, piling as much as she could over top of it, and placing the feathered arm band in as well. While it might be believable that she would wear that dress to a work function, it's a little over the top for her to expect her family to believe she would have adorned herself with everything else, and for someone as careful as Hannah is supposed to be, I don't understand why she didn't have a back up plan to get rid of the incriminating evidence of her secret life.

The actors all deliver excellent performances here, especially Mikic's role as the domineering client, and his later disappointment over having been ditched by Belle, which really helps the audience sympathize with a fairly unpleasant character.

Yann Demange directs this episode with two distinct types of shots; for Belle's scenes, Demange stays to wider shots, showcasing the unfamiliar settings where Belle should feel withdrawn but instead is eager and excited to explore the world. During Hannah's scenes there are much closer shots that should feel more intimate and warm, but instead Hannah feels trapped due to her inability to reveal who she really is to those closest to her. It's an interesting commentary on how her intimacy is easily bought but difficult to win.

Lucy Prebble writes asks us to sympathize with characters that are doing unbecoming things, that are actively acting to further only their own agendas, but never gives a solid reason as to why we should feel for them. Certainly, Belle admits to the audience that she's not perfect and that she's doing things she shouldn't do, but why we're expected to root for Belle to ditch her paying client in order to have a threesome with her crush, or to care about the client who doesn't get to have the sex he paid for is well beyond me. A greater mystery still is how, by the end of the episode, Prebble has made the audience sympathize with these people doing terrible things, which is nothing but impressive.

What makes Hannah/Belle such a fascinating character is her love for what she does, and the fact that she makes it fun for both herself and the audience. She's certainly not proud of the job, but she refuses to be ashamed, and it's somehow endearing.

The review for "Moonlighting" can be read here.