Stream It Or Skip It?

It isn’t often that the first episode of a season is completely predictable and we don’t react with a dismissive hand wave and a derisive “Feh.” But a new series on BritBox had a very predictable opening episode, and we still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Opening Shot: A bustling port; “Yorkshire, 1891.”

The Gist: The Hardacres are a family of Irish immigrants who almost all work on the docks in order to keep their humble roof over their heads. But things are thrown into chaos when family patriarch Sam Hardacre (Liam McMahon), a dock supervisor, injures his hand when he saves a worker from being hurt by a faulty winch.

Because he is unable to work, his wife Mary (Claire Cooper) goes to their unscrupulous boss to ask for an advance. What he asks for in return gets him a kick to the groin; Mary, her daughter Liza (Shannon Lavelle) and Mary’s mother (Julie Graham) all quit in response. Older son Joe (Adam Little) makes the tough decision to stay.

Sam tries to go back to work, but he’s summarily dismissed when the boss finds out his hand is irreparably damaged. The women go to a country estate that was rumored to be looking for help but are rudely sent away by the house manager, Mrs. Dryden (Ingrid Craigie)v. Ma decides to go back to rum smuggling, and Liza decides to join her.

But Mary has an idea; with her younger son Harry (Zak Ford-Williams), she buys a barrel of herring with what little money they have left and opens a fried herring stand at the racetrack. Despite the fact that they are robbed at the end of the day, they still make more than the whole family made in one day on the docks. Sam, once he finds out what really happened between Mary and his boss, decides the family should throw their effort behind the fried herring stand.

As they become more of a success, the Hardacres decide to invest their profits, with the help of Callum Saunders (Taheen Modak), a young financial advisor. When a mine they have shares in strikes gold, the family becomes worth over 200,000 pounds. Guess where they decide to relocate?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Hardacres, created by Amy Roberts and Loren McLaughlan and based on the series of novels by C. L. Skelton, feels like a Yorkshire version of The Beverly Hillbillies crossed with Downton Abbey.

Our Take: The first episode of The Hardacres was completely predictable, but we didn’t care. Roberts and McLaughlan do such a good job of setting up the Hardacres’ circumstances on the docks and how fiercely protective they are with each other that we felt the satisfying irony Mary did when she walked into the front door of the estate where she was rejected a few years earlier and tells the house manager that rejected her that they’re the owners now.

It was necessary for the creators to establish the close familial bond, because the family will be facing a ton of challenges in their new station of life. Ma is right when they say that the rich are “more criminal than anyone you’d meet in my line of work,” and just the customs and expectations that they’ll run into as new aristocrats are going to pose a challenge. Of course, they’ll likely be looked down upon by other upper-class families, which will also be another challenge for them to overcome.

But because the Hardacres are so close and trusting of each other, they should be OK, even when that bond is tested. So we’re looking forward to seeing everything they go through trying to adjust to their new lives, and hoping they do the aristocratic life their way.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: As the Hardacres enter their new home, the gate closes with a new crest on it that says “Hardacre Hall.”

Sleeper Star: Julie Graham is a hoot as Ma Hardacre, who kept smuggling even after the family fish business started taking off.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we can find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Hardacres is an enjoyable period drama that stays light on the drama and goes heavy on establishing how solid the family unit is, whether they live on the docks or on a country estate.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.