3 out of 5

Created by: Sally Wainwright

A new show by Scott & Bailey creator / writer Sally Wainwright that re-pairs her with star Suranne Jones?  Yes please.  Suranne excels at playing headstrong leads – forcing their way through events with a vivacious mixture of cunning and impulsiveness – and Gentleman Jack’s fact-based focus of 1800s English landowner Anne Lister seemed like a perfect match, with Lister’s demands to be treated as an equal amongst the men of the era (while dressing and appearing in such a fashion as to have earned her the titular nickname) offering plenty of potential for Wainwright and Jones, and also quite interestingly timely to modern discussions.

Again: yes please.

And much of that is absolutely fulfilled throughout the 8-episode first season, based off of the diaries of Lister and focusing on Anne’s attempts to get some coal deals settled away – reestablishing an inherited estate – and falling into a particularly troublesome relationship with the flighty Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), but there’s also an incredibly distracting and randomly applied decision to have Suranne directly address the viewer on occasion – kiss any immersion goodbye the moment this occurs – and a bit of a whirlwind of focus (family tension; business tensions; gender half-discussions; the relationship) that never feels like it’s actually dealing with these things at the same time.  At the center of the whirlwind is a fantastic performance from Jones, outdoing her many other fantastic performances in other shows, as Lister proves to be such a multi-faceted character that Jones can just sink into the role, fully, and then kill us when she’s suddenly overtaken by a pang of fragility; of emotion.  But it’s almost as though the impressive presence of the character (and/or maybe adherence to journal details) sacrificed some television norms: I never quite grasped why she developed affection for Ms. Walker, which is a crucial part of the season, and the various subplots – interrelationships of the people who work on the estate; the never-good-enough fretfulness of her sister (Gemma Whalen) – come across as afterthoughts, as though realizing they needed more than just Lister 100% of the time to fill up eight hours.  Setting aside what I felt like was a disconnect with the Ann Walker character, the emotions that come to the fore in those scenes should be a great counter for the bullheadedness Lister faces when trying to secure business deals, but again, it moreso comes across as two separate worlds, both fascinating on their own and for different reasons, but not happening in the same show.

Most of Suranne’s work (and Wainwright’s, that I’ve seen) grabs me from the opening episode.  I haven’t been in the position before to tell myself to wait-and-see with their material, but they’ve earned credit with me, and individual moments and sections of Gentleman Jack are so appealing that I will wait and see how the already secured second season goes.  And perhaps being forewarned of of the show’s fourth-wall breaking and rickety plot interweaving, I’ll find the first season more rewarding on a return trip.