As the second episode of The Listeners begins, Omar (Amr Waked) tells Claire (Rebecca Hall) about the group. Seema (Shreya M. Patel) says she’s been listening for about three months. Tom (Ian Mercer) and Emily (Karen Henthorn) say the same. Damian (Samuel Edward-Cook) says he’s been hearing it for about a year. Jo (Gayle Rankin) says she’s been hearing it for five years. Omar has been listening for decades now. Omar explains that some people moved or what they do here just didn’t work for them. Tom and Seema agree that they want the noise gone. As for Omar, he hears the hum and accepts it. Kyle (Ollie West) asks if they feel like it’s something they value now. Seema says Omar is a bit more advanced than the rest of them. Damian says fighting the hum was not good for his mental health. Claire wants to know more about the hum and its origins.
Jo says it’s wise to take things slowly and to remember that the function of the group is to support. She says they must find a way to live with it and maybe find what the hum can do for them. Jo teaches them breathing techniques to deal with the humming noise. Claire and Kyle talk about the group on the way back. Claire admits she might go back. At home, Claire tells Paul (Prasanna Puwanarajah) and Ashley (Mia Tharia) about going to the meeting. She claims she found them on a Facebook page thing and there were seven other people. Claire insists she didn’t lie to them. She admits it was nice being around people experiencing the same thing. Paul asks if she’s going back. Claire says probably. Paul says he and Ashley can go with her. Later, Claire speaks to Dr. Broodthaers (Kiruna Stamell) about the noise. The doctor suggests it could be an outlet of sorts. After class one day, Claire tells Kyle she has a favor to ask him.
They talk about the book he’s reading by Georges Bataille. Claire says Paul and Ashley want to come to the next meeting. Kyle worries that they’ll keep coming. He asks Claire how she’s going to make it up to him. Next, Claire thanks Omar for letting Paul and Ashley come to the meeting. Omar tells Paul it’s beautiful that he came, but this is a one-off because the space is for people who hear what they hear. During the meeting, Omar talks about the Schumann resonance in which lightning causes the atmosphere to hum. Jo says every animal that migrates uses the Schumann resonance. Everyone learns that Omar was the director of the School of Geosciences at the University of Rosyth for 18 years. Tom insists this noise is something new and it is some kind of industrial noise pollution. Teresa (Lucy Sheen) suggests otherwise. Tom says they need to speak to the council about it. Damian thinks the noise is something much bigger. He worked in military intelligence for nine years. He claims it could be the deep state for all they know.
When Paul speaks up. Damian questions what he’s even doing there since he can’t hear the hum. Emily wonders why they can only hear the noise now. Seema is convinced there is a logical reason. The group takes a break. Ashley searches for Omar online and finds nothing about him. Jo asks Claire why Kyle didn’t come together. Ashley learns that Kyle Francis came with her mom. In private, Claire tells her daughter that they’re just trying to get to the bottom of this. Paul decides to take Ashley home. Ashley speaks to Jo in private. Jo reveals Omar was her thesis supervisor and they were together. Claire tells her that Kyle is a student of hers at Pirethorn Academy. She would prefer that people didn’t know. That night, Claire speaks to Paul about the meetings. Paul still isn’t convinced. He points out that people are vulnerable. Claire goes to work the following day. She speaks to Cassandra (Franc Ashman) in private. Claire is called into the head teacher’s office.
Siobhan asks Claire what the heck she is doing with Kyle. Claire is accused of seeing Kyle outside of class and going on drives to the group. Claire tries to explain what is going on. She learns that Ashley is the reason this information came out. Last night, Ashley sent Kyle a message asking him to stop seeing her mom. Kyle told her they were going through the same thing. Claire is suspended and a formal review is opened. They will decide whether or not to allow her back. Paul scolds Claire when she gets home. Claire insists she just wanted to help Kyle who can also hear the hum. Paul tells her that she shouldn’t have done any of it. Ashley tells Claire that she messaged Kyle because she was scared for her. Now, people are saying all kinds of stuff. Ashley will have to face it all tomorrow. Kyle speaks to Tamsin (Hopi Grace) about asking for Claire’s number. Claire is also questioned. Later, Kyle calls Claire to tell her about the intense interview. He wants to see her. Claire tells him no and hangs up.
She also deletes his chats. Later, Claire tries to deal with the low hum. Kyle tries to call her but she doesn’t answer. The next day, Paul and Ashley leave again. Claire receives a letter. She calls Jo before meeting her in person. Claire knows Paul will be ticked off that she’s there. Jo claims Paul has been isolating her and cutting her off from any support network. Claire doesn’t think she has anything to lose now that she’s been sacked. Jo tries to help her meditate and find the hum later. Kyle is there as well. Once they finish, Omar says he hopes they’re beginning to process that the hum is not their enemy. Paul find “pedo” sprayed on his home. Claire ignores a call from him. She apologizes to Kyle for last night. Kyle says he feels terrible about what happened. Claire admits Paul and Ashley don’t know yet. Kyle admits the listening and not fighting the hum felt really good.
Jo thinks people have forgotten how to listen. Paul arrives at the door. Claire goes outside. Paul says he’s come to take her home since he’s found the letter. Claire says she came there because she needed some support. Omar and Jo come outside when they hear Paul shouting. Paul tries to go after Kyle when he sees him. Damian tells Paul he’s not welcome there. Raina (Romy Kelleher) talks to Ashley about whether she’ll have to move. Paul tells Ashley to say he’s not going to be home tonight. He leaves a message asking her to call him back. Claire’s nose begins bleeding.
The Listeners Review
The Listeners work well at certain points, but those moments are few and far between. There are some good points here with the humming and how people are trying to deal with hearing it. Rebecca Hall and Ollie West are good in their respective roles. On the other hand, this is definitely tedious because it has far too many episodes.
The casting really doesn’t help the situation any because it takes away from the credibility of the group. It’d be very unlikely that such a diverse group of oddballs would end up together and wrapped up in the whole thing. Casting it in this manner unfortunately makes it all a bit more difficult to swallow.
It really feels like the novel was greenlit and turned into a show because of those aspects much more than the content. After all, the content is fairly shallow with nothing new being offered. Even the novel has low reviews leading one to question why this would be turned into a television show in the first place unless it’s those aspects mentioned previously.
This is insanely boring and there really isn’t a single sympathetic character in the whole thing. At the end of the day, it’s really just questionable why this got turned into a television show. At the very least, it could’ve been summed up in an hour-long film. This episode scores a 4 out of 10. Recaps of The Listeners can be found here.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
