It’s May, 1945 in the glorious Yorkshire Dales—a time jump since the utterly heartwarming Season 5 finale when Mrs. Hall learned that her son, Edward, was alive after the sinking of the HMS Repulse.

When we first see the protagonist of North Country, a working-class heroine portrayed by a deglamorized Charlize Theron, she’s sporting a black eye and a slight limp, the results of an encounter with ...