Downton Abbey - I'm hooked

[EmergencyIan]

My wife is a big fan of the series. I don't really watch it. However, she made fun of me last week after I referred to it as "Downtown Abbey". Obviously, I hadn't made much attention to the series, at all. I had always read it as Downtown and not Downton.

- Ian

 

[Fading Fast]

Also, I am really sick of Edith getting the short end of the stick. Really sick of it- if they steal her child I'm going to be so upset.

I think you (and I) may finally be getting your wish - Sunday's episode seemed like Edith's breakout moment. She will have the revenue from the publishing business to support her and her baby, so we might see Edith unbound going forward. But Mary did get in a good shot at her on the way out.

And Ian, it took me several episodes in the first year to get comfortable with the name - it felt awkward.

 

[Worf]

I think the show is redundant, has exhausted its story ideas, and keeps boring plots like who-killed-Green going way for WAY too long... but for some reason, I still enjoy watching it.

Let the Church say.... "Amen!"

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

I think the show is redundant, has exhausted its story ideas, and keeps boring plots like who-killed-Green going way for WAY too long... but for some reason, I still enjoy watching it.

My girlfriend and I said something similar while watching Sunday's episode. We think part of it is the joy of escaping to that world. For forty or so minutes a week, we're not living in modern times, but in that crazy, structured world of the British upper class of the 1920s. And for all its faults, it is a good looking world of beautiful homes, cars, clothes, furniture and people.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I think the show is redundant, has exhausted its story ideas, and keeps boring plots like who-killed-Green going way for WAY too long... but for some reason, I still enjoy watching it.

I agree. The writers clearly are sticklers for historical accuracy with respect to costumes and customs, but they evidently know nothing about criminal investigation. I can't imagine police, during any period of history, developing a person as a suspect in a possible homicide simply because he or she was in the same city as the victim when the victim died. Instead, they would have to first believe that the suspect had a motive for killing the victim before trying to place him at the crime scene. In other words, they wouldn't show up at Downtown Abby asking who (if anyone) knew Green...and if so, did he or she go to London on some specific day...and if that, did he or she have a motive to kill Green.

Of course, that being said, we all know Mary did it.

AF

 

[Worf]

My girlfriend and I said something similar while watching Sunday's episode. We think part of it is the joy of escaping to that world. For forty or so minutes a week, we're not living in modern times, but in that crazy, structured world of the British upper class of the 1920s. And for all its faults, it is a good looking world of beautiful homes, cars, clothes, furniture and people.

I agree on the clothes and furniture... but I'd wait another 4 or 5 years before cars REALLY hit their stride. As for the people? That's a mixed bag. I'm not particularly fond of beautiful women who appear as though they were planed at the lumber yard. Curves man! Hips, breats, waist lines are a wonderful thing!!!!

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

I agree on the clothes and furniture... but I'd wait another 4 or 5 years before cars REALLY hit their stride. As for the people? That's a mixed bag. I'm not particularly fond of beautiful women who appear as though they were planed at the lumber yard. Curves man! Hips, breats, waist lines are a wonderful thing!!!!

Worf

True on the cars, the '30s - '41 was a peak period (I think the mid '50s to mid -60s was another one), but some of the early touring cars and early sports cars from the '20s have something to say for themselves.

As to the furniture and homes, my tastes, even with an unlimited budget - which is not my world - I'd opt for simpler tastes - Arts and Crafts, early Art Deco, Bungalow, etc. (clean lines, beautiful woods, spartan decoration, etc.) - but I love seeing the crazy, stupid opulence of the Downton world.

And I know we are never going to agree on Mary: where I see a timeless, subtle beauty of classic, reserved features, porcelain skin with an aquiline body of grace and suppleness, you see a plain women. Different strokes for different... But writ large, it's a handsome cast of men and women.

 

[F. J.]

Why are the clothes so right but not the automobiles?

I agree on the clothes and furniture... but I'd wait another 4 or 5 years before cars REALLY hit their stride.[...]

It's too bad they always get the cars wrong.
For example, you can clearly see a Ford Model A in an episode set in 1919—the Model A was not produced until late 1927. Another obvious mistake are the Model T's in Season One: they all have black radiators and electric headlights. In 1912, Fords had brass radiators and trim, pinstriping, and acetylene gas headlights (also known as carbide lights). Electric headlights were not available until the 1915 model year, and radiators were still brass until midway through 1916. This is how it was in the U. S., anyway. I imagine it took a bit longer for the changes to go into effect in Britain.
I don't know about the non-Ford cars. Some of them seem to be alright, but others, . . . eh, not so much.

 

[Worf]

True on the cars, the '30s - '41 was a peak period (I think the mid '50s to mid -60s was another one), but some of the early touring cars and early sports cars from the '20s have something to say for themselves.

As to the furniture and homes, my tastes, even with an unlimited budget - which is not my world - I'd opt for simpler tastes - Arts and Crafts, early Art Deco, Bungalow, etc. (clean lines, beautiful woods, spartan decoration, etc.) - but I love seeing the crazy, stupid opulence of the Downton world.

And I know we are never going to agree on Mary: where I see a timeless, subtle beauty of classic, reserved features, porcelain skin with an aquiline body of grace and suppleness, you see a plain women. Different strokes for different... But writ large, it's a handsome cast of men and women.

Mary "plain"? No, aloof and boney.... yes. Just not used to women I can crush I suppose. I did like her new do... but of all the Grantham girls I'da took Sybil first, God... bout as fine as they come and she had "spirit". Second would be Edith... she's so downtrodden and repressed she'd be hell on wheels once freed to become a woman. Mary... sheesh, we'd be fightin' all the time. She cain't cook, clean, useless in a fight.... can't even drive the getaway car. She's sure she's smarter than every man living and preetier than every female over 12. Her over weening pride and vanity would constantly have me wanting to push her face down in the muck and trample it! Still different horses for different courses.

Worf

 

[Fading Fast]

Mary "plain"? No, aloof and boney.... yes. Just not used to women I can crush I suppose. I did like her new do... but of all the Grantham girls I'da took Sybil first, God... bout as fine as they come and she had "spirit". Second would be Edith... she's so downtrodden and repressed she'd be hell on wheels once freed to become a woman. Mary... sheesh, we'd be fightin' all the time. She cain't cook, clean, useless in a fight.... can't even drive the getaway car. She's sure she's smarter than every man living and preetier than every female over 12. Her over weening pride and vanity would constantly have me wanting to push her face down in the muck and trample it! Still different horses for different courses.

Worf

"aloof and boney" you got an out loud chuckle out of me on that one.

 

[Wally_Hood]

I think the show is redundant, has exhausted its story ideas, and keeps boring plots like who-killed-Green going way for WAY too long... but for some reason, I still enjoy watching it.

You, sir, are a mind reader. Get the Mr. Bates issue done with.
But, yes, we keep watching...

 

[Worf]

Well, well, well.... So Daddy Grantham isn't deaf, dumb AND blind. Least he can put two and two together.... eventually. Roses mom is quite a piece of work. Wonder when someone's going to slap Mary upside her head for her narcicism and bring her into our world. SOOOOOO tired of the Bates family trials. Sheeeya you'd think they were Bonnie and Clyde!!!! Crazy.

Worf

 

[Atticus Finch]

I wouldn't mind the "Who Killed Green" story line if it weren't so darned ignorant.

I can only imagine the Solicitor (or whatever he was called in 1920s England) reviewing the evidence in the Anna Bates case. "So Officer Viner, you're thinking I would ask a jury of normally intelligent people to convict this woman of murder...because you think the victim may have raped her...and one witness possibly places her at the scene of what was probably an accident? Tell me, Officer Viner, have you already solved every other crime in London? Because if there is one crime yet unsolved...even if its a jay-walking case...you're wasting your time, and even more importantly, you're wasting my time, too."

AF

 

[Fading Fast]

I wouldn't mind the "Who Killed Green" story line if it weren't so darned ignorant.

I can only imagine the Solicitor (or whatever he was called in 1920s England) reviewing the evidence in the Anna Bates case. "So Officer Viner, you're thinking I would ask a jury of normally intelligent people to convict this woman of murder...because you think the victim may have raped her...and one witness possibly places her at the scene of what was probably an accident? Tell me, Officer Viner, have you already solved every other crime in London? Because if there is one crime yet unsolved...even if its a jay-walking case...you're wasting your time, and even more importantly, you're wasting my time, too."

AF

Very funny - well said.

And Worf - you have to give Mary credit for one thing, she can still put Edith in her place. The "even Edith" add to the lunch invitation was a classic Mary smack down.

 

[Gingerella72]

Great season finale! I so thought they were setting it up for Lord Grantham to have a heart attack, which would force Tom to stay. I'm glad it ended on a positive note and not a heartbreaking one. SO glad all the Bates drama is over. I love both characters but that was getting really old.

And yay for Carson and Mrs. Hughes!

 

[Worf]

Yeah seems like the love bugs striking everyone. Mary might have met her match, poor Edith may have a beau on the horizon as well. All the staff seems to be in love or getting hitched. Carson and Hughes... hooray!!!!! Maybe next year they'll fast forward to 1932 and everyone will be hitched and happy... just in time for WWII to start looming.

Worf

 

[Doctor Strange]

Fellowes has frequently said that he has no interest in taking these characters up into the late thirties/WWII timeframe.

I thought the finale was overlong and not everything in it worked. But it was certainly satisfying to see Edith finally start to relax, the arrival of a love interest for Mary who's not yet another indistinguishable upper-class twit, closure on several long-running storylines (though I fear the Bates/Green plot still isn't dead), and Carson's charming surprise proposal.

Is it certain that Rose and Tom are leaving the series? I know next season is shooting right now...

 

[Gingerella72]

They may make appearances but I think their main storylines are complete now. I think that season 6 is going to be the last season because Fellowes said he needs to get started on his American gilded age project, and he can't work on both that and Downton at the same time.

 

[Benzadmiral]

I missed the last few minutes! I taped 90 minutes starting at 8 pm my time, but the tape ended at 9:30 as Bates arrived -- so I don't know all that happened. It seemed they were setting things up for Robert to have a heart attack -- he was gasping as he spoke -- but my writer's mind said, "Too easy, there's got to be a crisis for someone else." But everything I've run across says that it was pretty much a hopeful, upbeat season ending.

So what happened after Bates crept in to surprise Anna?

 

[Fading Fast]

Great season finale! I so thought they were setting it up for Lord Grantham to have a heart attack, which would force Tom to stay. I'm glad it ended on a positive note and not a heartbreaking one. SO glad all the Bates drama is over. I love both characters but that was getting really old.

And yay for Carson and Mrs. Hughes!

+1 to all above and two other plusses:

1. Kudos to Fellowes for writing interesting roles for mature women like Maggie Smith and Isobel Crawley - their story lines this year were engaging (Maggie Smith wasn't just about delivering one-line zingers) and the love interests, especially Isobel's, believable and complex (I love that she said no to basically marrying into more family drama).

2. Many period shows focus on the details in the first year or so and, then, the shows become more "modern" in feel, but Downton still respects its period details - the Christmas dinner prep was fantastic.