Downton Abbey

[Dinki Di]

So, anybody else a fan of the show? I watched the first season not too long ago and was very impressed. It was mainly due to the inolvement of the Godsford Park writer that I gave it a chance. It does get a little predictable and episodic at times, however it still has it's charm. I could not wait for the second season to air as part of Masterpiece, so I took care of that. I am not sure which one I like better, they both have their high and low points.

Somebody in Britain report back on how the Christmas Special turns out!

[Dra508]

I ran into the first season earlier this year and watched it. I thought it was pretty good until the end - sort of went flat, so I'm hopeful the story has more legs. I do like historic fiction that take real events and intertwine them well - not so sure this one did it well. Gosford Park was a good film.

[Jadezuki]

I am a major fan of Downton Abbey. I think I waited with more anticipation for the Christmas Special than I did for the one for Doctor Who. The second season drags a bit in parts, and I wasn't very engaged by some of the new characters, but the Christmas special totally made up for it - the plot absolutely flew.

[orestes]

Watched the first season on netflix instant watch in a matter of, oh, two days. It's such an engaging show and I've liked Hugh Bonneville's work in the past. Oh, and Maggie Smith is such a saucy bitch as the Dowager Countess.

By the way, Patton Oswalt's been providing hilarious commentary on twitter.

[Jadezuki]

Whether you've seen only one or both seasons, this is awesome:


http://youtu.be/gkyNUZ3S6eg

[Dra508]

^^^^ that's awesome.

[orestes]

Ahahahaha the Adele cover.

[orestes]

So who watched the two-hour season premiere tonight on PBS?

[Dra508]

So who watched the two-hour season premiere tonight on PBS?I did and I got to say, a bit disappointed in the writing. I know they were moving the plot forward, but some of the characters seemed to be doing things that didn't fit, to me, their original character. That middle sister was so judgmental then she goes and kisses the farmer. I liked that they sent Thomas to war and giving him more heart, but he was a good character that you loved to hate. Now you really can't. I'll keep watching. The clothes along keep me watching.

[Jadezuki]

Don't worry, both Thomas and O'Brien go back and forth with their softer sides, which to me makes them more interesting. I think you'll find reasons to hate Thomas again. Also other characters to root against. And as for Edith... well... she'll take affection where she can get it, poor girl.

[orestes]

Heh.

http://arresteddownton.tumblr.com/

[Jadezuki]

I love this! Note, though, there are a ton of Season 2 images, including ones from the Christmas special, that could well spoil you.

[Pemulis]

Just finished the first season tonight on Netflix. Spectacular show.

Not surprised to find out the Gosford Park writer is involved as within the first few minutes the first thing I thought was "Hot damn this is like Gosford Park the TV show!".

[Dra508]

Episode 2 - meh, I'm just not buying Thomas as in charge.

[orestes]

Lady Crawley and Cora were rather catty last night.

[Dra508]

Lady Crawley and Cora were rather catty last night.And there's a character.

O'Brien annoys me.

[orestes]

William! :(

(ten characters.)

[orestes]

Was everybody creeping around Downton Abbey last night? One episode left in the season!

[Dra508]

Was everybody creeping around Downton Abbey last night? One episode left in the season!Holy aristocracy! That was the best episode of them all. Maggie Smith gets the best lines of all the entire cast. I'm almost convinced that she writes her own. She just owns it. Quote of the night: "Don't be a defeatist, it's very middle class". That was only one of a dozen she had - so glad to see she won an Emmy - well done - well done.

I need to go watch her in Murder By Death, Death on The Nile, Evil Under The Sun, and Gosford Park again.

[Jadezuki]

Rumor has it season three started filming today. Eeeeexcellent.

[orestes]

So who watched the Christmas special tonight? So happy for Mary and Matthew. The ouija board stuff was a bit silly, though.

[Dra508]

So who watched the Christmas special tonight? So happy for Mary and Matthew. The ouija board stuff was a bit silly, though.I was sort of hoping Mary went to America to Gran ma ma's in Newport - that would have been cool to see what big manse they would put her in

So, yes to a third season?

[orestes]

Yes, season three should be underway as we speak. I'm looking forward to seeing Shirley MacLaine as Cora's mother.

[Dra508]

Yes, season three should be underway as we speak. I'm looking forward to seeing Shirley MacLaine as Cora's mother.No way?! Cora is so refined. I can't see Shirley dialing it back.

[Jadezuki]

Cora is refined after having lived that life for twenty years. And they STILL give her crap about being an American. I don't think Shirley will need to dial it back, and I'm interested in seeing what sides this will bring out of everyone else in the family.

[orestes]

I can see her and the Dowager Countess volleying verbal barbs at each other.

[Dra508]

^^ That will be awesome. I pretty much agree with everything in this review. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maureen-ryan/downton-abbey-season-2_b_1186158.html)

This is why I like reading historic fiction and now watching it. You learn a lot. Plus I love food.

Books To Aid ‘Downton Abbey’ Withdrawal

(http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/19/147039706/dining-after-downton-abbey-why-british-food-was-so-bad-for-so-long)

[Dra508]

http://www.bustedtees.com/freebates

I just bought this shirt.

[orestes]

Soooooo who's been watching season three thus far? The last episode hit right in the solar plexus.

[Jadezuki]

Arrgghhhg hhhhghargh. I know they're not real people, but yikes.

[orestes]

I was crying so hard I had to put a pillow over my mouth just to hear the dialogue. :(

Fucking hubris.

[miss k bee]

Can't believe people were going mad on twitter over it, but they did keep it a secret so it was a shock.

[orestes]

"The world isn't going your way, not anymore"--pretty much sums up this season so far.

[orestes]

Soooo who watched the season finale?

[Jadezuki]

Well, me, of course. I soooo thought there was going to be a ball accident at the end.

[orestes]

Hahaha me too with Matthew a vegetable.

(My goodness, Tom looked quite fetching in his cricket uniform.)

[Dra508]

I waited for Masterpiece Theatre to put on season 3.... I do like Shirley McLaine but Maggie Smith still has all the great lines.

[hollowsminion]

I just realized that I hadn't watched the Christmas special for S3 and viewed it this morning.... :eek: And now to re-watch season 3 with the rest of America and pretend I don't know what's coming. Ugh shit, such a heartbreaker of a season.

I thought I'd heard someone saying that season 4 will be shown at the same time as Britain this time....anyone else heard that little rumor? I absolutely can't wait for it!!

[Dra508]

Fuck you Downton Abbey and fuck you Dan Stevens.

[orestes]

Haha so I kept my criticisms to twitter and Facebook, so here it goes. I watched the last episode when it aired back on Christmas and it was by far, the worst season finale so far. Betweeen the B-plots surrounding the county fair, the merchant trying to get at Ms. Patmore's hamshanks (hehe) and the Scottish tropes (the audience surely won't know they're in Scotland unless bagpipes are playing) it was a rather dull episode. I knew something bad happened thanks to tumblr but I didn't know the particulars. So after nearly 90 minutes of nothing, to have Matthew's stupid death shoe-horned in at the very end of the episode left me feeling well, nothing. I wasn't mad or teary-eyed; I actually started laughing at the obscurity of it all. Honestly, when Matthew said he felt like he had "swallowed a box of fireworks" I expected him to keel over in the hospital from an unexpected heart attack. It would have certainly been more plausible than driving like an idiot.

Also, I was throwing serious side eye at the new maid who was putting the moves on Tom.

[allegro]

Haha so I kept my criticisms to twitter and Facebook, so here it goes. I watched the last episode when it aired back on Christmas and it was by far, the worst season finale so far. Betweeen the B-plots surrounding the county fair, the merchant trying to get at Ms. Patmore's hamshanks (hehe) and the Scottish tropes (the audience surely won't know they're in Scotland unless bagpipes are playing) it was a rather dull episode. I knew something bad happened thanks to tumblr but I didn't know the particulars. So after nearly 90 minutes of nothing, to have Matthew's stupid death shoe-horned in at the very end of the episode left me feeling well, nothing. I wasn't mad or teary-eyed; I actually started laughing at the obscurity of it all. Honestly, when Matthew said he felt like he had "swallowed a box of fireworks" I expected him to keel over in the hospital from an unexpected heart attack. It would have certainly been more plausible than driving like an idiot.

Also, I was throwing serious side eye at the new maid who was putting the moves on Tom.

^^ What she said. Exactly. I accidentally found out about Matthew a while ago, and I was sad knowing it was coming; the irony was killing me. I prepared for a box of Kleenex boo hoo fest, but it didn't happen. It was just "wtf, that's it??"

Oh and that maid really had to GO.

[Dra508]

Well, I didn't catch wind of his demise and saw the set up back at the "box of fireworks" and "here's the heir" comments. As much as I enjoyed the scenary and the costuming and maggie fucking smith, if you don't write original plausible shit, just stop. I totally understand when a show goes super popular and the writing suffers because they are just too busy doing interviews. The biggest downfall of this season was what made the previous so great: the story telling of this family was woven into real history: the titantic sinking, WWI. I can't think of one thing this season that did that - (oh wait I can: Ponzi!) It was just a soap opera.

I'm going to finish watching The Tudors.

[allegro]

To be fair, the actors who played Sybil and Matthew QUIT the show, leaving the writer scrambling. I guess they can't do like they do in soap operas and have them "go abroad" suddenly and then return with a different actor and the explanation is that the character had reconstructive surgery while overseas.

[orestes]

Other than the Ponzi bit, the only thing I can recall tying into actual history was the scene in the London club with the bratty cousin *gasp* dancing to jazz music. Hopefully this cousin will breath fresh life into the show next season, what when you consider what was going on with the Bright Young Things. Edith needs to collect her family money and move to Paris where she can be a single woman without a care in the world.

[allegro]

As an English Lit major, I'm seeing a lot of Henry James in this series, Maybe also some Edith Wharton. Evolving class and gender issues in the rapidly-changing "society." The English vs. American views. A lot of it is how my grandmother described the 20s in America. Especially the jazz club, women's roles, etc. Edwardian period morphing into the roaring 20s.

[Dra508]

As an English Lit major, I'm seeing a lot of Henry James in this series, Maybe also some Edith Wharton. Evolving class and gender issues in the rapidly-changing "society." The English vs. American views. A lot of it is how my grandmother described the 20s in America. Especially the jazz club, women's roles, etc. Edwardian period morphing into the roaring 20s.

Which would totally make Edith's story an interesting one to explore.

Still fuck Dan Stevens! Grrrrr.

[allegro]

I saw that Mary's new love interest will make us quickly forget Matthew. Hubba hubba what a dish.

[razzletiger]

To be fair, the actors who played Sybil and Matthew QUIT the show, leaving the writer scrambling. I guess they can't do like they do in soap operas and have them "go abroad" suddenly and then return with a different actor and the explanation is that the character had reconstructive surgery while overseas.

Let me expand upon this a bit, after reading all of the morning-after-the-finale articles online - Dan Stevens straight up wanted out of the show. According to Julian Fellowes, he didn't want to come back from time to time, which threw out the possibility of giving Matthew a foreign posting or some sort of job that would keep him from Mary and Downton for most of the time. Fellowes actually wanted to end the Christmas special on the happy birth of baby Crawley, then kill Matthew off at the beginning of season four, but Dan didn't even want to come back for one more episode to do that. So that left Fellowes the choice of either dissolving Matthew and Mary's marriage, which he felt wasn't fair to the story or the characters or the fans, or killing Matthew very quickly. It all sounds to me like Dan Stevens just wanted to be done, and wasn't willing to work with Fellowes in order to give Matthew a proper ending. Good luck with that movie career, Dan! (and I totally mean that in a sarcastic way.)

Evidently season four is going to start six months after Matthew's death, which means we won't see his funeral or any of the grieving that takes place directly after, just everyone moving on. Might be a good thing.

[allegro]

yeah I know all that. I don't think you understood my soap opera post. In the soaps, actors quit all the time. The soaps don't believe in 100% killing off anybody, ever. So they'd either change the actor and hope we don't notice or they'd send them away for a while and a new actor would take over and they'd say there was a tragic event or accident or they were in a witness protection program or worked for the KGB and they had plastic surgery. This was all in response to Dra's soap opera similarity comment. But Downton didn't do any of this, they simply killed off Matt (like Sybil, who also went off to do other things) and that's that. Both Sybil and Matthew died in highly plausible ways, vs soaps where a crazed killer poisons the entire town.

Yes season 4 rumors of a new hot love interest for Mary already abound. Each episode and each season of Downton seem have very liberal and varying time lines. Look how big baby Sybil got in what was a few weeks to us.

[allegro]

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/showbiz/2013/02/20/conan-downton-abbey-spoiler-alert.team-coco#/video/showbiz/2013/02/20/conan-downton-abbey-spoiler-alert.team-coco

[Jadezuki]

Now that the Christmas Special's finally aired, this is what I keep hearing from various members of my family: "That was the Christmas Special?" "Yes, they aired that ON CHRISTMAS." "That's just terrible!"

[orestes]

O'Brien not returning either. (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/01/downton-abbey-maid-sarah-obrien-quits-series-4_n_2789942.html)

[Dra508]

O'Brien not returning either. (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/01/downton-abbey-maid-sarah-obrien-quits-series-4_n_2789942.html)

I don't blame her. She got very one dimension and painted into a corner character wise - SHE, should have gone out with a bang. Like kicking Thomas' ass under a bridge. Oh wait.

Dan Stevens - he had big story - next season they really could have explored him saving (or not) the property or trying to get Branson more involved so he actually gets better than THEN you get into more class conflict melding. It could go on and on.

Fellowes better get his shit together story wise. Costuming can only hold me so long. I do say, the detail is amazing. I don't tend to watch an episode more then once and have a terrible attention span, but this guy really noticed so important misses relative to language that I happen to notice how much Lincoln was period accurate.
http://www.wbur.org/npr/146652747/im-just-sayin-there-are-anachronisms-in-downton

Even better:
http://www.npr.org/2013/02/26/172955182/historical-vocab-when-we-get-it-wrong-does-it-matter

[allegro]

O'Brien not returning either. (http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/01/downton-abbey-maid-sarah-obrien-quits-series-4_n_2789942.html)
Good, I CAN'T STAND HER!

[Dra508]

Shirley McLaine is coming back. I'm glad. Her visit was far too short.

[allegro]

I've been watching a marathon of reruns every Sunday and each time I realize this will be the final season, I can't think about it; it's just too awful.

[Dra508]

I've been watching a marathon of reruns every Sunday and each time I realize this will be the final season, I can't think about it; it's just too awful.

I caught an old episode this week and I gotta say, if they don't keep up with the stories, I won't feel bad to see it go. Being historically accurate is the most important thing for that show.

Maybe the last season will really have them all moving out of the big house. THAT would be a good wrap up.

[allegro]

I caught an old episode this week and I gotta say, if they don't keep up with the stories, I won't feel bad to see it go. Being historically accurate is the most important thing for that show.

Maybe the last season will really have them all moving out of the big house. THAT would be a good wrap up.

I disagree, I think it has been mostly historically accurate but I mostly watch it for the great acting and scenery and interesting story lines and watching the class divisions slowly close, etc. It's a fictional show; I'm not one of those people scrutinizing every moment for historical accuracy.

(Queen Elizabeth II is a big fan so I guess she agrees. She is said to know every room of Highclere, which is inhabited by the current Earl of Carnarvon.)