Downton Abbey - I’m bingeing it, but oh my, nothing much happens

[Snooks1971]

I am strangely drawn into the lives of the Crawleys, I’m on series 4! I watch it on my iPad whilst cooking, but I just can’t imagine sitting down every Sunday night and watching a new episode unfold. Nowt happens!!

My husband calls it 'Wife's programme where nothing happens' 😂

Gilded, rather

I have tried to watch this a number of times, and find it such hard work to watch. Oh so dull and tedious and boring. A lot of people like it, but I have never seen the appeal.

The original Upstairs Downstairs was much better, imo.

lol

that scene was pretty dramatic.

but he was all better again about 15 mins later.

I remember a certain childbirth scene being quite harrowing too. With a sad ending.

But in general it's just a pleasant and soporific. Mary being a haughty bitch and Rawwwwburd looking astonished.

But... the dowager...!!
Worth it for her one-liners

I've just watched it in a month long binge, the lack of action is the charm, like in the Archers! They do cram more"events" into the final series though. Are the films worth watching? It looks like I'd have to buy them on Prime.

It was like a very looong Gosford Park with all the bite and acid take on class taken out of it.

And a criminal waste of some good actors, like Jim Carter.

Remember it is quite old now and pre-dates binge watching, one episode a week was normal then and it was perfect Sunday night comfort TV.

The films are a bit bonkers but still enjoyable if you liked the show, I saw them both at the cinema with friends.

Did you not SEE the episode in series one where Karl Pemouk DIES in Lady Mary’s bed?

😂

God I love it. It's so ludicrous and yet beautiful. Genuinely amazing actors like Penelope Wilton and Maggie Smith (their scenes are delightful) in such turgid plot lines.

There are a couple of touching bits (Sybil and Anna afterwards both make me cry). But generally my favourite bits are:
Matthew and his tingle
Mary and Mr Pamuk (was it anal? V funny debates on this)
Mrs Patmore trying to ascertain if Carson would be utilising his marital rights.
The sheer amount of murder between Anna and Bates and the frankly deranged way these are sorted out. Oh she baked a pie ffs.
The soap
An honourable mention to the scene where Larry Grey insults Tom over dinner and Matthew leaps to his feet like a pugnacious pigeon

Basically it's amazing. There are some amusing watch along blogs in the Guardian and Times too. Lady Mary's haunted vagina whoooooo.

If you've got half an ounce of knowledge about that class and how appallingly their staff were treated generally, it really is the most amazing pish on telly.

the way that the death of Bates' ex missus dragged on and on and onnnnnnn was so tedious and then there were other story lines that were dropped too quickly. the pacing was all wrong.

I'm sure Julian Fellowes was quite adamant that there was no up the bum situation going on with Mary and the handsome Pemouk. He probably choked on his scone when he heard that's how some people had interpreted the handsome Turk's words.

Yes, it’s dimwit Ideologically-suspect reactionary nonsense. A paternalist Tory fantasy about an impeccably moral aristocracy and grateful lower orders.

Loved it. But then I should have been born in that era, with a lady's maid drawing my bath and laying out my nightdress...

It's no more than a soap really.

Visual hot chocolate. Cosy, undemanding, gorgeous to look at. I love it.

@MissHavishamsMouldyOldCake genuinely I amuse myself no end with the up the bum argument. I did read that Julian was horrified at that inference which makes it funnier.

Whilst usually Cora is not my favourite I was all for it when she suggested sacking Bates for being a, you know, murder subject. Or getting cross with Mrs Hughes for randomly nicking her coat.

Oh and the casual acceptance of Thomas' homosexuality. Yeah, sure.

Absolutely love it. Binge watch it by the hour and with some magnificent performances.

I am back on season 6 and then will watch both films again before starting from the beginning, I love the way small historical facts are wound into the series, like Cora's Brother being involved in the Teapot Dome scandal and The Dowager blackmailing Chamberlain over his supposed involvement in one of his brother in law William de Vere pranks.

Seeing the way the characters changed through the series, like Thomas Barrow being shown as vulnerable, Mrs Patmore seeing Daisy as a daughter and crying when she thought Daisy was leaving and best of all poor put upon Edith who was doomed to be a spinster ending up outranking her parents when she married Bertie Pelham.

But it is the Dowager that keeps me watching seeing her steeling herself before meeting the family after Sybil's death, her run ins with Isobel but in the end admitting to Mary that she would be lonely without her if she married Lord Merton, her one liners and the way she crushed the vicar when he was refusing to marry Daisy and William.

Have done same...due to do it again soon I think; I do notice an alarming effect on me and that is my voice become far more 'refayyyned' after a big dose of Lady Mary....too much absorption :)

I want keen on the first film, still worth watching though. The second film was great!

Have you got to the episode with the alien invasion yet?! Oops sorry no spoilers.

watch an episode with me, you'll like it and it will do you good to not watch the news and the death toll.

This was what I did. I had breast cancer in 2019 and watched it throughout my treatment and then through the pandemic. A treat once or twice a week.
I know there is death in there but it was for me true escapism from real life woes.

I binge watch it every couple of years. I love it, it's real comfort tv.

I watched it when it was on every day at mealtime during lockdown. I didn't see it when it was originally shown.

I love costume drama but there are far better ones and I don't see what all the fuss was about. Best thing I can say is Dan Stevens was nice.