Downton Abbey

[missmogwi]

Bloody mum rang to ask me about how much Internet she can use before it's full. Don't ask.

Why did bates have to leave?? Aaargh missed crucial bit!

There was no need for Lord G to tell Mrs Pattmore why her nephew was killed. A bit harsh to tell her and then say it needs to be kept a secret from everyone else! That was uncharacteristically thoughtless and ungallant behaviour from Lord G.

soverylucky agree, snog was unconvincing wasn't it?

OMG I have just watched the spoofs-fantastic!

And Edith shouting out over dinner, when Carson was possibly having a heart attack: "What about my dress?!" after they'd spilled over it? I wasn't a huge fan of hers but I can't see her doing that...and would that really be the same person that put herself forward to drive a tractor on a local farm...then snogged the farmer?

Cross posted with AKMD!

maybe it's just we are so critical after a brilliant first series but agree at this rate they should have left it series 1 with Mary and Mathew getting together. it does feel all rushed, melodramatic and less convincing.

Lavinia is after lord grantham and will bear the heir

Lavinia's got a love child or has previously been divorced, that's what. Maybe previously pulled Richard as well.

Matthew and Sybil were thrown together quite a lot at the hospital where he was helping out (again turning up in a random location for no obvious reason - So, the dramatic scene where he goes back to war with the cuddly toy but in the next episode he's back at crawley house with Lavinia flying around - living in sin are they? - available for dinner in white tie and jacket and smouldering looks with Lady Mary. Hmmm....I guess they know DS pulls in the ladies and he can't be gone for long.)

matthew and sybil helping Carson during his 'spell' - yes, the door is definitely open for a pair up.

I thought last night's episode was very poorly written - really clunky dialogue. I thought the same re Edith and her dress, and no need to tell the cook her nephew was killed for cowardice.

Has anyone started a baby name thread on "Marmaduke" by the way?

I am sure there was something funny with the continuity last night.They had the dinner, Mary wore that nude and black beaded number - them there was the scene of the aunt overhearing something suspicious in the garden and then Lady Mary getting undressed from that dress as though it was just post dinner..very confusing.
Did I mss something?

Am plodding on watching it but it has not really gripped me tbh.
The plot is a bit creaky and some of the stuff is very overdone and laboured.

SHHH harriet, that is my name!

I noticed about the dress. She wore it to dinner, then Carson had his thing, then you say them dressed for bed and then looked like she was wearing it the next night. Maybe it's an economy war drive.

I thought it was unrealistic too, the way they seem so nice to the servants. Treating them like equals almost - getting advice and asking for opinions etc. I don't think it could have been quite like that.

And Edith kissing the farmer, now that is just pushing it. There is no way she would do that, going by how she has been portrayed upto now, and also what a lady of her time would have been like. She had only known him all of two minutes anyway, so couldn't have been in love with him; so why would she risk a fling with a married farmer of all things?

What does shot for cowardice mean? What sort of cowardly acts did one get shot for during the war?

For deserting or refusing to fight. Can't have someone refusing to go up over the trenches - might give every one else the same idea. So they line you up if front of a firing squad of your own troops. Some of them were just scared teenage lads and some were suffering from battle fatigue and shell shock.

I do think the war changed things for women - with so many men away fighting they were forced to do unladylike jobs so perhaps it is not that unlikely that Edith would volunteer to drive the tractor. Once she had learnt to drive, she was keen to drive everywhere.

I do think that they convey the passage of time poorly in the script with a lot of time squeezed into one episode. I think Edith was driving the tractor for a good few months before snogging the farmer so had been working closely with him. How long must it have taken for Thomas's hand to heal to that extent for example?

Yes, it´s odd how Mary isn´t doing anything bar waiting around for marriage, but the others are "getting stuck in"!

And did Edith really say about the driving "well I´m doing it/it´s happening & that´s it"?

Does being able to drive a car mean that you can drive a tractor?

Re the timing, IIRC episode 1 was set in summer 1916 and episode 2 in spring 1917. Didn't Thomas get his hand injury at the end of episode 1?

But agree the passage of time was poorly portrayed. E.g. Mrs Hughes asking Anna if she was ok made it sound like Bates had only just left, when it was actually supposed to be 9 months on from then.

Edith and the tractor "I'm doing it." And Lord G just smiling away indulgently.

Honestly - as if those people would hire her to drive a tractor. They would have seen her coming veering into a tree miles away. Or should we say: As. If.

It's a ll gone a bit shite, IMO. Unbelievable dialogue (I'm pretty sure they never used the term depression in 1917) scenarios that get introduced and then resolved in a few minutes. Will probably still watch though

Mr G has gone patently popous and ridiculous as well. I used to fancy him a tiny bit, but no more. Lady G cannot act. She is just crying out to be French and Saundered

I am an idiot. Had completely forgotten about the Comic Relief Pisstake. It's even more in pertinent now

pertinent