Downton Abbey anyone

[CMP69]

Or am I just an old gimmer with a period drama fetish

Have we ever had independent confirmation of Edith's editor's claims about his wife?

Oh no we have not. Hence much suspicion

I've just done a speed rewatch marathon of series 1 and 2, and with the exception of a couple of OTT moments in 2 they were both fantastic.

I think the trouble is once you've done WW1 you've got to be really good to make things go anywhere dramatically speaking, and I'm not sure he is that good. It ups the tragedy/pathos stakes so much and then we have to go back to being interested in Rose being involved in a Bit of a To-Do.

And also S1 and 2 were all about the old boundaries breaking down and you can't really put that back to how it was either, so a lot of the interesting upstairs/downstairs tension has gone away and you get things like Anna telling Mary "Your father loves you very much" which I find cringey enough when social equals in modern drama say it.

Hmph.

Also I'm finding it hard to care about Moseley, he dodged the war and Nice William didn't, and he's been too much of a gulping comedy Yorkshireman all along.

MadBusLady

I'm finding it really hard to care about anyone.

Either they can't act (or give the appearance of it), or their storylines last an episode and so there's no engagement or dramatic tension to give a toss. eg the workhouse man - what was all that about?

I'd be amazed if Moseley doesn't end up committing suicide a' la the chap who couldn't find work in North & South.

YY why the turbo speed storylines? Nothing builds up to anything. They'd have the entire pamuk/scandal/suitors arc from season one and two wrapped up before the second ad break now.

It's a shame.

Still love it though.

Yup, this series so far seems like a big step back. Silly little stories whizzing by, mainly featuring servile people helping others out and doing a little smile when they break somebody's paper thin stubborn facade.

Even the story with the gardener at the dance - which could have had promise - raced to a conclusion as the young man went from slightly dodgy, to furtive, to ardent , to kind and respectful in defeat in the space of ten minutes. Not so much character development as character catapult.

The Earl has refrozen after all of his previous unfreezings. It's like watching Scooby Doo.

And what about Carson turning up at the station to make peace with that old geezer? I thought "nooooo, please don't let him turn up" it would have been even a tiny surprise if he hadn't

Yea, last time he saw Carson he tried to blackmail him. I don't know why we were suddenly supposed to feel all sorry for him.

AND ANOTHER THING

Twatty doesn't seem to give a shiny shit Matthew is gone, either for his widowed daughter with a six month old child or on his own account. He was crying when Matthew was missing during the war.

Please could the scriptwriter re watch his previous work and reacquaint himself with his own characters? He doesn't seem to know them very well

Oh, dear...it's just like a bad soap now isn't it? Scenes and plot lines passing at the speed of light.

I still like Anna and Edith. Thomas is growing on me.

I think Edith's a fantastic actress. Mary, on the other hand, is rubbish - she speaks in one tone only and appears to be unable to form more than one facial expression .

Haha, I'd never noticed before that is basically Mary's face.

Thomas is a great character. He has had his down and poignant moments but remains awesomely smarmy and evil. Also I so would.

I think Downton might have a touch of the JK Rowling at about HP book 3, where editors and helpful TV types like continuity experts are wilfully ignored.

The problem is, by then the programme/book/ movie has devotees (us) and sometimes you're sitting the with a Mary face because you know a plot is evolving that has been roundly killed in series past. The Carson plot being a fine example.

It just stops one caring bit by bit if the TV types clearly don't care enough to respect details.

it is very strange - all these things starting up and fizzling out into nothings. It is like they've been brain-storming, oh we could do this - and that- and this - and the other. Couldn't decide which to take and threw them all in with no time to develop anything. It is odd but so Downton. We had the nanny drama (and now no nannies?). We had Rose and the estate worker (and now he'll disappear). We had the guy from the workhouse, no sooner at Isobel's than he is off to Belfast or somewhere to be a stage manager. I can't keep track of them all.

Then there are the deeply confusing (and who-cares-anymore?) story-lines such as breaking or not-breaking the entail, inheritance, death duties. Previously it was the will Mary or will she not get it together with Matthew.

I'm actually enjoying the fact that it is all over the place.

The nanny story seems to have gone nowhere. Surely that could have been developed into an interesting episode. In the meantime those two children are up in the nursery in the care(one assumes) of a young nursery-maid with no other help. By the way, why did Thomas try to get rid of the nanny?

"By the way, why did Thomas try to get rid of the nanny?"

Because she didn't show him due deference?

Isn't getting rid of the older nanny to pave the way for a young, attractive one?

I'd back the kidnapping plot idea actually. That happened way too fast for it not to be setting up for something else.

The same may be true of the tedious Grigg subplot as well. Maybe he was lying to Carson and Alice-who-we've-never-heard-of-before is still alive.

The nanny could have been fun. a bit more subtlety wouldn't have gone amiss. ("Halfbreed?" Really?)

Katy There was a lot of anti Irish prejudice in those days .There still was in the 50s. Hence the vile nanny's comments and treatment of little Syb.

Yes, but it was just so heavy-handed. It could have been fun to watch it over a few episodes, gradually realizing what she's doing.

I agree I used to enjoy DA for the quiet way plots were developed, there didn't seem to be any design in the nanny plot; which is how it seems to be going now; perhaps JF isn't actually writing it any more but one would hope he has an influence on the plots though it doesn't seem like it

I actually found the vile nanny's "wicked halfbreed" verbal abuse
of Darling Little Syb,shocking and upsetting.Thanks Heavens for
Thomas sensing that there was something "not quite right" about
the woman.He certainly won me over! However gradually revealing
her twisted mental state might have been an interesting ongoing
plot, albeit uncomfortable to watch

Me too foxy. For some reason I was quite shaken by it, probably because it was the first week I'd put baby DD into nursery. I woke her up for a cuddle when I went to bed

I was left shouting at the TV because of the ludicrous idea that someone whose profession is a solicitor wouldn't have bothered to make a proper will as soon as he got married. And if he was going to go to all the trouble to write a letter and get people to witness his signature, surely he might as well have done a normal will anyway?