Mar. 26th, 2013

osprey_archer: (downton abbey)
Barnes & Nobles has a book compilation of all the scripts of the first season of Downton Abbey, which I should not buy because, after all, I have the DVDs, but nonetheless totally want because it has all this great commentary by Julian Fellowes. It's rejuvenated much of the respect I lost for him during season 3.

He comments that he tried to set up the major conflicts in season one so that the viewer can see both sides, which I admire so much; it's clear from the book that he's really thought about every character, down to page-long footnotes about Mrs. Patmore or Mr. Moseley, Matthew's valet.

One of the things Downton Abbey is really good at, incidentally, is overcoming the viewer’s snobbishness toward the idea of servants. I think we’re trained to rather denigrate the idea of having or needing servants (because we’ve got all these lovely labor-saving devices to replace them), and therefore share Matthew's initial resistance to the idea of valets: we scoff at the idea of having someone whose job it is to dress him and take care of his clothes.

Downton Abbey makes it comprehensible why people would live that way: it’s really good at getting into the mindset of the times. Lord Grantham’s speech to Mary was probably the first time I understood the point of an entail, not just intellectually but on an emotional level.

I think there is a sense that Fellowes finds a kind of beauty in this way of life, without believing it to be perfect: it’s clear that he sympathizes, for instance, with the unfairness of Mary's position after the Kemal Pamuk incident. That affection is what makes the first season so convincing - but it also contributes to the drop-off in quality in the later seasons, because that way of life is changing and there is a sense that he’s mourning that change, which guts Branson’s and Sybil’s stories in particular.

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