Downton Abbey
Sep. 30th, 2019 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerAs a reward for finishing the first draft of Honeytrap (about which more tomorrow!), I went to see the new Downton Abbey movie, which was DELIGHTFUL, A+++ would enjoy again.
I’m not convinced that it would be possible to follow the movie if you hadn’t seen any of the show, but on the other hand if you haven’t seen any of the show at this point in time, it’s probably just not your thing at all and you wouldn’t want to see the movie anyway. I only watched the first two and a half seasons - I quit midway through season 3 when I realized they were about to kill my favorite character - but I had no trouble following it, although of course there were moments when I was all “So Mary is married to whom now?”
Of course, watching the movie did make it impossible to continue living in the happy alternate universe where Sybil and Matthew never died, but on the whole I had such a lovely time revisiting all these beloved old favorite characters and seeing how their lives have turned out, and frankly I am glad that Julian Fellowes realized that we would want EVERYONE to be having a happy life, because he delivered.
Here are a few of my favorite things:
1. Daisy! Such an arc of character growth: she starts the series as a browbeaten kitchen drudge, and by the movie she’s Mrs. Patmore’s self-assured, ambitious second in command, with political opinions tending toward the radical.
Perhaps if I’d seen the series, I would have been more on board with her fiance (although I am glad that she gets a fiance she’s actually attracted to, who fits her physical type: tall, dark, and handsome), but as it was I thought she should ditch her jealous footman. I don’t think breaking the boiler in a jealous rage DOES show that he’s peppery and ambitious like you, Daisy; I think you should toss him over for the plumber.
2. Edith is happily married! That’s all she ever wanted, and I’m happy that she got it.
3. I actually have mixed feelings about Thomas, because Thomas Barrow, Head Butler sounds like the worst thing that ever happened to Downton (no one that pettily vindictive should be in charge of anything ever) BUT I was glad that he finally got a love interest who liked him back. Maybe they can run away and start a pub together and Downton can get a butler who had never in his life stolen a snuff box and planted it in someone’s room in an attempt to drive them out of the house so he can nab the valet’s job for himself.
4. Which leads me of course to Anna and Mr. Bates. In the TV series I got quite tired of the martyred Mr. Bates thing (I believe he got falsely accused of murder twice), but here they’re on top of things and scheming to ensure that the Downton staff get to actually serve their Majesties, rather than the royal staff which the king and queen have brought with them, and that was adorable. I loved watching the Downton staff pull together (scheming in the wine cellar!!) to get the better of the snobby royal servants.
Also, Anna’s friendship with Mary has always been sweet, and I loved to see them pulling together too.
5. Speaking of Mary, her last scene with the Dowager Duchess just destroyed me - what is Downton Abbey without Violet Crawley? But Maggie Smith is getting up there in years, so I understand if she wants a peaceful retirement, and writing her out of the story this way - telling Mary that she has a fatal illness and telling her not to be too sad, that Downton will go on - allows the character (and actress) to exit with dignity on her own terms, prepares the audience for her passing, and assures us that the Downton Abbey (in the movie, she’s talking about the house itself, but one feels she’s also talking about the franchise) will go on.
6. Also, the Dowager Duchess was in absolute top form all movie - I particularly loved her sparring with Isobel Crawley (“I do not argue. I explain” just about brought the house down). A++ wit and sarcasm, would that all characters could have such sparkling and characteristic send-offs.
7. I have mixed feelings about Tom Branson’s storyline in this movie. Actually I’m all on board with his new romance - as much as I loved Sybil/Branson, he’s mourned for seven years, I don’t require him to continue mourning forever - but it’s kind of weird that they have the Irish republican saving the royal family’s bacon not once but twice. Of course Branson has a point when he points out that being a republican is by no means the same thing as wanting the king assassinated, and I did enjoy seeing him wrestle the potential assassin to the ground, but still.
However, Fellowes has never known quite what to do with Branson’s character, so this is all par for the course. The two big Sybil/Branson episodes in season one are the only two episodes in the entire series where Fellowes had cowriters, which may explain why he never wrote Branson that well again. In fact I’m not sure why he killed off Sybil rather than Branson, because he had more of an idea what to do with her, but there seems to be an unwritten law that in a period drama SOMEONE has to die in childbirth, so maybe that drove him to it.
8. Sybil’s death in childbirth aside, I’ve generally been impressed by Fellowes’ writing of his female characters. Period dramas like Rome or The Borgias often seem to struggle to come up with things for their female characters to do, but Downton Abbey - perhaps because it’s on a more intimate family scale rather than high politics?) never suffers from this problem. I don’t like all of Fellowes’ decisions, and I think the later seasons quickly degenerated into melodrama - but all the same, I think it’s fair to say that his most compelling characters (the Dowager Duchess, Mary Crawley, my beloved Sybil) tend to be women.
Now I really want to rewatch the first season of Downton Abbey, but NO, SELF, I’ve already seen it probably five times (I just had to keep introducing people to it, and also people wanted to introduce me to it, and of course I was already aware of it but willing to rewatch it all over again), and it will probably just lead to more Sybil fic.
I’m not convinced that it would be possible to follow the movie if you hadn’t seen any of the show, but on the other hand if you haven’t seen any of the show at this point in time, it’s probably just not your thing at all and you wouldn’t want to see the movie anyway. I only watched the first two and a half seasons - I quit midway through season 3 when I realized they were about to kill my favorite character - but I had no trouble following it, although of course there were moments when I was all “So Mary is married to whom now?”
Of course, watching the movie did make it impossible to continue living in the happy alternate universe where Sybil and Matthew never died, but on the whole I had such a lovely time revisiting all these beloved old favorite characters and seeing how their lives have turned out, and frankly I am glad that Julian Fellowes realized that we would want EVERYONE to be having a happy life, because he delivered.
Here are a few of my favorite things:
1. Daisy! Such an arc of character growth: she starts the series as a browbeaten kitchen drudge, and by the movie she’s Mrs. Patmore’s self-assured, ambitious second in command, with political opinions tending toward the radical.
Perhaps if I’d seen the series, I would have been more on board with her fiance (although I am glad that she gets a fiance she’s actually attracted to, who fits her physical type: tall, dark, and handsome), but as it was I thought she should ditch her jealous footman. I don’t think breaking the boiler in a jealous rage DOES show that he’s peppery and ambitious like you, Daisy; I think you should toss him over for the plumber.
2. Edith is happily married! That’s all she ever wanted, and I’m happy that she got it.
3. I actually have mixed feelings about Thomas, because Thomas Barrow, Head Butler sounds like the worst thing that ever happened to Downton (no one that pettily vindictive should be in charge of anything ever) BUT I was glad that he finally got a love interest who liked him back. Maybe they can run away and start a pub together and Downton can get a butler who had never in his life stolen a snuff box and planted it in someone’s room in an attempt to drive them out of the house so he can nab the valet’s job for himself.
4. Which leads me of course to Anna and Mr. Bates. In the TV series I got quite tired of the martyred Mr. Bates thing (I believe he got falsely accused of murder twice), but here they’re on top of things and scheming to ensure that the Downton staff get to actually serve their Majesties, rather than the royal staff which the king and queen have brought with them, and that was adorable. I loved watching the Downton staff pull together (scheming in the wine cellar!!) to get the better of the snobby royal servants.
Also, Anna’s friendship with Mary has always been sweet, and I loved to see them pulling together too.
5. Speaking of Mary, her last scene with the Dowager Duchess just destroyed me - what is Downton Abbey without Violet Crawley? But Maggie Smith is getting up there in years, so I understand if she wants a peaceful retirement, and writing her out of the story this way - telling Mary that she has a fatal illness and telling her not to be too sad, that Downton will go on - allows the character (and actress) to exit with dignity on her own terms, prepares the audience for her passing, and assures us that the Downton Abbey (in the movie, she’s talking about the house itself, but one feels she’s also talking about the franchise) will go on.
6. Also, the Dowager Duchess was in absolute top form all movie - I particularly loved her sparring with Isobel Crawley (“I do not argue. I explain” just about brought the house down). A++ wit and sarcasm, would that all characters could have such sparkling and characteristic send-offs.
7. I have mixed feelings about Tom Branson’s storyline in this movie. Actually I’m all on board with his new romance - as much as I loved Sybil/Branson, he’s mourned for seven years, I don’t require him to continue mourning forever - but it’s kind of weird that they have the Irish republican saving the royal family’s bacon not once but twice. Of course Branson has a point when he points out that being a republican is by no means the same thing as wanting the king assassinated, and I did enjoy seeing him wrestle the potential assassin to the ground, but still.
However, Fellowes has never known quite what to do with Branson’s character, so this is all par for the course. The two big Sybil/Branson episodes in season one are the only two episodes in the entire series where Fellowes had cowriters, which may explain why he never wrote Branson that well again. In fact I’m not sure why he killed off Sybil rather than Branson, because he had more of an idea what to do with her, but there seems to be an unwritten law that in a period drama SOMEONE has to die in childbirth, so maybe that drove him to it.
8. Sybil’s death in childbirth aside, I’ve generally been impressed by Fellowes’ writing of his female characters. Period dramas like Rome or The Borgias often seem to struggle to come up with things for their female characters to do, but Downton Abbey - perhaps because it’s on a more intimate family scale rather than high politics?) never suffers from this problem. I don’t like all of Fellowes’ decisions, and I think the later seasons quickly degenerated into melodrama - but all the same, I think it’s fair to say that his most compelling characters (the Dowager Duchess, Mary Crawley, my beloved Sybil) tend to be women.
Now I really want to rewatch the first season of Downton Abbey, but NO, SELF, I’ve already seen it probably five times (I just had to keep introducing people to it, and also people wanted to introduce me to it, and of course I was already aware of it but willing to rewatch it all over again), and it will probably just lead to more Sybil fic.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 01:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-09-30 06:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 08:35 am (UTC)It's been a while now, but I'm pretty sure that Sylbil and Matthew died just because the actors wanted to leave. UK shows don't tend to tie the cast up in long contracts like some US ones, so with something that gets super-popular like Downton, actors are going to get loads of offers and some of them are going to go. Career-wise, looking at those who stayed and those who didn't, Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay probably made the right call, but it's always awkward when one half a pairing wants to go. You got the same thing with Spooks (being so high-profile), which was one of the reasons it had such a high death count. The first death was deliberate, but most of the rest were just the cast becoming the hot new thing/getting pregnant.
Do you ever watch older TV? Because if you love Downton, the 1970s show The Duchess of Duke Street is well worth seeing and might be up your alley. (Although fair warning, even for a 1970s Brit TV show, the first 3-4 episodes are pretty slow!) But basically it's based on the true story of a kitchenmaid who became a cook, Edward VIII's mistress, briefly, and then ran a posh hotel, and stars Gemma Jones who is awesome. The series is mostly about the hotel-running, and guess what? Not only does Julian Fellowes appear in it twice but he completely swiped both Bates's backstory and the Sybil-Branson one from it, and Mrs Patmore often uses the same cooking tips as Louisa Trotter. (One Downton S2 storyline (the fete) also comes straight out of Mrs Miniver, so I don't know where else he stole things from, but clearly somewhere, and finding out would be an entertaining game. I must watch the original Upstairs Downstairs sometime. It's supposed to be excellent, and I bet he's swiped stuff from that.)
I love Downton and its ridiculous existence of sheer terrible candyfloss in case that isn't clear. I watched it right up to the end, despite everything. Edith's big wedding at the last minute was indeed lovely. She married a Marquis, so now she finally outranks Mary.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 05:12 pm (UTC)In the flurry of everything else that happened, I had not realized that Edith now outranks Mary, which surely must be balm to Edith's soul! Although actually she doesn't seem to worry about it too much anymore. If season one Edith had managed to bag a marquis she probably would have mentioned it every other sentence every time she talked to Mary.
I've meant to watch Upstairs Downstairs ever since I first watched Downton Abbey, which was... gosh, a while ago now... but unfortunately it's one of those things that I intend to see someday, but someday rarely comes because something always comes along that I have to see RIGHT NOW. But still. Someday!
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 05:19 pm (UTC)(It needs to be the old UD not the new one, though, I am reliably informed!)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-01 05:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-05 02:48 am (UTC)I watched the entire show and I can't remember who Mary ends up with, lol.
because Thomas Barrow, Head Butler sounds like the worst thing that ever happened to Downton
Yeah, I suppose we're supposed to think he's finally matured by the end of the show because he's finally gotten everything he wanted. I haven't seen the movie, but I hope he's not still petty and scheming and going after others as the butler.
In fact I’m not sure why he killed off Sybil rather than Branson
Because the actress wanted to leave the show, to do other projects. Ironically, Lily James, who replaced her, went on to do much bigger projects. Should have suck with Downton, Jessica Brown Findlay. (I'm kind of peeved at her because she did the exact same thing in Harlots season 3. Like, why do TV at all AS A MAIN CHARACTER if you don't want to make a commitment?)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-06 12:13 am (UTC)