"I am a caretaker, not an owner."
Hello everyone!
Alright, so. Once again, this Tuesday blog is going to be a bit different, as it will not, in fact, be about a movie of any kind. And there really is a perfectly simple explanation for that.
That is, more or less.
See for a time now, one of my best friends has been badgering me (gently, of course) to start watching Downton Abbey. The thing was, with all the regular shows in season, and everything else I generally watch in between, I just never found the time. More accurately, I never made it, really.
Then a few weeks back, I finally decided to bite the bullet, for one thing because I hate not being able to deliver, and for another because I had been told, in no uncertain terms, that Dan Stevens is pretty wonderful in this show.
Dan Stevens? THE Dan Stevens, aka the Beast?
Scuse me while I find the popcorn and get my groove on.
Ahem. So, finally capitulating, I managed to run through the first season of the show since then, and boy, am I thankful for the constant persuasion!
Downton Abbey is one of those period dramas that you either love or you hate at first glance. It could go either way, really, and my philosophy with television shows, especially new ones I'm venturing in, is that unless they catch my attention within the first five or ten minutes of the pilot, then it's just not worth my time (I allot half an hour to a movie, because it's a bit longer, after all).
Case in point: the pilot of Teen Wolf where Dylan O'Brien hangs upside down from Tyler Posey's porch roof in the middle of the night, complaining about his best friend having a baseball bat when he doesn't even play baseball.
See what I mean?
It's the little things that get me, and boy, did Downton have it all. And it's beginning was just spectacular, as well.
No picture, no actual sound, except a repeated beeping in some sort of signal.
Or, in other words, Morse code for the message that shook the world to its core one morning back in 1912, of the sinking of the unsinkable ship, the Titanic.
And just like that, I was hooked! (might also help I saw an advertisement one time about a Downton-like setting, a phone, the father wanting his family to focus on family during mealtime, and then the revelation that the caller was from the Titanic, but that's beside the point)
Basically, the story of Downton is this: the heir presumptive, who is NOT the current Earl's son (but was going to marry said current Earl's eldest daughter) is lost on board the Titanic, making for another frantic search among relatives for the closest male who will now bear the title. See, the thing is, Downton can only be inherited through the male line, and the late Earl had also made sure that all the money his son's wife brought into the marriage is intricately connected with the estate, thus preventing it from being extracted without selling the whole thing. Meaning, the daughters get nothing, not unless one of them marries the new heir.
But oh, the humanity! The new heir isn't even upper class!
Well, alright, he's upper middle class, but he's a working solicitor and has worked all his life, something that is completely foreign to the genteel bred ladies of Downton. Who ever heard such a scandalous thing as weekends and holidays, I ask you?!
Anyway, Matthew Crawley arrives with his mother, and sparks fly almost immediately. Namely, between him and not one, or two, but ALL THREE of the Downton girls. Mary, the eldest, is so against marrying him that she doesn't see what's right in front of her nose, meaning that she's falling for the guy; Edith is one of those pieces of work you wouldn't trust as far as you could throw, though she WOULD, presumably, make a good wife; and Sybil, the youngest, is fairly political with her own notions and ideas, but who swoons over a 'knight in shining armour'.
In any case, Cousin Matthew puts his foot in it first thing when Mary overhears him saying that no one and nothing will persude him to marry one of the girls, since he wants to choose his own wife, after all. Modern men and all that jazz. But hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, which means poor Matthew dug himself an early grave already.
Mary would have nothing to do with the upstart until much later in the episodes timeline when she begins to learn that he's a genuinely caring and compassionate man (with his own quirks and faults, obviously, but he puts up with 'Granny Duchess' so there's THAT) who seems to actually love her. At which point her own words come to bite her in the behind since she can't seem to unbend from the rigid stance she'd taken in the beginning.
On the other side, Edith is trying super hard to get a husband of her own once it becomes clear Matthew is off the table, but Mary intervenes and spoils her plans with an older gentleman, as revenge for a little thing called backstabbing Edith did (well to be sure, it was a doozy; see a Turkish attache or whatever he was came to Downton, had an illicit affair with Mary, and ended up dead in her bed afterwards, which was covered up until Edith, out of spite, sent a message to the Turkish embassy in London, ruining her sister with gossip circulating in the city). But since Matthew decides, at the end of the season, that he won't wait for Mary to make up her mind again depending on where the monetary winds blow (the girls' mother had been pregnant for a fourth time, and it HAD been a boy, but unfortunately she suffered a miscarriage), she's in the same position as her sister now.
The only semi-lucky one is Sybil, who is definitely on board this emancipation plan and wants women to have an equal say as men, and seems to not be so concerned about marriage just yet. She rather focuses her skills elsewhere, like helping some of the servants.
See, there's another part of the series, and that is the 'downstairs' version where we see a glimpse into the lives of the servants at Downton, including both good and bad examples. The focus is mostly on the upper crust of the lot though, the ones in personal connection with the gentry. Mr. Carson rules the lot of them, with Mrs. Hughes as his right hand lady. Mr. Bates is the Lord's valet, but his position is coveted by Thomas, who, together with O'Brien, the Lady's maid, conspire against him. Anna and Gwen take care of the girls, and Anna developes feeligns for Bates (which are reciprocated, but considering he's apparently still married and has a bit of a complicated past, that one's on the backburner for the moment). Then there's Branson, the new driver, who seems to be developing feelings for Miss Sybil. And William and Daisy, always underfoot but doing their jobs as best as they could. Rounding up the lot is Mrs. Patmore, the cook, who has earned the loyalty of her master and is sent to London to repair her poor eyesight.
It doesn't stop there; Thomas and O'Brien keep on scheming and plotting to ensure their own position, undermining it in the process. O'Brien, fueled by Thomas when neither of them know the truth, thinks the Lady will be replacing her as maid and is direct cause for the woman's fall and miscarriage, only to later learn that it's actually the Dowager Duchess who needs a new maid. Isn't that just swell?
Bates has some trouble adjusting at first as he has an old war wound that causes him to limp and use a cane, but he fits in nicely enough to suppoer Carson as another voice of wisdom and moderation. Anna is undyingly loyal to the owners of the Abbey, but has a spirit of her own and tends to believe actions speak more than words. And Gwen is trying to become a secretary as opposed to housemaid, something Sybil actually supports and aids as best as she can. In fact, by the end of the series, Gwen DOES in fact get the position!
And what about Thomas? Well, he's a conniving one, him. Eventually, after being caught red-handed almost stealing, he is to be thrown from the lot, but he fixes this up by heading into ranks as a medicine man.
Because by the time season one ends, the Earl of Downton Abbey announces, at a garden party, that the United Kingdom is at war with Germany. The year is 1914.
And that's that!
I love this show so much now. I'm thankful I was introduced to it, and shown that I needed to sit and watch, not delay any longer. The acting was superb, the little tweaks and nuances made the world of difference, and obviously, Dame Maggie Smith as the Dowager Duchess is something that could use its own show. Because, seriously, her lines alone could have carried the entire season! (Not to mention that playing the part of old generation meeting new tricks made my cry buckets with laughter).
I will certainly be watching season two soon, and hopefully if you haven't watched it yet you will also consider sitting down to do so! You won't regret it.
xx
*images and video not mine
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