Posted on 06/14/2020 8:20:51 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET
PBS pledge break time. Showing the series. Retirement/coronavirus is doing it to me. It seems America is fascinated with the Brits and their 'proper' behavior among the uppers. Go back 100 years, throw in TODAY's social discrepancies and you've got quite a formula. The castle backdrop and fashion will get the ladies hooked. I'm watching but not getting caught up in it.
“The storyline with presumably virginal, unmarried Lady Rose ...”
That storyline was the only reason her character was even developed. After Matthew died, the plot went meandering badly.Still, a really great show for a few series.
She was my favorite character. Loved her wit and she was feisty and classy.
-PJ
Downton Abbey was brilliantly created and written by Julian Fellowes. It has been cast and acted at an outstanding level. Julian won a screenwriting Oscar for his earlier movie, Gosford Park, which is also an ensemble British period piece directed by Robert Altman.
Julian Fellowes has created unique characters with unique voices and his spoken lines of eternal wisdom are everywhere in the dialogue. The attention to period detail including etiquette, costumes, furnishings, interiors and context of real life events and famous people of the time is remarkable.
The settings are within the real political and global conflicts of the period.
The extended speaking parts and personal dramas are more numerous than anything I have ever seen. Fellowes has impossibly brought them all to life in unforgettable drama.
There are dozens of intense, conflicted characters to be enjoyed during the six seasons and the recent movie. The actors are as real as they can be and were not chosen for their physical perfection but for their true acting skill.
My wife and I have the entire series and movie on DVD’s and we never tire of watching it over and over.
Downton Abbey is a masterpiece series.
Fellowes is a creative genius.
I don't want to spoil future episodes for DIRTYSECRET, but that was known since the first season.
-PJ
She hasn't taken her eyes off the screen for three weeks. Upstairs/Downstairs, To the Manor Born, Waiting for God, etc, etc.
Yes, the first few seasons were good, but then too much 21st century liberal sensibility crept in. Sort of like the 1970s sensibility of the characters in M.A.S.H. which was set during the Korean War in the early 1950s.
Why do you think Robert Altman did the original MASH movie? It was a way to comment about the Vietnam War, by using the Korean War as the backdrop, he even admitted as such.
Wish BritBox had The Benny Hill Show, fat chance of that every happening.
Agree with you on this. The series treated this very differently.
Never saw DA, but I did go on a tour of The Cotswolds last year when I went to England, beautiful area.
I watched from the beginning—each week, but started to tape it about the time that the husband was killed in a car crash. ( forgot his name) Then never went back to watch segments. When I did turn it on one night — I almost didn’t know who the new characters were. Mad at myself for taping it. I liked the story and the characters.
The anachronisms in Downton Abbey are still kind of irritating.
I watched the first season and was bored to death, too slow moving.
I watched it till it became queer to me so I cut it off...we all know the ending anyway...
The owners of Highclere Castle during World War I turned their home into a hospital and began to admit patients coming back from the trenches.
One of the other owners, Lord Carnarvon who sponsored the excavation in Egypt that led to the finding of King Tut’s tomb.
During World War II the castle provided a home for dozens of evacuee children.
You don’t know what you are talking about. Just because someone has money does not make them a ‘twit’.
Lucky you! Always planned to make it there but don’t believe it’s in the cards now. That’s life!
You realize I was I was joking?
Or are you comedy impaired?
I know, it's sickening. We watch a lot of British dramas... SO sick of the damn gay crap. Adding in gay characters (whether they really belong or not) is standard operating procedure for ALL British dramas now.
"World on Fire" was pretty good (there is another season to come) *except* for the two gay characters, who added nothing to the overall plot. We didn't like the annoying Helen Hunt either. The woman she is portraying was a real-life person who was actually British, not American.
Loved Downton Abbey back in the day when it aired ‘live’ on PBS. Unfortunately it was partially ruined by a lot of gay and other social justice crap. But that’s how ALL British dramas are done now, which is sad.
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