Post by Brad Nelson on Oct 2, 2022 7:38:22 GMT -8
Downtown Abbey (2019)
I got it in mind the other day to watch the Downton Abbey movie from 2019. It was from checking out the series, Good Behavior (also on HBO), that stars Michelle Dockery (Mary Crawley).
I'm a tentative thumbs-down on that series. But I may try to work my way through the plot cliches and finish the second episode.
I was going to rent the Downton Abbey movie for $3.99 but while browsing the new items on HBO, the 2019 movie popped up. So I watched it.
The original Downton Abbey ran for six seasons, finishing with a two-hour Christmas special. I don't think I've seen all six seasons -- partly because after season three the show just repeated itself. But because the characters were generally well-loved (except for the horrible Miss O'Brien), seeing the same schtick that we like over and over again is what television series are all about.
But coming back to it after so many years, it was still a little jarring just how chummy they are between upstairs-downstairs. Given the "People's Princess" and all that rot of recent years, the push was to make the British aristocracy more touchy-feely. We see a clear separation in classes in this series. But it's all as if they could chuck the pretenses off at the end of the day and go play a game of cricket together.
This movie is a typical, and decent, episode of Downton Abbey. The shtick to make it movie-grand is that the king and queen are coming for a day for a visit as they tour the region. The main conflict is that the royal staff is completely sidelining the regular house staff who have no role to play in the cooking or serving. Well, Mrs. Hughes has something to say about that.
One of the upstairs story lines involves Tom Branson who may be under investigation for his Irish republican sympathies. Is he a danger to the king? The best lines in the series always belong to Maggie Smith. She is at loggerheads with an estranged family member. Robert Crawley is the next of kin of Maud Bagshaw. But Maud is gong to will all of her possession to her house maid.
This movie is definitely a woke-ish Downton Abbey. Thomas Barrow, now butler, provides opportunity for homosexual advocacy. But what else is there for him to do but hound about now that Carson has temporarily regained his old duties for the king's visit? One can agree or disagree with the laws at the time that outlawed such perversions. But one would have to agree that those laws were instituted to protect something that the British people thought was valuable.
Now that we see that "tolerance" all along simply meant "immersion," we may one day look back on the laws as a needed and necessary finger in the dike.
To my mind, the best of the downstairs characters are Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore. Both are fine actresses and they flesh-out these characters into something realistic. I think Carson and many of the others have simply turned their characters into caricatures. Although the old Miss O'Brien was meant to play a villainous character (you weren't supposed to like her), I find the Daisy character to be insufferable. And after some of the many anti-monarchical things she said, I think in real life she would have been out on her ear in a minute, as would her boyfriend for his sabotage.
But we're all friends in Downton Abbey land and all (or most) sins are forgiven. The best upstairs characters are (at least in this movie), Tom Branson and Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith). Mary Crawley is also good but she really doesn't have much of a storyline in this. But there is finally an excellent scene between her and Violet Crawley at the very end.
What about Robert Crawley, the head of all this? Well, it was somewhat interesting to see him in the original series go from the powerful head of the family to basically an also-ran. In this movie, he has no purpose other than that of an ornament. I think the plebeian tendencies of Julian Fellowes have become so strong that he shies away from showing real aristocrats. Oh, Maggie Smith is certainly allowed to carry most of the snobbery. And she does a great job of it. But the feeling is that the British public have become such snowflakes, Fellowes can't write history. He must modernize the aristocracy into something it probably never was.
But that's Downton Abbey. It's fair to say that this movie is completely in line with the series. I certainly enjoyed the movie. But it appears the Fellowes doesn't have much more to say about that era.
I got it in mind the other day to watch the Downton Abbey movie from 2019. It was from checking out the series, Good Behavior (also on HBO), that stars Michelle Dockery (Mary Crawley).
I'm a tentative thumbs-down on that series. But I may try to work my way through the plot cliches and finish the second episode.
I was going to rent the Downton Abbey movie for $3.99 but while browsing the new items on HBO, the 2019 movie popped up. So I watched it.
The original Downton Abbey ran for six seasons, finishing with a two-hour Christmas special. I don't think I've seen all six seasons -- partly because after season three the show just repeated itself. But because the characters were generally well-loved (except for the horrible Miss O'Brien), seeing the same schtick that we like over and over again is what television series are all about.
But coming back to it after so many years, it was still a little jarring just how chummy they are between upstairs-downstairs. Given the "People's Princess" and all that rot of recent years, the push was to make the British aristocracy more touchy-feely. We see a clear separation in classes in this series. But it's all as if they could chuck the pretenses off at the end of the day and go play a game of cricket together.
This movie is a typical, and decent, episode of Downton Abbey. The shtick to make it movie-grand is that the king and queen are coming for a day for a visit as they tour the region. The main conflict is that the royal staff is completely sidelining the regular house staff who have no role to play in the cooking or serving. Well, Mrs. Hughes has something to say about that.
One of the upstairs story lines involves Tom Branson who may be under investigation for his Irish republican sympathies. Is he a danger to the king? The best lines in the series always belong to Maggie Smith. She is at loggerheads with an estranged family member. Robert Crawley is the next of kin of Maud Bagshaw. But Maud is gong to will all of her possession to her house maid.
This movie is definitely a woke-ish Downton Abbey. Thomas Barrow, now butler, provides opportunity for homosexual advocacy. But what else is there for him to do but hound about now that Carson has temporarily regained his old duties for the king's visit? One can agree or disagree with the laws at the time that outlawed such perversions. But one would have to agree that those laws were instituted to protect something that the British people thought was valuable.
Now that we see that "tolerance" all along simply meant "immersion," we may one day look back on the laws as a needed and necessary finger in the dike.
To my mind, the best of the downstairs characters are Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore. Both are fine actresses and they flesh-out these characters into something realistic. I think Carson and many of the others have simply turned their characters into caricatures. Although the old Miss O'Brien was meant to play a villainous character (you weren't supposed to like her), I find the Daisy character to be insufferable. And after some of the many anti-monarchical things she said, I think in real life she would have been out on her ear in a minute, as would her boyfriend for his sabotage.
But we're all friends in Downton Abbey land and all (or most) sins are forgiven. The best upstairs characters are (at least in this movie), Tom Branson and Violet Crawley (Maggie Smith). Mary Crawley is also good but she really doesn't have much of a storyline in this. But there is finally an excellent scene between her and Violet Crawley at the very end.
What about Robert Crawley, the head of all this? Well, it was somewhat interesting to see him in the original series go from the powerful head of the family to basically an also-ran. In this movie, he has no purpose other than that of an ornament. I think the plebeian tendencies of Julian Fellowes have become so strong that he shies away from showing real aristocrats. Oh, Maggie Smith is certainly allowed to carry most of the snobbery. And she does a great job of it. But the feeling is that the British public have become such snowflakes, Fellowes can't write history. He must modernize the aristocracy into something it probably never was.
But that's Downton Abbey. It's fair to say that this movie is completely in line with the series. I certainly enjoyed the movie. But it appears the Fellowes doesn't have much more to say about that era.