Bumper Downton post
I could only catch up on this on the Sunday morning, so I had a double Downton day.
Downton 6.6
I know we reached The Point in the ‘ten years ago’ discussion between Robert and Cora about Edith, but it’s lampshading that there is no way Fellowes planned for there to be six series and all these Christmas specials - most of what we’re dealing with now has been covered before, like Cora yearning for a more purposeful life - she had a good episode, and they certainly squeezed all the drama possible out of Violet being deposed as chairwoman.
As for Edith, she and Bertie are nice, and she is mostly happy. I’m pinning a lot on his little reaction shot as Mary was mean towards Edith in the wrap-up scene because I fear that Mary is going to make the Marigold secret public at the WORST time.
Ugh, Tom, when Edith was all ‘I am as nice to Mary as she is to me’, it was totally understandable.
I can’t discuss about Tom without referring to Mary - he doesn’t seem to have been brought back to have his own plot. On the one hand, I am still half-shipping them and feeling that the show is giving me plenty of fodder. He teases her! He smoothes the rough edges off her! She is nicer around him and I like them being all conspiratorial. (Could they not be going for her being part of the reason for him coming back and him unconsciously overcompensating by trying to fix her up with Henry? Probably not, I know.)
BUT she is such a cow. That dinner at the Criterion was classic Mary - you could tell that none of the heretofore never mentioned contemporary ladies did NOT like her; poor, nice Evelyn had the ‘yup, been used by Mary again’ face; and that line about not being a war widow was a horrible thing to say. But if, seeing all that, Henry is still besotted enough to want to marry her - fine.
Although Henry seems a lot more likely to stay in Downton than any of Mary’s post-widowhood suitors (a necessity by now), and having him be a petrolhead when Matthew died in a car crash is good drama, they keep undermining the relationship for me by having her spend all this time getting on with Tom, even if it’s framed as platonic/familial, like the conversation over whisky and water that followed the romantic walk home in the rain.
Oh, and Mary, you self-centred black hole, Tom can’t break other people’s confidences for you. Although, even if she has a mental block about Edith having sexual relations, I can’t see what else she thinks the truth about Marigold is.
I liked Isobel explicitly referencing Elizabeth Bennet going to Pemberley, because that was what I thought that time she went to Lord Merton’s, and they do seem to be finally getting a move on with that plot, after dropping it for a good long while. However, Larry’s fiancé seems not to understand that Larry was/is dreadful, and Isobel getting prickly and defensive is justifiable, although it’s sweet that Lord Merton is still trying to persuade her. Good on Violet for being rather more honest about what a mess that was and standing up for Isobel. She was on form in general - if daft in a Dowager Countess way in thinking that her role in the hospital saga was more important than Robert’s health. Also, I think they’ve really emphasised that Cora has sacrificed a lot for Violet over the years.
They also got good value out of the open day. I loved that Mary had pigheadedly set it up without thinking it through, how competent!Bertie shone in giving them advice and how the Crawley guides were shown up for not knowing their own house. Cora’s was the best because, of course, swotty Molesely knew it all. I don’t know that the writers/Fellowes thought through how much the Crawleys’ ignorance shaded the whole philosophical debate about their way of life perishing and how the other half/one per cent lived.
Downstairs: happy Anna/Bates, proud!Bates, pregnant Anna is sickening (adding her to the list of people to be worried about before the show wraps, I’m starting to rethink Violet dying.)
Carson is puffing up to a huge degree - I hope hubristically, although at least Mrs Hughes has been able to vent to Mrs P and is now mocking him under his nose. I did wonder why she couldn’t just tell him to do it himself (but then I remembered that he brought all the money, which adds rather a nasty twist to King Charlie’s chauvinism.)
Also in my bad books: Daisy. She may be trying to matriculate, but she’s acting half the age of children who normally do. Ha, at least Mr Mason and Mrs Patmore seem determined to fight for their right to make each other happy. One of them or Mrs Hughes needs to Have Words with the brat.
Molesley, the answer to Baxter’s news was ‘what do you want to do?’ not telling her what to do. My feelings are ‘oh, they’re resuscitating this’. How long are they going to drag it out without showing us this Coyle?
Given the conversations about sacking domestic staff, it’s interesting that Molesley may change careers (if he does, can he please propose to Baxter???) and that Andy wanting to become a pig farmer has been seeded.
Poor Thomas, when it comes to the sticking point of Carson (and Mrs Patmore) trusting him, they can’t, and while I still think he’s a lot to blame, I felt really sorry for him. The show is making me seriously want to write the modern AU where he’s a nanny. Imayhaveadraft.
Downton 6.7
In reverse order then: Thomas’s life gets worse and lonelier - even the comic scene of the Carsons on the sofa became terribly sad because of him and the fact that Carson wants him gone yesterday. But if he has struck roots at Downton, he’s also poisoned the ground there, repeatedly. One of his tragedies is that I don’t know if he has the resilience to try for a job in another field. And although it was another way Thomas couldn't be useful, I'm glad Andy’s illiteracy has became publicish knowledge.
Molesley, of course, passed his test and showed he could apply all that knowledge with the assessment of why opportunities in service are shutting down for him. Is his father still alive? Anyway, I loved the line about not feeling he deserved anything before, because despite the too good for roadworks drama, the lack of self-confidence does sometimes pop up, and may be part of why he hasn’t proposed to Baxter. SRSLY, if they advance Mrs P and Mr M over these two, I will be so irked.
Baxter is still doing classic Downton dithering over going to see Coyle, although I think we all know by now that she will do it.
I think that Daisy/Andy may be kyboshed. Even though she was adamant he shouldn't call himself stupid, she’s less interested now he’s illiterate. However, I thought that the way Mrs P handled the childish jealousy was great, loving but firm, and getting at the root of the trouble after making it about Mr Mason's feelings for Andy, not her, but I’d think it better if we hadn’t had three episodes or more of the jealousy.
Also, I loved the scheme that she and Mrs Hughes (BFF) came up with to teach Carson a lesson.
It feels like Anna has been pregnant so long that it was almost a surprise that Baxter didn’t know.
Okay, the real action this episode was upstairs, and most of the budget went on the car race, although I’m sure Downton’s main audience would have preferred a ball or something. It struck me that the editing was really choppy at the opening of the episode, BTW, as if they were straining to get moments that reminded us of the state of play, but didn’t take too much time away from the budget-eating scenes.
I had thought Larry’s fiancée was naive (especially about Larry), but some forensic investigation from Violet got at what was really going on. I don’t know if the madam has persuaded Larry of her schemes, but if it’s a case of rescuing Lord Merton (a man she is fond of), perhaps Isobel can get a move on. Excellent pretended squashing by the real deal from Violet.
While giving Robert a puppy was a happy ending after tragedy, making us all melt (except Robert is more affectionate to dogs than even his grandchildren), I like thinking of it as mindgames. There’s no gift to Cora. The daughter in law is still in the bad books.
Best line of the episode: Tom is the most sensible of all of them. Violet has accepted him! This is also mostly truth.
I still feel that the show is teasing me with Tom/Mary fodder, and I’m not sure how conscious it is, which is really, really annoying. If I turned down the dialogue and made someone who hasn’t ever seen the show watch it, I suspect they’d say that there was a love triangle between Tom-Mary-Henry, from the way that Tom and Mary get on, to the sheer volume of Tom-Mary interaction, to the ‘we’ll both get hurt but it’s worth it’ speech.
Turn the dialogue back up, and he’s the no 1 Mary/Henry shipper after Henry. (Tom also loves cars a lot.) But if they are planning to set Tom up with the editor lady, we need more than an introduction of ‘hello, let me set you at ease with my life story’ to build their relationship. At least she doesn’t seem to be one for stirring at the dining table. And it’s nice to see Edith on friendly terms with her.
Meanwhile, Mary is having doubts about her and Henry, and I suspect this is probably just your average Downton dithering (how long did it take between her rejecting Matthew and then accepting him?). As Cora says, she’s contrary, so now that she’s forced to the point, she’s probably not willing to say ‘yes’, just because. (Also, Robert, yes, any character played by Mr Goode has sex appeal. End of.) I wondered how unbiased Anna can be as an observer/adviser. I mean, she probably does want the best for Mary...but if I thought about it more, I think I’d be thinking about it more than the writers.
Anyway, there were two genuine obstacles: could Mary get over the car issue (I was with the ladies, watching them go round and round was BORING)? And in the face of Henry’s pain and grief and survivor’s guilt (HOW GOOD WAS MATHEW GOODE AFTER THE CRASH?), did his feelings come first with her? Because if they had, you’d say that’s love. But although she was human and fallible, and I sympathised with her, I didn’t see enough to make me believe that she was in love with him.
Oddly enough, I was on her side about not discussing their future then and there, although their feelings in response to something so horrible should be a good guide for their future. But I totally supported her as opposed to Tom about her right to determine her feelings. Maybe she was protecting herself, and he was right about the fact that they’ll both get hurt, but in the end, it’s her call.
There was a moment where she gave Henry a really sweet smile before he went off to race and I thought that was Dockery coming through. She must be a much nicer person than Mary (low bar - although I have no reason to doubt the actress clears it with ease).
Edith-Bertie were lovely in the midst of it all. I love how he is still competent and that she found comfort in him and they were so naturally a couple. I loved the visual warmth of the scene where she was dressed in gold, lying against him. (Actually lots of striking gorgeousness in new settings.) And then he proposed. EEEEEE! And I felt then that she needed to tell him more about Marigold, partly because so many other people know and because of what their marriage would need to be built on, but I thought her ‘I need to think about it, because I’m surprised, but know that I want to kiss you lots’ response was as good as it could have been.
I don’t have much to say about Cora and Robert, per se. He was petulant as a convalescing invalid, she took care of him...
But the taster for next week:WHAT EDITH SAID TO MARY. I danced. DANCED. Because that (much more so than a grasping gold-digger) is spot on.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/206942.html.
Downton 6.6
I know we reached The Point in the ‘ten years ago’ discussion between Robert and Cora about Edith, but it’s lampshading that there is no way Fellowes planned for there to be six series and all these Christmas specials - most of what we’re dealing with now has been covered before, like Cora yearning for a more purposeful life - she had a good episode, and they certainly squeezed all the drama possible out of Violet being deposed as chairwoman.
As for Edith, she and Bertie are nice, and she is mostly happy. I’m pinning a lot on his little reaction shot as Mary was mean towards Edith in the wrap-up scene because I fear that Mary is going to make the Marigold secret public at the WORST time.
Ugh, Tom, when Edith was all ‘I am as nice to Mary as she is to me’, it was totally understandable.
I can’t discuss about Tom without referring to Mary - he doesn’t seem to have been brought back to have his own plot. On the one hand, I am still half-shipping them and feeling that the show is giving me plenty of fodder. He teases her! He smoothes the rough edges off her! She is nicer around him and I like them being all conspiratorial. (Could they not be going for her being part of the reason for him coming back and him unconsciously overcompensating by trying to fix her up with Henry? Probably not, I know.)
BUT she is such a cow. That dinner at the Criterion was classic Mary - you could tell that none of the heretofore never mentioned contemporary ladies did NOT like her; poor, nice Evelyn had the ‘yup, been used by Mary again’ face; and that line about not being a war widow was a horrible thing to say. But if, seeing all that, Henry is still besotted enough to want to marry her - fine.
Although Henry seems a lot more likely to stay in Downton than any of Mary’s post-widowhood suitors (a necessity by now), and having him be a petrolhead when Matthew died in a car crash is good drama, they keep undermining the relationship for me by having her spend all this time getting on with Tom, even if it’s framed as platonic/familial, like the conversation over whisky and water that followed the romantic walk home in the rain.
Oh, and Mary, you self-centred black hole, Tom can’t break other people’s confidences for you. Although, even if she has a mental block about Edith having sexual relations, I can’t see what else she thinks the truth about Marigold is.
I liked Isobel explicitly referencing Elizabeth Bennet going to Pemberley, because that was what I thought that time she went to Lord Merton’s, and they do seem to be finally getting a move on with that plot, after dropping it for a good long while. However, Larry’s fiancé seems not to understand that Larry was/is dreadful, and Isobel getting prickly and defensive is justifiable, although it’s sweet that Lord Merton is still trying to persuade her. Good on Violet for being rather more honest about what a mess that was and standing up for Isobel. She was on form in general - if daft in a Dowager Countess way in thinking that her role in the hospital saga was more important than Robert’s health. Also, I think they’ve really emphasised that Cora has sacrificed a lot for Violet over the years.
They also got good value out of the open day. I loved that Mary had pigheadedly set it up without thinking it through, how competent!Bertie shone in giving them advice and how the Crawley guides were shown up for not knowing their own house. Cora’s was the best because, of course, swotty Molesely knew it all. I don’t know that the writers/Fellowes thought through how much the Crawleys’ ignorance shaded the whole philosophical debate about their way of life perishing and how the other half/one per cent lived.
Downstairs: happy Anna/Bates, proud!Bates, pregnant Anna is sickening (adding her to the list of people to be worried about before the show wraps, I’m starting to rethink Violet dying.)
Carson is puffing up to a huge degree - I hope hubristically, although at least Mrs Hughes has been able to vent to Mrs P and is now mocking him under his nose. I did wonder why she couldn’t just tell him to do it himself (but then I remembered that he brought all the money, which adds rather a nasty twist to King Charlie’s chauvinism.)
Also in my bad books: Daisy. She may be trying to matriculate, but she’s acting half the age of children who normally do. Ha, at least Mr Mason and Mrs Patmore seem determined to fight for their right to make each other happy. One of them or Mrs Hughes needs to Have Words with the brat.
Molesley, the answer to Baxter’s news was ‘what do you want to do?’ not telling her what to do. My feelings are ‘oh, they’re resuscitating this’. How long are they going to drag it out without showing us this Coyle?
Given the conversations about sacking domestic staff, it’s interesting that Molesley may change careers (if he does, can he please propose to Baxter???) and that Andy wanting to become a pig farmer has been seeded.
Poor Thomas, when it comes to the sticking point of Carson (and Mrs Patmore) trusting him, they can’t, and while I still think he’s a lot to blame, I felt really sorry for him. The show is making me seriously want to write the modern AU where he’s a nanny. Imayhaveadraft.
Downton 6.7
In reverse order then: Thomas’s life gets worse and lonelier - even the comic scene of the Carsons on the sofa became terribly sad because of him and the fact that Carson wants him gone yesterday. But if he has struck roots at Downton, he’s also poisoned the ground there, repeatedly. One of his tragedies is that I don’t know if he has the resilience to try for a job in another field. And although it was another way Thomas couldn't be useful, I'm glad Andy’s illiteracy has became publicish knowledge.
Molesley, of course, passed his test and showed he could apply all that knowledge with the assessment of why opportunities in service are shutting down for him. Is his father still alive? Anyway, I loved the line about not feeling he deserved anything before, because despite the too good for roadworks drama, the lack of self-confidence does sometimes pop up, and may be part of why he hasn’t proposed to Baxter. SRSLY, if they advance Mrs P and Mr M over these two, I will be so irked.
Baxter is still doing classic Downton dithering over going to see Coyle, although I think we all know by now that she will do it.
I think that Daisy/Andy may be kyboshed. Even though she was adamant he shouldn't call himself stupid, she’s less interested now he’s illiterate. However, I thought that the way Mrs P handled the childish jealousy was great, loving but firm, and getting at the root of the trouble after making it about Mr Mason's feelings for Andy, not her, but I’d think it better if we hadn’t had three episodes or more of the jealousy.
Also, I loved the scheme that she and Mrs Hughes (BFF) came up with to teach Carson a lesson.
It feels like Anna has been pregnant so long that it was almost a surprise that Baxter didn’t know.
Okay, the real action this episode was upstairs, and most of the budget went on the car race, although I’m sure Downton’s main audience would have preferred a ball or something. It struck me that the editing was really choppy at the opening of the episode, BTW, as if they were straining to get moments that reminded us of the state of play, but didn’t take too much time away from the budget-eating scenes.
I had thought Larry’s fiancée was naive (especially about Larry), but some forensic investigation from Violet got at what was really going on. I don’t know if the madam has persuaded Larry of her schemes, but if it’s a case of rescuing Lord Merton (a man she is fond of), perhaps Isobel can get a move on. Excellent pretended squashing by the real deal from Violet.
While giving Robert a puppy was a happy ending after tragedy, making us all melt (except Robert is more affectionate to dogs than even his grandchildren), I like thinking of it as mindgames. There’s no gift to Cora. The daughter in law is still in the bad books.
Best line of the episode: Tom is the most sensible of all of them. Violet has accepted him! This is also mostly truth.
I still feel that the show is teasing me with Tom/Mary fodder, and I’m not sure how conscious it is, which is really, really annoying. If I turned down the dialogue and made someone who hasn’t ever seen the show watch it, I suspect they’d say that there was a love triangle between Tom-Mary-Henry, from the way that Tom and Mary get on, to the sheer volume of Tom-Mary interaction, to the ‘we’ll both get hurt but it’s worth it’ speech.
Turn the dialogue back up, and he’s the no 1 Mary/Henry shipper after Henry. (Tom also loves cars a lot.) But if they are planning to set Tom up with the editor lady, we need more than an introduction of ‘hello, let me set you at ease with my life story’ to build their relationship. At least she doesn’t seem to be one for stirring at the dining table. And it’s nice to see Edith on friendly terms with her.
Meanwhile, Mary is having doubts about her and Henry, and I suspect this is probably just your average Downton dithering (how long did it take between her rejecting Matthew and then accepting him?). As Cora says, she’s contrary, so now that she’s forced to the point, she’s probably not willing to say ‘yes’, just because. (Also, Robert, yes, any character played by Mr Goode has sex appeal. End of.) I wondered how unbiased Anna can be as an observer/adviser. I mean, she probably does want the best for Mary...but if I thought about it more, I think I’d be thinking about it more than the writers.
Anyway, there were two genuine obstacles: could Mary get over the car issue (I was with the ladies, watching them go round and round was BORING)? And in the face of Henry’s pain and grief and survivor’s guilt (HOW GOOD WAS MATHEW GOODE AFTER THE CRASH?), did his feelings come first with her? Because if they had, you’d say that’s love. But although she was human and fallible, and I sympathised with her, I didn’t see enough to make me believe that she was in love with him.
Oddly enough, I was on her side about not discussing their future then and there, although their feelings in response to something so horrible should be a good guide for their future. But I totally supported her as opposed to Tom about her right to determine her feelings. Maybe she was protecting herself, and he was right about the fact that they’ll both get hurt, but in the end, it’s her call.
There was a moment where she gave Henry a really sweet smile before he went off to race and I thought that was Dockery coming through. She must be a much nicer person than Mary (low bar - although I have no reason to doubt the actress clears it with ease).
Edith-Bertie were lovely in the midst of it all. I love how he is still competent and that she found comfort in him and they were so naturally a couple. I loved the visual warmth of the scene where she was dressed in gold, lying against him. (Actually lots of striking gorgeousness in new settings.) And then he proposed. EEEEEE! And I felt then that she needed to tell him more about Marigold, partly because so many other people know and because of what their marriage would need to be built on, but I thought her ‘I need to think about it, because I’m surprised, but know that I want to kiss you lots’ response was as good as it could have been.
I don’t have much to say about Cora and Robert, per se. He was petulant as a convalescing invalid, she took care of him...
But the taster for next week:WHAT EDITH SAID TO MARY. I danced. DANCED. Because that (much more so than a grasping gold-digger) is spot on.
This entry was originally posted at http://shallowness.dreamwidth.org/206942.html.