The Good Wife 3.13 and Downton Abbey, season 1

[selenak]

See, I'm used to having the CIA presented as interfering baddies in shows centered around FBI agents, and the FBI presented as annoying interferers in shows centered around CIA agents, but I think The Good Wife has to be given pioneer credit for being the first show to make a recurring villain out of the U.S. Treasury.

Comments

[shezan]

I find Downton to be hugely enjoyable schlock, but I'm amazed at the regression it is from Gosford Park, which deconstructed everything about that society with a sharp bite. It made me think Altman wrung that masterpiece out of Fellowes's ordinary (and extraordinary) snobbish turn, but Fellowes, in fact, wasn't intending half the irony in the movie.

[selenak]

Well, Fellowes certainly wrote satire sans Altman as well in Vanity Fair, but then that was exactly what the Thackeray original was. Also the intended audience for a tv show and for a feature film in the cinema is somewhat different. This being said? I suspect much of the acid in Gosford Park was indeed Altman rather than Fellowes.

[violaswamp]

I do like Downton Abbey, but mostly for Mary and the Dowager Countess in S2. In S1 I liked Gwen and Sybil's relationship, but that's gone in S2.

It is a very idealized portrait of that society, despite the well-rounded characters. So much so that I have a hard time believing it's written by the same man who wrote Gosford Park, which was much more clear-eyed.

I really enjoyed this week's TGW as well, and thought that Alicia was projecting her own intimacy fears onto Zak. I thought the racial thing was a red herring, mostly there to set up the joke of Alicia fearing like she sounded like her MIL (and therefore being susceptible to Zach's manipulation--clever boy!).

[selenak]

In S1 I liked Gwen and Sybil's relationship, but that's gone in S2.

I was prepared for that, since Gwen ends up as a secretary, and I didn't want her to go back to being a housemaid for the sake of keeping the character.

So much so that I have a hard time believing it's written by the same man who wrote Gosford Park, which was much more clear-eyed.

A different target audience plus Altman as a director might explain the difference. As Fellowes' other ouevres include the script for Vanity Fair (definitely satire of the upper classes, but, as with the Thackeray original, hardly a call for revolution) and Young Victoria. Also he's a Conservative MP according to Wiki.

TGW: Alicia projecting seems to be the common consensus.

[violaswamp]

I didn't
want her to go back to being a housemaid for the sake of keeping the
character.

No, indeed, and her character arc on S1 was quite satisfying. Without spoiling you, though, there are ways they could have given her a cameo or two as a secretary (or some other non-housemaid job) in S2.

Fellowes's wife is also a lady-in-waiting to Princess Michael of Kent, and he has a Downtonesque estate of his own, so...yeah.

[abigail_n]

I think that Alicia basically doesn't want Zach to be having sex yet, which it seems that he and Nissa are headed towards. Not having kids myself I don't know how reasonable that is, but it doesn't strike me as inherently unreasonable (for example I don't think it's necessarily fallout from Alicia's experiences with Peter), and it is consistent with her concern over the issue in season 1 (finding the condoms) and 2 (worrying that he got Becca pregnant even though the pregnancy, if it happened, had already been terminated at that point).

Having been burned with last season's overarching plot, I'm not expecting great things from this one, and the show venturing into the same territory of murky motivations and puzzling choices in which it got bogged down last year is not doing much to reassure me. Unlike other shows where the overarching plot is a mess, The Good Wife works for me regardless, mainly because the characters are strong and the episode plots are clever and entertaining, but I'm concerned that we're headed for another Blake

[selenak]

With Wendy or with Dana as Blake?

[abigail_n]

Dana, definitely. Wendy is L&G's antagonist whom the Blake character works for, i.e. Derek.

[mamculuna]

I should read the other comments first, but that witness is Jim Cramer from the financial channel CNBC's "Mad Money". Even over here in the US, only stock geeks know who he is, though Jon Steward gave him hell for what Stewart saw as Cramer's part in creating overvalued housing and mortgage stocks at the beginning of the recession.

I wondered if Kalista had removed the incriminating stuff from the file, but probably not. Your ideas are more likely.

The whole strange episode was fascinating to me because I'd just finished reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, a long novel about cryptology and digital currency. Felt like I was still in the novel.

Good take on Downton. I'm liking S2 very much, with some exceptions that might be spoilery here.

[selenak]

Nobody answered about the witness before you did, so thank you muchly!

[mamculuna]

Jon Stewart, I should have said!

[zahrawithaz]

A great summary of Downton Abbey. You can feel the conservative politics seeping through every scene--oversexed Orientals! evil gay men! the endlessly noble English patriarch! his shallow American wife! self-sacrificing servants! catfighting galore! liberals who are just too starry-eyed and idealistic for their own good!

Yet I have to say I enjoy it immensely. It is tremendously well-written in many respects, and the skill with which it balances its many plots is dazzling. It helps that it's one of the few shows that both the Love of My Life and I can agree on, and that we both fell hard for Anna/Bates.

I'm in the midst of S2 now, and fwiw it seems to improve after a rocky first episode.

[selenak]

Anna/Bates is the best thing since Anne/Captain Wentworth, I tell you.:) Good to know about s2!