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Thank goodness it is alien to us. I feel little kinship to that world. I had many ancestors in other countries, not just in British lands. The American melting pot has roots all over...and always has.
It's not that class was not a part of our history, but it was dfferent. Our aristocracy was mostly one of success and money. What's hard to grasp is a system where who your greatmulty grandfather was really matters to more than you. Our aristocracy grows by money. Cora's mother has her own money and can spend it as she chooses. That line about there being no British heiresses defines it all.
My heritage is mostly scots irish, some scots. I don't think they'd much respect the British upper class, nor my known English ancestor who came via convict shipping, but his beginnings were in that system, for centuries villagers in what became east london. But the system itself fascinates me. One thing I like quite a lot about this and U/D is that everyone is human, not just a stick figure. I remember Jean Marsh saying that one reason U/D was written was in the Forsyth Saga you saw a well defined picture of upstairs, but not down. Neither could have existed without the other.
It's that dependence that defines what little place in the world they all occupy that is so fascinating. And those who were not able or willing to live with the limitations would find something else to do, so we don't see *all* of those in their world. But if the conditions working as a servant were viewed as worth it, and it being an honorable profession, said much much more about the society that came before the present Grantham family.
That won't appeal to everyone, who can follow the more soapy parts and still love it, but how societies function is of immense fascination to me, and the best way to understand is through the attitudes and actions of the time.
And that the people are fully fleshed out, and allowed to be the good/bad people we all are is the universal appeal. I don't think if it made the upstairs foppish characacures it would not be the world wide hit it is. No matter who you are, characters you can *get* will get past the cultural barriers.
And who hasn't known someone like Robert, clinging tenatiously for how it was and fighting hard against changing it even in the face of disastor?
Well that was a BIG surprise. I think Tom will step up to the plate and really do a good job as estate manager, I think at the end the Earl figured out that Mathew was right and glad he was drug into the current century. I knew the guy who plays Mathew wouldn't be back for next season and I wondered how they'd play it...I guess his death was the only way. I also think Mary and Tom will become the powerhouses next season as they continue to forge a new way for Downton. Mrs. Patmore was a hoot. I also like that the Jimmy and Barrow made some peace. I think Barrow has become less nasty. I love that O'Brian got her's for a change.
It's seems waaaaaaaaaaay too long in between the seasons.
I'd read that too. I watched the whole thing (off the dvd) thinking this is going Sooooo good, something bad is going to happen. Something really bad.
Spoiler
I wasn't surprised that he was killed off since it would be hard on the story if he was just 'off' somewhere. Mary would become a very limited character.
The thing which strikes me is he was very much a man of today, the age we still live in. And he died by one of the mundane everyday people die today. Sybil possibly died because her father clung too tightly to that old world. Today, few women die as she did, but he has plenty of company. The transitional way the story moved is interesting.
Well that was a BIG surprise. I think Tom will step up to the plate and really do a good job as estate manager, I think at the end the Earl figured out that Mathew was right and glad he was drug into the current century. I knew the guy who plays Mathew wouldn't be back for next season and I wondered how they'd play it...I guess his death was the only way. I also think Mary and Tom will become the powerhouses next season as they continue to forge a new way for Downton. Mrs. Patmore was a hoot. I also like that the Jimmy and Barrow made some peace. I think Barrow has become less nasty. I love that O'Brian got her's for a change.
It's seems waaaaaaaaaaay too long in between the seasons.
I agree, Tom will become the fall back. He's carving out his own little nitch, and has changed enormously. I think we'll see him be there for Mary, too, since he would understand. The current house exists because its owners run it as a business. I wonder if that kind of thinking will be instituted. And Mary's child will not be raised in the 19th century, but the 20th, so he may have a much more realistic view of the cost of survival.
At some angles, I think Edith's new love Michael Gregson resembles Michael Palin. I wonder where that story will go. Mary sure was being nasty about Edith seeing him. I can't figure out why she would be unless as Matthew said she was just being a snob.
It's hard for me to look at the editor WITHOUT thinking of Michael Palin (my favorite Python).
I do think Mary's being a snob, looking down on the working class. Yet she married someone beneath her, just as Sybil did... just not quite as far down in the ranks.
If the editor wasn't married, I wonder how the story would progress. Would Edith elope?
Also, what was going on with those 2 maids? O'Brien went over to say something to "Lady Shrimpy" at the dance, but we weren't shown what became of it. I almost thought O'Brien wanted the other maid's job and go to India.
O'Brien was discussing hair with "Lady Shrimpy". She wanted her hair done like Cora's and her own maid had tried but it wasn't right. O'Brien had refrained from embarrassing the other maid out of solidarity but when she realized it wasn't reciprocated, went over to tell Lady Shrimpy how to correct it. At least that was my takeaway.
It's hard for me to look at the editor WITHOUT thinking of Michael Palin (my favorite Python).
I do think Mary's being a snob, looking down on the working class. Yet she married someone beneath her, just as Sybil did... just not quite as far down in the ranks.
If the editor wasn't married, I wonder how the story would progress. Would Edith elope?
Also, what was going on with those 2 maids? O'Brien went over to say something to "Lady Shrimpy" at the dance, but we weren't shown what became of it. I almost thought O'Brien wanted the other maid's job and go to India.
His wife is in a mental institution and will be there until she dies. He can't divorce her so he's stuck. He's really in a hard place.
My suspicision of Robert was worried about scandel with the poor maid, but will really have a problem when he realized his *daughter* has a relationship with a married man, out of her class even, and isn't at all apoligetic about it at all.
With Mary, she is the oldest, and was raised to inherit. They likely paid a lot less attention the the younger girls. And she was very close to dad, who even after he was proven wrong has his head stuck in the past.
I had liked the relationship between Mary and Matthew but I figured they were going to kill him off when the actor did not sign up for season 4.
I agree that Tom will step up as manager and Mary will help him because her son is the heir.
I liked how Anna, Mosely, and the other servants were dancing alongside with everyone else when they were in Scotland. I didn't know they let the help mix socially with their employees. Mosely dancing was funny!
And now we have to wait another year for season 4?
His wife is in a mental institution and will be there until she dies. He can't divorce her so he's stuck. He's really in a hard place.
I have a feeling we'll get the satisfying Jane Eyre-type resolution to this plot (crazy wife suddenly dies, Edith gets the love she deserves, yadda yadda.)
And it feels like if the writers knew both actors playing Sybil and Matthew were leaving the show in short succession, they could have come up with a different way get them away rather than birth of child--->violent death. Couldn't Sybil have gone to America or something?
Last edited by fleetiebelle; 02-18-2013 at 09:28 AM..
I just feel gutted, same as I did when Sybil died. I wish they had found a gentler way to write Matthew out of the show. The minute they showed him driving home, I knew what was going to happen. So sad.
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