Downton Abbey

[pink]

I have managed to watch Season 2: Episodes 1-6 on the PBS web site.


I'm quite addicted now. (notice I used the word quite, so very English of me) The American in me has trouble, at times, following their speech, quit mumbling, please.


Anyone else watching it?

 

[islandman]

Guilty!

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

PBS, Best television on television? Its brilliant! Liking it as much as the second version of The Forsyte Saga.

 

[KRCummings]

I have managed to watch Season 2: Episodes 1-6 on the PBS web site.


I'm quite addicted now. (notice I used the word quite, so very English of me) The American in me has trouble, at times, following their speech, quit mumbling, please.


Anyone else watching it?

You're welcome.

 

[pink]

You're welcome.

That's right, you are the one who sent me there.

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Nobody does period better than the Brits.

 

[HB1965]

I love it. Julian Fellowes is an awesome writer. The stuff he wrote for Maggie Smith is hysterical. I've bought the DVDs of both seasons. I'll probably watch them all again before long. I can't wait until season 3. It will be interesting to see what he does with Americans that are joining the cast.

 

[pink]

I'm right at Mr Bates getting arrested. I still need to watch Season 1.

 

[trysail]

Season I was much better.


In Season II, the required suspension of disbelief came perilously close to that of a run-of-the-mill U.S. soap opera.


Lady Mary Crawley is the most mixed-up person I've ever seen. For a character who is not dumb, she demonstrated a not-entirely-believable ability to do extraordinarily and colossally stupid things.


The depth of the rivalry ( and that's charitable because hatred would be a more accurate description) between Mary and Edith in Season I is also a bit difficult to swallow. I find it hard to imagine that anybody could behave that despicably.

 

[hobbit.]

Upstairs Downstairs is better. the Toffs all get killed later in the series.

 

[hobbit.]

I meant to mention that the Music of Al Bowlly also features in the second series of Upstairs Downstairs.

Al's rendition of 'The very thought of you' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Very_Thought_of_You Featured last night. Very haunting.

 

[pink]

They've just put up Episode 7 on the web site today.

 

[HB1965]

The depth of the rivalry ( and that's charitable because hatred would be a more accurate description) between Mary and Edith in Season I is also a bit difficult to swallow. I find it hard to imagine that anybody could behave that despicably.

It isn't for me. Pretty much all noble women had to look forward to in those days were marriage and motherhood. If you failed to get that for yourself you were pretty much an object of pity in your family and you were expected to spend your days as some older female relative's nursemaid/companion or looking after your brother's or sister's kids. I'm sure there was even worse rivalry going on when the same suitors available to your sister as well as you. Especially if one sister was promoted over the other by the family.

 

[jomar]

Just getting started on season 1. Good stuff so far.

 

[Loring2]

Nobody does period better than the Brits.

Sadly that's true.

 

[pegfergie]

Downton Abbey can only be fully appreciated after watching the following Kim Cattrall, Joanna Lumley, and Jennifer Saunders version of the show.

Uptown Downstairs Abbey Part 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dr2mPChkTK8

Uptown Downstairs Abbey Part 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpdA5Vutnwo&feature=relmfu

 

[KRCummings]

It's an awesome show. I don't normally like that high falutin PBS stuff but this one is exceptionally fun to watch.

 

[trysail]

It isn't for me. Pretty much all noble women had to look forward to in those days were marriage and motherhood. If you failed to get that for yourself you were pretty much an object of pity in your family and you were expected to spend your days as some older female relative's nursemaid/companion or looking after your brother's or sister's kids. I'm sure there was even worse rivalry going on when the same suitors available to your sister as well as you. Especially if one sister was promoted over the other by the family.

Sorry, I don't buy it. I fully understand and comprehend that environment— the novels of Austen, Eyre, and Patrick O'Brian are full of such; nevertheless, pure, unadulterated, 100% malicious behavior ( such as Edith's letter to the Turkish ambassador ) transgresses any notion of rivalry. It crosses the boundary into unmitigated evil.


Mary's deliberate sabotage of Edith's relationship with Sir Anthony is far more believable as a response regardless of the fact that it fell short of a justifiable homocide.

 

[Fuckette]

http://austenprose.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/downton-abbey-friends-x-400.jpg?w=500

 

[HB1965]

Sorry, I don't buy it. I fully understand and comprehend that environment— the novels of Austen, Eyre, and Patrick O'Brian are full of such; nevertheless, pure, unadulterated, 100% malicious behavior ( such as Edith's letter to the Turkish ambassador ) transgresses any notion of rivalry. It crosses the boundary into unmitigated evil.


Mary's deliberate sabotage of Edith's relationship with Sir Anthony is far more believable as a response regardless of the fact that it fell short of a justifiable homicide.

I don't know that I would call it "unmitigated evil". I think I would call it a teenage girl trying to get back at someone and doing something really mean.

 

[Eveygirl]

I have managed to watch Season 2: Episodes 1-6 on the PBS web site.


I'm quite addicted now. (notice I used the word quite, so very English of me) The American in me has trouble, at times, following their speech, quit mumbling, please.


Anyone else watching it?

funny but we English think you colonial types all mumble as well

 

[HB1965]

funny but we English think you colonial types all mumble as well

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-cAnFbEXY0&feature=related

 

[KRCummings]

Why do people always complain about tv shows and movies not being real enough? They're fiction. Entertainment. Escapism. They are most decidedly not real. That's what documentaries are for.
Of course people don't act like that in real life. If real life was as dramatic as Downton Abbey then we wouldn't need to watch it now would we?

Holy fuck nuts.

 

[bg23]

I just spent my weekend watching the entire first season.

It's like a Jane Austen novel, only meaner.

I'm hooked.

 

[hobbit.]

Should be some good lesbo stuff in the next episode. hopefully Al's music will not be associated with such filth.