Downton Abbey

I've just powered through a marathon viewing of Downton Abbey and finished both Seasons 1 and 2 over three days. I just could not get enough of these lords and ladies!

Allow me to quote from the DVD jacket: 

Splendour and passion, romance and heartbreak, scandal and rumours!!! (exclamation points my own)

Downton Abbey is a very English show about the traditional upstairs, downstairs arrangement in the aristocratic circles of sprawling manors and untold riches. Set in the years leading up to the First World War, it depicts a life from over a hundred years ago, the servants who serve the masters and mistresses of the house, and the secrets they carry with them.

Leading the cast is The Earl of Grantham, his wife the Countess of Grantham, and their three daughters Lady Mary, Lady Edith and Lady Sybill (how Pride and Prejudice is that!) They are served by the family butler Mr Carson, valet Mr Bates (I learnt about valets here!), housekeeper Mrs Hughes and head housemaid Anna, together with an army of housemaids and footmen.

There's also the Dowager Countess of Grantham (the Earl of Grantham's mother), played superbly by Maggie Smith, an absolute delight to watch as she straddles the righteous indignation of nobility with acerbic retorts, and snobbishly upholds the tradition of rules and the proper way to do things. But I like her tremendously for her cheeky ways and her genuinely good heart, evident when she occasionally has the veil lifted from her privileged life. 

Now, a true gentleman of that time does not work. This is an actual line from the show. All the Earl of Grantham does all day is to have lavish breakfasts, lunch (luncheon they call it), dinner, and think about how to keep Crawley Mansion (where they live) within the family. And he needs to be dressed elaborately every day despite not doing anything and having largely nowhere to go. He needs to be in the proper dinner jacket or whatever appropriate attire at dinner, and then some other different attire at lunch, and another one for riding in the car, and so on.

With so much clothing to wade through, how can one get their head around it? Enter the valet, whose job is to help him get dressed. This includes picking out the right attire, and the correct matching cuff links, helping him to put on his jacket (really, all the Earl does is stand there, stretch both arms to the back, and his valet Mr Bates puts on the jacket for him), and brushing off the lint from his jacket.

Needless to say, dressing is an even more important event for the gals of the house, what with hair curling, jewelry adorning, and heavy gowns to get into. Dinner at home requires dressing like you're attending a formal white tie event. Little wonder no one has time to do anything else. Getting primed and ready for eating three times a day already takes up all day. Not to mention taking a bath, which your housemaid needs to run for you and stand by and watch as you languish in warm scent-filled water. Getting dressed is such an important activity in the house such that a dressing gong must be rung everyday (part of the butler's daily to-dos), to signal to everyone in the house that it's time to get dressed.  

When there are guests over for dinner, it's even more demanding, not only do you have to dress like you're at the President's Ball, you also have to make small talk at dinner with people you probably have no interest in. Of paramount importance at many of these dinners is for the ladies to be married off to suitably rich and noble families. There's also the annual season in London, like a debutante ball I would imagine, where the girls are paraded before eligible bachelors. The family sets off to London annually, leaving the servants with nothing else to do but gossip among themselves.

I think what brings the show alive and makes it such a great watch are the servants. They're excellently cast and they inhabit their characters so well. Mr Carson is as real a butler as I can imagine one to be, fiercely loyal to the family, so very proper and indignant, and runs such a tight ship in the house. I want him as my butler!

Mrs Hughes is also a fantastic housekeeper, matronly and proper, keeping the housemaids in check, berating where required, but always ready with a kind word when deserving. She's given up marriage for Crawley Mansion and the family, and sees herself serving the family for life. 

Mr Bates the valet does restrained like no other, so English and so very good, bringing the mystery with an interesting back-story. His love interest is none other than head housemaid Anna, but their love is not without drama. 

And of course there must be some ill-will, brought by footman Thomas and the Countess' housemaid Ms O'Brien. They make a good scheming pair, smoking and plotting away whenever they get a chance.

The show is like a modern day Romeo and Juliet, with star-crossed lovers at the core of the story, and much of the drama centred around inheritance and marriage - who is the heir who gets Crawley estate? Not unlike a soap, there are always new twists and turns - the Countess is pregnant for the first time in 18 years with what could be a new heir! The original heir once thought dead has returned wounded from the war!

But all gets resolved quite easily as the show goes on. Not interested in delving too deep, each new story arc is done with quickly, and the stories tied up neatly in no time at all. A little too all's well that ends well, but a very entertaining show to watch nonetheless. 

Some other factoids:

- I couldn't help but notice that two of the characters in Downton Abbey are also in Game of Thrones, which is also another fantastic show on TV right now. Rose Leslie plays housemaid Gwen who dreams of becoming a secretary in Downton Abbey, and plays Ygritte the Wildling girl in Game of Thrones. Iain Glen plays Sir Richard Carlisle, engaged to Lady Mary, in Downton Abbey, and Ser Jorah Mormont, adviser to dragon girl Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. They both play very different characters in the two shows, but it's still a bit of a double-take because you see the same people, except they're in Neanderthal-esque clothes in one, and 1900's English clothes in the other. 

- The only American actress in the show so far, Elizabeth McGovern, who plays Countess Grantham, and as far as I can tell, has no prior claim to fame before Downton Abbey, was previously engaged to Sean Penn (!) And she's 50 years old in real life (you absolutely cannot tell in the show)!

- Shirley MacLaine will star in Season 3 as the Countess Grantham's wealthy American mother, and looks set to spar with Maggie Smith as the in-laws battle it out.

I can't wait for Season 3 to begin.

Comments

[Sylvia]

My turn my turn!

[Sylvia]

No doubt it's a fascinating show! Here's an interesting quick summary.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTlNILNrtWs&feature=youtube_gdata_player