Movie Review: Downton Abbey
I lied a little. This isn't a movie. It's a mini-series.
My mother (!) has been watching this show for more than a year now, and I ridiculed her to no end for it. She would sit and wait for Masterpiece Theatre to come on PBS on Sunday nights at 10 so that she could watch the next instalment. I thought she was insane. It didn't look good, and I had no idea what kind of allure this show had. Then the nominations for the Golden Globes came out, and this was listed, and I knew I had to give it a shot. As an aside, it did win for best Drama TV Movie or Miniseries.
Downton Abbey is the name of the house in Northern England where Lord and Lady Grantham live with their three daughters, Mary, Edith, and Sybil, as well as their servants, in the year 1912. Due to a contractual error, their daughters cannot inherit a penny of their father's fortune, so the heir to their wealth is a cousin of the Lord. At the very beginning, he dies, along with his son, who is (of course) the next heir. This leads to them having to find their next closest male relative, who happens to be a very working class young man named Matthew.
The first season covers Matthew's settling in, as well as giving you a very clear and presumably accurate picture of what life was like for Edwardian era nobles. The second season goes more in depth into describing how WWI altered the way the homes of the wealthy were run.
This show is amazing. The costumes are superb, and the acting is fantastic. Maggie Smith's character is my favourite, because she makes the occasional snide, innocuous remark (including 'put that in your pipe and smoke it'), and if you didn't catch it, you missed it completely, but they're uproariously funny if you do.And Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary is fabulous, in a way that could save even the most terrible of plot-lines.
Despite this, there were a few things I was a little unsure of. One of the butlers, who is quite obviously in his mid to late 40s, is frequently referred to as a 'boy'. I find it odd that they completely overlooked that. They also do use some phrases that I don't think are historically accurate. Some of the side plots also sort of petered out, without a real conclusion, which made me woefully disappointed.
All in all, this show gets a 7/10 from me. It's very amusing, and I found myself really caring about what was happening to the characters. However, at the same time, it felt like so much had been crammed into this tiny series, that most of it came out half-formed and squished.
My mother (!) has been watching this show for more than a year now, and I ridiculed her to no end for it. She would sit and wait for Masterpiece Theatre to come on PBS on Sunday nights at 10 so that she could watch the next instalment. I thought she was insane. It didn't look good, and I had no idea what kind of allure this show had. Then the nominations for the Golden Globes came out, and this was listed, and I knew I had to give it a shot. As an aside, it did win for best Drama TV Movie or Miniseries.
Downton Abbey is the name of the house in Northern England where Lord and Lady Grantham live with their three daughters, Mary, Edith, and Sybil, as well as their servants, in the year 1912. Due to a contractual error, their daughters cannot inherit a penny of their father's fortune, so the heir to their wealth is a cousin of the Lord. At the very beginning, he dies, along with his son, who is (of course) the next heir. This leads to them having to find their next closest male relative, who happens to be a very working class young man named Matthew.
The first season covers Matthew's settling in, as well as giving you a very clear and presumably accurate picture of what life was like for Edwardian era nobles. The second season goes more in depth into describing how WWI altered the way the homes of the wealthy were run.
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| Full Cast in a Series Two Poster |
This show is amazing. The costumes are superb, and the acting is fantastic. Maggie Smith's character is my favourite, because she makes the occasional snide, innocuous remark (including 'put that in your pipe and smoke it'), and if you didn't catch it, you missed it completely, but they're uproariously funny if you do.And Michelle Dockery, who plays Lady Mary is fabulous, in a way that could save even the most terrible of plot-lines.
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| The Amazing Michelle Dockery |
Despite this, there were a few things I was a little unsure of. One of the butlers, who is quite obviously in his mid to late 40s, is frequently referred to as a 'boy'. I find it odd that they completely overlooked that. They also do use some phrases that I don't think are historically accurate. Some of the side plots also sort of petered out, without a real conclusion, which made me woefully disappointed.
All in all, this show gets a 7/10 from me. It's very amusing, and I found myself really caring about what was happening to the characters. However, at the same time, it felt like so much had been crammed into this tiny series, that most of it came out half-formed and squished.