(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

Article about Downton Abbey, from the Grauniad. I invariably find Tanya Gold slightly irritating* (and how she found the miscarriage scene funny beats me, though I suspect it's sloppy writing/ editing - there's another paragraph towards the end that doesn't seem to make sense), but there's some interesting snippets with Julian Fellowes, Hugh Bonneville, and others from the cast, as well as the Caernarvons, and Alastair Bruce, the historical adviser, who is "still getting over Braveheart.


* I find her irritating here despite the fact that I'd agree that Downton is at times a very sanitised portrait of the 'big house.'

Comments

[liadnan]

Rather shocked to find myself rather more convinced by AN Wilson in the Mail. Really.

[legionseagle]

I can actually see what she means about the miscarriage scene; not that there's anything inherently amusing about the situation but the desperately over the top way it was telegraphed in advance including

CLOSE-UP. Soap lurks in sinister way under bath.
CLOSE-UP Countess stands up in bath.

CUT TO: Expression of Dawning Realisation and Horror (TM) on O'Brien's face.

OBRIEN: No, m'lady. Don't -

[OFFSCREEN] Shriek. Thud.

really is so very, very self-parodic.

[serriadh]

I agree. The miscarriage itself and aftermath weren't funny, but the entirely obvious setup (and even before the evil lurking soap's close-up, we were fairly convinced she'd lose the baby and it was only a question of when/how and how sensitively they managed that storyline).

I felt the same way about Bates being tripped and falling face down in the gravel. Obviously it's not funny in a HAHA HE DONE FALLED OVER HAHA HE USES A STICK sort of way, but the OTT villainy of the evil!staff and the ever so 'umble nature of the Bates did get self-parodic.

[antisoppist]

Wasn't there an "Oh and by the way I am not secretly plotting to sack you" in between Close-up 1 and Close-up 2? I thought O'Brien had done it on purpose, based on a misunderstanding, and the Dawning Realisation was her realising she had set in motion Revenge for something that wasn't actually happening, hence Horror. But perhaps I am misjudging the melodrama.

[legionseagle]

I'm afraid you are absolutely right; just as the Countess prattles cheerfully on about how the new lady's maid for whom she has placed an advertisement is in fact intended for a position with her sister-in-law (or whatever it was) is the moment when she gets out of the bath.

[antisoppist]

If you are O'Brien, it is probably more satisfying to be the horrified mastermind unable to halt your dastardly plot than to be merely untidy.

[tree_and_leaf]

I could believe that!

I loved Downton, but in some ways it's probably best considered as a very well acted pantomime (The soap's behind you!)

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, that was what I thought. It was several miles over the top, I admit..