http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32074921
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Downturn Abbey
It's coming to a natural end. I enjoyed the first series a lot, the later series were OK despite some clanging anachronisms ("he's in a bad place" etc.) and the ridiculous Lady Mary. I loved Maggie Smith's performance, and her lines, even with the highly unlikely (and hammy) Rrrrrussian beau. And being a big girly, I enjoyed all the frocks.
On the gossip side, a friend worked in the hair and make-up dept. They work crazy long hours and she walked out halfway through her second season due to the incredible rudeness of one cast member. I was surprised at which one. -
Downturn Abbey
A television programme that it never occurred to me to watch is finishing. Ho hum.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Legendary media critic Karl Marx was typically scathing in his column in popular TV listings magazine Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, 1844
"His family history, the history of his house etc - all this individualises the estate for him and makes it literally his house, personalises it. Similarly those working on the estate have not the position of day-labourers; but they are in part themselves his property, as are serfs; and in part they are bound to him by ties of respect, allegiance and duty. It is necessary that this appearance be abolished."Comment
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Downturn Abbey
I prefer Zizek on Lacan, with regard to popular culture.
(Specifically:
In nostalgia, the gaze of the other is in a way domesticated, "gentrified" ... P114 in Looking Awry)Comment
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Downturn Abbey
I also popped into this thread to pass comment on something I've no interest in.Gangster Octopus wrote: A television programme that it never occurred to me to watch is finishing. Ho hum.Comment
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Watched every season. Loved them all...but 4 was weak. Thankfully, Brit shows know to end it before it outstays its welcome.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
I stopped watching after Dobby the house-elf died.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Almost everything about DA is predictable and/or derivative. From the concept (but I guess most of the audience is too young to remember Upstairs, Downstairs) to the plotting. The death of one cast member is required every season (even if it's only His Lordship's dog) in order to provide any semblance of dramatic momentum. It's really a mannequin show with dialogue, people standing around modelling lush costumes mumbling inanities in bored voices.
The show's single saving grace — and the only reason I've watched every episode — is Maggie Smith's presence. She is utterly stunning, and I'd happily pay money to watch her read a bus timetable.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
I'm a big fan. And put me in the camp who thinks Maggie Smith with her lines is the absolute star of the show. At least a handful other great performances. The scen design is amazing.
I have no idea how authentic the relationships between staff vs lordship with his family is. I get a feeling it's sometimes overly cozy. I can at the same time imagine the hierarchy among ground staff being rather authentic and the funny thing is how the show points out that bit more than differences between ground staff and the boss(es).
I can imagine, though, that at least some people who hate the show do so because they're reminded of a British past (and present) where posh people were walking about in huge palaces being, well, posh. And that bit where there's a more clear devilship going on among staff.
I'd rather watch 600 minutes of kitchen cut-together scenes from Downton Abbey than any new episode of CSI, vampire show or lazy american sci-fi crap.
The one thing which I've become fed up with is the love story/bleedin' drama involving Anna Bates and her bloke.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Seconded.Pietro Paolo Virdis wrote: The one thing which I've become fed up with is the love story/bleedin' drama involving Anna Bates and her bloke.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
God, yes, that is so tedious, although it's sort of comical.
Lady Irresistible Mary and her suitors a close second.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
The asshole footman fella is a close third.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
In the final season, I'm looking for the whole place to fall into bankruptcy through bad management, with Daisy in the kitchen saving the day with her winnings from some kind of sweepstakes. Cora ends up going back to America, and Lord Grantham takes up with Daisy to save the family name. The Irish chauffeur son-in-law finally cracks Lady Mary's chastity lock and drives it home for the win.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
The one who had a secret he would spill on that woman if she didn't play his game, and then all of a sudd, after one and a half season molesting her with it, it was solved in five seconds like nothing?WOM wrote: The asshole footman fella is a close third.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Wrongness. Barrow's self-centred deviousness makes him a much more interesting character, particularly as his behaviour has never wavered.WOM wrote: The asshole footman fella is a close third.
Also put me in the camp that thinks Maggie Smith owns the show.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Utter dross expensive remake of wooden 70s show Upstairs Downstairs.MsD wrote: It's coming to a natural end. I enjoyed the first series a lot
Obviously before your time, Ma'am.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
No, I remember UD. :-)
I like DA for what it is, although it has shortcomings. Anyone expecting Boys from the Blackstuff is obviously going to be disappointed.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Upstairs Downstairs was fucking King Lear compared to Downton Abbey.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
It's probably aged poorly, though.
Ahaw....ahahahahaa......Comment
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Downturn Abbey
I watched episodes 1 and 2. It was like cheesy soap opera in period costumes.
I hope the series will end with Charles coming back as an army officer to Downton Abbey in the middle of the second world war to find it in something close to ruins, and the military billetted there.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
I really really wish they were not making yet another series. I pretty much have to watch it in the interests of marital harmony, because the missus, an otherwise highly intelligent woman, seems to be hooked on that particular flavour of ludicrously sugar-coated emotionally simplistic unimaginative cliché, and it's such a waste of limited telly-watching time.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
"Otherwise intelligent".
If you're so smart, why don't you have your own telly?Comment
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Downturn Abbey
ha ha. I think I'm probably being smarter on this issue than my usual very low level of smartness actually, realising that sharing an extra weekly dose of telly-watching togetherness to keep the relationship in good health is worth a bit of inward wincing at the garbage on the screen.Comment
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Downturn Abbey
Shit for cunts.Comment
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