Quote: Tursiops @ November 25 2012, 5:36 PM GMTThe politically disingenuous aspect of the show is that the portrayal of the master-servant relationship is idealised to the point of misrepresenting the historical reality. The Crawleys are quite sickeningly benign.
It has all the historical accuracy of a Hovis advet
Quote: Tursiops @ November 25 2012, 5:36 PM GMTThe politically disingenuous aspect of the show is that the portrayal of the master-servant relationship is idealised to the point of misrepresenting the historical reality. The Crawleys are quite sickeningly benign.
That hadn't even occurred to me, but you're quite right - they seem to spend half of their time trying to fix the problems of the servants!
I visited a stately home where the guide showed us around the servants' floor, and tried to convince us that servants had it good, because at least they weren't working on the land. I didn't quite swallow it though, since there were about 5 servants for every member of the household.
I think a lot of people watch it for feel-good cosy fun, so a rape seems a bit unwelcome.
(As rape generally is!)
I don't even watch it so I don't know why I'm sticking my oar in, really!
Just happened to catch the end of this week's.
I'm just catching up with this series. I don't know why I still watch it, I think I keep hoping it'll go back to being good like it was in series 1 (as if). What an odious bunch of privileged, gossipy nitwits the whole lot of them are.
I hear Virginia Woolf shows up this series, and if they've turned her into some dim-witted society snob I think that'll well and truly break the camel's back.
Didn't she describe herself as a snob? Although she would be hard pressed to beat an uppity shitbag like Fellowes.
Quote: Godot Taxis @ October 13 2013, 1:25 PM BSTDidn't she describe herself as a snob? Although she would be hard pressed to beat an uppity shitbag like Fellowes.
You're quite right, she did. I think I mean something different by 'snob', though - perhaps I meant 'classist'.
ITV put Noël Coward in a Marple once.
I would steel yourself for a characterisation drawn from the Wikipaedia.
Shameless bump here.
BTW It's not a comedy at all, but one of the most popular Dramas ever. In fact, in the USA, it is THE most popular program ever on PBS.
Locally, the repeat of SE1 through SE3 was interrupted for pledge week but, "Return to Downton Abbey" was aired. It was a review of SE1-SE3, with a preview of SE4, and comments by most of the cast and Julian Fellowes. I archived it and will watch after I see SE3. (Yes, I took peeks at it.)
SE3 will be aired starting this coming Sunday. And SE4 will begin on Jan 5th. Seeing all four seasons consecutively is an epic event for a first time viewer, and I'm sure waiting for SE5 will be painful! But wait we will.
A year ago, I never would have thought it, but I'm hooked and loving it!
I've never watched this as ITV put it up against Homeland.
Which though season 3 is dreadful.
Is like watching people ignoring a Heston Blumenthal restaurant to eat out of a dog waste bin.
Oops!
I miss-interpreted the title of the thread. When I posted, I meant NOT to be argumentative.
Sorry for the confusion.
Regards,
Mike
If this is the best comedy drama we can come up it does seem to show us as rather conservative?
Comedy? Am I missing some tongue in cheek point here? 
How did a drama come to have a thread on a web site devoted to comedy?
You can tell when it's a comedy bit because an oboe starts playing a silly, faintly jaunty tune.
They do the same thing in Dr Who.
Very much a mainstay of the 'sledge-hammer' school of TV.