A new catchup series. This had been on my radar for a while, and I had told myself I was going to be ready for when it premiered in the States. Alas, I only made it through the first series before the third one started airing here on PBS. It's pretty addicting, though, so once I get started on the second series, I feel it won't be too long before I'm caught up.
It's a statement I come back to time and time again, but what I believe to be the most important part of a quality TV series is the characters. You can get away with bland characters in certain movies because the premise can get you through two hours. There is no such luxury in television. Even in the shorter seasons of the British model, there was still seven hours of watching these people go through their lives. If they're not compelling, it becomes very easy to stop bothering to come back every week. Characters are something that this show does very well, and the fact that there are tons of them makes it even more impressive. Why would I care about the goings on of an aristocratic household in England in the early twentieth century? Because I care about these characters and, by proxy, whatever they are going through.
Let's start with the upstairs, and the less compelling half of the equation. Lord Granthem, Robert Crawley is a respectable man who only wants to do the right thing. He is magnanimous, but lacks any sort of spunk. His unwillingness to ruffle any feathers makes him the least interesting of the lordly characters, but a good center and foil for the more scheming members of the family. His wife, Cora, completely makes up for his lack of spunk. All her family's money will be lost to the heir if the entail goes through, and she's doing everything she can to stop that from happening. Which mostly amounts to finding a husband for Mary so she can have a boy. Mary is the Hamlet of marriage decisions, completely indecisive. The second daughter, Edith, is constantly put upon by Mary and decides to take her revenge. Sybil is the youngest and the rebel, wanting crazy things like women's rights. Lording (literally) over everyone is the Robert's mother, the Downager Countess, played wonderfully by Maggie Smith. Whenever she pops up, you know there are going to be some great biting remarks.
The downstairs portion is far more interesting because of the more relatable circumstances. Their actions may be constrained by class, but not by the pomp and circumstance that seems foreign to us commoner viewers. The two heads of the staff are Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes, the older, venerable leaders who know their craft and know it well. They do look back on their unmarried lives and wonder what could have been, but are happy with their chosen profession. Mrs. Patmore is the head cook whose sight is going. Daisy is the put upon cook's maid. Gwen is maid who wishes for a different life. Anna is a loyal and kind woman in love with the enigmatic Mr. Bates. Mrs. O'brien is a vindictive shrew that schemes with the footman Thomas to get Mr. Bates fired. William is the other, nicer footman with a crush on Daisy while she only has eyes for Thomas. And finally Mr. Bates, the valet, and my favorite character. Learning about his past was the most rewarding part of this first series.
Straddling the line between the two worlds is Matthew and his mother, Isobel. Leading a middle class life until finding out that he is the now the heir to Downton Abbey, Matthew is out of touch with the aristocratic world of the Crawley family. He doesn't like all the doting the servants do for him, while his mother doesn't like just sitting around and not being useful. Her scrapes with the Dowanger Countess are some of the best comic moments of the series, and she even gets the Countess to do something nice when she gives the flower award to the guy with the roses. Matthew, on the hand, is head over heels for Mary. A marriage between those two would solve everyone's problems, so of course that can't happen. Mary is slow to warm to him, and by the time she has, he's not sure of her motives anymore.
These are only the brush strokes that do little to convey the depths of these characters, but without that depth, this show would just be a trashy soap. It may hide it behind the veneer of British lords, but ultimately it is soap opera at its finest. Marriage pacts, sisterly double crosses, stolen glances between servants, diabolical plans to get people fired, cruel manipulations, a love triangle where one of the males is gay and only entertaining the female's crush to annoy the other male, and even a dead body being secretly moved in the night. Soap opera isn't a bad thing, it's certainly compelling, and when it's done this well, it makes for a great show. The trick is not letting it get too outlandish and, to bring it all back to what I've been harping on, have great characters.
One thing that did bother about the series was the passage of time. The first episode is April 1912, when the Titanic sank, and then there no indication of when it is until we get another title for May 1914 in the sixth episode. I know that time has been passing, but it's almost impossible to tell at what rate. Was there a large jump between the fifth and sixth, or was each episode jumping forward months and I just missed it?
The beginning of The Great War marks the end of this series, and I look forward to discovering how that affects everyone in series two.
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