I was led to believe by the critics I follow that series two of Downton Abbey was a step down in quality from the first. Maybe because I went in with low expectations I was pleasantly surprised, but on the whole, I think I may have liked it better than series one. It wasn't without problems, though.
It all really boils down to the Great War. The first series was all about upper crust people with upper crust problems, and some good servant drama thrown in. Who's going to inherited the estate? How will they save this huge lavish house? Like I said in my review of series one, it's fun to watch because we like these characters, not because we really care about what happens to a house that is many times larger than the largest house we could possibly afford. With series two starting in the middle of World War I, it adds an extra sense of weight, giving the problems of these upper crust people more heft. Now it's not just what will happen to the house (that's still there), but also how can the Crawley's help out during England's time of need.
The best story, by far, was Downton being turned into a recovery home for wounded soldiers. It really brought the war to the Crawley's doorsteps, and thankfully gave Edith something more to do than be the bitchy middle sister. I also like how it put Robert in a bad light for once. During series one, we were on his side, but when he starts complaining about half his huge drawing room being taken by people wounded in war, he comes off much less sympathetic.
War has a way of breaking down class barriers. Bullets do not distinguish between lords and commoners, and in trying times everyone has to pitch in and do their part. The class conflicts and the changing times are the best part of Downton. Whether it's Isobel trying to convince people that are terribly set in their ways that things are changing, or Sibyl getting job as a nurse, or Branson trying to convince Sibyl that just because they're from different backgrounds doesn't mean they can't be in love.
The war had a more immediate effect on certain members of the cast. Matthew, Thomas, and William were all fighting on the front. While Matthew stayed mostly the same, the combat gave Thomas and William new shade to their characters. William managed to be a hero and save Matthew's life, and I was with Mrs. Patmore that Daisy was giving a dying hero some comfort at the end. Thomas manages to weasel his way out of combat service, but considering the conditions at the Somme, can you blame any man? His return to Downtown lets him lord his "running" of the recovery home over the other servants, but he also gets to show some sympathy for Mr. Lang and his PTSD. When things fall apart for Thomas' black market scheme, I may not feel sorry for him, but I most definitely didn't feel joy at his predicament.
There are two major love stories to the series so far, one for the upstairs (Matthew and Mary) and one for the downstairs (Anna and Mr. Bates). In the first series, I was on board for both, even though there were a few frustrating times for Matthew and Mary. In the second series, I actively disliked the Matthew and Mary will they/won't they. Luckily, the Anna and Mr. Bates stuff was still great. They've gone the stalling route of paring them off with other people, which in theory can work, but here is more of a mess. Lavinia is a very nice girl that we like, especially when Mary can be so cold. So when Matthew is still making googly eyes at Mary, he comes off as a jerk. Meanwhile, Mary has been saddled with a jerk to keep her and the family's reputation intact. By the end of the series, the jerk has been cast off (back to Game of Thrones with you, Ser Jorah!) in a satisfying manner, but Lavinia manages to catch the spanish flu and die. It almost felt like the writers wanted to get rid of her, but couldn't find a convincing reason so they just killed her. At the end of the Christmas special, Matthew and Mary are finally together. While I'll admit I was happy for them, the machinations that series two went through to keep them apart made it far less enjoyable than it should have been.
Now on the Anna and Bates side, things were more interesting. Here's a story with a villain we can hate. Vera's sole purpose is to cause grief for her husband, and since he wants to be with Anna, then she's going to do everything she can to keep that from happening. It's a good way of prolonging the relationship while letting the potential lovers still be real people and not idiots. The marriage of the Bates was far more satisfying than the aforementioned romance and played wonderfully by Brendan Coyle and Joanne Froggatt.
Now we've reached the most problematic parts of the second series. Namely amnesia and paralyzation. The amnesia of Patrick Crawley was thankfully short lived, lasting only an episode. The main conflict of the series arose because he died on the Titanic. To reveal that he had somehow lived and had been a new person in Canada was too far fetched, but like I said, only lasted an episode before he left. The real problem of this series was Matthew's injury during the war. It starts out wonderfully with Matthew having to deal with the reality of being paralyzed and his struggles with what it means in this time period to be a man if you can't have sex or have children. All of this could be wonderful fodder for great character work going forward, but no, he's magically cured. Not really magically, but that's how it feels. If they really wanted Crawley babies, I would have been okay with being able to bear children, but a full recovery was a step too far.
In comparison to series one, I'd say it was better, but only slightly. The Great War was a great catalyst for different, more engaging stories, and the first World War is underrepresented in pop culture compared to World War II. However, the back half of the season dipped in quality with amnesia, convenient deaths, and miraculous recoveries. The Christmas special luckily pulled it out of that downward spiral and left me excited for series three.
No comments:
Post a Comment