The teaser trailer gives us some idea of what the new movie is about; The family is going on holiday. (And I expect them to come up with some reason to bring along most of the household staff, though I wouldn’t expect that in reality.)
And I’m a little surprised that Maggie Smith is still in it. I thought she wanted out.
Chris Pratt got in great shape and lost a lot of weight for Jurassic World (and/or Guardians of the Galaxy). Well, then a new season of Parks and Rec began.
I absolutely loved how his character explained it:
“Oh, the weight? Yeah, I just stopped drinking beer.”
“Wait, you just… but you’ve lost a ton of weight!”
“Well, turns out I was drinking a lot of beer!” [shrug]
I saw her quoted as saying the character would be ridiculously old if they developed the story through time. Perhaps they’ve stopped the clock for this holiday.
I find the whole idea a kind of thief of life. That people should waste hours huddled around a wooden box listening to someone talking at them, burbling inanities from somewhere else.
As opposed to one’s relatives burbling the inanities one’s heard so many times before. I wonder at our ancestors’ patience and tolerance.
They are not going to do that. The family is incredibly liberal with regards to race in earlier seasons, whereas if it was real aristocracy, who to this day are incredibly racist, there will have been a mysterious accident out while “shooting” with the black fellow.
They have in effect 2000’s liberalism towards race, from an era when that really didn’t exist in the upper classes.
Similarly, they’re far more tolerant and friendly towards the household staff than people would have been in that era. Was there more of a separation between the family and the servants in Upstairs, Downstairs (I was too young to watch the original program)?
Probably. They probably only ever dealt with the butler, the grooms and maybe the head cook. Possibly just the butler, who dealt with the rest of them.
It really isn’t very authentic, and I think there would be a lot more firings by the butler to keep the staff on their toes.
The Crawleys might not flirt with fascism, but a lot of their friends & guests would. Plus, the British Union of Fascists initially looked to Italian Fascism which until 1938 lacked the antisemitism and biological racism of German Nazism. That being said you’re probably right about this not coming up given Sequel Goes Foreign being in effect (though fascists went on holiday too).
That’s certainly true; other than a single passing remark by His Lordship, they’re also much less anti-Catholic than most British aristos would’ve been back then. Julian Fellowes said in an interview a few years ago that the show can’t be completely accurate about the prejudices of the day, or everyone today would hate the characters and no one would watch the show.
Robert made several anti-Catholic remarks. At one point, he straight up proudly admits to being anti-Catholic. There might be less anti-Catholicism upstairs in Downton Abbey than is historically accurate, but Robert never hesitated making it known where he stood on the matter.
I just remember the one. Clearly he wasn’t crazy about his youngest daughter dating and then marrying an Irish Catholic fella, though.
Yeah, but the difference versus reality is that the Irish Catholic fella would have disappeared quietly one evening and never been seen again.
So I actually saw the film. And I guess the first point to make is that Robert’s weight loss is not discussed at all. (I also thought his voice sounded rather husky at times, and no one made a thing of that either.)
Beyond that, it’s hard to get into without spoiling stuff. Most of the movie is pleasantly fluffy in the patented Downton Abbey Christmas special mold. As the reviews make clear, it’s basically two parallel stories: half the gang go to stay in a villa in France while the folks back at the Abbey deal with a film crew using the house as a location. Pretty much everyone gets a moment to shine, and we even see some of the more tertiary characters (Daisy’s father-in-law Mr. Mason shows up for a few scenes). It may have even worked better than the previous film in that regard.
The ending, even while I won’t spoil it, will probably not surprise anyone who saw the last movie. It was moving and well done. That, along with a few other things that happen along the way, really make this feel like the end of Downton Abbey. If so, it’s not a bad way to go out.
And it stops before 1929, so it avoids the question of what happens to the Crawley fortune in the financial collapse.
I’m sure someone would just inherit even more money.
I’m feeling weird: back when we were binging the show, and Thomas’ future was in doubt, I thought his best move would be out to Hollywood. New York was full of English butlers, phony and legit. The American South was already flush with African American gentlemens’ gentlemen. But Californians were cut off from their traditional Chinese servants by immigration restrictions. Plus, LA was where everyone went to reinvent themselves. If Thomas does reappear in another sequel, it could be as a movie star.
Shades of Seth in Cold Comfort Farm (a world away from Downton, but very funny as both book and movie).
I thought they’d blown a lot of it on a Canadian Railway venture a while back.
My fanwank is this occurs because of Cora, the American, who didn’t grow up with this social distinction engraved. In her head, she’s more of the boss as opposed to a Great Lady (like the Dowager, who I am sure got a trailer full of cash delivered to her door… well, Maggie Smith, anyway).