Rest in Peace Downton Abbey- Page 2

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 10:54pm

Goth - agree re: Happy Valley. Perhaps her role's getting meatier in season 2? Tell me more about Benidorm.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:00pm

And yet they are remaking Upstairs, Downstairs. Must be an inexhaustable market for this tosh.

Again? Or are you thinking of the BBC update from 2010-2012?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:23pm

"Tell me more about Benidorm."

Benidorm is a quirky comedy about British people vacationing at a resort in Spain. It's been running for seven seasons, but it really hits its stride around Season 3.

Siobahn Finneran plays a mother on vacation with her family and her mother. I've linked a clip below just so you can see how different she is from her other characters.
Benidorm

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:27pm

^ I've only seen tiny bits of it, but that was enough. I hated it.

By the way, it's Siobhan - not Siobahn.

Updated On: 3/26/15 at 11:27 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:32pm

"I hated it."

It's not everyone's cup of tea. But what did you hate about it?

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:40pm

Goth, I love you for so many reasons, but currently, the reason is that of all the clips of this show you probably could have chosen, you went with one that offers no context, no apparent humor and which was clearly posted to give middle aged men their jollies. I mean, the video is titled:
Siobhan Finneran ~ Bikini

and the description reads:
Check out this Milf surprise.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:41pm

"Gosford Abbey

Downton Park

Fellows already did the "film version" of this, with an Agatha Christie twist."

Exactly. And what keeps people hooked to Downton (and I freely admit this is the main reason I keep watching, sometimes/often despite myself, is the soap opera hook. When serials are turned into movies it rarely works.)

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:43pm

(Happy Valley is brilliant.)

Horse--you like Benidorm? After not caring for Cucumber or Broad City, I'm a bit surprised.

Surely they are not remaking Upstairs/Downstairs again (or should I say doing another sequel)? The last one, which I thought initially was...well ok, but quickly fell apart as did ratings.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:47pm

Eric, I haven't seen Benidorm, outside of the T&A clip of Siobhan Finneran that Goth posted.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:48pm

I just linked the clip to show her character. That is about as far from O'Brien as an actress can get.

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 11:52pm

Since the show hasn't been good since the first season, absolutely no loss to me.

Updated On: 3/27/15 at 11:52 PM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 12:26am

BUT, have you continued watching anyway, Sutton?

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 12:58am

Sort of like The Killing, I was waiting for it to improve. It never did. However, I would never bitch bitch bitch and complain about a show like some people do on here week after week.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 7:55am

"I don't understand why Finneran took Happy Valley."

I haven't seen Happy Valley, which I'm regretting as I have enjoyed the third series of Last Tango in Halifax (having missed the first two) and I understand they have the same author.

PS I do think the Benidorm link is funny although it's traditional British humour - dominant, angry wife/passive, intimidated husband.

Eric: what were your final feelings about Cucumber? Anti-climax and mild disappointment for me.





Updated On: 3/27/15 at 07:55 AM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 8:19am

"I haven't seen Happy Valley, which I'm regretting as I have enjoyed the third series of Last Tango in Halifax"

I gave up on Last Tango. I just couldn't get into it. Sarah Lancashire does an excellent job in Happy Valley. Season 1 was so personal to her character that I wonder what they are going to do in Season 2. There's a lot of material there, but the new storyline won't be as close to her character. And Finneran's Benidorm husband, Steve Pemberton, is also in Happy Valley, although their two characters never interact.

And for anyone who has seen Benidorm, the writer Derren Litten also wrote Catherine Tate Show. Does that have the same quirkly humor as Benidorm?

***Sorry to threadjack***

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 8:27am

Season 5 got me engaged in it again (after a wobbly first episode). I enjoyed it a lot. Nothing earth-shattering (and I'm so tired of the Bates-murder plot---enough already!), but most if it was good character development and some interesting cat-and-mouse play.

With Season 4, I was ready to give up and stop watching. Bad writing, missed opportunities, subplots that started out with promise and went nowhere, and largely forgettable story lines.

I look forward to Season 6 now, and I hope they pull out all the stops.

[HorseTears]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 8:28am

Good to know, Goth. Loved Catherine Tate's show - even though it was a touch dependent upon catch phrases. The overly supportive Northern Irish mother of "gay man" John always made me laugh. Steve Pemberton, of course, was absolutely brilliant in The League of Gentlemen. I wish they'd do one more season. Such a dark, weird show. Okay, you sold me, Goth. I'm checking Benidorm out.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 8:34am

!

I've just realised, having read your post Goth, that the actor who plays Finneran's Benidorm husband also played Georgie in the Mapp & Lucia reboot, as well as adapting it. Another example of extraordinary versatility!

[Auggie27]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 9:50am

I'm not surprised. In the long run, and that's what any series is, I find Fellowes less than adept at serialized storytelling. I've always enjoyed the milieu and most of the actors, but it's offered diminishing returns for a while, now. This past season was filled with flabby, chatty situational episodes, only to have almost all of the plot in the final 3. He makes a consistent mistake, creating circumstance-dictated plot rather than character-driven. Other than Dame Maggie's and Penelope Wilton's characters, the women in particular have no appreciable goals, and any story that isn't hitched to characters pursuing goals against formidable obstacles remains static. It's a craft issue, the way the show mistakes circumstance for emotional events. We meander around people setting up tea (two scenes in one episode about whether someone would accept an invitation), then see the tea, then hear them talking about what was and wasn't said. At a certain point, we've seen the china.

Fully immersed in the demimonde, we're past the Aaron Schock awe.

And for all of Fellowes's lofty ideals ("I don't want it to become a soap opera" -- no s--t; if only) I've never seen serial so devoid of romance and sexuality. It's become the driest, most arid landscape on television. They bring in handsome young suitors for the dreary Mary and have them talk her and us into a corner. Does anyone ever get an erection in that house? They drop a closeted downstairs character's sexuality for several seasons, and then -- a heartstopping revelation -- almost casually mention that he's had chemical therapy to try and become heterosexual, off-camera. A truly startling (and potentially rich, story-wise) turn reduced to yet another talk-about. A footnote or character annotation.

It's great to bend the serial rules like Matthew Wiener and David Chase. They, too, dropped threads and left them dangling. But in the meantime, they introduce compelling counterpoint that takes characters elsewhere. Fellowes just doesn't seem to know how to tell his own story, and it's too bad, because he's had a captive audience. I'm somewhat in the minority (though plenty of friends voice enormous disappointment while staying loyal). I can't imagine owning all of these seasons and sitting through some of these scenes a second time.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 10:13am

***Once again, sorry for the threadjack***

HorseTears, stick with Benidorm at least until the transvestite Les and his son Liam show up. I think those characters really raised the quirky comedy level.

Yes Scripps2, Pemberton was a driving force in getting Mapp & Lucia to the screen. And I enjoyed this production even more than the original. The reason I love the British actors so much is that they take on different characters. Pemberton is even different in Happy Valley. He plays a man who is paranoid and vindictive, completely different from Benidorm and Mapp & Lucia.

The reason I looked for Benidorm is because I thought that Finneran gave an excellent performance on Downton Abbey. She's not the cartoon scheming servant stereotype. I love how O'Brien plays everything "close to the chest." For me, Finneran raised the material above soap opera level. It ain't EastEnders.

--Gothampc, Ambassador to British Acting

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 10:29am

Anyway, back to Downton Abbey.

One of the things that others have pointed out is missed opportunities and plots that go nowhere.

For example, Edith is given the chance to write for a newspaper and even to be editor of the paper when her paramour goes missing. I understand that Fellowes probably wanted to keep her close to Downton so that the Marigold/Tenant Farmer story could unfold, but keeping Edith associated with the paper would have opened up new storylines. It's almost like Fellowes wants to keep Mary as the bitchy older sister and Edith as the sniveling middle sister. But how great would it have been to have Edith say to Mary, "At least I've done something interesting with my life."

I don't understand why the audience can see the plot possibilities and the creative team can't.

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 11:02am

My favorite "what the hell was that" moment is the guy who was the disfigured-yet-potential heir to Downton Abbey in the second season ... sort of an "English Patient" dude that came out of nowhere and threatened to overthrow all of them just by his supposed lineage.

... and then? Nothing. He went away, never to return.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 11:11am

And another... to introduce American women and then not do anything with them. When you look at British history from that period American women were very influential. For a start, the first female Member of Parliament was an American-born woman.

The way Downton has turned out, I'm almost embarrassed to have introduced it to the OT board.

Updated On: 3/27/15 at 11:11 AM

[best12bars]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 11:13am

And my favorite missed opportunity was the season right after the war. Fellowes based Downton Abbey on the real Highclere Castle and included some true stuff, like the fact that it was converted to a hospital ward for returning vets right after WWI ended. Very cool.

But the real "Downton" also housed a nice collection from King Tut's Tomb after it was "discovered" by the Lord and the other explorers.

Fellowes could have written that into the story with a mysterious curse thrown in (which turned out to be spores that people inhaled and died---true!).

It would have gotten Lord Grantham out of the house, put a little "action" into the story (ala Indiana Jones) and the best part?

It really happened.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/27/15 at 11:21am

"Fellowes could have written that into the story with a mysterious curse thrown in (which turned out to be spores that people inhaled and died---true!)."

What an interesting way for Sybil to have died. Rather than the ho-hum childbirth which has already been covered in Call The Midwife and other shows. And if she had died inhaling spores, they could have still have had the dueling doctors storyline and could have put a little mystery into the show because the storyline about detecting the spores could have gone on after Sybil left the show.