Rest in Peace Downton Abbey — Page 2

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

"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

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"I hated it."

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

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"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.)

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

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

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.

"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***

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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.

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.

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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.

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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

"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.

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