Downton Abbey: A show tailor-made for me

First of all, if you haven't seen Downton Abbey yet: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?  It is, quite possibly, the bestest show in the universe (yes, better than Pretty Little Liars and Game of Thrones, and that's saying something.  That something being: I have really random taste in TV).  This show is also basically aimed right at me, since my dissertation is pretty much "Downton Abbey Goes to India" (or more specifically, "The Downton Abbey Flu Episode Goes to India") and I have a weakness for Edwardian fashion.

Downton Abbey is a deliciously British soap about the lives and loves of a wealthy British family and their servants in the early 20th century.  The first season opens with news that the Crawley family's heir was onboard the Titanic.  The Crawleys live at Downton Abbey, and due to some weird inheritance rule in their family, the heir *must* be a man, but the Crawleys only have daughters.  This leads to the introduction of COUSIN MATTHEW, who is literally the greatest, a distant cousin and now heir to the Crawley family title (Earl of Grantham) and fortune.  But more on that later. The important thing is that throughout the first two seasons, there is a whirlwind of plotting, machinations, unrequited love, impersonators with amnesia, false accusations of murder, war profiteering and really, really, really pretty clothes.  For real.  I would hereby like to request every single item Lady Mary has ever worn, plus half of Sybil's clothes as well.  While the second season did get bogged down in some of the soapier elements-- disappointing people who were led to believe it was high class entertainment, due to everyone having British accents-- it is still an excellent show.  The third season already started in the UK, but won't air in the US until January (sob).  Just so you know, this review will contain spoilers through the end of season two, because if you have any decency at all, you'll have seen it already.



Lady Mary

In addition to her clothes, I would also like to have
her eyebrows.

Lady Mary is the oldest daughter, and the would-be heir to the family title and wealth if her ancestor's will wasn't so sexist.  She's a stuck-up bitch with a good heart and a quick mind, and she's my favorite sister by far.  Lady Mary is somewhat unlucky in love: she hooks up with a Turkish envoy who DIES ON TOP OF HER (this is hilarious, and the Turkish guy is so ridiculously handsome it's like he's not even human, so HIGH FUCKING FIVE on that, Lady Mary), and then she falls in love with Cousin Matthew, but then he rejects her-- even though he loves her-- because he realizes she isn't sure she wants to marry him if there's a chance he won't inherit the title.  THEN she gets engaged to Ser Jorah from Game of Thrones, who is playing an early 20th century Rupert Murdoch and is also a terrible person, and then FINALLY at the end of season two she and Cousin Matthew get back together.  PHEW.


Lady Edith

She has a permanent bitch face, just like Lady Mary.
It runs in the family.

Edith is the middle child, and has a raging case of the Jan-Bradys.  Constantly overlooked by everyone, including her parents, she plots and schemes constantly, and very nearly ruined her sister's reputation by letting the whole "Dead Turkish Envoy in her bed" thing slip.  In the second season Edith showed a bit more spunk, working on a farm to help out and then having a very ill-advised fling with the farmer.  She's sort of terrible, but she's also so pathetic in her need to be wanted and loved that you can't help but feel for her.


Lady Sybil

SNL calls her "The Hot One."  This is accurate.

Lady Sybil is the youngest and most rebellious of the Crawley sisters, with her women's suffrage agitation and whole "becoming a nurse during the war" bit.  Also, she falls in love with the chauffeur, Branson, an Irish socialist.  I'm torn when it comes to Sybil and Branson: on paper, it's epic.  She's the rebellious daughter of an earl, he's a dangerous firebrand and also very handsome.  However, there was something about their flirtations that seemed off-- Branson was going for "charming and confident" but it came across a bit more "manipulative and controlling." Also, Branson brings up one of my biggest issues with the whole show: you know who would never get hired by a British earl in 1913?  AN IRISH SOCIALIST.  And if he did by some miracle get in line for the job, you know what would be career suicide?  ADMITTING YOU'RE A SOCIALIST TO YOUR PROSPECTIVE BOSS.  The creator and writer of Downton Abbey (Julian Fellowes) is a Conservative in the House of Lords, and he's clearly a little too invested in portraying the landed gentry as wonderful, accepting, relatable people.  Some of them might have been, but that doesn't mean they'd overlook the fact that their chauffeur held what they would have seen as incredibly dangerous views.



Lord Crawley, the Earl of Grantham

...I have nothing witty to say here.  Sorry.

Like I said above, Lord Crawley is kind of problematic for me.  I don't mind that he's portrayed as a kind man, since I highly doubt that *every* lord in England was a monstrous tyrant, but he has very, very anachronistic views.  In addition to hiring Branson, which I find preposterous, he's also waaayyy too comfortable with his footman's homosexuality.  If he knew about that (and that's a pretty big if, since there wasn't a whole lot of "coming out of the closet" in 1913) he wouldn't find it mildly amusing, he'd find it disgusting and Thomas would probably be fired.  And here's where the hardest part of historical fiction comes into play:  we really want our favorite characters to be "just like us," and while in most ways people really were just like us, they were still products of their time and environment.  Expecting an earl in 1913 to be okay with someone who is gay is like expecting him to know how to work a DVD player.  It's awful that he wouldn't have been accepting, but it's the truth.  It's something I wrestle with in my own research: how people who are by all accounts kind and lovely can also hold some views we now find really repulsive.  It's hard not to judge them by our standards-- and to a certain extent, we should (it's not like Nazis should get a free pass)-- but we have to balance our own views with their environment.  It's tough, but I feel like writers do a disservice to their characters when they take the easy way out and just give them opinions that are socially acceptable today.


The Dowager Countess, also known as Granny.

Professor McGonagall, you sly bitch.

Granny is hands down the fan-favorite of Downton Abbey.  An acidic, clever old lady, she does not hesitate to meddle in everyone's affairs.  Mostly, Granny is there to deliver sassy one-liners, like "What is...a week-end?" or "We can't get worked up over every foreigner who dies" or my personal favorite, "I have plenty of friends I don't like."  TRUTH, Granny.


The staff

It would be nice to have someone whose job it is to dress me everyday.
I'd probably wear sweatpants a lot less.  (Image taken from here)

The Crawley's have a huge, sprawling mansion, and they have a huge, sprawling cast of servants.  If I talked about each one individually, this post would stretch on into Game of Thrones-esque proportions. However, it is important to know that the servants of Downton Abbey have lives every bit as juicy as those they serve:  Mr. Bates and Anna are in a semi-doomed but very sweet romance, Daisy gets talked into being William's sweetheart and then wife-- as he's dying from war wounds-- all while she's not sure how she feels about him (poor Daisy, and poor William), and Thomas and O'Brien plot, scheme, and are generally dastardly people.


What's that you say?  What about Cousin Matthew?  Well, I saved the best for last.

Cousin Matthew, Dreamboat Extraordinaire.

Matthew Crawley is a solidly middle class lawyer in Manchester who suddenly discovers that with the death of the Crawley's heir on the Titanic, he's now the prospective heir to land, a title, and a fortune. He's charming and sweet, but incredibly stubborn and stuck up in his own way, looking down on the Crawleys who have never had to work for a living.  He and Mary have a *very* Pride and Prejudice romance, all misunderstandings and witty barbs and longing.  However, was anyone else worried during the first season that he was going to pull a Little Women on us and fall in love with Sybil?  (I still have not gotten over Laurie marrying Amy.  Louisa May Alcott, you are dead to me.  And also actually dead).  During the second season he's engaged to a sweet-but-bland girl, but spends all his time  on the Front pining for Lady Mary until his fiancee helpfully dies of the Spanish Flu.  I simply love Cousin Matthew, and his on-and-off-again romance with Lady Mary is the highlight of an already excellent series.


Verdict:  Perfectly awesome.