Downton Abbey
So there are things to say about the state of my dissertation committee (nevermind my dissertation), but I have spent the last day and a half mainlining Downton Abbey, and it is time to tell the internet about it. Spoilers behind the cut.
Gosford Park is my favorite movie of all time, and as I was saying to the friend I started watching this with, I love that Julian Fellowes decided to make a few of the servants less noble this time around, via O'Brien and Thomas. Though there is still Bates, who I heart beyond all reason because he is disabled and noble, but not noble because he bears his infirmity patiently or any of the other things I can't stand in disabled characters in fiction. And Anna loves him not in spite of it, but because he is who he is. And as much as I adore the relationship between Carson and Mrs. Hughes (and why is there no fic?), I think the thing that makes me adore Carson most is his eventual willingness to champion Bates.
Sibyl's transformation into my favorite sister was not something I was expecting--perhaps because her political storyline wasn't telegraphed in the first episode, so it came across as more surprising. I can't wait to see what her response to the Russian Revolution is. (February, not October, of course).
And as is true to form for someone who wrote so much Jack/Irina, I adore Cora and Robert, and am busy thinking up fun pre-series fic for them, when there is not so much gathering storm, as much as I enjoy the stories I've read that show the characters during and after the war. I laughed incredibly hard when Mary gave them a hard time for sleeping in the same bedroom, and their scene at the garden party broke my heart.
As a feminist and a historian, I'm of course a sucker for all the gender issues facing Mary in particular, and the nature of power and agency for women that we see in the turf wars between the Dowager Countess and Isobel. But I think the thing I truly love best is the way the script shows us how often people misinterpret things, or don't get what they want because they misread, and that's what makes Fellowes such a good screenwriter. I was furious at O'Brien for the soap, and loved that the Dowager Countess was the one to make her realize what a fool she'd been. Because that's the only kind of justice there could be.
I hope the second series gives us some idea of why Cora is so much more attached to O'Brien than the rest of them--her attachment of course makes O'Brien's discovery more poignant, but as written it doesn't quite make sense.
The Dowager Countess cracks me up, just in case that needs saying.
I'm very conflicted about Mary-- I'm the oldest child, so I can sort of imagine why Edith in particular resents her, and she's certainly not always a nice person. But she does, I think, come to realize just how much she can hurt others, by the end, and I admire that. Mostly though, I couldn't believe they actually had the Kemal plotline unfold the way it did. I was sure they were going to get caught, but had no idea he was going to die. I also like the way Mary took ownership of the decision-- she may have been naive, but in my reading, there weren't real consent issues there, though others might disagree.
Okay, stopping here. I need an icon.
This entry was originally posted at http://dagnylilytable.dreamwidth.org/1501.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Gosford Park is my favorite movie of all time, and as I was saying to the friend I started watching this with, I love that Julian Fellowes decided to make a few of the servants less noble this time around, via O'Brien and Thomas. Though there is still Bates, who I heart beyond all reason because he is disabled and noble, but not noble because he bears his infirmity patiently or any of the other things I can't stand in disabled characters in fiction. And Anna loves him not in spite of it, but because he is who he is. And as much as I adore the relationship between Carson and Mrs. Hughes (and why is there no fic?), I think the thing that makes me adore Carson most is his eventual willingness to champion Bates.
Sibyl's transformation into my favorite sister was not something I was expecting--perhaps because her political storyline wasn't telegraphed in the first episode, so it came across as more surprising. I can't wait to see what her response to the Russian Revolution is. (February, not October, of course).
And as is true to form for someone who wrote so much Jack/Irina, I adore Cora and Robert, and am busy thinking up fun pre-series fic for them, when there is not so much gathering storm, as much as I enjoy the stories I've read that show the characters during and after the war. I laughed incredibly hard when Mary gave them a hard time for sleeping in the same bedroom, and their scene at the garden party broke my heart.
As a feminist and a historian, I'm of course a sucker for all the gender issues facing Mary in particular, and the nature of power and agency for women that we see in the turf wars between the Dowager Countess and Isobel. But I think the thing I truly love best is the way the script shows us how often people misinterpret things, or don't get what they want because they misread, and that's what makes Fellowes such a good screenwriter. I was furious at O'Brien for the soap, and loved that the Dowager Countess was the one to make her realize what a fool she'd been. Because that's the only kind of justice there could be.
I hope the second series gives us some idea of why Cora is so much more attached to O'Brien than the rest of them--her attachment of course makes O'Brien's discovery more poignant, but as written it doesn't quite make sense.
The Dowager Countess cracks me up, just in case that needs saying.
I'm very conflicted about Mary-- I'm the oldest child, so I can sort of imagine why Edith in particular resents her, and she's certainly not always a nice person. But she does, I think, come to realize just how much she can hurt others, by the end, and I admire that. Mostly though, I couldn't believe they actually had the Kemal plotline unfold the way it did. I was sure they were going to get caught, but had no idea he was going to die. I also like the way Mary took ownership of the decision-- she may have been naive, but in my reading, there weren't real consent issues there, though others might disagree.
Okay, stopping here. I need an icon.
This entry was originally posted at http://dagnylilytable.dreamwidth.org/1501.html. Please comment there using OpenID.