I JUST HAVE LOTS OF FEELINGS ABOUT DOWNTON ABBEY

[lizbee]

So last season was pretty great, in that it started out pretending to be a srs bsns drama and then CAST OF THE SHACKLES OF DIGNITY and embraced THE CRACK.  Which was nice.  Only this season, it has amped up into FULL SPARKLY TEXT CAPSLOCK LEVEL MELODRAMA, and I'm not sure my poor nerves can take it.  I'm not saying that I had a stress dream about Matthew and Mary, but in amongst a whole lot of other things, including that time we all belatedly realised that River Song's first appearance was actually in Star Trek Voyager, because such is the power of the Moff, apparently, there was some stress.



It's really quite scary how, in the course of half a season, I've gone from TEAM GO AWAY, EDITH to WOO TEAM EDITH YEAH!  What can I say, some girls blossom when they have an occupation other than the psychological torture of their sister. 

I've also managed to from SYBIL/BRANSON WHY AREN'T THEY KISSING YET to GET AWAY FROM HER, YOU COMMIE NICE GUY JERK!  It seems like the fandom is quite outraged that Sybil is rejecting Branson's advances, because what kind of uppity bitch doesn't jump at the chance to abandon her entire life for a man who denigrates her career and family?  Not liking Branson is a new and terrifying experience for me, but I'm trying to cope.

I'm also kind of mad at Mrs Patmore for pushing Daisy at William.  And at William for being so damn clueless, although I guess by the end he could be excused on the grounds of dying a slow and horrible death.  But still, Mrs Patmore, you are On Notice.

(I did, however, get teary at William's death.  I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS, OKAY?)

MEANWHILE, MATTHEW.  AND MARY.  AND LAVINIA.  AND ALSO, I GUESS, SIR RICHARD CARLISLE.  WHO IS QUITE A BIT LIKE SER JORAH MORMONT ONLY NOT EVEN PRETENDING TO BE A NICE GUY, REALLY.  IT'S A SHAME, BECAUSE I LOVE IAIN GLEN, AND ONLY JUST REALISED THIS MORNING THAT HE PLAYED FATHER OCTAVIAN IN THE ANGELS TWO-PARTER LAST YEAR.

Really, other than Sir Richard, I like everyone in that stupid love quadrangle.  Some kind of arrangement involving Matthew and Lavinia and Mary is called for.  Sadly, I fear 1918 is a bit short on sex manuals for the recent paraplegic.  Although, on the upside, Matthew is now safe from Mary's vagina of death.  TOO SOON?  I THINK NOT.

SERIOUSLY, I SHOULD NOT BE THIS ENGAGED WITH SUCH A STUPID SHOW.  IT'S NOT EVEN PRETENDING TO BE CLEVER.  IT'S JUST JULIAN FELLOWES TWIRLING IN HIS ANTIQUE SWIVEL CHAIR, GOING, "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" AND WONDERING WHAT HE CAN MAKE MAGGIE SMITH SAY NEXT.

ETA: I JUST REALISED THAT THE LAST THING KAMAL PAMUK DID BEFORE HE DIED WAS DEMONSTRATE TO MARY THAT THERE IS SEXUALITY THAT DOESN'T INVOLVE PENETRATION.

IT ALL COMES FULL CIRCLE.

Comments

[copracat]

IT'S JUST JULIAN FELLOWES TWIRLING IN HIS ANTIQUE SWIVEL CHAIR, GOING, "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" AND WONDERING WHAT HE CAN MAKE MAGGIE SMITH SAY NEXT.

Exactly why I like this show. I just imagine some producery types somewhere going, 'Hey, remember those awesome glam American soaps from the Eighties? We can do better. And by better, I mean MOAR CRACK.'

I am utterly disappointed in Branson.

[lizbee]

The best bit is how they've managed to fool people into thinking it's meant to be taken seriously.

I really hope they don't mean for us to be on Branson's side.

[nineveh_uk]

I think that Julian Fellowes actually does think it should be taken seriously. Fortunately, everyone else in the production is aware that the reverse applies.

[mme_hardy]

It got a fscking Emmy for writing, and yes, I am still bitter about that.

[purple_smurf]

According to the so-glittery-I-can't-read-it-oh-God-I'm-getting-old text at ONTD_Downton, the actor who plays Branson tweeted that they filmed a scene in the episode before this weeks where Branson apologised to Sybil... and it was left on the cutting room floor. I withholding judgment on what kind of an apology it was until I have the DVDs and deleted scenes, but seriously: you have this WOO FIRST-WAVE FEMINISM! plotline, where the female is matched with this guy who starts making derogatory comments about her work (and her family), you have him apologise for them later in the episode... and they cut the scene.

(I haven't seen the latest episode yet, but obviously I am living up to my gimme-spoilers-but-only-once-they-air motto.)

[lizbee]

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!

Also, there's an ONTD_Downton...?

No, no, I'm going to keep on resisting that urge.

[sapote]

HAHA I was about to mention the last part until I got to your ETA. Mary has the knowledge to make sweet sweet love to Matthew! THIS WILL COME UP, I BET.

Branson PISSES ME OFF. When he put his hand on her be-girdled abdomen in this episode I was seriously like HAUGH HANDS OFF ACK ICK. I would have liked some more pining and some less stomping jerkitude. I have just assumed that Sybil/Gwen was canon and Sybil's confusedly disinterested in masculine advances because she will have a beautiful career and a lady companion. But I think she'd be double disinterested in Branson when he's being such a panting creep.

However I am seriously distressed that Mary/Lavinia did not occur to me yet.

[lizbee]

Yes! STOP WITH THE UNWANTED TOUCHING, BRANSON!

He needs to stop and think about the fact that Sybil could have him fired with extreme prejudice, but she hasn't. And then maybe show a TINY BIT OF GRATITUDE.

[selvage]

MY FEELINGS ARE YOUR FEELINGS BASICALLY

(PS STUCK ON CAPSLOCK BECAUSE PIECES AND I ARE WATCHING THE MOST GUT-WRENCHING JDRAMA ON THE PLANET MY APOLOGIES &C &C)

[lizbee]

WAIT UNTIL YOU WATCH SPEC

OH MY GOD

[nonelvis]

IT'S JUST JULIAN FELLOWES TWIRLING IN HIS ANTIQUE SWIVEL CHAIR, GOING, "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" AND WONDERING WHAT HE CAN MAKE MAGGIE SMITH SAY NEXT.

Yup, pretty much, which is why when I read complaints from people yesterday saying they felt "jerked around" by the show, I wondered what the hell it is they thought they were watching, because it sure as hell isn't Serious Drama.

I was also shipping Lavinia/Mary after this episode (okay, Matthew can join in if he wants), and am likewise disappointed by Branson turning out to be an arrogant creepster. I like your politics, Branson! Why are you turning into such a douche?

... OTOH, if this somehow manages to convince Sybil that men are useless and perhaps she should give women a try, I'd be on board with that.

[lizbee]

I agree with all of this comment! Especially the bit about WTF people feeling jerked around? Did they think we were going to get out of the FIRST WORLD WAR with no major injuries or deaths? (To be honest, I was amazed that Sybil or Edith didn't run off to the front to become ambulance drivers.)

[purple_smurf]

Seriously, I don't get people. I figured out William would die in the war at the end of last series; Grantham is too old to go to war, Bates too injured, Thomas has too much of a role as mustache-twirling villian to be killed off, they won't kill the heir (seriously maim, yes; kill, no), and that only left William, who had the sweetheart to make it all the more poignant. Okay, so I'd forgotten about Branson and Molesley, but I always forgot about Molesley last series, and it just didn't occur to me that Branson would be in the right age group etc, too. But anyway, I was right in my logic!

tl;dr: William was always going to be the character they'd kill off for emotional impact.

[tree_and_leaf]

William's had cannon fodder stamped on his head from the start. Didn't Thomas (or someone?) call him cannon-fodder at one point? How much more foreshadowing did they need?

[mme_hardy]

" I like your politics, Branson! Why are you turning into such a douche? "

Because he's lower-class trying to better himself, and in this series that is a Bad Thing. (Last series, with the stenographer, not so much.) Think about it: Uppity Maid gets pregnant, Uppity Chauffeur turns into the bad guy, and I'm pretty sure there are others but I haz drug-brain.

Frankly, if William died -- I haven't seen this week but am not caring about spoilers because IT IS ALL SUCH CRACK -- it's better than I'd hoped; I was afraid that he was the one who was going to come home hopelessly broken and then it would be poor Daisy stuck caretaking a husband she didn't want in the first place and I would have been giving Mrs. Patmore SUCH THE SIDE-EYE for projecting her Unresolved Dead Nephew Issues into "Go ahead, give the lad a good seeing-to before he goes off to war. Only respectably."

[skygiants]

It is such a strange feeling! The love triangle/quadrangle is the only romantic plotline (well, other than O'Brien/Lang I guess) that I am really supporting and enjoying at this moment! I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES, WHAT IS THIS MADNESS.

[lizbee]

I KNOW! And I keep telling myself that this is not going to end well for Lavinia, and certainly not with any kind of awkward and hilarious OT3, and I'm just going to be angry if I keep getting invested.

[tree_and_leaf]

THE LAST THING KAMAL PAMUK DID BEFORE HE DIED WAS DEMONSTRATE TO MARY THAT THERE IS SEXUALITY THAT DOESN'T INVOLVE PENETRATION.

I dunno. From the blocking just before they cut away, it didn't look like he was planning oral, and whatever he did was vigorous enough to bring on a heart attack in an apparently healthy young man. I wonder if he was introducing her to penetration of, er, other orifices...

Have I been over-thinking this?

[mme_hardy]

If you have, so have many of my friends, all of whom believed that from the blocking anal was the only choice.