Review Downton Abbey

And we're back. Primarily we're back because this show gets massively good ratings. If it weren't for the ratings, we could have ended after season 1, and certainly after season 2. However, the show must go on. The show isn't nearly as funny as it once was, or perhaps we were just younger then, less attuned to the upper class snobbery of the dowager countess and the lower class snobbery of butlers.

Fortunately, in general the fourth season of Downton Abbey started with much more certainty than was displayed in Season 3. In a generous mood, it's easy to blame the wildly inconsistent writing of the previous season on the axes handing over the head of Matthew and Sybil. With such plots needing to be central to the show, perhaps we can forgive some of the inexpert soap opera drama of the third season. The nice thing about season four of Downton is that the first thirty minutes proved that the show is not above being boring. And, after the variety of chicanery that's gone on in the last two seasons, it was nice to watch the servants play cards and smoke while the upper class had discussions over plots of land and how long a person is allowed to mourn a spouse. Apparently the limit is six months.

And while the first half an hour cruises by we are privy to one interesting piece of information. We learn that the character O'Brien has left, though it was nice of the show's creators to not actually kill her off. It is okay to have people get married and move away, or change ladies that they wait on in this case. This gave the show a chance to replace her, and they did so quickly, reviving Edna Braithwhite, onetime schemer for Tom and now new friend and ally of Thomas. I'm fine with the change and even the history that her character brings.

Reprising the very bad role of O'Brien is Nanny West, who rubs Thomas the wrong way and is reported on immediately. This felt like the one misstep of the episode as she is immediately caught out in mistreating the older girl because of her lower birth and is fired. Chekhov says that you have to fire the gun if it's seen in the first scene, however, he didn't say you have to fire it in the very next scene. It would have been nice to let a bit of tension build around the character of Nanny West, but the show's writers were in such a hurry to move things along that they lost a potentially intriguing villain.

The show's other subplots, though interesting, focus in a troubling manner around the increasing stupidity and irascibility of the Lord and Lady Grantham. Sadly, Cora is now one of the least intelligent women in the room as she consistently falls for whatever the servants tell her, going so far as to believe the lie that Anna is being mean to the her new ladies maid. (And while I'd be happy to watch anyone be mean to Anna after her and Bates traipse about the grounds telling each other how much they love another as though they were eighteen and in the middle of summer love, it seems implausible given her character up to this point).

Lord Grantham, once one of the few who could see through the trials and tribulations of his many daughters and workers has now squandered the fortune and seems intent on keeping his daughter from working with him on the estate. Primarily because his character is now an ogre. I feel bad for the actor, who is put in increasingly implausible situations if only to demonstrate time and time again that he is an a bit of an ass. That he was once a wise and patient father is apparently beside the point. What's important is that he espouse sexist views so that the women in the house might correct him. And while I'm all in favor of women's rights as a major and interesting plot line, I'm rather sorry that it is at the expense of the once interesting Lord Grantham.

The subplots involve Carson, the wonderful butler, making amends with his old theater buddy. The problem, as it always is, was over a girl who couldn't love them both. Why not just move to Utah guys? The second, and much more interesting sub plot involved Rose going to the country to dance a jig. I'm glad, because for the first hour or so I couldn't figure out why she was on the show. Luckily, the latter half provided some actual excitement as she romanced a farmer on the dance floor and then incited a brawl. The scene in the yard where the farmer returned is well-acted, and the charm of her youth is evident. And if I was worried because everyone was married last season, and that tends to be an interesting plot line (see: everything ever written by Jane Austen) then we have a new girl to marry off, and, you know, everyone else died. I'd mention Edith's fling, a married man moving to Germany for citizenship, but I've already read Jane Eyre, so I know that his wife dies in a fire and he is maimed and blinded but Edith still loves him and marries him or he runs away at the altar or whatever.

All in all, the episode lacked the wit and drama that made the first season such compelling television. However, on the bright side, it also lacked the clumsy writing and plotting that plagued portions of the latter two seasons, only for those errors to be papered over with dramatic death scenes. Count me as slightly encouraged at this point. I want the writers to take their time this season with the characters, to let them develop, so that we love or hate them with a bit more of our hearts before the full hand is played. I'm entirely willing to concede that I may be wrong, and the show may go back to a complete soap opera, or perhaps they'll just recycle story lines and degrade once interesting characters, but I'm willing to hope.