Downton Abbey - Page 2

finally caught up with the premier on dvr. love the show, but i hope the pacing was just because they had to introduce so many plot points in 2 hours. it really emphasized the soap-opera-yness. 5 minutes of this exposition, then big twist. 5 minutes of that exposition and drama moment. the thing i liked (as i remember it) about season 1 was the way it moved so slowly and luxuriously, you knew it was soap opera, but you had time to settle in to each moment.

I haven't seen it. A neighbor of mine told me I reminded her very much of the earl (or vice-versa). I think it was meant as a compliment.

Just won Golden Globe for best miniseries.

Not bad for a servile soap opera.

Can't get into it.

I love this chick, though:

It's definitely soap opera, but pretty good soap opera with great production standards.

I'm watching and enjoying it.

i don't know. i'll keep watching, but i caught up on the second episode last night. it's still that damned rushed pacing. the thing that i loved about the first series was the almost jane austen-like pace. this time, it's crash-boom, plot twist to climax to plot twist. it feels so .... [shudder] .... American!

After hearing all the buzz, I tried to watch the first episode. I have to admit I was really relieved when Netflix streaming crapped out on me thirteen minutes in. Not sure exactly why I was so completely uninterested from the get go, but I was bored by all the characters. The servants all seemed at once chipper and sober in a we-must-do-our-duty-as-good-English-people way; the rich people seemed like twats, but the kind of twats we're eventually to find likable and charming. And the soundtrack sounded like it was done by John Tesh. Last time I felt this way was when I tried to read Ian McEwan's Atonement.

But enough people have told me that it's good that I might give it another go. At the very least, the van Dyck portrait of Charles I on the wall was

Isn't it set in Scotland?

My bad. Maybe it is--I watched it for all of thirteen minutes.

i don't believe it is, is it? the actual house is in newbury, i believe.

Thirteen more than I've seen. Quick look on Wikipedia says its set in North Yorkshire, filmed in Hampshire. No idea why I thought it was supposed to be Scottish then.

maybe you were thinking of the late beloved "Monarch of the Glen"?

Nope never seen that either, forgot about it completely until you just mentioned it.