Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is another example of how television has now outshone the movies in its ability to present the growth and development of characters that had heretofore been only possible in novels. I'm not ready to say that long-form television has entirely eclipsed the movies, but it's getting there.

This series, which premiered to general acclaim in 2010, is not a new idea. Those old enough will remember Upstairs, Downstairs from the 1970s, and even Downton Abbey's creator, Julian Fellowes, has done this already with the Robert Altman film Gosford Park. Simply put, it's an examination of a particular era of England through two lenses: the aristocracy and their servants.

Centered around a fictional estate in Yorkshire (but the house utilized is real, and spectacular), the comings and goings and ups and downs of the Crawley family are really a very high-toned soap opera, but to call something a soap opera is not necessarily a pejorative. It all depends on how well the characters are created and how the plot hums along--bad soap operas, with characters resurrected from the dead or previously unknown twins are garbage, but stuff like Downton Abbey is gold.

I think what makes Downton Abbey works so well is its humanity. Robert Crawley, the Earl of Grantham, (Hugh Bonneville) is basically a very good man, and we root for him right away. The servants, for the most part, are a family to themselves, managed sternly but humanely by the head butler, Carson (Jim Carter) and the head housekeeper, Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan). There are a couple of bad apples that provide the conflict, but there's a sense that everything will turn out all right, and that, as the quote by Martin Luther King goes, "the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice."

Though there are definitely class distinctions, there is a palpable feeling of affection between the two groups. Carter, who is revealed to have an embarrassing background as a vaudevillian, really cares about the family. The maids and footmen see their employers as something of a soap opera themselves--they follow them like today's middle-class follows the Kardashians. The aristocrats can't help but feel paternally toward their employees. They are reluctant to get rid of them, and, when a cook is discovered to have cataracts, see to it that she receives the best health care money can buy. It gives one a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

The series starts with the sinking of the Titanic in April 1912. On board is the heir and son of Crawley. This presents a problem, as Crawley has only daughters, so his estate, as arranged by his dead father, will go to the next male relative, a third cousin, Matthew, who turns out to be a middle-class lawyer from Manchester (Dan Stevens). He and his mother (Penelope Wilton) come to Downton to learn the ropes, and there is tension at first. Crawley's mother, the indefatigable Maggie Smith, wants the arrangement broken, so that Crawley's eldest daughter Mary (Michelle Dockery), can inherit the estate. If Mary were to marry Matthew, that would solve everything, but the two get off on the wrong foot. We then have one of those long, slowly evolving romances.

Among the servants, the conflict is provided by Crawley's new valet, Bates (Brendan Coyle), a lame man. He is almost fired, but since he served in the Boer War with Crawley, the lord and master can't bear to cast him out. This inspires the ire of the footman passed over for the promotion, Thomas (Rob James-Collier), a nasty and vindictive sort, who conspires with the dragonish lady's maid (Siobhan Finneran) to get Bates fired at any cost. But the head maid, Anna, Louise Froggat, falls in love with Bates, who is presented as a man with the utmost integrity, and two battle with the baddies.
 

There are many more characters. The other two Crawley daughters are the plain Edith (Laura Carmichael), who out of envy does her best to ruin her sister Mary, and the youngest, Sibyl (Jessica Brown Findlay) who gets caught up in the woman's suffrage movement. There is a lot of humor between Smith, as the representative of the fading era, and Wilton, who only wants to do good. But even Smith's character has a heart, as evidenced by an episode when she allows a townsman to win the best flower contest. She's delightful television--a character that is all bark with no bite.

Also a delightful presence is Elizabeth McGovern, as Crawley's American wife. They married for financial reasons (she brought with her a fortune from New York) but settled into a comfortable love affair. McGovern is an actress I've admired (and crushed on) since she was in Ordinary People over thirty years ago. I once got her autograph waiting by the stage door after a play and was astounded to find Sean Penn with her (they were dating at the time), and I ended up talking to Sean Penn rather than her (in retrospect, I'm lucky he didn't punch me). Since her Oscar-nominated turn in Ragtime, her career has been kind of ragged, and I'm glad to see that in her fifties she's achieving some late but well-deserved acclaim.

This season of Downton Abbey ends with the announcement, in 1914, that England has declared war on Germany. I'm eager to see what happens next.