Downton Abbey

[Arizona_Mike]

Catholics who enjoy “Downton Abbey” may also enjoy the BBC mini-series adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” (NOT the awful 2008 film adaptation - most libraries and Netflix have the original series with Jeremy Irons.) It also explores an English aristocratic family (albeit Catholic) over decades. There are some very adult themes - there is an early infatuation by the (non-believer) key character with his self-destructive male friend, which begins a fascination with his Catholic family, which is falling apart under the changes of the new century, which deepens into a love for his friend’s sister (whose marriage is prevented by canon law), which eventually develops into a search for grace through the Church. It is very tragic at times, and very moving (especially the ending) and often very funny. It’s hard to watch the denouement and the final epilog and not tear up a little.

 

[Sarabande]

Catholics who enjoy “Downton Abbey” may also enjoy the BBC mini-series adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” (NOT the awful 2008 film adaptation - most libraries and Netflix have the original series with Jeremy Irons.) It also explores an English aristocratic family (albeit Catholic) over decades. There are some very adult themes - there is an early infatuation by the (non-believer) key character with his self-destructive male friend, which begins a fascination with his Catholic family, which is falling apart under the changes of the new century, which deepens into a love for his friend’s sister (whose marriage is prevented by canon law), which eventually develops into a search for grace through the Church. It is very tragic at times, and very moving (especially the ending) and often very funny. It’s hard to watch the denouement and the final epilog and not tear up a little.

Yes!!! That is a great recommendation. I loved the novel even more so than the series… and I really enjoyed the series as well. The 2008 movie adaptation, like you said, was awful.

 

[Havard]

Good thing I saw your post about the 2008 Brideshead Revisited. I recorded it on my DVR and was thinking about watching it, but I’ll check out the Jeremy Irons one instead.

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Good thing I saw your post about the 2008 Brideshead Revisited. I recorded it on my DVR and was thinking about watching it, but I’ll check out the Jeremy Irons one instead.

Definitely. The movie is very anti-Catholic in tone, which the miniseries is not.

 

[Elizium23]

Okay folks, spoilers for those who haven’t seen it this week!

Lady Edith and Rosamund go to a seedy residential “clinic” seeking an abortion, but Edith chickens out and wants to keep the baby.

Poor Edith. Poor, poor Edith. She is in a perfect storm of bad circumstances and lousy choices made. I have the greatest sympathy for her because I know what it is like to lead a life where nothing ever seems to go right. She grasps at every chance she seems to get and things just slip through her fingers. I don’t blame her for considering abortion and I’m glad that she chose life, even if it was just kind of a squeamishness against the horrible conditions in that place.

 

[3DOCTORS]

Okay folks, spoilers for those who haven’t seen it this week!

Lady Edith and Rosamund go to a seedy residential “clinic” seeking an abortion, but Edith chickens out and wants to keep the baby.

Poor Edith. Poor, poor Edith. She is in a perfect storm of bad circumstances and lousy choices made. I have the greatest sympathy for her because I know what it is like to lead a life where nothing ever seems to go right. She grasps at every chance she seems to get and things just slip through her fingers. I don’t blame her for considering abortion and I’m glad that she chose life, even if it was just kind of a squeamishness against the horrible conditions in that place.

Yes, I was thinking - oh, please don’t let her go through with it, and I kind of had a feeling she wouldn’t, but the suspense went right down to the wire. My take on it was that hearing the other woman weeping was what changed Edith’s mind.

Remember in Season One when Robert and Cora have that “We never seem to talk about poor old Edith” conversation? I think Edith suffers from “middle child syndrome” - and perhaps given the situation about there being no male heir as well, she feels kind of overlooked. And while everyone is so focused on trying to help Mary succeed and marry well and all of that, and potential suitors are more attracted to the prestige that marrying Mary might bring them (for not all motives are purely based on romantic love!) Edith gets the “B-list” men, or worse. She needs to learn not to pursue unavailable (i.e. married) men for sure, and no more Sir Anthony Strallans.

I used to fear “spinsterhood” (with good reason I suppose, seeing as how it found me anyway, LOL ) but imagine living in the time period of Downton Abbey (which now spans a decade from 1912 into the 1920s so Edith has to be pushing 30 . . . how much more of a stigma it would have held as the years flew by. But I’m glad I didn’t “settle,” and hopefully at some point Edith may get her chance for a solid, happy marriage. It’s something how we fans care about these characters!

 

[Sarabande]

Yes, I was thinking - oh, please don’t let her go through with it, and I kind of had a feeling she wouldn’t, but the suspense went right down to the wire. **My take on it was that hearing the other woman weeping was what changed Edith’s mind.
**
Remember in Season One when Robert and Cora have that “We never seem to talk about poor old Edith” conversation? I think Edith suffers from “middle child syndrome” - and perhaps given the situation about there being no male heir as well, she feels kind of overlooked. And while everyone is so focused on trying to help Mary succeed and marry well and all of that, and potential suitors are more attracted to the prestige that marrying Mary might bring them (for not all motives are purely based on romantic love!) Edith gets the “B-list” men, or worse. She needs to learn not to pursue unavailable (i.e. married) men for sure, and no more Sir Anthony Strallans.

I used to fear “spinsterhood” (with good reason I suppose, seeing as how it found me anyway, LOL ) but imagine living in the time period of Downton Abbey (which now spans a decade from 1912 into the 1920s so Edith has to be pushing 30 . . . how much more of a stigma it would have held as the years flew by. But I’m glad I didn’t “settle,” and hopefully at some point Edith may get her chance for a solid, happy marriage. It’s something how we fans care about these characters!

Yes, that’s what I thought, too, in regards to her reason for not having the abortion. What I liked about this episode was that she used the words “killing” her “wanted child”. It might have been Fellowes’ Catholicism coming out there. I really feel for Edith now. For a while, I thought she was coming into her own by becoming a columnist and finding her legs. She was even looking so much more confident and together. (They did a lot to make her be the “plain-looking” sister out of the three.) But then she got herself hooked up with Michael Greggson, who might be a nice guy, but he is unavailable. She has this stigma of becoming a spinster. On top of that if she doesn’t marry soon, she will also become a hidden-away woman. The child will be considered a bastard and stigmatised and probably not loved equally to those children born within wedlock. I understand the fears that must have been going through her head which drove her to go to the abortion doctor. I was so relieved when she didn’t do it.

One of my friends reminded me of how Edith called Mary a slut after her one-night stand with the Turkish diplomat who ended up having a heart attack and dying during the act. And now, here she was in her own predicament with the potential of also being viewed as a slut by everyone around and her child a bastard. BTW - The story of the diplomat dying like this was based on real life: telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/downton-abbey/8819485/Downton-Abbeys-Turkish-diplomat-sex-scandal-is-not-fiction.html

 

[3DOCTORS]

One of my friends reminded me of how Edith called Mary a slut after her one-night stand with the Turkish diplomat who ended up having a heart attack and dying during the act. And now, here she was in her own predicament with the potential of also being viewed as a slut by everyone around and her child a bastard. BTW - The story of the diplomat dying like this was based on real life: telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/downton-abbey/8819485/Downton-Abbeys-Turkish-diplomat-sex-scandal-is-not-fiction.html

Sadly, yes, Edith may be realizing that she has more in common with her sister than she would have liked to think. That and the postwar Jazz Age morality might make her have different views - after all she did declare to Gregson that she would live in sin with him. Hopefully she’ll rethink her life. I won’t do spoilers but there’s an Episode 7 preview that hints at her plans for the baby.