Downton Abbey

I'll admit it - I'm a glutton for a good period piece. So when I saw that Felicia Day had mentioned Downton Abbey, I knew that I had to take a peek. Luckily enough, the entire 1st season was on Netflix, and I happily devoured it over a period of a few days. The TV show features the residents of Downton Abbey - both the Earl and his family, and the servants as well. In this, I was quite intrigued, for it seems like much of the time, it's the upper-class members of society that are featured in such productions. The seven episodes of season 1 encompass over 2 years of time between April 1912 and August 1914 - specifically, it begins with the sinking of the Titanic, and ends with the beginning of World War I. This prevents the show from dwelling too much on minor details, but the writers are careful to ensure that we don't feel like we missed to much in between episodes either.

It starts out in a very Pride and Prejudice sort of manner. The Earl of Gratham, Robert Crawley, has three daughters, and because of inheritance laws, none of them are able to inherit Downton. In the first episode, his heir (who was to marry the eldest of his daughters) dies tragically on the Titanic, throwing life at Downton into turmoil. Admissably, I was initially disappointed, figuring that this plot has been done time and time again. But by the conclusion of the first episode, I was already pleased with how they were handling something that could have easily become cliche. A large part of this was the acting - all of the characters from the great Earl to the mere kitchen maid were quite realistically portrayed.

As mentioned, the servants lives are just as integral to the plotline of the show as their employers are. It's fascinating seeing the differences between the two worlds, which is often starkly evident through the use of clever camera shots and editing. We see the footmen walking through the lavish family sections of the Abbey, down into the servant's quarters, which are stark and cold. We see cuts between the Earl's family having a lavish, multi-course dinner and the servants eating a simple bowl of soup.

That's not to say that you are meant to feel bad for the servants, or to feel that the aristocracy puts the Crawleys unfairly ahead. Both the Crawley family and the servants feature some characters that are worthy of empathy, and others who are more deserving of scorn. Some of the servants are proud to work for such a nice house, and to not be laboring in a factory or a farm, while others resent the cards that they've drawn in life.

The Crawley girls are dynamic characters in that I found myself split between feeling bad for them, and feeling like they'd gotten what they'd deserved. They interact in a fashion that is typical of a real family - they bicker, they disagree, and occasionally they do something to ruin one another's lives. They are complex characters in a fast changing world, who - despite their parent's best attempts to protect them - seem to have no difficulty getting themselves into bad situations.

While the movings of a rapidly evolving world impact the Crawley girls, it is their grandmother the Dowager Countess who primarily demonstrates both these evolutions, and the differences between high society and the common man. She is fearful of the electric lights that are in Downton Abbey, especially because they are in the kitchens, and she worries what it might do to her food. And when in the presence of the working class Matthew Crawley, she is confused by his use of the term "weekend" - as people who have never needed to have a job don't grasp the concept of days off.

The only major complaint that I have was that while the costumes and sets are amazing, the camera work is kind of annoying. I'm not a particularly big fan of the use of soft focus... especially not in every single shot of a series. I also think it would be nice to have a few more episodes in a season, as the 7 from season 1 left me wanting more. Hopefully, the next season will deliver.

After great success in both the UK and Australia, they have begun to film the second season, which will take place during World War I in England, and should feature the characters going through dramatic changes as a result.