If Violet had invited Bunting to dinner, I would have suspected her of forming a wedge between Tom and Bunting. Sometimes when you don’t approve of a relationship, the best thing to do is bring them into the family setting.
My little cousin invited invited a g/f to a holiday dinner. She dressed up, in a long sleeved dress. The only hitch–it was totally see through. I think he was so embarrassed. Anyway, I never saw her again.
“Am I the only person around who likes Sarah Bunting? I am married to someone like that. I don’t think she’s much ruder than the Crawleys are to her.”
No, I like her character. Can you imagine how dull the series would be without someone confrontational?
In the first couple seasons, I was offended when I heard DA referred to as a “soap opera,” because I considered it a “period drama with great characters and witty dialogue.” But this season I’m kinda thinking - hey, this is a soap opera. :-S I’m still hopeful for improvement though…
It went beyond soap opera when Matthew dramatically came out of his wheelchair to rescue Lavinia!
I like Sarah Bunting, somewhat, and I think she may be what Isobel was like when she was younger and less mellow. Remember Matthew and Isobel and how they were appalled by LG’s family at first. When Matthew was talking about the weekend and Violet asked, “what is that?”.
About the only thing I don’t like about this season is the typical snarky crap from Britain: oh, we aren’t excited about THAT anymore. I read one piece that said it was too much like an American soap opera. Two words: Coronation Street.
No on Edith moving on!!! She’s got to get it together and confess and get her dd back! How can she even function? I know, I know, it just wasn’t done back then, but dang. It’s too sad. You have to admit the actress is doing a great job looking sincerely distressed.
She is annoying but I also feel bad for her. She wasn’t the “looker” like Mary or the sweet one like Sibyl. She was the introverted, plain Jane middle child who was just finally striking out and trying to do something for herself when it all came crashing down.
Yeah, but week after week after week after week . . . Get a grip, woman!
Very difficult situation to get a grip. Can you imagine?
But maybe bad TV!
Somebody speculated earlier that Gillingham may have a title but no money. That came out last year, when Mary and he were discussing how to pay estate taxes. Tony ended up selling the family house and property to pay the taxes. He many have a house in London, but doesn’t have wealth like the Crawleys.
It also came out that Blake plays the populist, but is actually an extremely rich and titled.
Yep - Gillingham needs Mary more than she needs him
Post #3035 NYT recap: in the article, the author believes the ‘thingy’ is a cervical cap, not a diaphragm.
I really fear that DA is perilously close to shark-jumping. It’s getting so hard to buy in to the increasingly bizarre story line concerning the death of valet Mr. Greene. There’s simply no way the police would be devoting an insane level of resources to trying to prove that his death was a murder when the witnesses present seem to all think it was an accident. Even if he had been of noble birth, someone very powerful would have to be pushing to investigate at this level and it’s more likely that they would be paying private investigators instead of getting the police to put a plainclothes officer outside Gillingham’s home. I just don’t think it’s believable.
Of course, I don’t think it’s believable that anyone could find anything likeable about that odious Bunting woman so I guess Julian Fellowes does know some of his audience, at least.
I think Grantham’s reaction to Sarah Bunting is more unrealistic and anachronistic than her behavior is. I think someone in his position, with his personality, would pay absolutely no regard to anything she said. He would have treated her like a potted plant blathering on – an invisible pitted plant. The fact that he responds to her insults actually makes him a more likeable, sympathetic character than I think his real-life counterparts would have been. I also think the degree to which Tom fits in is highly unrealistic.
In a similar vein, I have a friend who was upset by the casual revelation that Cora’s father is Jewish. Due to virulent anti-Semitism in the British upper class at the time, this would have been kept a big secret (if it could even have been true).
Oh well, I’m still sucked in!
Imagine the auditions for the role of Edith…"can you suck all happiness from a room as you enter? "
'Imagine the auditions for the role of Edith…"can you suck all happiness from a room as you enter? " ’
Interestingly, the role of Edith is Laura Carmichael’s first professional acting gig. She hit the jackpot on the first try.
Soap Opera: I agree that Matthew’s miraculous recovery of the use of his legs was pretty soapy, but the topper was the supposedly dead heir coming back as a wounded Canadian soldier with amnesia. Amnesia is a soap opera trope of the highest order. Total amnesia like that is extremely rare in real life but happens left and right on soaps. But I think even Fellowes himself realized he was attempting to jump a shark too far with that one and wisely let that character fade away.
Jewish Cora: back several seasons when it was first revealed that Cora’s maiden name was Levinson, there was much discussion of the feasibility of a jewish person actually achieving Cora’s social position in Britain. The show let it out that she was Jewish on her father’s side but had been baptised and raised Christian by her mother. This provided her with enough cover, to go along with her money, for her to be accepted into the highest levels of British society, much as Benjamin Disraeli was in Victorian times…
Thank you! I’ve been thinking the same thing.
As for Edith…I’m sick of her but do feel sorry for her. She was raised to marry someone wealthy. That’s pretty much it. Yes, better to be rich with no options than poor with no options, but still a bleak life.
So is someone invested in finding the muderer to use it against the accused?
Didn’t we know her maiden name was Levinson already, though?