<p>I guess I am glad that I got to watch the show on the British schedule and didn’t hear what anybody else had to say about it until I got to form my own opinions. I still really like the show, and though I didn’t love the first episode of this season I did like the season. I guess I am in the minority! I have to wonder why you spend 2 hours watching it if you don’t like it… that is a lot of time to invest!</p>
<p>I was riveted by the end of this season and am eagerly awaiting the next. I thought I heard it wouldn’t air in the UK until September which seems a terribly long time to wait.</p>
<p>Came across this while I was trying to figure that out: [Downton</a> Abbey Ending After Season 5? Not So Fast Says Executive Producer | E! Online](<a href=“Is Downton Ending Soon!? - E! Online”>Is Downton Ending Soon!? - E! Online) Might want to quit now if those two hours are already not worth it for you.</p>
<p>““We have to balance between continuing to make it for audiences around the world that adore it and making sure that we don’t take it too far … which is not now and not next year, but likely five years or six years, not 10 years,” he said.”</p>
<p>That said, perhaps I just have poor taste. I am still deciding whether or not to bother with next season’s Mad Men because last season bored me to tears.</p>
<p>Didn’t like the assault on Anna plot line either. There may be good story threads to develop but it looks like just more soap. For example, if the writers were going to make Bates initially suspicious of the cad, they why not have Anna tell Bates the truth? And how could Mrs. Hughes make such a promise (silence) to Anna, knowing that women in other manors might be in danger from this predator? Getting back to Mr. Bates, we all suspected he had a rough side (remember when he threatened his adversary in prison?). Having him confront Anna’s attacker could have revealed more about the Bates character.</p>
First, the guy was leaving the next day.
Second, even today it’s not unusual for women who are raped to refuse to tell anyone, or if they do, to swear the other to secrecy. How much more back then? And how much would the other staff talk about how Anna “led him on” by flirting with him? Rape was (and still is) often considered the woman’s fault.
Third, Mrs. Hughes promised under duress - she still had to help Anna. Something tells me that this is a promise she won’t be able to keep.</p>
Not me.
To not lose audience, I think they need to bring on a team of writers instead of relying on one Julian Fellowes. The man has his limits and it shows.</p>
<p>That was my thought as well. Even now, today, people don’t believe a woman when she says she was raped, and even if they do believe her, they now think of her as inferior damaged goods. Anna would feel ashamed and dirty, just like rape victims do today. She wouldn’t want anyone to know she had been raped, just like rape victims today. I know that some women reading the words I’m typing were raped, and some of them didn’t tell anyone.</p>
<p>Also, consider the storyline. Anna says she doesn’t want Bates to know because he’d kill the rapist. Can we doubt that?</p>
<p>NOW people are complaining about the soap? I’ve never seen DA as anything other than a beautifully tricked out soap opera. Good grief, the whole story got kicked off with the loss of someone on the Titanic! To say nothing of Pamuk’s poorly timed death, Matthew’s magical recovery from paralysis and Lavinia’s convenient demise. It’s always been soap–a well acted, beautifully filmed, stunningly costumed bubble bath of a show.</p>
<p>I agree, CF. Although I do not particularly like this story line (poor Anna!), I found her behavior - and that of Mrs. Hughes - completely believable. </p>
<p>It was obvious, before the attack, that Anna enjoyed the company of Mr. Green - remember all the laughter and playfulness during the card game? It looked to me like a harmless flirtation, until he showed his true colors. If I were Anna and if I lived in this time period, I would feel ashamed, humiliated, and dirty, and I would certainly not tell anyone, least of all the husband who had gently tried to dissuade me from goofing around with Mr. Green AND who had a prison record. </p>
<p>Add on to that she’s a lady’s maid in the early 1900s - what would happen to her if word of this scandal broke out? What kind of reputation would she have? What would her job prospects be (if she needed a job in the future)? Poor Anna.</p>
<p>Re Mary and what’s his name: her head is bigger than his (actual size) and that looks odd to me. OTOH, he is developing a relationship with her through a helpful friendship, which is good. Another thing: was she wearing the same mauve dress when she was first talking to what’s his name, climbing the stairs, as she wore last episode when she joined the luncheon meeting?</p>
<p>Sure, it’s always had soap opera moments (Pamuk, obv.) but it balanced that with actual character driven story.</p>
<p>Now it’s just one crisis or odd-decision by character, after another. No sense of developed characters. They verged on three dimensional in the past. The rape story is of course not unrealistic in itself, but the set-up was too pat, and the need for it was plainly to spike a melodramatic note, not because story needed it. And don’t get me started with how the show has eviscerated Tom’s character. he had a weight and a sense of purpose before; now he’s a befuddled fool. The only real moments he has are with the Dowager, and they’re belied by the rest of the scenes. That’s a worse writing crime for me.</p>
<p>Maybe that’s the Fellowes idea of “character development” - take a character with weight and develop it into a befuddled fool. At least you can’t say the character has been static.</p>
<p>IMO the shark got jumped a long time ago when the amnesiac, war-wounded, and neo-Canadian “Patrick” turned up. If that character was a fraudster trying swindle the Crawleys then it is merely a lousy, go-nowhere plot line. If that character is actually supposed to be the real Patrick, now done out of his rightful fortune by circumstance, then they have achieved total soap-hood. There is no plot device soapier than amnesia.</p>
<p>I did start watching Downton for the period drama aspect. Real life happens off screen and a major crisis is a misplaced dress shirt.
I dont follow the reasoning that depicting rape is necessary to hold onto viewers.
That seems to follow the line of thought that violence against women isnt real violence and isnt any weightier than having to wear black tie to dinner.</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that they will use it as an arc over several episodes, that wasn’t the point I was making.
My thought was that the writing punishes the female characters as a plot device.
Lady Sibyl, died after marrying below her station.
Anna was raped after being polite to a visiting valet.
Edith was dumped at the altar after choosing a husband her father didn’t approve of.
Cora lost the male heir she was carrying after trying to undo a complicated legal arrangement that would effectively disinherit her daughters.</p>
<p>Why not use storylines that empower women ?( since they are presumably who is watching)</p>