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Badger

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Posts posted by Badger

    Mary and Edith, Edith and Mary

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    Mr. Swire knew about the fact that Matthew was in love with Mary and not Lavinia because Lavinia told him.  He says that in the letter or at least he says he knows what transpired between them.    That's why he tells him not to worry that he is putting him  in the will under false pretenses.

     

    The thing is, I don't think Lavinia realized she was going to die that day.  All indications were that she was going to make a full recovery and the letter was probably meant to tell her father that she was going to call off the engagement but that she bore no ill will towards Matthew and that she thought it was for the best.

     

    I think for Mary it was all about loyalty to the family.  The family is in trouble, you have the means to make the trouble go away, so why aren't you helping?

     

    I disagree that Matthew was the better person.  When he first came, he was an elitist snob who treated the servants or at least Molesley with contempt.  But he came around and although I imagine if he had lived he would have really streamlined the staff, he no longer thought of them as stupid and useless.  In some ways, he was like Sarah Bunting but unlike her, he was able to see past his initial prejudices.

     

    Robert's biggest fault is that he is way overprotective of the women in his family and even in some ways of the women in his employ.  Remember after the Pamuk incident he told Carson to make sure the footmen (especially Thomas) didn't get too indelicate (paraphrasing) because it might bother the female staff.  But as Branson said, he was a very good employer and cared very much for the people who worked for him either in service or as tenant farmers.  After all, he did pay off Farmer Drew's debt.  

      

    The Awards Thread: The Trophy Room

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    I disagree that last season was the worst.  I thought it was a very good season although I was disappointed my favorite character (Thomas) had no real storyline and I thought most of the epiodes were rather meh.  Oddly enough, as a whole, it all worked for me though.  It was never going to win an Emmy though because right now it's not the kind of show the Emmys tends to award.  

     

    In order to be nominated for an Emmy, either your show or you have to put yourself up for a potential nomination.  I'm not sure that Phyllis Logan ever had that happen for her.  

    The Cast In Other Roles: Beyond Their Stations

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    I haven't actually watched it yet but I DVR'ed "Breathless" which is being shown as part of "Masterpiece Mystery" and Zoe Boyle who played Lavinia Swire is in it.  Also Catherine Steadman who will be on "Downton Abbey" this season.

     

    Both Hugh Bonneville and Penelope Wilton were in "Iris."  Hugh played Jim Broadbent's character as a young man and Penelope Wilton was a reporter.

    The Cast In Other Roles: Beyond Their Stations

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    · Edited by Badger

    Edna is in the ITV docudrama about World War I: The Great War: The People's Story. She plays Dorothy Lawrence who disguised herself as a man because she wanted to be a war correspondent and she thought if she was at the front lines as a soldier she would get stories.  

     

    Both Mr. Molesley and Mr. Spratt (The Dowager's butler) are in the BBC series "The Crimson Field."  I think it's scheduled to play in the US, but I'm not sure when or what network although it will probably be either PBS or BBCAmerica.  

    Mary and Edith, Edith and Mary

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    I think Edith sabotaged her chances with Sir Anthony just as much as anyone else.  I'm not sure if this scene aired in the UK, but she tells him not long before the wedding that she wants to make taking care of him "her life's work."  

     

    Now remember before that, she always acted as if his injury didn't matter to her although obviously it bothered him and it bothered the Crawleys.  

     

    It's like as soon as he realized that Edith expected to spend their marriage being his nurse, he couldn't go through with it.

    • Love 1

    Downton Abbey in the Media

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    What if they had ended the Series 3 Christmas special with Mary and Matthew and their son together at the hospital?  Then in the Series 4 opener, maybe they could have had say Anna make references to how Matthew had been killed in a car crash literally just hours after the birth of their baby.

     

    Like maybe Bates would ask her how Mary was doing and then she could say, "Not very well,  But can you blame her with her husband dead in a car crash on his way home after Master George's birth?"

     

    Or maybe Robert and Cora could have that conversation.

    John Bates: Martyr

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    There really isn't anything "21st century" about Carson and his attitude towards Thomas's sexuality.  The idea that people could be born with all sorts of traits -negative and positive - was not unknown at the time 

     

    I thought the attitude of Bates had to do with what I call "the British sense of fair play."   Bates did not like Thomas but the idea that he could lose his job and not get a reference for something he couldn't help probably struck him as unfair.  Remember by the standards of the day,Jimmy was being "a big girl's blouse" about it.  Also, everything that was done was about Thomas leaving with a good reference so he could get a job somewhere else.  If he had known that Thomas would end up staying and getting a promotion, he may not have worked as hard in helping him.

    • Love 1

    Season 5 Speculation WITHOUT Spoilers (US)

    in Downton Abbey [V]

    My take on the Mr. Green mystery is that Bates is going to learn that he died and realizes that to some people, he's a suspect.  So he's going to try to figure out what happened.  I think Anna will initially believe he killed Green but will ultimately end up trying to help Bates.  

    • Love 1

    Shows That: Died Before Their Time, Never Got A Fair Shot, Or Were Ahead Of Their Time

    in Everything Else TV

    Does anyone remember "Outsourced?"  It was on NBC around 2010-2011 for one season.  It was about a young American man who is a manager for a call center for an American novelties company who discovers the call center has been outsourced to Mumbai, India so he has to move there if he wants to keep his job.

     

    The show had an incredibly likable cast but it got a lot of criticism for being about outsourcing and also for supposedly being un-PC.  

    • Love 3

    Movie Musicals

    in Everything Else Movies

    FTR, it's Betty Hutton, not Betty Grable, who starred in "Annie Get Your Gun" with Howard Keel.

     

    It's very politically incorrect now, but one of my favorite musicals is "Flower Drum Song."  It has one of the most beautiful and haunting songs ever about unrequited love: "Love, Look Away."

     

     

    • Love 1

    TCM: The Greatest Movie Channel

    in Movies

    The very first movie I ever saw Brando in (and it was actually his movie debut) was "The Men" which was about paraplegic Korean War veterans.  Jack Webb was also in it.  It was about their rehabilitation in the hospital and Brando's relationship with his family and girlfriend.  

    Drop Dead Diva - General Discussion

    in Drop Dead Diva

    But that's the thing about being soulmates; it's not about physical types.  If someone is your soulmate, you're going to find each other whether or not that person is your physical ideal or not.  All the women Grayson dated after Deb died were thin and pretty like her, but none of them were his soulmate so the relationships never lasted.  

     

    I thought the ending was very sweet.  The show started off with Deb and Grayson together and it ended up with Deb and Grayson together only this time they were Jane and Ian.

    • Love 2
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