Two Days to Downton...And Miles to Go for PBS

[DeepRunner]

Being from the US,  I have to say that, in the days of Interweb spoilers, it is time for PBS to just move Downton to the fall lineup. I know that I will watch it when it comes to The States in January, even as a I track its progress from September on. But it's silly for PBS to insist that it run on this side of the pond four months after it starts its run "Over There." (Slight nod to Fringe with that ending)

 

Thoughts, anyone?

[ZoloftBlob]

I agree although I assume its some sort of contractual thing.

[helenamonster]

Fellowes has actually stated that he wished PBS would simulcast DA. He hates how in the age of the internet, Americans are pretty much guaranteed to be spoiled. PBS, meanwhile, asserts that the buzz generated over the internet about each series helps with high viewership of the program at the time it airs. I suspect it probably also has something to do with not wanting to compete with the other shows on the American fall line-up, not to mention Sunday Night Football.

 

I've actually already started unfollowing Downton-related social media and am thinking about totally blacklisting it until January, if that's even possible. I see that we'll be following the UK schedule for spoilers and such here, so I'll be avoiding this forum for the next four months as well. I prefer to watch the series unspoiled when it airs in January. Part of me is tempted to stream it from ITV, but I've said before that Downton is something I share with my mom. We text after each episode (I'm away at school except for the weekend of the US premiere) and I'd hate to know everything before she does, because it ruins the fun of watching it "with" her. She's not tech-savvy enough to find a stream, and I'm not there to help her. 

Edited September 19, 2014 by helenamonster

[ZulaMay]

I might be able to help you with that helena.  

[DeepRunner]

Fellowes has actually stated that he wished PBS would simulcast DA. He hates how in the age of the internet, Americans are pretty much guaranteed to be spoiled. PBS, meanwhile, asserts that the buzz generated over the internet about each series helps with high viewership of the program at the time it airs. I suspect it probably also has something to do with not wanting to compete with the other shows on the American fall line-up, not to mention Sunday Night Football.

 

 

Hmmm...re: putting DA up against Sunday Night Football, doesn't Downton run on the same night as the Super Bowl? Are the audiences the same for each? I am not saying they are necessarily mutually exclusive (certainly not in my case...I like both), but I would guess the folks who watch Downton would not always watch the NFL. And I don't imagine folks who watch the NFL would always pop the top off a cold beer for the latest in Downtonia.

 

Winter is a bit of a dead zone in American TV, and PBS obviously wants to extend the shelf life of its biggest and most successful franchise. But it is good that Fellowes has stood up to the #silliness that is PBS.

[helenamonster]

I mean, there are few things in the world I care less about than football, and I doubt a Venn diagram of Downton fans and football fans would show much overlap, but still. Football is kind of a communal experience. Like, I don't care about the games themselves, but I like going over to people's houses to eat and hang out around the big screen. I could see PBS maybe being hesitant of wanting to compete against that every week, on top of the regular fall line-up on other networks (though I'm not sure what's on Sunday nights on ABC, CBS, NBC, or Fox, or if any of that is even remotely threatening to Downton ratings). They do have an episode that airs on the same day as the Super Bowl. Last season, Downton came in second in the ratings behind the Super Bowl that night. I mean, the margin was ginormous but that's still pretty impressive.

 

So idk what the problem is, really. Yes, immediately after the holidays is an ideal time to air Downton, because there really isn't much else on. And I do kind of like the time that it airs. I absolutely hate January and February, what with the coming down from the holiday high and polar vortexes and all that, and there's a sort of comfort to getting nice and snug for an episode of Downton that I don't think I'd feel in September and October. But the way the world is so connected now, I still don't see the sense of putting it off, especially when Fellowes (and the other producers, I'm assuming) would be more than happy to negotiate a simulcast.

[ZulaMay]

The Super Bowl is what a lot of TV shows used to be:  a national event.  There was a time when everyone was watching the same show at the same time every week, or every year.  Now the whole market is fragmented but you still have a lot of households tuning in for Super Bowl Sunday just cuz.  I have two football fans in my house  (more on Super Bowl Sunday) so that's what on the agenda.  It's just one of those things.

 

But yes, PBS is right that its ratings are safer in January than in the autumn when a lot of shows air.   Sunday nights in particular are crowded.  I've got Boardwalk Empire and Homeland on my schedule, and one of those is going to be watched live while Downton is recorded. In January?  There's nothing else really.  Although I watch during the UK season anyway and I don't tend to rewatch on PBS.  If there's an episode or part I really like I just buy that particular one on iTunes.

[ZoloftBlob]

Well, to be honest, I love Downton but I also first watched Downton by marathoning season one thru four. I don't have fancy cable or whatever to get the British showing and to be honest.... its not really must see tv for me. If the opportunity presents itself to see it sooner than January, I will take it but.....I watched season one after reading an article on msnbc how shocking it was that Sybil and Matthew bought it so spoilers ain't no thang.

[ZulaMay]

It's sort of must see TV for me only because I want to see certain characters finally get some GD happiness.  The show has been brutal on Tom and Edith, two of my favorites, and I need some closure I guess with regard to them.  I think it will be a long time coming though.  If the show goes six seasons probably at the very end of S6 Edith will get some measure of happiness finally and Tom will probably be remarried (to someone nice).  

 

But if I think that won't happen I probably will drop it.  Or if they decide to prolong it further, which means three more years of suffering and I am just not up for that.  I'm already weary of it.  The rest of the show is mostly just variations on a theme at this point:  the same plots with a twist here or there and snarky comments by the DC and Mary.  I'm way over that by now.

Edited September 20, 2014 by ZulaMay

[ZoloftBlob]

I tend to view this season as giving it a chance. If Fellowes is really that weirded out by losing lead characters, then I will forgive season four being dull and mostly a redo because well, everybody gets one. But if we get to the end of season five and Mary is still choosing from her harem while Bates still is or isn't a murderer and everyone else is just circling around as Edith cries.... then I might be ready to return to my dvds of Survivors.

[ZulaMay]

I'll watch it and I suspect I'll enjoy some parts as I always do.  But at this point there is only so much that can be done.  They are clearly amping up the pace and drama and surprises/twists, which will help keep me engaged.  But it's also clear that we will be seeing the same things we've been seeing season after season:  love triangles, everything going wrong for Edith, Mary being as much of a bitch to her as ever (the show has said so), Carson freaking out over changing times, some new-fangled gadget causing a stir, etc.

 

And that "shaking of the ground beneath their feet" that is the new Labour government?  That will register as a tremor for an episode or two, then the issue of social and political progress will get translated into more modern (i.e. more profitable) estate management.  Robert embracing it will be portrayed as him embracing change.  But it's just not the same thing, especially when their goal in "embracing change" is to maintain the status quo (their ownership of the estate).

 

I think it will be more enjoyable than S4 but mainly because of flash rather than substance.  More lavish set pieces and twists and turns, etc., more zingers, more tear-jerking moments.  But the formula won't change.  The biggest improvement I hope for over S4 is some romance for Tom and maybe SOMETHING finally going Edith's way instead of the opposite.

[helenamonster]

While I found S4 to be rather lackluster overall, I too am willing to forgive Fellowes for it because the show needed a lot of reworking. I know it was never one of those shows with a rigid endgame, but suddenly no longer having Matthew, Sybil, and O'Brien to play around with definitely threw a wrench into things writing-wise, and I can understand that. For me, S4 was very transitional, and while a lot of people might hate than an entire season was used to slowly move characters from one place in order to put them in another for the following season, it doesn't bother me too much. Some plots should have been wrapped up (Anna/Bates/Green for sure, and we should at least have had some inkling of what the deal is with Baxter), but others made sense to leave hanging. Mary and Tom both lost their spouses in S3, so it makes sense that S4 was about finding their way again. And Edith's daughter will most likely be a huge anchor for S5, and I'm okay with that. Edith floundered around in the background for so long, and it really wasn't until Sybil died that room was made for her to carry a nice big story (Sybil was a favorite and I miss her, but I won't pretend to be upset that Edith is getting more story time as a result).

 

I'm really not that difficult of a person to please, and I'm looking forward to most of what will probably happen in S5. I care about what happens to Anna, and even though Bates really tested me during S4, he's a part of her story, so I'm anxious to see how that all plays out. As I already said, Edith's story has major possibilities (most of which will end in tears, but thems the breaks). And even though it didn't gather much momentum last season, I'm still interested in Baxter and how she and Thomas (and Cora, possibly, idk why but I have a feeling she'll be on the outskirts of this) will play into what I hope is the conclusion of the rape story. The only thing that I will for certain roll my eyes at and pray to God for it to be over is Mary and her suitors. I'll never fully warm to Mary, but she's a much more interesting character when she's in business mode, as opposed to being the object of affection for Dull and Duller. I'm hoping she just picks one of them quickly (I really do not care which one) and gets back to focusing on the estate. There's obviously a whole bunch of characters I didn't mention, but I like most of them and still care what happens to them, even if it's not the most riveting thing on television.

[ZulaMay]

LOL, "Dull and Duller."

 

The thing about transition seasons is, to me both S3 and S4 felt like transition seasons.  JF knew Sybil was going to die so he used her storyline to set up Tom to stay at Downton after she was gone:  first she tries to get everyone to accept him, everyone but Robert and Violet (basically ) do, he has to leave Ireland (which was a complete BS storyline that made zero sense historically), he is widowed with a baby and ends up being the Estate Agent, of all things.  It was a transition season for him to become more of a main character (Sybil herself got no story at all) and then S4 was ANOTHER transition season for him.

 

M/M was kind of a transition in that Matthew had to "save the estate" and produce a boy before he died.  And constantly tell Mary how wonderful she was so she'd have that to miss after he was gone.  Mary was kind of along for the ride with his story and Sybil/Tom's but didn't have much of her own aside from prodding him to get the estate in order (and take the money) and trying to get pregnant.

 

I felt that S3 was transitioning to get ready for a show with neither Matthew nor Sybil in it.  Banna had their own story, but it was really boring IMO.  Edith had a story which was good.  So did Thomas.  But there was a LOT of transition happening with main characters, and as a result one of them (Tom) ended up in a completely different place from where he (and Sybil) were headed at the end of S2.  And then after that?  He spent all of S4 floundering.

[Tetraneutron]

 

Hmmm...re: putting DA up against Sunday Night Football, doesn't Downton run on the same night as the Super Bowl? Are the audiences the same for each? I am not saying they are necessarily mutually exclusive (certainly not in my case...I like both), but I would guess the folks who watch Downton would not always watch the NFL.

I'm not sure that matters much. Yes, people who are fans of both will watch football, because you need to watch games live, but doesn't PBS rerun all their shows all the time anyway? If you miss the initial broadcast you can catch the encore a few days later. They can stop airing their millionth rerun of "Last of the Summer Wine". Besides, there are always going to be shows that air opposite, even in the dead zones of January and February - especially since the latter is sweeps. I bet The Good Wife cuts into Downton's audience, but that doesn't matter. 

Edited September 21, 2014 by Obviously