Rewind: Downton Abbey S2

Well, Downton Abbey is officially considered a soap opera in my book.  It's a nice-looking and well-acted soap opera, but it's still a soap opera.  I do not consider this a positive.  I've heard that Downton Abbey progressively gets worse and worse with each season.  This is absolutely accurate so far.

Here's the biggest problem that the season suffered: they had basically one overarching story line for each character.  They visited that story line every episode.  If you did not like the story line or were annoyed by its repetitiveness, well it didn't matter.  Because it happened EVERY episode.  You see sometimes you're not supposed to like a character and that's why the story line annoys you, but other times the character behaves wildly out of character and that's why the story bothers you.  Or the plot keeps throwing curveballs at an inevitability in ways that feel contrived.

Examples of a story line that bothered me because a character behaves unlike the character we've come to know: Sybil decides she loves Branson.  I can buy that Sybil is the type of person who would run away from Downton Abbey because she wants her own life.  We are given no indication of WHY she loves Branson though.  Branson just kind of declares his love for her, offers her marriage, and then there's barely any time spent on explaining why exactly Sybil would want to be with Branson.  Especially since Branson's scenes were spent badgering her about giving up her life and spouting his radical political ideas.  Each successive Branson/Sybil scene infuriated me, because I did not buy this romance.

Another example of a story line that bothered me because of inconsistent characterization: Robert Crawley having a affair on his wife (though nothing actually happened).  This just tells me the writers had nothing to do with this character so they invented a conflict that could not possibly occur with the season one Crawley.  They gave him weak scenes were he fought with his wife, but nothing that drives a man to cheat on his wife.  Also, this needed to happen so he could understand where Sybil was coming from - but that just kind of seems more like "How do we play out a scenario where he'd accept Branson?" more than anything organic.

Story lines that bothered me because they showed the same scene each episode with a different variation and no progress on it developed whatsoever until the end: Anna and Bates, perpetually destined to never be happy for some reason.  Creating conflicts between two people that would be happy if they were together is just lazy because they are afraid they won't have anything to write if they are together.  So you're telling me Bates' wife hates him SO MUCH that she would kill herself and frame Bates.  Needless to say, it's hard to take this show too seriously when they have soap opera villains like that.

That's not to say they didn't at least nail some characters down.  If only they had mastered every character as they do with Mr. Carson, then this would be an all-time classic of a show.  And surprisingly, the Matthew Crawley and Lady Mary romance did NOT feel contrived.  Up until Lavinia dies and Matthew annoyingly doesn't want to be happy for the rest of his life, everything felt like natural developments.  It wasn't hard to buy why they weren't together even as we knew they would end up together.  It helps that Sir Richard is an awesome character if somewhat one-note in being evil.  (You could argue that Sir Richard being actually an appealing mate would have been better writing, but then again Lady Mary and Matthew never end up together if that is true.)

As for the rest of the cast?  Well some of them annoyed me, but not to the point to where it's a weakness (Isobel's arc) and some of them I liked, but not enough to be impressed by (Mrs. Hughes).  Besides, this cast is so enormously large, I can't really go through each character and say a particular strength or weakness without boring you.  (Side note: I couldn't get through this entire review without mention Maggie Smith as Violet, who is still a highlight and almost worth watching the show by herself.)

The shame about the writing being the show's weakness is that it's pretty much the show's only weakness.  Like I said above, the acting is top-notch across the board.  The period drama aspect is... umm accurate I guess?  I can only assume on that one.  The direction usually has a few shots each episode that stand out to me.  The lackluster and far-fetched at times plot is the show's downfall from being a legitimately good show (which I don't think it is at this point in their run).

Interested in Downton Abbey?  Watch the first season, which I wholeheartedly recommend and then stop if you can.  Unless the soapy aspects of this show is the type to draw you in - and it very well could be - I wouldn't watch past the first season.

A necessary disclaimer: I hate most romantic comedies (I refer to them as rom coms; if it's a good romantic comedy, I don't call it a rom com) so the romance in the show is not inherently appealing.  If you like romance in your shows, definitely watch this show as its about the only story line for about 70% of the characters.  I could forgive this if the writing made me invested in the romances, which for the most part it did not.

I can't recommend the second season and if you're the type of person to continue watching a show just because you started, don't start at all.  (I kind of suffer this problem; I may or may not watch the third season, which I haven't exactly heard good things about either.)

(If you're interested, my Season 1 Review)

Playlist
1. "I've Got a Name" - Jim Groce
2. "Feel Tall" - Oncue
3. "Y Control" - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
4. "Country Grammar" - Nelly
5. "Provider" - N.E.R.D.

British TV Shows

Before reading this, I suggest you read the introduction to this site where I say what I'm doing.  

Previous Sections
The Shows That Changed Television
Quirky Comedy
Unconventional Drama
Classic Comedy

Some of these sections will be watched slowly.  This section is not one of them.  For a reason that eludes me, British TV shows don't last long.  With the exception of Doctor Who, both classic and the current version, most of these shows last just a few seasons.  That is fine with me.  The quality almost never drops from short-running TV shows, because they never run out of ideas.

This section lacks greatly in the shows I have watched and is exclusively shows I have never seen before.  I mean they are British.  Where do you watch British TV shows in America?  Netflix has provided me the opportunity to watch both classic and current British TV shows.  So I will go through my list that I have picked out.  Suggestions are welcome, however, if it's not on Netflix, I won't put it on this list.  Availability is a big factor when I choose shows as well as quality of course.

Downton Abbey (2010-Present)
Season 1 Review

I've seen the first season and am patiently waiting for the second to arrive on Netflix.  The first season was great and helpful in school!  My 20th Century Europe History class has already asked the class if we've seen Downton Abbey as it provides a good sense of pre-WWI attitudes.  So that's exciting.  (It's also not the only class where my obsessive TV watching has come in handy - Mad Men)

Anyway, read my season 1 review for my thoughts on the first season.  I'm excited to see where the show goes in its second season.  I hope it doesn't lose any of its quality or strangely addicting power.  Oddly, in a show that constantly comes up with reasons for Lady Crawley and Matthew to not just be together, the show manages to make the reasons feel organic and realistic.  Some shows do that kind of thing poorly, but Downton Abbey pulled it off I feel.

The Office (2001-2003)
Ok so this isn't a British thing so much as a Ricky Gervais thing.  He gets bored easily apparently.  Nonetheless, this show spurred an American show that became a hit.  Unlike that American show, it didn't last too long!  I haven't seen any of this show yet, but I am making sure to watch the British version first and foremost and then I'll watch the American version with Steve Carroll.

I just realized that Extras isn't on this list, but I've seen all of those episodes and there are only 13 of them as well.  Extras basically tells me I get Gervais' sense of humor so I'm almost positive I'll find this show funny.

Doctor Who (2005-Present)
Part of me wants to watch the classic version of this as well, but 1) those episodes are not streaming on Netflix and 2) there are 26 seasons of the classic.  Again, because this is British, those 26 seasons translate to less than 200 episodes, which makes it much more easily digestible.

Still, the older version probably has aged somewhat badly and is also not available. (I cannot stress enough how important that is).  I actually know very little about this show, I am just pretty certain it's good with a strong recommendation from a friend.

Luther (2010-Present)
Ok, so my reason for watching this show can be summed up with one name: Idris Elba.  He's awesome.  You know a beloved show you watch and when it ends you want to follow the actors when they star in new shows?  Well, that's what this is.  Elba, who I loved in The Wire as Stringer Bell, gets his own TV show.

Anyway, this kind of seems like a procedural show which is slightly disappointing and would disincentivize me from watching this show.  A show like Law and Order that can be watched out of order is a benefit when you flip through channels, but it's a hindrance on a project like mine.  There is nothing that convinces me to keep watching episodes.

Merlin (2008-2012)
Ok, so my reason for watching this show can be summed up with one name: Anthony Stewart Head.  He's awesome.  You know a beloved show you watch and when it ends you want to follow the actors when they star in new shows?  Well that's what this is.  Head, who I loved in Buffy as Rupert Giles, is in this show.

This will probably be my last watched of the British shows.  Head is in about 2/3 of the episodes, which is nice, but the show doesn't actually interest me a whole lot.  And I swear that's the last time I write the same paragraph to show why I watch a TV show.  But that is literally the reason I have chosen to watch both shows.

Sherlock (2010-Present)
Oh man this is so awesome I am restraining myself from starting it ahead of when I plan.  These are like mini-movies and there are very few episodes, but my god I love a good mystery and I love Sherlock Holmes and ...  Yeah so basically I am pumped up to watch this show.   

I have no other coherent thoughts to share with you except yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.

Skins (2007-Present)
When the American version of Skins came out, I didn't watch it, but I read the reviews.  I consistently read that it didn't have something that the British version did, and ever since I've kind of wanted to see what they were talking about.

Also better watch this now while it still can kind of apply to me.  I mean I don't want to watch it when I'm older and it scares me into not ever having kids.  Although whatever these kids go through, I hope I can semi-relate, because the description tells me I probably won't.

Upstairs, Downstairs (1971-1975)
This name just pops up on classic British TV shows, so what the hell?  Do I know what it's about?  No.  Do I think it'll be good? Yeah and that's what I watch TV shows for.  This is a show where I probably won't find anybody to talk about it with which is kind of a disappointing thought.

I know nothing about it so I can't say anymore and I'm just filling up space and you just keep on reading.

Final Thoughts
Sherlock and Luther are two shows I'm legitimately excited to start watching.  I've wanted to watch the U.K. version of The Office forever and this project gives me the opportunity to do so.  Doctor Who has been on my radar for quite a while as well.  Downton Abbey, for the moment, has been a success for me.  And I don't know where I found Upstairs, Downstairs or what made me decide to watch it, but I'm optimistic about that show as well.

(Skins and Merlin I'm extremely apathetic about that I may choose never to watch)

Update on Other Shows
Sons of Anarchy: I watched the first episode of Season 2 and the show has kept up the first season's momentum for now.  I'm not sure how much it can keep upping the ante on the graphic and horrifying scale, but they did it for this episode.

American Horror Story: I'm going to start this series probably right after I finish this blogpost.  I've heard it's really really weird and I'm not sure how I'm going to respond.  I'm just watching it for the uniqueness and the experience of having seen it.  FX is pretty good at picking out shows as well.

The Sopranos: I have for whatever reason made no progress on The Sopranos in months.  I'm still at the end of Season 2.  I don't get it.  I want to watch it in theory, but in actuality I never pick up the DVD to start.  I'll make an effort to finish Season 2 by the end of the upcoming week.

The Simpsons: I am waiting for this show to get good, but I can't get through Season 1.  Simpson fanatics will surely defend this season, but I think it's just bad.  I am pretty certain it was good in 1989, but I do not particularly enjoy this first season.

Star Trek: Almost halfway through the first season.  It has aged absolutely terribly in my opinion.  Show's not terribly easy to watch.

The Larry Sanders Show was removed from Netflix!  I called Customer Service and they told me they need to renegotiate.  So hopefully it comes back, because I was really liking the show.

Next Post: Because I'm a dedicated school student (don't laugh), I'm cutting my blogposts from three days a week to two.  On Thursday, I'll have my thoughts on the ABC pilot Zero Hour.  It looked good from the previews and I'll tune in and share my thoughts.  

Rewind: Downton Abbey Season 1 Review

What a treat this show became for me.  I watched the first episode and came away very disappointed and not at all surprised that the show just wasn't doing it for me.  Gradually, each episode afterwards I became more and more invested.  While at first I was trying to space out my episodes, because I thought the episodes were too long and I was constantly checking to see when it would end, I ended up watching four episodes the past two days.

The beauty of a character drama show such as this (or Mad Men) is that each episode gradually builds the background and moral standing of each character.  By the last episode, you practically know the characters as real people.  

Downton Abbey has a LOT of characters and it seemingly took the time to flesh out each and every one of them.  It boggles the mind how Downton Abbey has created 20 different and interesting characters while Dexter has created virtually no one outside of Dexter, Doakes, and the villain of the season who is all that fleshed out.

The main storyline of the season was that Downton Abbey had no male heirs after two of the Crowley cousins died in the Titanic.  That is the date set at the first episode, which would be in April of 1912.  With the two men's death, the biggest problem was finding Lady Mary Crawley a husband to inherit the land.

Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley then appear to have a forbidden love for the rest of the season.  She doesn't like him, while Matthew is infatuated with her.  Then the tables turn when Mary ignores Matthew and finds she is growing to like him.  Basically, there is always something that gets in the way of the two just doing what is obvious and marrying.  

John Bates helps us get acquainted with the staff as his first day is also our first time watching the show.  The crew immediately dislikes him and try to secretly get him off the crew, using Bates' limp leg as the main reasoning.  Mr. Bates appears to be a great person, but it's clear there's a past haunting him.    The season gradually reveals that past.

Then there's Mr. Carson, who at first seems to be a conniving man, but later on it is revealed he just really wants to maintain the integrity of Downton Abbey.  Mrs. Obrien and Thomas provide the "villians" of the season as they constantly scheme to frame Bates for stealing.  Mrs. Patmore has declining vision that threatens her job.  Her constant yelling at her assistant Daisy is funny for the most part.  

Maggie Smith is just about the best part of the show.  She is nearly always hilarious.  An example: "I can't believe my maid is leaving to get married. She's so selfish."  Lady Edith seems constantly forgotten by the family (but not the writers) as she and Mary fight constantly over men mostly.  Lady Sybil spends the majority of her screen time fighting for the right for woman to vote, mostly to the chagrin to everyone else.

Anyway, there are, believe it or not, more characters that are explored.  Nearly all of them get a story line that reveals who they are.

Season 1 occurs over a two-year period.  It is established that the sinking of the Titanic was the beginning and in the end, World War I was just declared so it was July of 1914.  (They also added the telephone into the home, which of course leads to a comedic bit where someone plays around with it.)

I wholeheartedly recommend this to potential viewers.  

Next post: Unconventional Drama, which is already written, but I needed this post to be done immediately after I finished the series.

Introduction to Site

Lately, I have become slightly motivated to write about sports, but then my need to write went away soon after I began writing an article on something sports-related and I found myself disinterested in finishing.  I can't seem to put enough focus into finishing a detailed, numbers-driven article.  Usually a sports post will take me hours, so I'm assuming that has a lot to do with it.

So here I am giving writing about television a try, which for the past year or so has become an insane habit of mine.  My purest intention is to watch good television.  So I never go into a TV show blind (I doubt many do).  I check IMDB ratings, I check my favorite TV reviewers opinions of shows, I take into account what my friends think of the show, and basically just get a feel if the show is worth my time.  (This sounds harsher than I intend, I assure you.)

My opinion is that this is the golden age of television.  At least, this is the age where you can pretty much watch a good television series as long as you buy Netflix.  There are seriously enough good TV series on Netflix to last you years so long as you don't burn through entire series in a month.

I am mostly going to be writing season reviews, although doing episode reviews of classic television shows such as The Sopranos has intrigued me.  So I periodically do episode reviews of that nature.  I've also sporadically done episode reviews of personal favorite television shows of mine.  I wrote Breaking Bad episode reviews and doing episode reviews for The Americans.  I'll pick and choose which shows I do very strictly so this isn't going to be a normal thing.

To be clear, here's an idea of how crazy I am with this obsession of mine.  I mentioned sports writing before which I wrote three times a week for a while.  That was replaced by needing to watch the greatest movies of all time, which I usually found searching random sites.  (Needless to say, I was devastated when megavideo was declared illegal)  Then last year, I signed up for a month-long free trial of Netflix for a reason I'm not sure of right now, and you pretty much need Netflix once you've experienced it.  (Netflix is not paying me, believe it or not)

Anyway, somewhere along the line I started slowing watching good series, not really trying to watch ALL of the good series.  Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Dexter, etc.  I had a bit of a slow start on this little quest of mine since my TV experience was limited to every Friends episode (each one I've seen more than once), CSI, Law and Order: SVU (strangely not the original), and... that's about it.  I never really committed to a series besides Friends (which I grew up on).

While on my winter break, I realized I was watching so many TV shows at once, that I decided to categorize the TV shows I was watching.  I ended up with eight different categorizations, totaling (don't laugh and I swear this is the real number) 76 shows.  76.  I've seen every episode of the series for 10 of those 76, so that means I'm either in the process of or haven't started 66 series that I want to see.

I should also mention that six of the 66 shows I literally cannot watch more episodes due to the fact that they have more seasons or they haven't been posted on Netflix.  And lastly, seven of the shows are in the last season that I can watch or that aired.  

That still leaves a TON of shows.  I'm not delusional.  This is going to take a few years especially with school.  I'm sure summer will bring an uptick in episodes watched.  (Also, I expect the shows to gradually decline as the year progresses as the beginning features little homework and the end is finals)

So I guess this is a good place to mention what my eight categories are.  First, are the greatest shows on television or the shows that changed television (Link) - according to Alan Sepinwall, my favorite TV critic.  Here's the list and whether I've watched, am watching or plan to watch (updated 6/24/14):

Breaking Bad - Status: Seen all five seasons
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Status: Seen all seven seasons

Friday Night Lights - Status: Seen all five seasons

Lost - Status: Seen all six seasons
Mad Men - Status: Seen all seven seasons

The Wire - Status: Seen all five seasons
The Shield - Status: Seen all seven seasons

The Sopranos - Status: Seen all six seasons

24 - Status: Seen first six seasons

Deadwood - Status: Watching first season

Battlestar Galactica - Status: Not started

Oz - Status: Not started

This category is my most exciting and the one I look forward to completing the most.  The best part is that I own all seasons to Deadwood and Oz plus 24 is on Amazon Prime, which I recently purchased.  I finished The Shield by watching the free seasons that popped up on Hulu every three months.  Soon the first two seasons will be there and I recommend you start when given the chance.  I'll be finishing 24 over the next year and beginning Deadwood sometime next spring.  Oz and Battlestar will be considerably later.

When I first wrote this post in January of last year, I had a different group of categorizations that I became dissatisfied with so I changed my categorizations to better fit how I ended up actually watching these shows.  I still have the shows that changed television, which I still only watch one television series at a time meaning I wait until I finish one series before I start another.  The exceptions are Mad Men, which is still airing, and 24, which is a show I try to binge-watch and I can safely separate my viewing experiences by seasons.  Basically, I make sure I have a week or so of time available to watch the show before I begin a season and that means I'll probably be unable to watch any seasons during the school year.

Another categorization that hasn't changed is Classic Comedy.  I've re-arranged some of the shows, but this is the simplest one and mostly is undisturbed.  The most recent of the shows stopped airing in 2006.  The earliest of the shows began airing in 1960.  I'll refer you to my updated Classic Comedy post if you're interested in reading about the 14 shows that fall under that.

The category formerly known as Quirky Comedy is now just Comedy.  This has mostly not changed.  I switched out Scrubs and Arrested Development and added a few shows.  This is another 14 show category.  If you're interested in reading about specific shows, read my Comedy post.

Another category that has survived is Procedurals.  In fact, I've basically split this into two different categories, Procedurals and USA Shows.  USA Shows from what I've seen are procedurals in the loosest sense (a drama that isn't serialized - you can watch any episode in any season and be able to not be affected too strongly; maybe you missed a relationship that developed but nothing important).  But I felt uncomfortable listing Burn Notice and Law and Order in the same category as they are not even close to the same show.  If you're interested in reading about these two categories, I consolidated them into one post here.

(If you've fallen upon this link now, it means you've seen this earlier than I intended.  I had eight original categories, but only three of them were even close to the same as my revised categories.  I now have 13 categories.  My unconventional drama's name is now changed and is basically unrecognizable from its original group of shows.  I scrapped Supernatural as a category as I realized Star Trek would take too long to watch and was detracting from me watching anything else in its category and made Star Trek its own category; Anyway, I should update the rest of the categories soon)

Next Post: I'll talk about shows that changed TV