Downton Abbey, season five.

In case you missed it, check out this week’s Klawchat transcript.

Season five of Downton Abbey was, to put it kindly, a bit bland. After the previous season, which found the series’ soapier qualities often ramped up to unwelcome levels, the most recent season saw very little of consequence happening at Downton until the final two episodes (including the Christmas special), so while we still had plenty of the dry wit that is typically sprinkled throughout the dialogue, there was little of compelling interest to bring me back from week to week.

The two most significant storylines, at least when viewed by the weight of the issues they covered, were the investigation of the murder of Mr. Green and Lady Edith’s ongoing attempts to maintain a relationship with her daughter, Marigold, who’s been taken in by a tenant family at Downton. The former storyline took the major dramatic twist from season four, a storyline that won Joanne Froggatt a Golden Globe Award in January, and stretched it out in what I thought was the worst way possible, wringing it for extra drama with no consideration of the human costs. In season four, at least, she showed the kind of post-traumatic reactions you might expect from a rape victim, especially in an era where victims were often seen as deserving blame, but here it’s as if nothing ever happened to her – her character seemed fully restored to her season three form except when Mr. Green’s name was directly broached in her presence. Using a rape storyline to give an actress whose primary role before that had been to stand around and be cute felt tawdry, but at least served a higher purpose of adding drama to the series while touching on a social issue that remains important; discarding most of it, saving only the part that allows for a nonsensical murder investigation storyline that had only one possible ending feels venal.

Lady Edith’s storyline followed a similar if less culturally important arc, where a real issue (single motherhood, the “shame” of bearing a child out of wedlock in that era) became fodder for a plot thread that largely disappeared once it became inconvenient. The child she bore on the Continent last season, then brought back to place with the Drewes, was clearly going to end up with her because the writers of the show seem to have largely eschewed unhappy endings for any character since the public outrage over the deaths of two characters (both because the actors portraying them declined to renew their contracts) in season three.

And that is the crux of the Downton problem, at least at the moment. Julian Fellowes has created such a broad cast of largely likable characters that no one wants to see them come to any (more) grief; I’d compare it to the wonderful, sentimental finale of Parks and Recreation last month, where we saw the futures for all of the main characters and even a few side ones, and everyone lived happily ever after (although Tajikistan is off). But Downton Abbey isn’t a sitcom, so avoiding anything too dreadful happening to any of the characters can lead to a season that’s entertaining in bits but overall rather bland. And the apparent trend toward rehabilitating Thomas’ character to imbue him with some humanity, where he’s starting to show real empathy for other servants, responding to Ms. Baxter’s selflessness by doing a few good turns for others, means we’re losing the lone true antagonist in the house. If Spratt is to be the one awful person on the show, I’d just as soon do without a bad guy.

The final two episodes did at least have their share of big moments, including the seriocomic leadup to Rose and Atticus’s wedding with a few touching examples of the lengths to which a loving parent will go to secure the happiness of his or her child, along with the preposterous arrest of one character, a plot twist that seemed more like a convenience to allow Moseley and Baxter to do one of the kindest turns anyone’s done on the show so far. That’s exactly where we’ve come through five seasons of this show, though: It’s just a really nice group of people, mostly doing nice things for each other, trying to cope with a society that’s changing quickly in a direction that is outmoding their entire way of life. Perhaps season six will see new characters replacing Branson or Lady Rose (as actress Lily James seems set for stardom now that she’s playing Cinderella), but I found myself wondering if Fellowes was setting the show up for a victory lap, one more season where they settle Lady Mary’s storyline and wrap up the series. After a season like this last one, it’s hard to imagine him going back in for the kind of drama that drove the first three seasons to such critical and popular acclaim.

What did you think? Did I miss the excitement this season?

Comments

  1. If you are looking for excitement in post WWI-England, you are looking in the wrong place entirely. Move the cursor up to Birmingham and binge on 12 eps of Peaky Blinders.

    • But I’m not looking for excitement in post WWI England. I’m looking for these characters in storylines that better resemble what made the show so good in seasons 1 and 2.

  2. Patrick Dixon

    I enjoyed your post and in general agree with you. The storylines involving Mrs. Patmore reinforce this point. While the show engages with the very real subject of the vilification of “deserters” in the futile blood bath of WW1, it ultimately resolves it through Lord Grantham being very nice and magnanimous. Would it have been more challenging for him to have declined to honor Mrs. Patmore’s nephew and exposed viewers to the limits of his tolerance and understanding? Most probably, but ultimately all of his prejudices are gradually overcome whether it be Branson’s class and Republicanism, Edith’s child out of wedlock, or Patmore’s nephew’s desertion and military execution. Similarly Daisy becomes increasingly class-conscious and politicized and the prospect of her moving to London is upsetting to Mrs. Patmore. But again, as you point out, Fellowes goes for the easier option and decides the popular character should stay. What this means is that the only real social mobility or advancement that has taken place in five years is Branson who succeeded by impregnating one of the ladies of the manor and the red-headed footman who departs to become a chef in London. Is this an accurate and depressing representation of reality? Probably, but it is treated rather uncritically by Fellowes.

  3. If only it would end next year, Keith. Fellowes said in a New York Times interview that NBC Universal owns the show now and he couldn’t end it even if he wanted to. There’s no indication it will end anytime soon.

    Fellowes has proven himself to be too fond of the Granthams for me. I was fascinated with the show when it seemed like it was going to be about the fall of the aristocracy. Instead, it just feels like nostalgic longing for the days when the paternalistic elite, despite some flaws, did such a nice job of looking after the rabble who are plenty happy in their place. Sure, we get to hear someone like Branson’s teacher friend present the opposite point of view, but she’s presented as rude and someone who fails to understand just how decent the Granthams really are.

    • Totally agree with Jeremy. The most intriguing element of the show has always been the legacy societal structure being stressed by several modern forces: liberalization overall, empowerment of the labor class, horrors of industrialized warfare, the decline of British imperialism, etc.

      After so much focus and hand-wringing in the previous seasons over whether the Downton estate could be viable and if the Crawley family could maintain their way of life, there was almost no discussion of these issues in Season 5. No amount of Edith-is-horrible jokes can make up for that.

    • Yep, excellent points all around. That subject was absent from this season. The big debate over the land was an aesthetic one, not a financial one. You’d think (if this were reality) Lord Grantham would have had no choice but to sell some of their holdings to keep the estate running and the staff at this level. They should be shedding servants, but they’ve really just lost a few to attrition.

  4. You got it spot on — I’m afraid the show has jumped the shark.

  5. I think as big of issue is the 2 main story lines you cite– the Green murder and the MArigold saga– were absolutely tedious by season’s end.