Cougar Town - "Blue Sunday" - Review

The quirky, wine drenched, awfully titled Cougar Town returned last Tuesday on a new network (TBS). The fate of the series had been up in the air for while there, which was a shame because the series is one of the most underrated comedies on television. Running gags, a sense of place, and a great big heart make stopping in with the Cul-de-Sac Crew required viewing. It may not always go for big laughs but it has such great, well-defined characters that deeply care for one another, and in their own co-dependent way they help eachother through all of life’s problems, no matter how small they may seem. The series returned in top form in “Blue Sunday”.  

Jules Cobb is the center of this crazy group of people. Grayson may begrudgingly accept some of her ideas, but he knows as well as everyone else that she’s the “light” at heart of the show, and “as she goes, so do we all”. I don’t know if I’d call her the "heart" of the show (that role often feels more true for Bobby, and even sometimes Andy and Laurie who are all three so very goodnatured and sweet), but if Jules is feeling the “blues” than it’s going to drag down the whole group (who seem to perpetually be in her home).

 The episode confronts the question of how we deal with our problems. Do we confront them head on or do we run away (in this case quite literally run) from them? 

Bobby Cobb is always literally running from his problems (that’s how he’s gotten by all his life), and when he owes money, Travis tries to convince him to be a bigger man and deal with his problem (Although he ends up running away and crosses paths with Jules who is also doing the same – “It’s amazing I’m normal,” Travis says). Bobby’s partner in crime Andy ran away as well, in this case from work when he wasn’t finished with an assignment. And Ellie avoiding the reveal of what seemingingly unsexy sexual thing her husband Andy did to her while she was out of it on ambien (which somehow the series also makes seems sweet in its own strange way) is its own weird form of running away.

Travis thinks he’s above all this: He’s a “nerd”, as Laurie puts it. He talks through things. But then he’s given the trump card that he can’t talk about: his feelings for Laurie, and we find out that he’s no better than anyone else when it comes to dealing with his problems. When she confronts him, much as he’s been telling his dad is the right thing to do, he instead takes his father’s advice and runs away from his problems. The Laurie-Travis question has been simmering for a long time now, and while they seem oddly well-suited for eachother, the age difference remains a hindrance to them getting together. While Laurie thinks its sweet that Travis has a crush, she really can’t see him as anything more than a sibling (or can she? Is her black army boyfriend the only thing stopping this pairing?). 

But as the A-plot suggests, this kind of avoidance of problems isn’t a good thing. Grayson is getting used to being married to Jules, who has a few tricks up her sleeve of quirks she has yet to reveal. She dreams that Grayson flirted with another woman, which sets her off into a depressed bout (“like dark blue. Like one notch over suicidal,” as Laurie, who had great episode, put it). Ellie keeps telling him that he should simply apologize for the dream, as crazy as that may seem. As Jules keeps descending into unhappiness (pretending to be positive at the behest of her therapist - another example someone avoiding their problem), she blows up over ice cream falling off her cone and onto the ground. Ellie, to the anger of Jules, tells Grayson about how she gets with her “blues”, and he confronts the problem, apologizing for the dream. He may not have wanted to apologize, but he realized that letting problems churn does no one any good. Eventually they’ll catch up to you.

All in all, a welcome return of one of the most delightful tv comedies. New showrunners and a new network have done little to change its DNA. And that's a good thing!

Stray Observations:

-“It feels like it’s been over a year” – Cougar Town gets appropriately meta in its cold open.

-“Are you alcoholics? Are you in AA?” “That’s two questions”

-“I read something” “Story’s really not true” “Alright I heard it”

-“Do I want to find out why my neck is stiff?” “Never”

-Jules likes pulling out Grayson’s old man hairs.

-Laurie really likes monopoly: “I once had a quickie in a backseat cause the guy was named Marvin Gardens”, “That’s why they called me community chest”

-Of course Bobby doesn’t get sarcasm

-Laurie is "lasered smooth hairless": Jules: “I’m gonna need to see that later”

-Another change in phrase meaning by Jules: “Junk in trunk” now = Having emotional baggage

-“He’s so black I feel like I’m in a sensory deprivation tank when he’s on top of me”

-For the delivery of it: “You never don’t pee in there, right?” “No”

-Tom dancing outside, looking through the window as everyone dances inside. - They've gotten some great mileage out of the character
-The fake preview for version of the series that's action packed, soap opera was hilarious. Great cameo by Michelle Williams.

Grade: B+

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower" - Film Review

My streak of watching film based on “unadaptable” books continues with The Perks of Bring a Wallflower. The cult novel’s author Stephen Chbosky wrote and directed the movie and much of the novels appeal remains intact with his guidance. Like the novel it takes its title from, Perks is a film about all those scary, dark, uncomfortable places life takes us, and with sincerity, honesty and heart it tells a narrative about high school that’s about so much more than high school (the story ends up dealing with a range of topics including abuse, drugs, and sexuality).

Logan Lerman is rather well-suited for the titular “wallflower” role of unreliable narrator Charlie Kelmeckis. Awkward, lanky, friendless as he enters freshman year, Charlie has had a rough go the past few years. His medical history is hinted at enough to give us the sense that he was in a mentally dark place in middle school (most of this relating to an incident involving his dead aunt, which much the like the novel never feels like it fits in with the rest of the story, but unfortunately needs to be told). Charlie flounders around, bullied, misunderstood, and too meek, shy, and mentally scarred to form any meaningful connections. That is until he meets Patrick and Sam. Ezra Miller gives the right amount of happy-go-lucky flamboyance to Patrick, while Emma Watson turns out to be surprisingly well-suited for enigmatic, anti-Manic Pixie Dream Girl Sam, who has a lot more shades of grey than Hermione Granger ever showed. The brother and sister begin to see how kind the quiet, gentle Charlie is and how desperately he needs friends, and they bring him into their world where he finally belongs amongst the “Island of Misfit Toys”

It was an early scene that made me realize how good the film would be both as film itself and an adaptation of the book: Charlie tells Sam about how his best friend killed himself. It’s the little beats of the rhythm of telling this that make it work so well. For example, the moment after where a scared, heartbroken Sam whispers to Patrick, “Charlie just told me his best friend killed himself. I don’t think he has any friends” where I told myself: “Woe, this is going to be good”. And it really is in its own idiosyncratic, honest, heartfelt way. The little touches to solid scenes like this are played with emotions on their sleeves and captured by strong performances and a great script. 

Charlie “wallflowers” his way through one situation after another, but fails to actually live life for himself. He just wants other people to be happy. Thus he doesn’t ask out Sam, who he has an undying crush on, because he doesn’t feel it’s what she wants. He dates Mary Elizabeth even though he doesn’t actually have feelings for her (and then goes on in devastating fashion to break her heart). He lets his sister get beat up by her deadbeat boyfriend (and in fact way more and worse things happen to his sister in the book– which is a shame because Nina Dobrev is actually a really good actress and she’s underutilized). And the consequences, both good and bad, of his “wallflowering” are played out with careful attention to detail.  

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a charming, surprisingly good adaptation of Stephen Chbosky’s great novel.

Grade: B+

Modern Family - "New Year' Eve" - Review

Modern Family was once a series that might have deserved all those excessive Emmy noms it’s received. Its first season provided a sitcom that appeared to nicely balance traditional sitcom situations and heart with a less traditional style and format. But recently (and particularly during its 3^rd season – which had me doubting the series enough that I considered not watching any longer), the series has failed to earn its emotional moments and tried too hard and too broadly to achieve its laughs. As tv critic Donna Bowman so accurately put it “it’s all business, no heart.”

But Modern Family, although much less frequently than its earliest episodes, continues to hint at what the series could be excelling at if it had used its massive fan base and great ratings to experiment more with its format and tell stories that are grounded but not done with a paper-thin lack of enthusiasm, as if it’s merely going through the motions. It can be seen in the well-earned emotional resolutions of early season four episodes such as “Bringing up Baby” and “Schooled”. It can be seen in how effectively it tells the many, many (almost too many stories) of “When a Tree Falls”. Just last season the series had too many episodes that were so clearly overstuffed, and yet that lacked conviction to tell those stories or let them breathe (“The Last Walt” and “Planes, Trains, and Cars”). Yet the fourth season has proven itself much more confident in telling its stories. It’s not nearly as ambitious or completely satisfying as its first two seasons, but it feels like a much needed course correction.  

Take tonight’s episode “New Year’s Eve”. It’s not the funniest of episodes that the series has done, but for the most part it’s an amusing and interesting examination of growing old (the endings for the various stories don’t necessarily stack up with just how good it was up until that point – But Haleigh’s voiceover noting how you don’t always end up where you expect on New Years seems fitting for some of the stranger turns, including a nudist New Years group crashing Phil and Claire’s outing). 

Jay takes all the adults to a hotel he used go to a lot when he was younger. The place is in a bit of disarray; it’s seen better years, and appears to be incredibly dirty (Mitchell steps in something and yells out, “There’s something sticky here”. A staff member states in horror, “That wasn’t supposed to come back”). The hotel is symbol for aging. Some time passes, and then you re-examine yourself, and you don’t recognize who you are anymore. This can be scary or worrisome or troublesome, and it can be hard to deal with. 

Claire and Phil haven’t had sex in a month. Claire is freaking out, not just because she wants to get laid, but she fears that lack of intimacy means that she and Phil are growing apart as they grow older. As she mad dashes to the hot spring their weird hotel footman suggested, Phil asks her why she’s in such a rush to get there. Claire type-A babbles about all her fears, how she thinks life is just going to pass them by, and tear them apart. Phil (Tyler Burrell is having a great season) simply ignores this and kisses her. Sometimes life happens. And sometimes that means getting older. And that means that every day concerns can get in the way of things like having sex frequently. 

Mitchell and Cam had a nice, quiet dinner planned, but Mitchell worries that they’re becoming old fogies. Last year they didn’t even manage to stay up until midnight. He begs Cam to go club hopping with him like they did when they were younger. However, they’re quickly turned off, as club after club is too sweaty and noisy to be enjoyable. Finally, they stumble upon a club for older gays. It’s classy, and quiet; people are paying them compliments and buying them free drinks. Mitch and Cam realize that may be, sometimes getting old isn’t such a bad thing. Most people are jealous of the married couple with the kid, especially once you reach a certain age; people who lack a partner can feel totally rudderless. Yea, when you’re younger going to the club, and having a lot of sex seem like a lot of fun. But as we get older, we often realize that getting old isn’t always such a dreadful thing. Even though occasionally we doubt it and become wistful for youth.

The most pleasantly surprising exploration of growing old takes place back at the Dunphys where Haleigh (but in reality Alex, as everyone keeps joking) is in charge of watching Luke, Manny, and Lily on New Years. When Luke invites over girls, and goes up to his room to make out with one, Haleigh and Alex’s motherly instincts kick in. They fret over whether it’s appropriate for their baby brother to be allowed to do this. They fight against letting him grow up. In the process, they realize that not only is Luke getting older, but they are too. They’re, to their own surprise, unexpectedly starting to mature. Life can do that to you. “I think I owe mom a huge apology,” Haleigh says with wonderful self-awareness after scolding her brother. 

There are a couple other more minor, less interesting subplots that get lost in the shuffle involving Manny trying to win over the other girl Luke invited over, and Jay playing poker with a wasted cameo of Billy Dee Williams. However, at its heart, the three above stories paralleled eachother in such nice ways and told such honest stories about what it means to grow old that the rest didn’t matter. 

Stray Observations:

-Lily had some great lines: “Who’s watching me?” “Haleigh” “No, really? “Alex”, “I’m cold and saw a cyote”

“We should call her a ranch house. She doesn’t have a second story”

-“He’s gay” “Good I didn’t want to be the one to tell you”

-“Well, you wanted to feel young” “And I do…”

-“If you didn’t drive a car like this you couldn’t call yourself a drug lord”

Grade: B

The grade should have been a grade higher, but the Manny and Jay/Gloria stories are so totally disconnected from everything else and go nowhere. Plus, the way the Phil/Claire story ended completely undermined the sentiment of it.

Happy Endings - "Ordinary Extraordinary Love" - Review

ABC has decided to burn off episodes of Happy Endings, airing them on Sundays as well as Tuesdays. This totally doesn’t bode well for the lifespan of the show. We may very well be seeing cancellation of the series soon. Which is a shame because I really liked last night’s episode (even if I still don't think it was the series best work).

Happy Endings doesn’t really have likable characters. They’re selfish, self-involved, co-dependent people, and many of the series best jokes are about them being oblivious or douchey or narcissistic. This has been a trend in comedies in the last two to three decades. It grew out of Seinfeld who’s four main characters did some thoroughly unredeemable things over the show’s run, but never really felt bad about those terrible things. Characters have continually been drawn as unsympathetic assholes beyond saving. The Bluths in Arrested Development are total jackasses when it comes down to it, and without money or power to anchor them, they’re worse tendencies come to the forefront. It’s Always Sunny is almost always about the gang flirting with doing some morally reprehensible thing and not giving a fuck what other people think. And a lot can be mined from this when done properly. “Fowl Play/Date” did it much less successfully Sunday, but “Ordinary Extraordinary Love” is much better about it. Two of the three of this episodes storylines are about the characters being stupid asses without really realizing it.  

 

In the storyline that stretches plausibility the most, (as well as being the least interesting and entertaining) Penny and Alex attempt to exploit their knowledge of a popstar being in town to re-brand Alex’s store. After the singer buys a dress from Alex, Penny sees an opportunity to stir up publicity. But ultimately, the two of them end up feeling terrible once they end up ruining the singer’s date. They apologize and use Dave’s food van to help her secure a quiet, normal date unaffected by the paparazzi. Despite this typical sitcom fix at the end, Alex and particularly Penny are awful throughout the episode. Penny is more concerned for her car than the singer after she has a mental breakdown; Alex notifies the paparazzi that the singer is in their store when she comes to talk things out with them.

Meanwhile, Brad is in, as Penny describes it, “post-gender city”. In an also pretty cliched, but still more entertaining storyline, he is no longer the breadwinner of the family as Jane is the one who’s bringing home the bacon. Brad begins to feels like less of a man, and enlists the help of Dave to fix a light dimmer, which quickly devolves into displays of masculinity and competitions of manliness. This includes lifting chairs with plates taped to them, “arm wrestling, toaster tossing, shark naming”. “What is this a pissing contest?” Jane asks. “Oh, I already won that,” Dave gleefully responds. Dave is already sort of the token douchebag of the show and he brings out the worst qualities in Brad. But Jane lets Brad know that he’s still every bit of man as he was before he lost his job ("Stupid, stubborn, smelly" = Yep, seems pretty manly). 

On the other hand, there’s the one story where Jane tries to help Max find a boyfriend, which provides the more heartful side of the episode. Max has hit a dry patch, and can’t seem to get any boyfriends. Jane enlists the help of their stereotypically gay friend Derrick, who, as Max says, “You’re ‘Gay Yoda-ing’ me … wait, is that redundant?” Derrick and Jane go to every gay bar in the city to help Max determine what subgroup of the gay culture he fits into. But none of them match up. In the end, Max is left to create his own subgroup which he dubs “Optimistic Red Velvet Walrus”, and there appears to be promise with another guy showing up who’s similarly unsure of what gay subculture he belongs to. And the whole Happy Endings gang is there to support him. 

As I mentioned in my review of the last episode, Happy Endings can feel too inconsequential when its stories don’t focus on the characters. Brad confronting his manhood and Max confronting his feelings of disillusionment and loneliness ground those stories in a way that provides them with a sense of purpose. It elevates the characters above how stupid and mean and petty and selfish they can often be. Brad is being an idiot throughout his identity crisis, but it works because it comes from a believable place. The Penny/Alex stuff is funny at times, but it’s all about them taking advantage of someone for their own self-gain, which comes off as a little too mean-spirited (on top of being incredibly cliched). 

Stray Observations:

-Douchey Dave trying to guess the mystery drink Jane’s bought him: I smell a hint of liggenberry…” “It’s flat gingerale”

-“My baby could sell snow to an eskimo. And by snow, I mean cocaine. Which is impressive because eskimos don’t have a lot of disposable income”

-The whole pizza delivery/prostitution rant by Max is great showcase for Adam Pally. Even better still, cutting away to see everyone has left the table by the time he’s finished.

-“I’m gonna go to the therapist to see if we can’t deal with her control problems”

-“Duh … was the name of her last album”

-After Jane rattles off stereotypical gay bar names, Max replies: “The gaybar was called Greg’s”

-“I’m a soft, soft, soft, soft butch”

-“I can spin this. It’s why at work they call me the old spinster”, “That’s why they call me undatable at work. There’s not a date I can’t put to a PR spin.”, “I went ahead with it like a train. That’s why at work they call me a train wreck”.

-Best gay bars they go to: “The Chamelion” “Sitcom Gays”

-You’re rock bottom … that’s also the name of the next gay bar we’re going to”

-“How are we the first people to think of stud finder jokes?”

Grade: B+

New Girl - "Cabin" - Review

Much like Zooey Deschanel, Olivia Munn is a polarizing figure that people seem to be split on. Both Deschanel and Munn have built up a fan base by establishing a particular persona of themselves (happy-go-lucky free spirit in the case of Deschanel, and hot nerd in the case of Munn). I’ve personally never had a problem with either of them. I’ve liked Munn for the most part since her days on the cult series Attack of the Show, where she put herself out there enough to win me over. They’re both actresses who have the problem of having to be utilized in really specific ways in order to bring out the best of their talents. And I think that’s often the problem with New Girl, it doesn’t lack talent; it often just doesn’t recognize what’s best in utilizing its talent.

This was really apparent in the first half of the first season which was really grating. It could be seen in how pointless it felt bringing in Justin Long and Lizzy Caplan as guest stars (as welcome as they might have been). They series has gotten MUCH better going into their second season and part of the pleasure in watching the series has been to watch it evolve from a series that wasn’t very good at all to one of the best ensemble pieces on tv. But sometimes it still feels as if the writers don’t trust their cast, and have to come up with weirdly contrived reasons to establish comical situations (the young people of “Neighbors” who are so cartoonish and unrealistic that it turned me off, or the bathtub Winston and Jess bought crashing through the roof to ruin all of Schmidt’s suits in “Bathtub”). Which is my biggest problem with the episode; it doesn’t feature a lot of the main cast just riffing off one another (which is often what the show does best). Instead, it takes a weird amount of times and unnecessary turns to get to the plot points it wants to arrive at. The episode obviously wants to create examinations of the Nick-Angie and Jess-Sam relationships, but it feels totally un-organic and forced.

Nick and Jess (and particularly Nick) currently have relationships that are not the most stable things. Nick may be into his adventurous stripper girlfriend Angie (which feels like a really weird name for a stripper – am I the only one who thinks this?) but he’s failing to be honest with her. Jess is also failing to be honest with Sam. She invites Nick to come with her and Sam on a romantic getaway to a cabin in the woods because she doesn’t want to be with Sam by herself (then she’d be forced to be open and honest with him – and that scares her). 

Nick agrees to go only after Jess notes that it’ll be free (“Ok, we’re 100% in!” he yells the moment he learns). Once there, Angie finds some guns and some absinthe in a hall closet, which sets up the rest the episode’s story. Angie and Nick start shooting at beer bottles, and Sam decides that it look way more interesting than “Sexy Boggle”. Jess enthusiastically says she wants to give it a try, but clearly has no idea what she’s doing (She keeps swinging the gun back towards Nick and Sam who duck down scared for their lives). Jess ends up shooting the power box, and they spend the rest of the day without power. Now was it really necessary to have Jess shooting a gun, and blowing out a powerbox just to establish the next plot point of the four of them drinking heavily? There was probably some way less weird and convoluted way to achieve it.

But whatever: ABSINTHE! Jess ends up drinking too much and Nick goes to keep an eye on her while she’s puking upstairs. This leaves Angie and Sam alone; Nick and Jess return to find Angie trying to hook up with Sam, which upsets both of them. Nick keeps saying it’s cool because he and Angie are in an open-relationship. But when he ends up drinking a bunch more absinthe, it leads to him admitting his feelings for Angie. Angie is scared of this and leaves before Nick wakes up the next morning. While Sam and Jess are closer than ever (“I was tripping pretty hard on absinthe and I said no to a stripper rubbing my leg,” Sam tells Jess). 

In the episode’s other story (and it’s much funnier, but shorter, one), after seeing Winston talk to other black people, Schmidt feels as if the housemates are not letting Winston be “his blackest self”. Schmidt triesto get them to do some "black" things (i.e. he asks him if he wants soul food). Winston catches on and lets the situation escalate to the point where he’s suggesting they buy crack. Schmidt eagerly goes along with it, while Winston starts freaking out. And when a man comes over, presumably to sell drugs they ask him to get in the back seat of the car. All three start freaking out; the man because he thought they needed to get directions and now thinks he’s being robbed, and Schmidt and Winston because they think they’re getting robbed by a drug dealer (They all yell fearful for their lives in what is the episode’s funniest scene). They end up laughing about it because seriously, how absolutely crazy was that whole idea? But Max Greenfield and Lamorne Morris totally sell it. Greenfield’s total, shameless enthusiasm for every racist thing he’s convinced Winston must be into turns into the highlight of the episode. Schmidt sells this as not something about race but about a friend he thinks may be unhappy (which is the only reason the show gets away with how stereotypically racist minded Schmidt is. Also because the series rarely makes a big deal out of Winston being black in the first place) . But Winston lets him know that he wouldn’t be in an apartment with three white people unless he wanted to be (“Being black means whatever I want it to be. There are so many things I find annoying about you that I haven’t even gotten to race yet”). 

Sometimes we’re not being honest with our relationships, and that can lead to problems. Angie and Nick can’t really be a good couple because they didn't work through their obvious feelings for one another. Jess needs to be more confident about herself in order to be more open with Sam. Now other times, that isn’t necessary; Winston was being honest about his feelings towards his roommates, but Schmidt recognized that if Winston weren’t that it would be a problem for their relationship. Schmidt’s pursuit of Winston’s real feelings is ultimately about him attempting to make sure what happened between Angie and Nick doesn’t happen to Winston and his housemates. 

Stray Observations:

-“You were so light and chill. You were Pixar Winston”

-Schmidt goes to Nick and Cece about his concerns about Winston: “White Nick and Brown Cece are we allowing Winston to be his blackest self?”

-“I had to stop and buy this bitchass a helmut cuz he was being such a bitchass”

-Angie on the guns: “Where were these when we were having sex?” Also: “It’s not as fun without someone firing back”

-Jess is initially hesitant about drinking: “Absinthe has killed so many of our famous painters”

-“I could ask anyone of these street youths” – It’s how Greenfield says youths that makes it so damn funny.

-Drunk Nick was great: Him trying to eat an olive but failing was a great sight gag. To Sam: “If you were a hat, you’d be a top hat”.

-“You’re being really cool about the Jamiroquai tattoo on my butt”

-“I don’t have money but I can repay you in Nick Bucks – which includes payment in smiles and things from my wardrobe”
-There is still some well-done, very funny and emotional stuff in this episode. I'm just not a big fan of how it gets there. 

Grade: B-

Thoughts on Season 1 of "Downton Abbey"

I have never been a fan of soap opera or melodrama. I used to think it beneath me (I can get that way about my pop culture opinions). And yet in recent years, I find myself more and more oddly enthralled by shows that feature it. I was a fan of The O.C. I’ve enjoyed The Vampire Diaries. Granted these are series that aren’t all soapish drama and dastardly intrigue. In fact, they’re melting pots of various genres and elements that have proven themselves really good series of the last two decades. They’re smart, meta, and funny with great characters and really good (though at times faltering) plotting.

Period pieces are often known for their melodrama, and British aristocratic period pieces feel like the exemplary works of this. There was a time when period pieces were well-liked, chic, and cutting edge, as well as critically well regarded. That time seemed as if it had long since passed, with periodized dramas becoming marginally less produced. Only a few years earlier, it seemed as if period pieces couldn’t really win over a significant audience and had gone out of fashion. As a history major, I can attest from experience that there are a lot of people that find things that are historical in nature boring and uninteresting; that opinion appeared only to be amplified in the last two decades. Personally I’ve always found that period pieces fail because of how tied down they are by events having to happen as they occurred (there’s simply no way around it, but it ties writers hands and often leads them to fail to create meaningful drama by checking off plot points).

This is partly why Downton Abbey is rather impressive. People are actually watching it (and enjoying it at that). Sure, Maggie Smith garners (rightfully so) a lot of attention; however, she’s not the only reason for the show’s appeal, success, and quality. The show features a large cast filled with interesting and well-portrayed characters. As the season has gone along, almost every single member of its sprawling cast has been given interesting, well-written character arcs, or at least nice, isolated stories that provide solid showcases for their talents. Maggie Smith may be a delight but she holds little screen time. Many characters were just as fun and fascinating, and I ended up caring for them just as much if not more so. Jessica Brown Findlay as Sybil, the youngest daughter, made her character far more enthusiastic and likable than her two older, bitchier sisters (who though played rather well by Michelle Dockery and Laura Carmichael are terribly selfish and mean). Her foray into politics and her kindness towards Gwen made her an always welcome screen presence. Rose Leslie (who’s gone on to star as Ygritte in Game of Thrones) played the hope, and self-doubt of upwardly minded maid Gwen to a tee. Penelope Wilton as Isobel proved a great, more progressively thoughtful match for Violet. Sophie McShera made me care so much for constantly misused, mousey, well-intentioned Daisy. Not only does the series have a great cast, but it’s also thematically rich without always shoving messages down your throat. The series deals with class, gender, sexuality, growing old, and family, among many other themes. While it’s well-trotted, familiar territory, the series deals with it sharply and with a reserved but stylish tone. The period detail is also incredibly rich and detailed, and it feels like a world that worth inhabiting if only for a little while. Though it shows the aristocrats being a bit too noble or sympathetic towards their employees than might be realistic, it’s often forgivable in the hands of such assured writing and acting.

   

While story of the death of a handsome Turkish diplomat dying during sex felt strangely out of place (It stretches credulity a bit too much and came off as wildly soapish and weird even for a heavily melodramatic series such as this. Although I think the aftermath of it in the proceeding episodes was well-executed), the stories primarily proved themselves by grounding interesting character arcs in historical realism. By staying true to the particularism of aristocratic England and turn of the century Europe, the drama not only felt plausible but surprisingly interesting. I never expected myself to be so invested in the lives of English aristocrats and their servants, but the characters are so well-realized and so well-presented that it becomes hard to resist the intrigue. Not to mention the undeniable artful elegance and understated wit that carries the series even when the historical nuance might seem tedious or distracting. The constant intersection of the aristocrats and their servants has been incredibly well-handled. With events downstairs in the staff’s quarters affecting the upstairs drama just as much as their employers’ actions having a trickling down effect.    

It could be argued that we’ve returned to the age of the period piece. Downton Abbey isn’t the only recently noteworthy periodized drama. Mad Men, and Boardwalk Empire have had excellent television seasons that take place in the not too distant past. Much like these series, Downton Abbey has a wry, self-awareness that uses its knowledge and hindsight of history that the characters lack in order to hold not only a sense of dread and foreboding over their heads but also holds them accountable for some of their less egalitarian-minded mores, views, and actions. 

The series plotting turned out to be one of its strongest elements. Storylines culminated quite strongly in the penultimate and final episodes. Mary and Matt’s will they/won’t they relationship came together only to fall apart when Cora became pregnant, leading to the possibility of Matt losing his claim to Downton. Thomas and Miss O’Brien’s scheming finally came to a head (Thomas got caught for stealing and trying to do in Bates, while Miss O’ Brien Realized she’d taken her schemes too far when she ended up being responsible for Cora’s miscarriage). William got to beat up that awful bitch-face of Thomas like we’d all been waiting for someone to do for soooo long. And Daisy realized that she was wrong to be head-over-heels for Thomas when William was clearly the much better human being. Ms. Patmore’s eyesight became too bad to avoid the question of it, and Robert had her get eye surgery. Sybil’s shepherding of Gwen finally paid off, and she helped Gwen get a secretary position with a newly arising telephone company. Bates and Anna appear to be on track for the nice relationship they’ve been heading towards all season, after Anna helped save his job. AND WORLD WAR ONE IS HERE!!! 

The forward momentum of history and its unavoidability has been a constant theme of the first season. Whether it be electricity or telephones or socialism or women’s rights, many people both young and old have been stubborn and weary of change. The Dowager Countess is the obvious example of this as she’s baffled by Sybil’s flirtation with reform or Mary’s presumption of sex before marriage or Robert’s lack of conviction to fight for Mary’s right to be heir. Even her fight against Isobel in the flower competition (that she’s won every year) is her whole world view in miniature. She refuses to accept anyone else winning (because that would be accepting a new way of looking at things and in turn change). Although she eventually gives in because even grouchy, stubborn Violet has a soft spot she pretends not to have. Violet is in fact the one who argues that Mary ought to accept Matt’s proposal before the gender of the new baby is discovered (“Mary has the ultimate trump card,” she tells Cora. “What’s that?” Cora asks. “She’s family,” Violet replies). 

While I could see this melodrama becoming stale or overly crazy or derail the show at some point down the line, for now, I’m a fan of the series. I believe there are better series, but Downton Abbey remains oddly engrossing.  

Some Notes On Site Policies and Reviews

Hey!

For those of you who have come across this blog in one way or another, I just wanted thank you for checking out what I have to say on the various movies and tv series that I review.

That being said, I was hoping to clarify some things:

Commenting:

Not only do I hope you’ll comment on posts I upload, I encourage it. Criticize points I’ve made about the movie or series. Question the grades I’ve provided (I’ll get to grading policies in just a little bit).

The only thing I ask is that you be civil. If you’re disruptive or rude or blatantly antagonistic, and can’t be part of a thoughtful conversation/analysis, I’ll delete your comments. 

Also, for series that may be more political in nature or make political arguments, do not espouse your political views. The dialogue about the series is about how well they handled and portrayed stories and narrative are, not whether they should/shouldn’t have argued for a particular point of view.

Grading:

The grades I assign things are subjective, and on another level a bit arbitrary. They’re solely my opinion and they are subject to change if I feel I may have initially been wrong.

I give grades because I feel it adds another layer to the conversation. In the case of tv series, grades are given to series based on what we already know they’ve been capable of. If it’s a good episode but we know they’re able to do so much more, than the series is graded more harshly. For movies (and to extent shows as well) they’re graded in consideration of how good they are at what they tried to achieve. May be it’s a stupid action movie with no real purpose or thoughtfulness, but if that’s what it was going for and it was good at that and entertaining; it may very well be more highly graded than you expect.

Grades with a slash between them (e.g. "B+/B") are exactly what they appear to be. They're somewhere between those two grades, and demonstrate just how fickle I can be about these sorts of things. Grades aren't everything and plenty of things I review won't feature grades at all. "A"s are meant to be rarely given out with B's still being really solid work.

Free feel to argue them. Your opinions may very well sway me.

"Stray Observations":
These are particular moments, quotes, or indvidual thoughts of mine that just wouldn't fit nicely into the main review portion but I felt merited attention. I only do them for television reviews.  

How Do I Choose What I Review:

I review what I’m currently watching and like. I’m always looking out for new, good shows and films, and I’m always open to suggestions as to what to watch. That being said, this is a pop culture blog and may deal with at some point down the line with mediums and subjects beyond film and television if I find them interesting and worth merit. 

If enough people have an interest in me reviewing something, I may very well, especially in the case of tv series. A conversation about what I review is just as important as the reviews themselves; so if you push for me to review something/review something more, I really hope you comment on the reviews for it.