Time to bid another farewell but not a goodbye to
the Grantham’s and Downton. They'll be back for yet another season. When season three began, 7.9
million viewers tuned in, a record for PBS.
The Brits have delivered for us again.
Of course, its pedigree and prestigious American address
notwithstanding, Downton Abbey is a classic soap opera. There are definitely times when one thinks,
"Can’t believe I'm watching this".
And of course Downton is not only a soap opera but a derivative one at
that. Each episode builds on the tone and
themes, if not storyline, established in BBC's 1970s Upstairs Downstairs, also
shown here on PBS. That saga's smaller
but also grand 165 Eaton Place has been "reopened" with new owners in an updated
version — 9 new episodes so far — clearly aimed to piggyback on its emulator's
success. It's all rather incestuous,
wouldn't you say?
What is it exactly that has gotten so many of us
hooked on the Grantham family and their cohabiting servants? For one, the story is well spun; for another
it is very well acted. Yes the residents
of Downton live in a vastly different world than our own, but ultimately these
are human beings with aspirations and characteristics that transcend any given time,
place or class. Moreover, we're watching
a series that has sufficient airtime to allow for character development and,
not inconsequentially, neither our train of thought nor theirs is interrupted
by commercial messages. Ah the joys of public
TV. If you're not sending in your yearly
support, shame on you. The absence of
commercial interruption is equally appreciated by viewers of HBO created series
and most recently of Netflix's excellent House
of Cards.
The Downton characters are developing and we, as is
the case in any well-told story, are both engrossed and invested in them. We're rooting for the still unfulfilled hopes
evident both upstairs and down. We could
not help but be moved by the untimely loss of Sybil, in many ways the most
courageous and interesting of the Grantham sisters. We wait with bated breath to see the impact next time around of
what's happened to Mathew, Downton's great young hope. And while alas few of us have a figure like
Dame Maggie Smith in our own families, we so wish we had one of her ilk around
if only to observe the show of it.
Okay, Downton is good TV, but again what makes it so
compelling? For me the real pull of the
show is the underlying theme that runs through, the fundamental question that
is both timely and timeless. Right there
on display is the tension filled struggle between past and future. It is a struggle that makes at times for a
very awkward present. It rings so true
because we both know and live it. Issues
of class play at Downton much as they do in our own day. But let's not be simplistic about it. Holding on to yesterday, then and now, is
something found across the economic strata.
Clearly, the tug of war within the Grantham' family has its mirror image
in Carson's realm and in both cases it is mostly generational. That said, age and generation is not always
as decisive a factor as mindset — older people can be very progressive, young ultra-conservative.
Looking at our own social and political landscape,
our Dear Abbey if you will, there may be no more fundamental issue at hand than past
vs. future. There is also nothing more
ferocious than an aging animal (physically or mentally) faced with being
supplanted by a vigorous forward thinking youth. That's especially true when the pretender has
a different look, background or way. The
Downton syndrome plays out before us today as people of waning power and
yesterday's ideology face, for example, a president who doesn't look or talk like them. Tomorrow-focused people may show respect, but
tend not to accept what is or has been as a given. They question and they ultimately demand
change. Lord Grantham is unnerved by both. He sees the quality of his performance challenged and his
hold on the reigns undermined. Isn't
that what all change is about and why is so resisted? Passing the baton is always painful, at the very
least bittersweet.
It was only days ago that Pope Benedict announced, relative to the Church we know, his unprecedented abdication. It sent shock waves around the world and only
now are the Catholics and others beginning to focus on the ideological
fallout. Among the principal issues his
move raises is the nature
of the papacy itself, most especially the notion of infallibility. Remember popes aren't merely absolute
monarchs they are also seen as God's infallible representative here on earth. It gives them truly extraordinary
powers. Leaving aside celibacy and the
absence of family life in the traditional sense, there is a strong element of
Downton in the Roman Church. It is an
archaic Downton bound by traditions of the past — in large measure still living
in the past — with still vast but no longer totally secure resources.
To be sure Rome is being challenged by its immediate
and still unresolved scandals, to be charitable moral lapses. But the real issue they and, while
differently, other traditional religious groups face is how to bridge what was
with what must be if they are to sustain.
Their problem, and make no mistake equally ours, is how to let go and
move on. Easier said than done especially
when so many, perhaps a huge majority, are mired in or, perhaps lest
judgmentally, reverent of what for so long was.
When your arteries are clogging up with very tasty butter rich fare,
it's hard to embrace a much altered diet.
Very tough but in the end your survival depends on it.
We all know Lord and Lady Grantham. We know their children and perhaps mostly we
know the world down below, the one with the greatest stake in change and moving
forward. Downton's world may still be in
the early twentieth century but it translates fluidly in the twenty-first. We're all living it at this moment.
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