FTA-TV Downton abbey

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Glebehawk

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Aug 24, 2006
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Can't find anything on this yet. ITV drama which has been bought by Seven here and after watching just two eps let me just say this... ITS QUALITY.

Be interesting to see if it rates on Seven - as their promos have been skewed to a pretty young audience so far. They used a Keisha track I believe. Anyway its not half as fast paced as the promo team at Seven would have us believe, but makes up for it with brilliant scripting, acting and photography.

any other fans out there???
 
channel 7 are now running promos with both leigh montagna and brad sewell admitting its an addictive show and a must watch !!
 

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not much of a response to this show. Has nobody seen it??
I'm a little surprised. It's actually the best drama I've seen this year.
 
It started last night on channel 7 and IO loved it. Fantastic performances and a terrific script.

The promos with the Keisha song playing are embarassing. My 16 YO neice may like Keisha, but would hate this show. My parents would hate Keisha and love the show. It just makes no sense !!!!

It was a really strong first episode. The casting is perfect, apart from maybe the lady of the house who I thought was a bit weak.
 
Girlfriend loved it, this is like pr0n for her.

I was somewhat bored. Soapy period dramas are not really my thing, and even at the best of times I struggle to watch any program over half an hour long on commercial TV due to all the ads.
 
I wouldn't have thought I'd like it - but it somehow got me.
1.8m viewers last night too - that's massive numbers for a UK drama.
Seven can't do much wrong when it comes to ratings.
 
I actually recommended it to my Mum since she loves all those Period type shows. I haven't watched it yet but I plan to at some stage, judging by people's opinions I should like it.
 
I watched it but am on the fence whether I'll keep watching it. Something tells me it's a costume soap opera. Liked the acting/costumes and as for the house - hello!! Have a feeling there will be plenty of dirty deeds done dirt cheap in the story lines.
 
Upstairs Downstairs meets Pride and Prejudice in another episode of 'whose been sleeping in my bed'.

Still at least its not another cop show.

Not so sure I agree on the casting.

Maggie Smith is excellent as usual and about as hard for her to play this part than to switch the jug on to boil water.

However, Hugh Bonneville as the Earl? As the butler yes but as the leader? To me he lacks the sort of look and feel of a man really in charge.

and the other is Jim Carter as the butler 'Carson'. To rough to be a refined butler to the gentry.
 
RustyHawk said:
Upstairs Downstairs meets Pride and Prejudice in another episode of 'whose been sleeping in my bed'.

Still at least its not another cop show.

Not so sure I agree on the casting.

Maggie Smith is excellent as usual and about as hard for her to play this part than to switch the jug on to boil water.

However, Hugh Bonneville as the Earl? As the butler yes but as the leader? To me he lacks the sort of look and feel of a man really in charge.

and the other is Jim Carter as the butler 'Carson'. To rough to be a refined butler to the gentry.
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Agree. The actor playing the butler a bit rough IMO as well. I was thinking more your Anthony Hopkins type in Remains of the Day. Maggie Smith can play these sort of roles with one hand tied behind her back.

I may give it another viewing but have a feeling will get a bit bored with it.
 
I watched the first episode tonight. Seemed entertaining. Am downloading the second episode.

Caesar said:
Girlfriend loved it, this is like pr0n for her.

I was somewhat bored. Soapy period dramas are not really my thing, and even at the best of times I struggle to watch any program over half an hour long on commercial TV due to all the ads.
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Yeah I can't stand watching shows with ads in them anymore. Plus Australian networks sparsely seem to bother airing stuff in high definition :thumbsdown: I downloaded it :thumbsu:
 

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I watched the rest of the episodes over the last few days (only 7 episodes in the season). It is enjoyable. Only criticism I would make is the season is set over two years but it feels much shorter which makes that aspect seem needless.

There's going to be a second season of 8 episodes premiering later in the year so if you care about my opinion you may as well give it a shot (download it of course - **** watching it on Seven with ads and in standard definition) :thumbsu:
 
I've watched all 34 episodes. What annoys me is some characters start off really interesting but then die or just get pussified and don't go anywhere.

Matthew and Lady Sybil were interesting characters who actually gave a s**t about things outside the 'upper class world' but they got killed (admittedly the actors wanted to leave).

Mild spoilers in the rest of my post (if you watch on Seven)
Lady Mary starts off as a somewhat rebelious against her father's old world way of thinking but now she's barely different to him aside from having a clue about money. Now she's in this drawn out three-way romance plot but don't worry she'll end up with whichever one the audience thinks is cuter.

Tom starts off as a political Irish republican now he just wanders around the house and the garden and village talking to the school teacher you know he will end up ******* half a season from now.

Thomas was this servant who wanted to make something of himself and go places and even joined the war army to make it happen... somehow many years later he's the flipping underbutler.

Isobel is still in the show despite having nothing to do. Oh but she's got a potential new man in her life, they should get together in about six episodes. That's another problem with this show: really predictable romances.

Mrs Patmore and Daisy are still moaning idiots after 11 years (in the show's world).

The writing, characters and stories really tread water now. Probably because they don't want to set characters away from the house but probably more because they don't want to scare off the large middle England audience they've made for themselves.
 
Finally started watching just over a week ago and got hooked. About 1/2 way through S2 at the moment. The time jumps are a bit hard to get a feel for (from S1E1 to S2E4 it jumped practically 6 years), although I guess you can't exactly spend a couple seasons during WWI. It's impeccably made, and very much pr0n for me. The 7 promos had scared me off from seeing it (one wonders how trashy they could make something like The Wire appear to be). Is the dog's name ISIS? Got a timely giggle out of me.

I do like how it feels like a part of you is in every single character, in one way or another. I particularly find myself relating to both Mary and Edith in various ways, as well as a wealth of other characters. The period backdrop of events in real-time is also well utilised. Some storylines drag or get repetitive (Bates' wife problems, and the ongoing O'Brien-Thomas schemes are getting tedious), but otherwise it's supremely watchable. Elizabeth McGovern also often seems to have a slightly lower acting standard than a majority of the other cast regulars, although maybe its just the accent differentiation, and the general dippyness of the character.

Due to the melodrama, I imagine it won't be quite as strong as some other strong dramas in terms of immediate rewatch value, but if it can maintain this standard into S3-5 and manage to stay fresh at the same time, then that would be really awesome. I'd have it on equal footing with Boardwalk Empire for now.
 
Roobs321 said:
Finally started watching just over a week ago and got hooked. About 1/2 way through S2 at the moment. The time jumps are a bit hard to get a feel for (from S1E1 to S2E4 it jumped practically 6 years), although I guess you can't exactly spend a couple seasons during WWI. It's impeccably made, and very much pr0n for me. The 7 promos had scared me off from seeing it (one wonders how trashy they could make something like The Wire appear to be). Is the dog's name ISIS? Got a timely giggle out of me.

I do like how it feels like a part of you is in every single character, in one way or another. I particularly find myself relating to both Mary and Edith in various ways, as well as a wealth of other characters. The period backdrop of events in real-time is also well utilised. Some storylines drag or get repetitive (Bates' wife problems, and the ongoing O'Brien-Thomas schemes are getting tedious), but otherwise it's supremely watchable. Elizabeth McGovern also often seems to have a slightly lower acting standard than a majority of the other cast regulars, although maybe its just the accent differentiation, and the general dippyness of the character.

Due to the melodrama, I imagine it won't be quite as strong as some other strong dramas in terms of immediate rewatch value, but if it can maintain this standard into S3-5 and manage to stay fresh at the same time, then that would be really awesome. I'd have it on equal footing with Boardwalk Empire for now.
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Good lord.
 
Would you care to articulate why?

A little odd that such a highly acclaimed series hasn't even gotten to Page 2 yet on this board. I guess we can blame the 7 promos, and maybe the demographic of the board.
 
I watch it and like it but I'm pretty old for these parts. I never would have watched it if not for my wife and daughter insisting though but I'm glad they did, although I will say that this season is falling a little flat for me.
 
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