Author Topic: PBS Masterpiece Classic 2011-2012 (Read 157226 times)

marcie · « **Reply #240 on:** February 06, 2012, 10:30:26 AM »

Masterpiece Classic 2012 brings back favorite authors and introduces new authors and programs. See the complete 2012 MASTERPIECE CLASSIC schedule.

NOW DISCUSSING

April 15, 2012
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
An adaptation and completion of Charles Dickens' last novel left unfinished at the halfway mark at his death, The Mystery Of Edwin Drood is a psychological thriller about a provincial choirmaster's obsession with 17-year-old Rosa Bud and the lengths he will go to to attain her. Cast includes Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters) and Julia MacKenzie (Miss Marple).

COMING

April 22 & 29, 2012 at 9pm
Birdsong
An adaptation of Sebastian Faulk's novel about lovers torn apart by World War I. Eddie Redmayne (The Pillars of the Earth) plays Stephen Wrayford, whose pre-war affair with Isabelle Azaire (Clemence Poesy, Harry Potter films) has an enduring effect on him as he fights in the trenches.

ALREADY DISCUSSED

April 1 & 8, 2012
Great Expectations
Widely considered one of the greatest novels by Charles Dickens, Great Expectations tells the story of Pip the battered orphan boy, who rises from blacksmith's apprentice to gentleman under the patronage of a mysterious benefactor, who assures him of "great expectations." Starring Gillian Anderson, David Suchet and Ray Winstone.

February 26, 2012
One 90-minute episode
The Old Curiosity Shop
A teenage girl and her grandfather lose everything to a maniacal moneylender and flee his relentless pursuit. Derek Jacobi (I, Claudius) stars as Grandfather, with Sophie Vavasseur (Northanger Abbey) as Nell and Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Quilp.

January 8 to February 19, 2012
Downton Abbey Season 2
Downton Abbey season 2 resumes the story of aristocrats and servants in the tumultuous World War I era. The international hit is written by Julian Fellowes and stars Maggie Smith, Elizabeth McGovern, and Hugh Bonneville, plus a drawing room full of new actors, portraying the loves, feuds, and sacrifices of a glittering culture thrown into crisis. Watch all episodes online through March 6 at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/watch/index.html

The Primetime Emmy Award® winning Downton Abbey season one returns December 18 & 25, 2011 and January 1, 2012. (Check local listings.)

marcie · « **Reply #241 on:** February 06, 2012, 10:30:37 AM »

Major Patrick Gordon is the name that Edith's "Patrick" says he took from a bottle of gin while he still had amnesia and was sent to Canada. We find out that a Peter Gordon was Patrick Crawley's best friend and would have known about the few things that he told Edith he remembered from his past.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #242 on:** February 06, 2012, 11:39:01 AM »

Did he or not do the deed - Bates sure came back more than discouraged - he could hardly look Anna in the eye and he swiftly left her after having been away for a day or two - not exactly the actions of a lover...!!!

Seems to me the Patrick incident was again showing history that I remember more from WWII but maybe is was a part of the WWI story as well - where men on the battle field share family intimacies and after their death, sometimes at the hands of the so called buddy, the buddy assumes his ID. Seems to me there was even movies or a movie about someone coming home from war assuming a battle field switch and passing himself off as a husband.

Edith can sure pick 'em - poor child - and angry Daisy - looks like others are more easily able to put feelings on the auction block and expected her to do the same.

Interesting dynamics as the under current between Cora, Violet and Isobel - Isobel is made to seem a pushy egotist and yet, when you consider we would expect that kind of focus, drive and hopefully a concern for humanity from any man trying to make a difference - Cora and Violet represent the traditional place that women were subject to before the woman's movement. Isobel may be before her time but the undercurrent seems to suggest that she is not to be admired but to show her as easily fooled because she is not playing the game that keeps women in their safe secure place. Thinking about it even her son, Matthew did a bit of female bashing in an earlier segment because of her headlong drive to bring change.

Unfortunately Isobel does not have the smoothness that allows her to play in the Cora, Violet playground but when you think of it her drive and ability to organize is the exact skills that successful operations look for in a leader. It appears they are also showing Cora to be a success running a large enterprise. Between the running of the Manor all those years and now the addition of running the convalescent hospital while retaining her traditional feminine ways today would make her an excellent manager rather than the CEO type leader that better matches Isobel. And of course Violet, makes the perfect politician - head of the Board of Directors.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #243 on:** February 06, 2012, 12:38:25 PM »

The writers don't seem to have much imagination, they're pulling out all the old stereotypes - maybe i've been living too long and seen too many tv and movie stories.

. How is this different from Peyton Place? Don't get me wrong, i'm enjoying it, but a little disappointed w/ the story lines. Pregnancy, amnesia, characters must pay for their sins, men and their lust, characters pretending to be someone else, bossy old ladies........ Maybe that's just life!?!

Frybabe · « **Reply #244 on:** February 06, 2012, 12:55:22 PM »

I'm with you Jean. Too much like soap opera, and I don't like soap opera. Still, it isn't bad enough not to watch at all - yet.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #245 on:** February 06, 2012, 01:04:52 PM »

Look up - it's a bird - a plane - it's a Harlequin Novel

Per chance in Julian Fellows related to Barbara Courtland.

nlhome · « **Reply #246 on:** February 06, 2012, 01:59:07 PM »

Unfortunately, real life is often like a soap opera.

MaryPage · « **Reply #247 on:** February 06, 2012, 02:11:09 PM »

One of the first things they tell you in any creative writing course is that there is a very limited list of themes to be written about and that these have all been used repeatedly ever since our species has been writing. In short, nothing new under the sun as far as plot devices are concerned!

Differences are chiefly cultural and generational.

Babi · « **Reply #248 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:02:35 AM »

Good summation of the leading ladies, BARB. I think that covers it
very well.

Quote

Unfortunately, real life is often like a soap opera.

NLHOME
Up to a point, that's true, I believe. Except in real life, drama
isn't taking place every day of one's life! Mostly it's pretty
routine and humdrum.
Did you note that for the first time Lord Grantham displays a sense
of disappointment in his beloved Cora? He considers her actions in
pulling Ms. Shire back into the picture to be not only meddlesome but
unkind.
And I'm sure no one missed the small indication that Matthews
spine may be healing. There was always, at least in my mind, the chance that the spinal cord was only badly bruised, and would recover.

ginny · « **Reply #249 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:11:22 AM »

Thank you Marcie, I did finish finally watching it and I see who Peter Gordon is, that EYE of his, how DID they do that?

When he said before i stopped watching that he took his name from drink bottle, I kept thinking Gibley's for some strange reason.

Cora is suddenly shrewish, she snaps at him surely he can manage for one meal, when he's just said he would have done something on his own for lunch had he known, she's....gotten quite officious herself, doubtless due to her great burdens in running the estate, hospital, he's sort of left out (it IS his house, right?) But she runs the Downstairs, I know, and this may be in prelude to something not good in the marriage, if so it will be disappointing because Hugh Bonneville is seeming more and more ridiculous, to me.

And he now finds her curiously unfeeling, that's not good.

Matthew's leg is noticeably twitching, both of them in fact, in the scene out with Mary in the garden. No one seems to notice. He does hint later on about something that may or may not have happened.

Once again I feel kind of sorry for Mrs. Crawley (Isobel?) who as Barbara said earlier only seems to want to serve. Did Cora say that the recuperation thing at Downton was her idea and so they will be closing that facility?

Cora seems to be showing quite a new side here.

Babi · « **Reply #250 on:** February 07, 2012, 09:28:52 AM »

I didn't hear Cora's comment as 'snapping' at him, GINNY. I thought
is was the typical amused wife to a husband who didn't like his
routines disturbed. I did wish she had taken his "curiously unfeeling'
remark a little more seriously, but after a momentary startlement,
she brushed it off.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #251 on:** February 07, 2012, 01:50:06 PM »

The whole thing we see must be a strain on the Abbey - to Lord Grantham an interruption - he likes a well oiled enterprise and that was the pride he had in running the estate - now he does not know what he runs - most of the estate workers are fighting the war and he is supposed to be a poster child for morale so he wears a uniform - that must have been nerve wracking when he shows such pride in wearing his black evening suit that may only be good for a season - and Cora now is a working wife so that the tensions that the first generation of men felt and some still feel when they can no longer have their needs met by beck and call by a devoted wife whose only job was to run what in a Manor would be downstairs and in a small home the kitchen staff, children and the children's tutors and nurses.

We no longer hear as many husbands vocalizing their inept efforts towards home and hearth but it could be that some men are still nostalgic for a past and feel put upon because we are not living as pre WWI nor that pre WWI lifestyle risen from death during the 1950s and early 60s. Remember the jokes and how a man was thought more manly because he could not find his way around a kitchen...!

I am thinking Lord Grantham is feeling more and more redundant, therefore, unable to give and Cora was hoping for his good will and understanding - neither can read the other during this changing time. Golly if this is the difficulty that has Lord Grantham look askew for the comforts of another women - my mouth is dropping - is it so that men's ego's are that petulant and easily wounded during change.

MaryPage · « **Reply #252 on:** February 07, 2012, 03:42:08 PM »

MaryPage · « **Reply #253 on:** February 08, 2012, 11:42:34 PM »

My DVDs arrived today. If I have time, I will watch them before Sunday night. Have a lot on my plate just now, though, and may not find the time.

marcie · « **Reply #254 on:** February 09, 2012, 10:51:56 AM »

There are some interesting interviews with Julian Fellowes, the series creator, at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/index.html.

I especially found the one on "Cora and Creating the Series" very enlightening. He says that Cora, and her slight alienation from the culture around her (because she is American rather than British) is at the heart of the series.

Frybabe · « **Reply #255 on:** February 09, 2012, 01:56:15 PM »

Really? I thought it mostly revolved around Mary.

marcie · « **Reply #256 on:** February 09, 2012, 03:40:59 PM »

Me, too, Frybabe. Mary seems to me to be featured in the series so far.

I guess he means that the idea of Cora, an outsider, was what drew him to create the series. Maybe we'll see more of Cora in the future. Having her mother appear in Season Three might mean more about Cora.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #257 on:** February 09, 2012, 05:15:19 PM »

Makes you wonder if she is managing the Manor and handling her life as a typical English Lady - do you think her forthright attitude about chipping in to serve the homeless vets was more American than English - would an English lady much like Maggie Smith's character be more inclined to approve but to send over some kitchen help rather than organizing and helping herself - I do not know but this information makes me wonder...

And yes, the character that shows the biggest change appears to be Mary - the others all seem to react to the changes around them by being who they are where as Mary seems to change as life throws her different experiences.

MaryPage · « **Reply #258 on:** February 09, 2012, 05:25:55 PM »

Well, it WAS Cora who set up what they would do when the guy died in Lady Mary's bed. And it WAS Cora who toned Isobel down and forbade her to give orders to Cora's staff. And it WAS Cora who saved the estate with her money, miscarried the male heir, decided Downton would be a convalescent home, and so on and on.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #259 on:** February 09, 2012, 05:37:20 PM »

Do you think we did not give her contribution much never mind because we expected her actions as the lady of the Manor?

marcie · « **Reply #260 on:** February 09, 2012, 08:27:24 PM »

I don't think I had expectations of the Lady of the manor.

Oops. I didn't notice that Cora took the lead when that guy died in Mary's bed.

I was influenced by the seeming "feud" between Isobel and Cora and attributed Cora "toning down" Isobel to the continuing feuding, rather than her taking a leadership role. I missed that too.

I guess Cora hasn't seemed to me to be standing out as a leader or decision maker. I'll have to watch her character more closely.

MaryPage · « **Reply #261 on:** February 09, 2012, 09:34:43 PM »

Don't you remember the scene in the kitchen when Cora walked in and found Isobel giving the entire downstairs staff their marching orders?

The look she gave Isobel as she told her to come with her was incredible! I will never forget it! And when Isobel started to protest and go on telling the servants what, another look came that was enough to turn someone to stone!

jeriron · « **Reply #262 on:** February 09, 2012, 10:14:48 PM »

I think Cora was right.After all it's her house and Isobel seems to think she has very right to give orders etc. Personally I was happy to see Cora stand up to her and send her on her way.I didn't feel sorry for her at all.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #263 on:** February 10, 2012, 03:16:13 AM »

My daughters and I can't stand Cora! We love Isobel, bossy as she is. I think we must be covert subversives. Penelope Wilton is such a wonderful actress.

Rosemary

ginny · « **Reply #264 on:** February 10, 2012, 09:05:07 AM »

Here's a question I have and i bet Rosemary will know the answer. Despite my fascination with this phenomenon of British peers marrying rich American women to finance their stately homes, I am not particularly up on how those American women then fared (and there were a lot of them) and how they acted. Did they become in fact more British than the British? More aristocratic than the established aristocracy?

Did they in fact even fit in? Into the house parties for instance, were they sneered at privately? Those house parties seem in retrospect almost draconian. Nasty, especially among the women.

Did the help Downstairs respect them?

I noticed even in the old Upstairs Downstairs when the reverse was true, Sir Richard having married Lady Marjorie who outranked him, that she ran that house with an iron fist and the servants sort of sometimes looked down upon him?

So I'm just wondering.

Am I wrong or is the current lady of the manor, is she a countess, at Highclere American?

I do have the book The Shooting Party which I see PBS recommended somewhere as the true British Upstairs Downstairs tho I think it's fiction? They say it's a real look at what life was like then for both sides. I can't wait to get into it, it's not very big.

Maybe Fellowes is on to something with Cora who seems quite waspish to me. I don't see her enjoying much of anything at the moment.

MaryPage · « **Reply #265 on:** February 10, 2012, 03:08:59 PM »

Some of them got divorced, after the estate benefited from their American dollars. I remember well that Consuelo Vanderbilt, she who rescued the Duke of Marlborough's Blenheim Palace, wound up divorced after providing also an heir and a spare. Was Winston Churchill's mother, Jenny, also divorced? Or was she widowed? I used to know it all by heart, but now it seems all muddled.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #266 on:** February 10, 2012, 04:35:35 PM »

Golly looking at Cora I am seeing someone who I wonder if she ever gets tired of bailing someone out - she bails out the Manor by marrying into the family, she bails out Mary after her unfortunate fling into selfhood, she bails out the kitchen staff so they feel supported feeding the homeless vets, she bails out the tradition of upstairs downstairs by 'helping' Isobel see that discussing staff schedules is done upstairs without upsetting downstairs with decisions that are not theirs to make, she again, bails out downstairs with a more equatable schedule to accommodate eating schedules, she bails out the entire hospital enterprise not only with her work running the house but attempting to soothe both mother-in-law qnd husband to take on the enterprise...she bails out her mother-in-law listening and making suggestions about a new ladies maid. Heck she even bails out Isobel, not as Isobel expected however, Cora was positive and not negative - she could have pointed out Isable's grating attitude in the house but instead agreed with what she was saying aloud - she handled her statement as real and not a cover for something else.

Mary has the butler to soothe her when she is low and Cora soothes her husband - who soothes Cora? Her maid makes soothing sounds but does not appear to be as close as Cora thinks or needs and unknowingly to Cora was the cause of her mis-carriage. Maybe her mother, who we are told is coming from America will be Cora's champion but somehow I doubt it - I am thinking her mother is needing Cora to bail her out of some dilemma or at least lend her the feeling of being part of royalty.

mabel1015j · « **Reply #267 on:** February 10, 2012, 05:15:24 PM »

I just watched "The Queen". ...... Living hasn't changed much at that level in a hundred years!?!

jeriron · « **Reply #268 on:** February 10, 2012, 05:25:27 PM »

Barb

I agree!

Rosemary
could your dislike for Cora be because she's an American?

MaryPage · « **Reply #269 on:** February 10, 2012, 09:16:01 PM »

Oh, I very much doubt that!

Rosemary likes us!

marcie · « **Reply #270 on:** February 10, 2012, 10:29:49 PM »

rosemary, you are not alone. I too have been tending toward feeling more sympathy for Isobel rather than Cora.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #271 on:** February 10, 2012, 11:56:27 PM »

I am seeing them both getting short shrift - both give and neither are comforted - Isabel is so much more that does not fit the bounds of what is appropriate skill to be used publicly at this time in history - Cora has made herself useful and valuable which her husband has not figured out how to do in his role as a maturing man that is no longer in the fray.

jeriron · « **Reply #272 on:** February 11, 2012, 08:49:16 AM »

I think the difference in the way Cora is lets say to the way her husband is has to do with the fact that they both my have money but being from different countries they react differently to whats going on around them. An example is the way she jumped in to help her servants with food for the vets coming home. She never really appears uppity the way even her daughter sometimes do. They know no different way then how they were brought up in England. Even lets say the Rockafellows didn't live in America the way the ultra rich did in England.

MaryPage · « **Reply #273 on:** February 11, 2012, 09:00:11 AM »

I watched the rest of Downton Abbey last night on my new DVDs.

Don't worry, I won't give you a single hint. Some things surprised me, some disappointed, some pleased, some made me uncomfortable. After all, I have been surmising and writing and rewriting this tale since its inception.

Enjoy! And then we will talk.

Babi · « **Reply #274 on:** February 11, 2012, 09:37:14 AM »

I can't really see 'bailing out' as Cora's motivation in life, BARB.
She truly seems to love her husband. We all have to 'bail out' our
kids in emergencies. Any good employer will support his staff and
plan their work for maximum efficiency and good morale.
In a word, it's simply another woman doing her job and taking care
of all the crises as they arise. I imagine we all got tired of it
from time to time...but most of us stuck with it, didn't we?

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #275 on:** February 11, 2012, 10:58:59 AM »

Yes, women do a lot of taking care of and see it as their role - however, I do not see anyone acknowledging in the story her contribution and so I call it bailing out - she does it without any complain nor does it appear to cross her mind to be any different but again, she appears so alone without the kind of comfort and concern for her that she offers to others.

As to the difference between an English versus an American viva the difference - OK I am thinking outloud here - we certainly do not have the history and traditions to keep up regardless the money that some American families accumulated - these families would not have been so eager to add that knowledge that they sent their beloved daughters to England to find husbands -

Each of our nations has its culture and ways - to me when we observe the difference this gives us a window to find out more - I think we see someone who does not roll up the sleeves and get into the fray when tough times call for all shoulders to the wheel as elitist and yet, it may be that preserving place and class is an important role in the society. Just the concept of upstairs downstairs is screaming class structure based on a pyramid. I think we in the states do not understand the value of class structure and therefore, it is easy for us to pooh pooh the earmarks that keep it alive. It is probably at the heart of the current 99 versus 1% movement.

At the same time to be bound by a role and proper behavior iw what seems to be a plague for the three daughters. They did put shoulder to the wheel and here we have them breaking out - altering the class system - not sure if this story will show us the long term affects of that change. Along with that thinking we still have folks here in the states who think a pyramid is good. They are the ones who do not understand the 99 versus the 1% movement and see the movement as a disjointed rabble - they would prefer a cohesive single issue movement they can both negotiate with or do pitched battle with to show how beneficial the current system is to a nation.

Hmm come to think of it this difference may be part of the differences between Ireland and England in that Ireland as well as, Scotland came from a Clan tradition which is not as top down as a Monarchy. History does tell us that the English top down monarchy sure gave them a leg up for 1000 years or more

Frybabe · « **Reply #276 on:** February 12, 2012, 08:25:23 PM »

I rewatched last weeks episode last night. Something struck me as being especially painting or photo portrait like. Right after Mrs. Hughes left Ethel, Ethel sat with the baby off to the side of the screen with the wall/window/ledge behind to fill the rest. What a magnificent portrait painting that would make.

BarbStAubrey · « **Reply #277 on:** February 12, 2012, 08:27:17 PM »

you have to wonder if that shot was prophetic - we shall see...

marcie · « **Reply #278 on:** February 12, 2012, 10:58:54 PM »

I'm looking forward to the episode tonight.

I am feeling sympathy for Lord Grantham. He was schooled as a military man and was looking eagerly to get back to it and be of use to his country. Then he was told he was too old and that his position was honorary.

He seems to be in the same boat as the women were before the war. He wants action and to be of service but he doesn't have a path to attain that.

marcie · « **Reply #279 on:** February 12, 2012, 10:59:36 PM »

Frybabe, I'll have to replay that scene. I didn't notice it.

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Author Topic: PBS Masterpiece Classic 2011-2012 (Read 157226 times)