Downton Abbey

The popularity of this series is too great for me not to be skeptical. I've seen many great period series, among the best of which I consider The House of Eliott, which is in a similar vein to Upstairs, Downstairs, of course. For someone who thinks they've discovered something new in Downton, it's a bit striking, but if you strip away the general hype, it remains a fairly watchable show about what happens above and below stairs. We'll revisit those developments in British society after 1912 and, if we hang on, we'll also relive the many adventures of the Roaring Twenties, which of course were not as tumultuous as one would hope. But that's why we have other stories, set among the middle class or the artistic elite of continental Europe or North America. (2019.02.18)

A dash of Gosford Park, a dash of “In the Castle and Beneath the Castle" by Božena Němcová, a dash of Austen, a dash of Brontë Sisters, a dash of black and white, a dash of Oprah and quite a big dash of sarcasm and British humor - dry as a glass (well, more like a bottle) of extra dry gin. That goes for season one. The second season is a bit Esmeralda and, more than anything else, an overly-sweet soft drink, which in the end unwittingly becomes a farce employing almost all existing soap opera clichés. Simply a parody of itself. The only thing that saves its honor is the (un)Christmas special 2011, which raises hope that the next series could return "to its roots". This was confirmed primarily in the “beneath the castle" storyline. The “castle" line at the beginning remained unintentionally ridiculous. After that, however, it bounces back from the bottom and, all in all, season three is once again an excellent old-world series; which is also true of the Christmas episode of the 2012 season, which, while pushing things forward more than the entire season, is terribly... Dumb. Season four does not meet the quality standard of the previous seasons; on the one hand, it painfully lacks a central connecting storyline, or at least a hint of one, and then there are just too many characters. And each character in every episode is given two to three minutes in the sun; for some it is too little, and for others it is way too much. It jumps from character to character without rhyme or reason, and often times nothing comes of it because most of them are not given sufficient space. And it's most noticeable in the 2013 Christmas episode, where there are about 100 characters and... And nothing comes of it; no drama, nothing. This is also true of the entire fifth season, which is merely a spinning wheel parody of itself and in which all the problems of the previous series are accentuated rather than solved. P.S.: Despite the excellent dubbing, there is no point in watching it other than in the original version, which in this case is an integral part of it. | S1: 5/5 | S2: 2/5 | S3: 4/5 | S4: 3/5 | S5: 2/5 | (2012.02.27)

I consider myself a left-wing liberal, but the first seasons of Downton Abbey enchanted me with its old-fashioned conservatism of the noble estate, where respect for traditions and natural authorities are not taken for granted, and after five episodes, I eagerly awarded it 5 stars. However, the second season followed, and it somehow declined in my eyes, and I more or less endured the third season. When I attempted to watch the fourth season, I began to feel an immune reaction in my body and gave up on it. It's not so much about the usual illness of TV series or a decline in the quality of the screenplay, but rather my political beliefs were being triggered, and the conservative idyll started to irritate me immensely. On such a large scale, any false note naturally becomes apparent, and I have to agree with the notion that Downton Abbey seems like a grandly staged soap opera for snobs. The on-screen events could be easily parodied. When you look at it closely, I always wondered how the cursed and despised genre of soap operas would look if it were filmed not as we know it from Czech or Latin American soap operas, but with careful attention to quality casting and directing, and in the case of Downton, I actually managed to find out. At first glance, it works, and one can admire the acting of the participants, the beauty of the women, the nobility of the men, and the scheming of the villains, but at the same time, one must not think too critically and must delicately turn a blind eye to some of the actions of the characters on TV. If I evaluate the series as a whole, I would give it a mere 2 stars and a 45% overall impression. If I were to evaluate only the first season, I could possibly consider giving it 4 stars. (2015.03.08)

I enjoy both the premise and the setting. The series is filmed very professionally. Plus, it features Maggie Smith, whose Violet Crawley makes brutal bon mots about everything, and Michelle Dockery, who has been a favorite of mine since her role as Susan in Hogfather. With such a constellation, it's virtually impossible for me to be dissatisfied. Of course, I realize that the plot is extremely idealized. So what? Since I’m generally cynical about what life and film has to offer, I was almost taken aback by how good I felt watching this series. (2017.10.03)

Perhaps because the beginning of the twentieth century has always been inexplicably close to me in the language of film or television series, perhaps because Julian Fellowes is able to create characters in such a way that I am a full-throated fan of them right from the pilot episode, perhaps because I can almost hate some of them and then discover the old ones in new dimensions and marvel at the development of their character with the arrival of new characters. Perhaps for all these reasons, this magnificent estate is a dreamy, tearful, laughter-filled, and simply perfect place that, in all its indulgently polished six seasons, seems to me to be the most attractive television location. From the smallest everyday worries to a world war. From the head of the family to the very last maid. Love at first sight. (2017.10.09)