WORST Storylines..
What are they?
shareAnything having to do with the Bateses after season one. Their story was dull, and it dragged on for way too long.
shareIt seem to drag on for too long because there were ONLY 8 Episodes per season.
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MovieChat Forums > Downton Abbey (2011) Discussion > WORST Storylines..
Well I'm at the end of season 4 and so far I haven't thought there were any.
Remembering that this took place at the turn of the century and now the 1920's..(where we'll go from here I don't know) I know things were very different. For me the melodrama is a good break And far from what I usually watch,,,ie....Game of Thrones,Orphan Black,Mr Robot,Walking Dead,Black Sails,Shamless,Bates Motel...and others. All very dark stories.
And of course the acting,the music and the sets are all entertaining.
I'm watching this on Amazon Prime,so one episode after the other. I feel like I've been transported in a way, lol...and In a good way for the lost part.
Some of the best tv I've seen,ever...
1912 isn't exactly "the turn of the century."
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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.
The "Fake Patrick" story-line. It could have been amazing but just wasn't.
Once upon a time there was a magical place where it never rained. The end.
The "Fake Patrick" story-line. It could have been amazing but just wasn't.If they'd left out the I'm Patrick dialogue and just it more ambiguous, with Edith thinking it and him saying nothing either way, it would have been far more effective. Just a damaged man wandering around a house he seems to remember, meeting people he seemed to know once.
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I was very annoyed at the arbitrary killing-off of Sybil and Matthew, two of the main characters--young, healthy members of the same immediate family--both occurring in Season 03. It seemed random and wildly improbable.
With the obvious exception of Maggie Smith not one cast member in Downton Abbey was irreplaceable and I believe they could have proved that by hiring new actors for the roles. It would have made more sense than what was done.
Mice work in mysterious ways.
No, dear. That's God.
Once Tom became "domesticated" he became a bore. I wasn't sorry to see him go at the end of Season 05 and was disappointed at his unannounced reappearance after just a few episodes.
He may have set a record for the shortest time spent living in "The New World".
Mice work in mysterious ways.
No, dear. That's God.
Didn't Dan Steven want to leave, though? I seem to remember reading the production team were quite aghast about him going as there were going to be big plans for him and Mary. If he wanted to go, there really wasn't much choice other than to kill him off.
shareIf he wanted to go, there really wasn't much choice other than to kill him off
There was a choice.
Hire a replacement.
Mice work in mysterious ways.
No, dear. That's God.
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Hire a replacement.
Which never works.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheOtherDarrin share
Hiring a replacement used to be standard practice on TV. After a few episodes people get used to the new actor.
Halfway through the series "Rumpole of the Bailey" the actress playing his wife Hilda was replaced by another actress and life went on just as before.
It would have been a better solution for Downton than the arbitrary killing-off of two of the main characters.
Also a good way to keep an actor's ego in check. You are replaceable.
Mice work in mysterious ways.
No, dear. That's God.
I think it used to work before the internet and before there were a lot of cable outlets for syndication, so one might wonder "Is that a different actor?"
It's common still for soaps but that's because you expect low quality that's insulting to the viewer because it's a guilty pleasure. While this show is soapy, I do think it's insulting and unnecessary to the audience to recast a main character. If they had recast one of Mary's suitors I wouldn't have minded because they all looked the same to me.
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Consider the daffodil. And while you're doing that I'll be over here looking through your stuff.
There was a choice.
Hire a replacement.
Exactly - they do it all the time on soap operas and let's face it, as much as I love Downton Abbey it is like a classy soap opera. I hated it when Sybil and Matthew were killed off. Mary and Matthew had such great on screen chemistry, more than I have ever seen on any TV show.
"Vulgarity is no substitute for wit".
The killing off of Sybil and Matthew was not arbitrary. The Mary/Matthew and Sybil/Tom romances were TOO high-profile for it to work with any other actors in the Matthew and Sybil roles.
The original contracts for all the main characters was 3 years. HOWEVER, Jessica Brown-Findlay (Sybil) and Dan Stevens (Matthew) would NOT agree to continue beyond the 3rd Season. The same for Siobhan Finneran (O'Brien).
Julian Fellowes felt it was easy to deal with the departure of a Downstairs character (O'Brien) by just having them move on to another job/household. BUT the same could not apply to the Upstairs Crawley family. Jessica and Dan's departures left him no choice but to kill off their characters.
Yes, JF could have Sybil live after the birth and then ship Sybil & Tom off somewhere - never to be seen again. Just referenced via letter. BUT then he would have lost Tom and Sybbies's characters too.
No way could JF have Mary & Matthew disappear from living at DA. What would have been left of the story?
Yes, that's what I thought. Had a feeling the Sybil actress also wanted to leave. I'm certain they would have not killed her off otherwise.
I always wondered if the Fake/Patrick story was actually going to become a big thing for S3 after being introduced in S2 but obviously Matthew would have been at the crux of it and when he decided to leave they had to abandon it.
Does anyone know if that was the case as it was very odd to introduce it otherwise?
Sorry, but don't think there is any answer to why The "Fake Patrick" story line was dropped after that episode in Season 2. It has been discussed quite a bit on the board in various threads trying to determine why. No explanation was ever given.
shareTom. Anything involving Tom.
Whether it was suffering with him as an IRA radical, hitting on Lady Sybil, or just being a land warden, it was bad.
This was a true story., ..lol..
It is called a melodrama. It was as it was as it should be,...to quote the Dower ....lol
It was a soap opera, which is why I stopped watching after season 3. Lord Crawly seemed like he would never really suffer for his stupidity, there was the servant who was soooo ridiculously loyal he would give Jesus a run for martyrdom, the dowager duchess just spouting one-liners.... it got tedious quickly. I loved Gosford Park, which why I gave DA a try, but they were very different.
shareWhile I watched until the very end, the show lost something for me after Matthew died.
"Vulgarity is no substitute for wit".
Bates in prison. Matthew's walking drama. Mr. Green's murder. Hospital quarrel. Daisy/Alfred/Ivy love triangle. Tony Gilligan's obsession. Carson's old friend.
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