Why Downton is Failing

Allen Leech plays Tom Branson

I’m Julian Fellows and I have this idea of essentially doing Upstairs Downstairs (a class drama with the focus on the Downstairs people) as a super rich costume drama about a manor home (this time, more focused on the Upstairs people).

I pitch it to the BBC and they say, “Great, but make the Countess of Grantham an American to seduce the American audience.” And then I write and write and write, showing drafts to my producers and tweaking to please. Then it airs and we party. Then success delivers the really hard part.

The enormous success of the show created the inevitable: a demand for another season or seasons, and suddenly after having years to write the first season, I have months to craft a second series and then a third and now a fourth.

It is still better and richer than anything else on television but the problems are becoming harder to ignore. The debut episode this past Sunday was a disappointment in several ways:

•  What was the point of the story line about the Nanny? It was unnecessary and contributed nothing to our understanding of the times or another character.
• Mary was badly written and directed in her grief. She was written as a cartoon and the worst part was her line to her son” “Poor little orphan.”
• And poor Barrow… Mr. Fellows has abandoned a character that had become complex and interesting and reverted to making him a caricature of evil.
•  And poor Lady Crawley… She has been treated like Barrow. She has become the character who cares for those whom others will not care for. She is the Upstairs version of Mrs. Hughes who does the same thing. They are identical characters of differing means.
• The return of Edna Braithwaite is a forced plot point. I do not believe that this character could or would be re-engaged by the family after being fired—especially for inappropriate behavior with Branson. The return of this character is an unfair challenge to viewers who cannot remember or did not see her first scenes in the show.
• The forced love quadrangle of Daisy & james etc. is uninteresting and confusing.
• And finally, Fellows has not had Tom Branson become gay, time travel to Vancouver and meet me. 

More on Walking

Many people have remarked on the curious relationship between walking and thinking. The rhythm of the body seems to free the mind, just as the rhythm of a mother’s walk (it is imagined) puts at rest her babe-in-arms. Solvitur ambulando, declared the ancients: “it is solved by walking”. Wordsworth wrote many of his poems on the move, as did John Clare. Nietzsche claimed to have made all his philosophical discoveries while walking, and Kierkegaard wrote that “I have walked myself into my best thoughts.”

~ Colin Thubron in The Economist 's Intelligent Life Magazine (Link)

Actors

Jenny Agutter

Jenny Agutter is an English actor. She came to my attention playing Sister Julienne on the BBC series Call the Midwife. And last night I saw her playing a psychopathic human trafficker on another BBC series, Inspector Lynley. She played her role in a way that had me feel empathy for her and she became, in my estimation, a master actor.

People use words and terms and phrases such as “versatile” and “disappear into a role” to describe that which is so hard to describe: true talent. A performer’s talent is measured by this capacity to adapt, to change—to be malleable for their directors, the characters and the tones of the script, the choreography or the score.

Last year I was in a play with W.K. whom I had seen and admired onstage but whom I did not know. It was my first time in a professional performance. And as we took notes from the director after rehearsals, he would often say: “I was thinking... what if I did this (and he would show us) instead of what I've been doing so that the audience…” and he would complete the sentence, always expressing his desire in terms of what was best for the audience, not him. It was like he was in the show and out in the auditorium watching it at the same time. Working with W.K. helped me see into the craft of the artists whom I love above all other professions. And when I see mastery, as I did with Jenny Agutter, I am captivated.

When I travel, it is discoveries I remember most—the things I was not expecting or planning to see. And serendipitous activities with friends are the most memorable. So whereas I am used to mastery—in fact I expect it—when I go to see Meryl Steep, Laura Linney, Judy Dench or Toni Colette, when I see it for the first time in an actor I've never noticed before, like Jenny, the element of surprise enhances my transcendent awe.

And Jenny makes me think of all the other actors out there who are unknown to me who are fellow master actors. They are ambassadors creating more fervent fans like me, unheralded. How I wish they could feel my love.

Perfect Music From Fred

A favourite music video... The chorus is wobbly but a hugely moving part of the track is the clicking of Fred's oxygen pump. This version of Fix You is part of the documentary Young at Heart, one of the more uplifting movies I have ever seen about a choir of geriatrics. Fred passed away during the making of the film but what a touching legacy he has left us in this unparalleled version of a very moving song by Coldplay.

Sad?

A Stunning Chart

This chart is an inspirational celebration of beautiful design, interesting statistics and masterful graphic communications.

I Can Hardly Wait

What the hell is happening to me? All my values are changing and all I seem to want to do is stay at home. I don't want to go out (but I do when friends invite) and I certainly do not want to travel. I used to be a gadfly, now I am becoming a recluse.

Why don't I like TV anymore? Why don't I go to movies (but I  will see the one promoted above)? Then of course, there's the libido; well actually there's not the libido. Maybe it's with my hair somewhere.

I remember when standing up, turning and walking was a single movement. I remember not waking to cramps and having to jump out of bed. That's the worst part, the remembering. Of capacities past and people like Mike and Chris who are gone?

What the hell is happening to me? Oh wait… it's winter, the days are 10 minutes long and all there is is dark and wet. Today is January 1. There are 67 more days until Daylight Saving Time starts!!