DOWNTON ABBEY: SEASON THREE, EPISODE FOUR

A birth and a death. A former prostitute. Kitchen and estate conflicts. The continuing saga of Mr. Bates’ murder conviction. The old guard represented by Grandmamma; the new by Mathew’s mother, Mrs. Crowley. These themes and more were all layered deliciously in the fourth segment of Downton Abbey.

            But two doctors arguing vehemently and loudly about life and death treatment for a woman in labor? In front of the family yet? Please. Now I know Downton Abbey is a fairy tale!

            But what a fairy tale. And how interesting and surprising as each doctor proves to be right-- and then wrong-- about their diagnosis of Lady Sybil, leading to her death. The baby survives, as everyone upstairs and downstairs in Downton Abbey mourns Lady Sybil— no doubt among millions of viewers all over the world.

            Meanwhile there is a conflict about running the estate—with more foreshadowed to come—between young Mathew, whose money saved Downton Abbey, and Lord Crowley, the head honcho-- also illustrating the generational conflict between the status-quo and moderninity.

            Here’s what I especially like about Downtown Abbey:

            * It’s gentleness amidst all the violence in television and movies-- and in life.      

            *The classically trained actors.

            *The depiction of a unique time and place that is gone forever, never to return.

            *It’s awareness of the changes in society and the world.

            *The beauty of the production.

            * The pleasure of living vicariously with dozens of servants (cooks, drivers, footmen. Ladies maids! Valets! Who dress you!)

            *I love stories and this is a good one!

Downtown Abbey: Season 3, Episode 2

Confronted by a letter Lavinia sent from her deathbed endowing her wealth to Mathew, he finally relented and used his inheritance to save Downton Abbey. (Surprise surprise)

After keeping us—and the Abbey staff --in suspense about whether Mrs. Hughes is sick we learn with relief before the hour is up that she doesn’t have cancer.

Anna, in her search for information that can prove her husband’s innocence and obtain his release from a lifetime in prison, learns that the woman he is convicted of killing was afraid of him! Could our nice Mr. Bates really be a murderer? If so, I think it could put some interesting teeth into the story.

And poor Lady Edith! As if being outshone by her prettier sisters for her entire life wasn’t enough of a humiliation, she is jilted publicly by the groom as she stands at the alter in her wedding gown. Only a total jerk would do something that horrible to a woman so maybe she is well rid of him.

My favorite character in Downton Abbey is Mathew’s mother, Mrs. Crawley. Unlike her fellow aristocrats she believes that the privileged have responsibilities to the less fortunate. In this episode she is helping prostitutes and reaching out to a particular young woman who, viewers of previous episodes will recognize as having been formerly involved with the Crawley family.

When someone is the family wonders how to help Lady Edith, who is so devastated she can’t eat or sleep, Mrs. Crawly, always a voice of reason, replies, “Get her some work to do!”

I love the hats...

 

DOWNTON ABBEY, Season 3, Episode 1

Last night money reared its vulgar head among the gentle aristocrats of Downton Abbey’s third season. It almost wrecked the marriage of Mathew and Lady Mary when he refused to use his inherited windfall to save Downton Abbey, suddenly on the brink of bankruptcy. Cora’s wealthy American mother, Martha, arriving for Mary’s and Mathew’s wedding, also refused to help. Daisy downstairs hasn't received her promotion from kitchen maid to kitchen assistant. The place is understaffed. The formidable Lord Crawley of Downton Abbey is brought down to tears. No one has the faintest idea how to survive without valets, ladies’ maids, footmen, butlers, cooks, chauffeurs. Who knows what pitfalls remain as the Crawlely’s are brought kicking and screaming into the real world? And who cares?

            I do! And according to the New York Times I am not alone. More than 120 million viewers in Sweden, Russia, South Korea, the Middle East and dozens of other locales are also addicted.

            We wait to see what happens to Mr. Bates in prison for murdering his wife; Mrs. Hughes’ cancer; Tom’s dirty tricks; Martha’s American maid’s kisses. But unlike in real life, the plotting is too deliciously predictable to have to really worry about the Crawleys’ fate. All we have to do is relax in vicarious luxury and watch. 

How big is the Fiscal Cliff Drop Off? Comparing today's recession to The Great Depression

The other night I saw Ken Burns’ Documentary on PBS about the Kansas Dust Bowl. In 1933, during the Great Depression, huge black clouds dumped layers of sand and dust over everything and everyone, killing cattle with famine and people with dust pneumonia.  Moving east it dumped four million tons of prairie dirt on Chicago.

     Watching, I was reminded of living through that awful time in Cleveland. My bootlegging father had been murdered in a turf war with the Mafia, leaving my mother with two children to raise during the Great Depression. A young widow, she worked in the Engineering Department in the City Hall. The City of Cleveland was so broke it paid its employees in “script” which was like Monopoly play money. On payday my mother would put me in the car, drive to the grocery store, and send me in to ask if they took script. I was 8 years old. Too humiliated to go in herself she waited in the car at the curb. The answer was usually “no” so she would drive to another store and another until I came back to the car with the good news that that store actually took script. Then she would go in and buy groceries.

     Some have compared the Depression to the 2009 Recession, but there is no parallel. Unemployment went from 3% in 1929 to 25% after the Wall Street Crash. Fully half of Cleveland workers were jobless. There were long soup lines. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost nearly 90% of its value. Scores of people were killing themselves.

     Potatoes were a penny a pound. You could feed a family for a week on five dollars. Cars cost $500 and had a terrific rumble seat that opened in the back.  Rent for a three-room apartment was $60 a month. Movies cost a dime.

     Rightly or wrongly President Herbert Hoover was blamed. The shanty towns of tents people had to live in were called Hoovervilles. Food dished out in soup lines was called Hoover Stew; Hoover blankets were newspapers; Hoover Wagons the broken down cars that were pulled by mules.

     But it was a better America. We were like family looking out for each other, united in our mutual struggle and shared experience. There was not the bitter personal and political polarization that exists today or the abyss between the rich and poor or Washington’s political paralysis. Even Al Capone opened a soup kitchen.

     Surely we never want to return to those heartbreaking and dangerous years. But perhaps we can learn something from them.

BOARDWALKE EMPIRE: Season 3, Episode 12

The season finale started with guns a blazing, and unfortunately not everyone survived the war. Sorry Gyp lovers. He was just too insane to live, but I have faith in the Boardwalk Empire writers to create a new outlandish character in Season Four. 

This season wrapped up with lots of people finally getting what they deserve. Unfortunately, Gillian made the cut. I wish Gyp was a dominant instead of a submissive. I guess we will have to deal with the psychotic woman for another season. Thank goodness Harrow took Tommy to safety.

Nucky is starting a new world of problems for himself though. He has sent the FEDS to the hooch warehouse -- incriminating Arnold Rothstein and Joe Masseria.  

Season Three is over, and I have to say, I find myself mildly disappointed. The episodes seem consistently predictable with a few oddities being exposed. We saw Gillian killing the Jimmy look-alike from a mile away. We predicted Owen Sleater’s death, and Gyp definitely had it coming by deductive reasoning. Am I getting used to the writers’ style or is the series taking a true nose dive?

Several Boardwalk Empire fans have expressed disappointment with the amount of time the show spent on women's health issues. I love to see the historical aspects of the Prohibition era! Of course the turf wars and the booze runs are thrilling, but there is a lot to learn from this period. The government is intervening on social issues. Women's health, substance use --why are these issues being regulated by the United States government?

Now it’s time to spend the next few months studying the history of Nucky Johnson, Arnold Rothstein, Lucky Luciano, Al Capone, Meyer Lansky, and Joe Masseria.

Stay tuned to the blog to see if we can figure out next season’s plot.

 

 

BOARDWALK EMPIRE: Season 3, Episode 11

It looks like the Boardwalk Empire fans who have been screaming for more Capone, Luciano, Chalky and Harrow are finally going to get their wish! I cannot wait to see how this turf war is going to play out! I have a feeling Gyp Rossetti’s days are numbered – seven to be exact.

I didn’t think the writers had any more room to ramp up the climax to this saga, but it looks like they were able to make the climax point the size of a pin head last night. Margaret and the kids have safely escaped, whether that is from Nucky or Gyp Rossetti’s henchmen is not known yet. It looks like we will have to wait a year to find out how Owen perished and what the next move is for the Thompson relationship.

Nucky and Eddie are taking refuge on the north of the tracks, and Nucky finally knows who is truly willing to back him. Eddie took a bullet for the man, and Chalky is risking his life and the lives of his community members for the man who has denied him everything this season. Why are Eddie and Chalky backing Nucky? I guess it is the only way Chalky knows he will gain any leverage in Atlantic City. Gyp surely isn’t going to give Chalky the turf and respect he deserves. We still don’t know why Eddie puts up with Nucky’s abuse. Hopefully Nucky’s eyes stay open to who helps him out of this jam.

Speaking of men who have finally had enough abuse from their captors, I cannot wait to see Harrow finally give Gillian what is coming to her. I want him to take Tommy away from that nightmare and to live a happy and healthy life with Julia. I really have a feeling that Harrow is going to not only save Tommy but also Nucky and the rest of the Atlantic City gang.

Body Count Prediction: I think Gyp’s time is up next week, and I think Harrow is going to be the one to send him to his maker.

BOARDWALK EMPIRE: SEASON 3, EPISODE 10

Unfortunately, my body count prediction was correct for this episode. Margaret and all of the female viewers swooning over Owen are heartbroken. Even I woke up this morning feeling a little sad for Margaret. What is she going to do? Pregnant with Owen’s child, and we all know she hasn’t been physically romantic with Nucky. If she knows what’s best for her, she’ll buck up and perform her wifely duties or she’ll end up at the bottom of the sea with Owen, instead of in St. Louis. OR, she can continue with her plan to move west with only the children.

Killing the wife off in mobster stories is a very touchy area. First reason being, the first suspect in any woman’s death is the husband. Secondly, why kill her when you can make her pay for her adultery for years to come. Maybe Nucky will once again see the helpless woman that he fell in love with and grow a heart. After all, he did just lose his love only weeks ago. Speaking of which, how is Nucky healed from his PTSD symptoms so quickly? No ear ringing, no shell shock, no flashbacks.

I was hoping this season would bring more in terms of Harrow. It is great that Harrow has found love, but it’s looking like he is setting himself up for making the body count list. Not only does it look like he is thinking of taking Tommy from Gillian Darmody but now he is on the old man’s list.

Both Margaret and Harrow have intentions of making a run for it, and if there is anything I know as a mafia crime writer it is that no one escapes without either dying or getting their hands bloody.

Body Count: There are so many people that could make the chopping block next week! Margaret for cheating, Harrow for beating up an old man, Gillian so Harrow can take Jimmy, and Gyp for the turf war and just being plain evil. We have two more episodes, and I have a feeling Gyp is going to get it. Maybe Chalky will come to Nucky’s rescue once more by killing Gyp, and he will get that club after all.