Downton: Revisited - Season 1 Episode 1

I get it, because it's a train. . .

I had forgotten that the Pilot for Downton started with a train, not the familiar opening credits that we all know and love. It is a fine example of a Narative credit. We see the snowball that starts the avalanche, the telegraph carrying the information of Messrs John and Patrick Crawley (whom we never see, or do we?) dying in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic.

Another curiosity is that the first human that we ever see on screen is Mr. John Bates. Many times in television the program's Lead is the first character on screen. Is this the Bates show? No, but he is definitely a favorite character of mine.

Anyways the opening sequence continues in glorious fashion. The rising of the servants, them going about their daily toil to prepare the house. It is geniusly shot with handheld (probably Steady) camera work following the "downstairs" characters about. It is one of the few times in the series that we ever have a scene that is basically just people going about their work. This serves two purposes, portraying Downton as it was before we get to know her, and explaining to the audience (who may or may not be familiar) with the typical hard life of household staff, especially in contrast to the relative ease of their employers.

Time off?

The pilot's pacing is also very smart, starting off with a bang of conflict. Many time period dramas languish in celebrating the good times before introducing conflict. This may work better in novelization, but it proves to be boring television. The Titanic sinking and the notice of death telegraph to Lord Grantham is the very beginning of the show, brilliantly establishing a timeframe and starting our drama.

Julian Fellows likes to be cute, but I'm sure he's trying to be clever. There is a lot of expositional dialogue about eccentricities of the era, that would be quite common at the time. This dialogue is excellent for us in the modern period to look back and be amused by, but I'm not sure how many conversations about the fear of electricity or the "vapors" that it creates in rooms are necessary. Still anything from Maggie Smith is amazing, so I'll let it slide.

Another funny point of retrospective is how well the characters are established from the very beginning of the show. Bates is congenial and hard working, Anna is charismatic and full of love, Carson dedicated, and O'Brien nasty. There is no doubt that O'Brien is an antagonist. It is actually hard to understand why Lady Grantham keeps her around as a servant when no one likes O'Brien from the very beginning of the show.

the answer is, Yes m'lord.

Interestingly, the first time we see Lord Grantham, he is not wearing his country attire, but something much more city appropriate. We rarely see him dressed like this, as the vast majority of the show takes place at Downton, and therefore requires a more "casual" dress, most of the time.

Robert's character is immediately set up as sympathetic. A member of the aristocracy, yes, but an Aristocrat who cares about the "poor devils below decks" who didn't make it off the Titanic. This is a very specific and big deal in the show. Robert is the atypical aristocrat. He is aware of the world around him, cares for everyone in his family and his family's employ, and is generally affable all around. Even still, we will see plenty of examples in the future of Robert's disconnect from the reality of a changing World and the death of his lifestyle. A great example of this is his finding it curious that his cousin was a doctor and that his now heir is a lawyer. Whereas before the heirs had and always had been the Gentry.

That is part of what makes this show better than other period dramas. Most are static. They act as a portrait of a time period and celebrate its perfections without drawing attention to its flaws. Downton starts at the eve of massive social change. Robert may believe that his lifestyle is certain, but we know it is not. Mary is a prime example of someone who recognizes this ending and fights to survive in a new era.

Speaking of Mary, she is definitely the nasty sibling to begin with. We see her and Edith fight and Sybil keeping the peace. SYBIL!! I missed you. Your death was terrible and tragic. Oddly Sybil is the most modern of all the "Upstairs" characters, the one we modern viewers share the most values with, and the most progressive of her family.  Mary's coldness is further personified by her lack of caring for the death of her cousin/soon to be fiancé, and the casual nature of how she does not want to be in "full mourning" clothes. Edith's love of Patrick is evident, and nicely sets up the future narrative of the "casualty of war" Patrick.

next paragraph Willy

 The drama continues with so much exposition about the Entail and the Heir to the Title.  We definitely need this exposition since it is the key focus of the conflict. It is also something quite foreign in modern time, so it benefits from its exposition. Apparently much of this was edited out of the initial American PBS release. Whoever the distributor is decided that Americans were either not culturally aware enough or too stupid to understand Aristocratic Inheritance. Yet cutting this plot line completely removes core conflict of the series. I don't even understand how you would remove it.

Fortunately for me, I first saw this show before it aired on PBS on Netflix Instant. I had watched Little Dorrit or The Forsyte Saga and the Netflix suggestorama put Downton at the top. It had five stars, so why not? Like most of the World, I was hooked from the start.

Back to the review. Bates' Cane is almost a character unto itself. Again challenging our modern sensitivities of the "differently abled", since Bates walks with a cane they all assume that he can't do his job and that he is a cripple. For the Thirty and Younger crowd this is a very foreign concept (myself in that crowd), but for people older than 30, you probably remember the core belief that the "handicapped" couldn't have standard jobs. Yet another prime example of how we live in a better world  now.

Bates and Anna's relationship is foreshadowed from the moment they meet. This is a pretty standard trope of the genre, but they are also two of the most sympathetic characters, so shipping them is very easy and satisfying in the end.

Another great character moment is Carson's "Our Family" line. This is the true base of Carson. Everything we see him do throughout the series blooms from this line. It lets us understand him from the first moment. It doesn't feel "expositiony" and is very well done. Not that Carson doesn't deserve all the character development that he does receive, but knowing him from the first moment is nice.

A Real Heiress with a Future Prime Minister

Yet another anecdote of interest is Robert's shame for pursuing Cora for her money. He did fall in love with her, but that wasn't until after he had left for War. This is a very true to life concept from this era.  The key example of the "American Aristocracy" is Consuelo Vanderbilt.  She is the daughter of Willie K. Vanderbilt, himself the Grandson of "The Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt. Consuelo's mother was Alva Vanderbilt, one of the Queens of Newport Society. Alva dominated Consuelo's early life, arranging her marriage to Charles Spencer-Churchill (yes, related to that Churchill), 9th Duke of Marlborough. Consuelo Vanderbilt's dowry was used to restore Blenheim Palace and replenish its furnishings and library, as many of the original contents had been sold over the course of the 19th century. 

This may be the example that Julian Fellows used to base young Robert. Consuelo's relationship, however, was much different from Robert & Cora, ending with Consuelo's divorce.

One thing that Downton fails at communicating well is the passage of time. We move from the funeral & family in mourning almost directly to months later when Philip, Duke of Crowborough arrives. There is no sense that THAT much time has passed. It might as well be the next day. Downton has a habit of this, weeks and weeks pass in individual episodes, yet you wouldn't really know it. 

Anyways, upon Philip's arrival it is evident that Mary finds him attractive, as she is a dedicated social climber, but their differences soon emerge. Phillip is the typical Aristocrat of the era, who sees himself above others, as is shown with his "exploration" of the service quarters. This also is in direct alignment with the reveal of Thomas' homosexuality. Which is, at this point in time, very much illegal, and unlike our modern ridiculous sodomy laws, is enforced. The Duke is also in parallel with Robert as a character. He needs to wed an heiress. He requires money, and the only way to get it is to marry it. Had Mary been the heir, then this match would be in both their favors, but unfortunately for them, and fortunately for us, the great conflict continues. 

 

Sinn Fein rolls hard

Side note, the actor who played The Duke is Charlie Cox, who returned to American Screens as the amazing character of Owen Sleater in Boardwalk Empire.  He is a total badass. One of many Downton actors that continue to have great careers. 

The episodes concludes introducing Mathew and Mrs. Crawley. MATHEW!!!!! While the most recent season of Downton introduced us to a few noble young male characters, Mathew is still the best. We see him having breakfast with his mother, which I'm sure is probably a scene my mother concocted in her brain of her and I one day. My mother definitely appreciated the Mother/Son relationships of this period, specifically of the upper Middle and Upper classes. 

Well, that sure was much longer than I expected to write. Most likely the following blogs will be shorter since the Pilot sets up everything. Two seasons worth of plots begin right here. It is pretty masterful in its creation and Julian Fellows plays a long game. I wonder how many more seasons are planned. They could conclude in one, but I have a feeling it could go two or three, especially with how short the seasons are! There is also talk about a Prequel show about Young Robert and Cora. This could be interesting. Much of the first season could be of a more brash, perhaps not as likeable Robert in New York. Full episodes could be set in Newport, I'm sure the historic homes there would love to be featured! Then Robert is off to war & Cora runs Downton fighting with the Dowager Countess all the time. I think it could be cool. 

But next up, Episode Two!

Thoughts and Musings on STAR WARS: The Clone Wars: The Lost Missions

Like most people, err. . . most nerds, well. . . that subgenre, venn diagram crossover of STARWARS and Disney fanatics, on the day that Disney announced that they were bringing Lucasfilm (and all its subsidiaries RIP LucasArts) under the Mouse Eared umbrella, I freaked out. When they then announced Episode VII, I freaked out more.

Not just a little bit.

A. Lot.

One of my best buddies, Bald Solo of the Bald Solo Podcast, called me and we gushed on the phone like teenage girls in the early 90s talking about boys. I was on my bed kicking my feet in the air.

I could not contain my excitement.

kinda like this. . .

It was a rare moment, when the internet matches your personal feelings. The web, like my heart and head, exploded with speculation. Would Ep VII be Heir to the Empire? Would it be new? Would Disney respect the franchise? Would the original cast come back? Ect.

My take was that Disney would keep Star Wars as they keep Marvel, which is kind of the case.

One tragic casualties of this merger was The Clone Wars.  Since the series aired on Cartoon Network, the major competitor to Disney XD, it was going to be a loss. Season five was the best season of The Clone Wars yet, it also ended with several cliffhangers. What would Asoka do now that she is out of the Jedi Order? What will Darth Sidious do with Darth Maul? Will this lead directly into Revenge of the Sith like the hand drawn Genndy Tartakovsky series from 2003?

Would this all be left to our "head cannon"? Luckily we live in a marvelous time.

Turner Broadcasting Systems which owns Cartoon Network and Disney came to an agreement which allowed the episodes of The Clone Wars Season 6 to be released on Netflix.

Amazing.

In the past, fans were left in the dark, left disappointed, and lost episodes/canceled shows would become legends and discussions around gaming tables and in con lines. Once upon a time even the prequel trilogy was discussed in hushed tones, the smallest of details cobbled together from old fan magazines and random VHS interviews.

 

for all you trues out there

 

While those discussions are a lot of fun, we'll all still morn Firefly and hope for the lost Doctor Who episodes pinging off of one of Saturn's moons and making contact with a communications satellite that can possibly transmit the back to Earth. Firefly continues in comic book form, the lost Doctor episodes did not hit a satellite, but some did pop up in Africa, which is cool. We of the nerdy persuasion love talking about this stuff. We love exploring and celebrating our fandom.

But this time, we have less of something to morn. I don't say we don't morn it all together, but you'll understand that later.

The Clone Wars Season 6 or its alternative title "The Lost Missions" has arrived on Netflix. I had forgotten. Sometimes life gets in the way of media consumption, luckily for me we have social media. The aforementioned Bald Solo reposted from the 501st that The Lost Missions were out today, and as I responded "welp, I know what I'm doing today."

The nice thing about many animated series is that they are made for 30 minute time slots, meaning 22 minutes of programming. 22 minutes is an easy piece to chew. 13 episodes of 22 minutes boils down to almost 5 hours, which is much easier than powering through a season of House of Cards.

Darth Underwood at your service.

So here we go Season 6, The Lost Missions, or my made up title: Does R2 play with Apps while Yoda does Jedi things?

The season starts out with a bang, high action, awesome STARWARS-iness. Lots of lasers, light sabers, and explosions. It is good to be back.

Arc Trooper Fives

The first story arc is four episodes dealing with Clone Trooper CT-5385 aka Tup, who we saw as a major player in the Pong Krell story arc of the 4th season. Unfortunately, something is wrong with Tup, and he proceeds to murder a Jedi Master during the height of a battle with the Separatists. Tup is taken into custody, then escorted by his friend CT-5555 or Fives.

Fives learns of the infamous Order 66 and the conspiracy behind it. The arc basically becomes Star Wars' version of The Fugitive.  It is an excellent story, furthering the love for the Clone Troopers, and continuing to challenge the audience as to the ethics of cloning, individual rights, and the casualties of war.  This was easily my favorite arc from the season, also the best developed over four episodes.

Bow Casters are Badass

The next story arc is over three episodes dealing with Rush Clovis, who was also have seen before in the second season of the series. The story follows Padme encountering Clovis with mixed feelings. 

There are some romantic tensions, of which Anikan is none too pleased, along with conflicted feelings of friendship due to Clovis' treachery to the Republic when he was initially introduced.  This arc suffers from one of the major complaints of the Prequels, it focuses on intergalactic politics and policy. While that is interesting enough for world building and flavor, it doesn't make the most engaging pulp television. Easily the best part of the story arc was the bounty hunter Embo, who we have seen before, but never fully unleashed. I don't remember ever hearing his name actually...  Thanks Wiki.

Anyways, Embo has this badass conical Asian hat that is made of metal and appears to have some electronic devices integrated. . . which doesn't matter. What does matter is that he can also use it as an awesome sled to chase our heroes down an icy slope, and he has a dog-like pet that hunts with him. While writing this, it seems like I'm knocking it... I'm not, I seriously enjoyed that sequence. I definitely want an Embo figure to sit next to my Cad Bane fig. Very cool and very fun. Who doesn't like the Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars Universe?

The arc ends with the sly political maneuverings of Darth Sidious manipulating both sides in his favor, further tightening his grip on the galaxy. The standard theme for the prequels. It's fine and it deals with the Intergalactic Banking Clan and the Muuns a bit more in detail, so for those EU fans who read the Darth Plagueis book, you'll appreciate this arc. The casual SW fan, maybe not so much.

look at the disdain on Master Windu's face. . .

The next arc is a two parter with the easy titles of The Disappeared Parts 1 & 2. It is easily the weakest arc of the season.  Some force sensitive leaders of a planet, who happen to be anti-Jedi, are being kidnapped. Turns out, for reasons unknown, their Queen is good friends with everyone's favorite Jar Jar Binks. Yes, the real Menace of The Phantom Menace and beyond has returned to plague us again in Season 6.  There hasn't been a ton of Jar Jar in The Clone Wars, nor in Star Wars in general post Ep 1 fallout, so why these episodes were even produced, yet alone served to us is unknown. Supposedly there is a large enough Jar Jar fanbase of children, but kids have no taste, they don't know what is good, if we just leave Jar Jar out of things, they won't miss him. There are a few other characters I would have liked to see instead, but we'll get to that later.

Jar Jar and Mace Windu, yes Sam Jackson Mace Windu, team up to investigate the situation and deal with the problem. As you might expect, Jar Jar bumbles up everything, even preventing Mace from being a complete badass. Jar Jar does punch someone in the face accidentally, so that was at least something. A Dathomir Witch was somehow involved, which was never explained, but Jar Jar breaks a powerful orb filled with Living Force energy and saves the day. Yup, he broke a jar and that was that. The first episode of the arc had a fun Temple of Doom vibe going for it, but everything good was nullified by the Binks factor. Purple Lightsabers are still badass. Oh and Jar Jar makes out with the Queen, weird.

Master Plo with Sipho-Dyas' Lightsaber

The final arc is an excellent four episode Force fest. Well, it is really a single episode that sets up a three part arc, but we'll just call it a four parter. Master Plo Koon finds Syfo-dyas' lightsaber in some wreckage prompting Yoda to send Anikan and Obiwan to investigate further. Count Dooku is punished by Darth Sidious for his failure in covering up this detail of their plan. Ani & Obi discover the truth about the initial formation of the Clone Army and Dooku is revealed to be Darth Tyranus. 

Things we, the audience already knew.

First of all Darth Tyranus is an awesome name, it was not used enough in the movies and that makes me sad, but a lot of things about the prequels make me sad... it is a complicated relationship.

Secondly this episode basically straightens out the complex plot of the clones discussed in Attack of the Clones and fills in the plot holes that Lucas decided were fine for everyone to fall in and get confused by. So that was good. . .but I never understood the name Sifo-Dyas. It is remarkably close to "Sidious" which seems to be the obvious choice for not so subtle subterfuge in the Star Wars Universe. But instead of just ignoring or canning it for something different, they decided to keep going with it, and explain that Sifo-dyas was a radical Jedi Master who wanted the Republic to have an army, then was manipulated by Darth Sidious to order the army from the cloners on Kamino, or was killed by Tyranus beforehand and was impersonated by Tyranus to make the order. Anyway, the poor bastard was used and discarded for the sake of plot and also waters down how much respect we had for the Jedi from the Original Trilogy. After learning the truth of the Clone Army the Jedi Council decides to conceal this information because it could become their undoing if the public learned the truth. Which is consistent with the "lies of the Jedi" that Sidious uses to manipulate Anikan to the Dark Side.

Yoda is like a Honey Badger in this shot

Onward and upward the remaining three episodes jumps off from the Sifo-Dyas investigation because Yoda is troubled when he starts to hear the voice of Qui-gon Jinn. The problem with Yoda hearing dead people is that we, the audience, don't know that this is rare to impossible. We saw this happen to Yoda in Ep 3 in meditation and when he told Obi-wan about it, old Ben was surprised, but we only got some passing exposition to explain it.

Jedi turn to ghosts and talk to people after their death. We've seen this. We've known this since 1977. Obi, Yoda, and even Anikan, come back as "Force Ghosts" in the original trilogy, but for unknown reasons no Jedi does this in the prequels. This particular Clone Wars arc attempts to explain this, often by having the characters say over and over again that talking with the dead and keeping one's identity once becoming "one with the Force" is impossible. They kind of browbeat you with it, but Yoda is awesome so I forgave it.

Yoda goes on a quest. First to Dagobah where he communes with Qui-Gon. It was pretty sweet to hear Liam Neeson again, but I was a little let down by the whole exchange. It just didn't seem to have the gravitas that I would have expected from such an encounter. Old Qui tells Yoda to go to the magical heart of the Universe and so he does. Yoda encounters some very abstract individuals who represent various sides of a person. . . it's complicated. Lots of tests for the Jedi Master that are very artfully presented and inspired by Eastern ideolgy. Even Yoda, the almost 900 year old Jedi Master has demons to confront and lessons to learn. It was abstract and interesting. Shadow Yoda was terrifying. Yeah, Shadow Yoda. You want to see this.

All of these tests eventually lead Yoda to Moraband...

Yeah, you know, Moraband. . .

It is definitely Korriban. The ancient Sith homeworld has been Korriban for a long time. There are multiple platforms where this has been repeated. Darth Bane is buried there for Sith's sake! It's Korriban not Moraband! Why make this change? Is this part of Disney's restructuring, where they are going to make an official SW Canon? Seems like a silly and unnecessary change for one episode of the cartoon.

I'll get those turtles... err. . . I mean Jedi!

Oh did you see what I wrote? Darth Bane. Yeah. Yoda deals with a specter of the ancient Sith Lord, and it was totally awesome. I mean, Bane kind of looked like a lava monster version of TMNT's The Shredder, but still Darth Bane! Great voice work and excellent reverence to SW mythos. Which makes it all the more strange to change the name of the planet. . .

Oh and R2 is flying Yoda everywhere, but mainly just hangs out while the old Master does Jedi things. He's probably playing Tiny Death Star or the Yoda Chronicles or something. . .

The Sith homeworld confrontation leads to Yoda battling spiritual style with Darth Sidious, seeing vague images of near future events, and some subltle references to Yoda needing to survive in order to mentor Luke.

After all this Yoda returns to the Jedi Temple, knowing how to preserve his spirit after death, which he keeps to himself so that he can tell Obi-Wan later in Ep 3. Is it fan service? Yes. Is some minor character development for Yoda good? Yes. It may not be the strongest arc in the season, but it is beautifully animated and interestingly conceived. Star Wars engaging its audience in philosophy is very OT.

Aaaaaaand that's it. That was Season 6. Strange I know. What about Ahsoka? What about Darth Maul?

Well, maybe Ahsoka will be an early leader in Rebels? I highly doubt it. There are plenty of fan theories that had Darth Vader murdering Ahsoka while hunting down the remaining Jedi, which would be horrible and pretty damn dark (but also an excellent indicator of how evil Vader truly is). But we'll never really know.

Son of Dathomir

As for Darth Maul, his story arc was written and the scripts are going to be adapted into the comic "Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir" that is supposedly out in May. I'm pretty excited for this. Some people thought bringing Maul back was cheesy and cheep, but I loved it. He's a fan favorite and we never got to see his full potential. Plus Sam Witwer voices him, and he is great.  Maul in The Clone Wars was a cool and interesting rogue element to help keep the narrative interesting. We got to see some background that didn't necessarily gel with EU continuity, but that's fine, and we got Savage Opress, Maul's mutated brother, along with the deal, which was also extremely entertaining. I always thought that bringing Maul back with droid legs was going to be a thing in Ep 2, an indicator toward the "More Machine Now Than Man" Vader.  Instead we got General Greivous in Ep 3, which was way out of left field if you didn't watch the Clone Wars 2003 cartoon.

All in all, this season was cool. It was a lot of fun, and if Star Wars is not fun, then it is not Star Wars. This season, however, did not quite feel like a season of The Clone Wars, continuing the story of the Clone War, but like a bandage over the pitfalls and plot holes of the Prequel trilogy. Almost saying, look we know you were disappointed in the films, but check this out, this helps it make sense.  I enjoyed it, and it is nice to be able to say goodbye to the series properly.  

Goodbye The Clone Wars. I never understood why you sort of erased the 2003 Clone Wars from existence. . . there was some excellent Star Wars in that. . . but still you were fun. You started out really slow and I didn't expect much, but your dialogue was better than Episode 3, so that had me. Then you really picked up your stride and felt like Star Wars, that's why I stuck by you. Your serialized nature was perfectly connected to Lucas' original inspiration of "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe". Even when you did silly story arcs about tiny aliens riding around inside of hollowed out R2 droids and frustrating the hell out of everyone, I still preached your qualities. Gregor Lives, Clones are People, and May the Force be with You.