on Blu-ray last night.
I’ll start by saying that I was annoyed at Sybil’s wedding being ‘glossed over’ and merely referenced. Still, that wasn’t as big a ‘cheat’ as all the build-up to Mary & Matthew’s wedding and them cutting just as it was getting started.
It was also frustrating seeing the continued friction between Branson and Lord Grantham. Neither of them really came out of their arguments looking too good. I felt sorry for Sybil being caught in the middle of it, but I was also annoyed at how she was featured so little this season. What a waste of a great/likeable character and the equally great/likeable actress who portrayed her.
I finally felt some decent sympathy for Edith when she was jilted at the alter at
her wedding. I got the feeling it was coming when we saw her would-be husband’s expression as she walked up the aisle. It seems the show is determined to crap on her character quite often, given that things continue not working out for her. I did hold out hope that picture the sisters took together would be shown again at the end of the season (given what happened)...but no such luck.
When I said ‘given what happened’, I was of course referring to the utterly anger-inducing unfairness and downright mean-spiritedness of what happened to Sybil after she had given birth. The fact that she
died was bad enough, but it being due to the pride of men and them unable to agree on a diagnosis of her illness just rubbed salt in the wound. I’d never much liked the doctor we’d seen in the previous seasons, but here he was absolutely right, but Sybil’s father was too proud to listen to him and instead only listened to the other doctor. The fact that she gave birth first, only to die not long after, kind of left a bad taste – like her only purpose was to deliver a child and then she was no longer 'required'.
I was disappointed in some of the characters’ reactions to Sybil‘s suffering and passing. I expected more emotion from Mary (I know that she doesn’t get emotional very often, but this was her
sister - she could’ve mustered up a bit more emotion for
her at least), as well as Sybil’s father. It seemed Branson and Cora were the main ones showing the appropriate level of emotion given the situation.
At least Edith showed a bit more than Mary (heck, even
Matthew did).
The worst part was seeing how much agony Sybil was in – and kudos to Jessica Brown Findlay for conveying that pain so vividly.
I remember reading a comment somewhere about how it looked like her neck was about to
explode...and I must concur.
So, to recap – Sybil was barely in the season, she only lived long enough to give birth, suffered immense pain, then died. She was the character in the show who
least deserved such a horrible fate...so, what gives? Did Jessica Brown Findlay somehow tick off the show creator by wanting to leave the show? This was a most undeserved fate for such a kind soul as her (other characters later in the season described her best when talking about her fondly). Although I knew it was coming before even starting the show, that didn’t make it any easier to take. This was GoT levels of ‘unbalanced’ in regards to a good character suffering a terrible fate. Bad form, show. If you had to write her character out, couldn’t you have done so in a less sadistic way?
About the only ‘good’ thing (if one can even call it that) to come out of all this horribleness was that it led to me feeling the tiniest sliver of sympathy for Thomas. However, that was more due to the fact that even someone as nasty as him could acknowledge how much of a good person Sybil was. I was less caring about
him, though. When he said
this...
All I could think was, “Well, there’s a
reason for that...you’re kind of an a-hole, Thomas. Maybe not be so much of one and more people might like you?”.
While I could at least partially sympathise with Lord Grantham when Cora was blaming him for Sybil’s death, I do think she had a point – everything she said about why he didn’t listen to the right doctor was indeed true. I do think it was a bit of a ‘cheat’ to have Violet pursue the doctor and pretty much force him to find something that ‘excused’ Lord Grantham and the other doctor from any ‘blame’. It would’ve been wrapped up less ‘neatly/tidily’ if it had just remained unfortunate that Sybil’s father hadn’t listened to the right doctor, his wife, Branson or any of the others who went against the doctor who he
did listen to. Yes, it might’ve meant Cora stayed mad at him for longer, but that would’ve felt more ‘realistic’ (as sometimes bad things happen and people are to blame for them...it’s just a matter of learning to forgive over time, whereas this way pretty much led to Cora forgiving her husband after an episode or two).
Regarding the other characters this season (in no particular order)...
Mrs. Patmore continued to be more amusing to me and I liked that she was there for Mrs. Hughes when she needed her. Too bad she seemed to be as unlucky in love as Edith, since the guy who took an interest in her turned out to not be so great – though Mrs. Patmore seemed relieved about not ending up his wife, so as long as
she was happy - that was the main thing.
Mrs. Hughes was likeable some of the time (she helped make Carson more tolerable – as he became less so this season than he had the previous two), but other times she was quite frustrating – like her continued excusing of Thomas and O’Brien. It’s something I’ll never understand with this show – how horrible characters who never seemed to become ‘better’ people kept getting let off the hook for their behavior, while decent folk were treated badly. It’s baffling. What annoyed me the most was the hoops everyone seemed to have to jump through to get Thomas to stay/not be fired. You could tell the writer wanted the character of Thomas to stick around, so they had to have other characters be extremely forgiving of Thomas and convince others who weren’t so forgiving to let him stay – whereas, by all rights, he should’ve been fired ages ago. And lastly, Mrs. Hughes came across as quite hypocritical with how she seemed to be forever forgiving Thomas, but in the ‘A Journey to the Highlands’ special at the end of the season, MyAnna Buring’s character merely flirted with Branson and Mrs. Hughes immediately wanted her gone...and so she was. That seemed unfair/unbalanced when compared to all the crap Thomas and O’Brien pulled and got away with.
Anna was still likeable, though poor Bates got stuck with a rather boring prison storyline. I was glad when he finally got released, as none of those scenes were particularly interesting. I guess with Sybil gone, Anna remains the nicest of the remaining characters.
Less likeable were the new characters added to the downstairs crew this season. I suppose Alfred wasn’t
too bad (which is kind of a miracle, given he’s related to O’Brien), but it seemed a bit repetitive that yet again Daisy took an interest in a guy (Alfred) who was interested in the new girl (Ivy) who was interested in the other new guy (Jimmy). At least I liked Alfred more than Jimmy, who quickly turned into a bit of an a-hole. Then, of course, Thomas had to immediately have feelings for him and there was the whole ‘unrequited love’ thing, but in the special Thomas took a beating for Jimmy and asked if they could be ‘friends ‘ – yeah, we’ll see how long
that lasts. I’m sure it’ll turn into more than that in no time. I have no problem with who Thomas takes an interest in, but it’d be nice if he could be a less horrible person who only treats a select few (usually those who can have him fired or who he’s interested in) nicely. He really needs a personality transplant STAT.
Matthew’s mum occasionally supports a character I like, but more often than not she kind of bugs me. Violet got some good one-liners again, and had some good moments, but on occasion she somewhat bugged me too (though not as much as Matthew’s mum).
Matthew and Lord Grantham having arguments got a bit irritating, but I’m glad they were seeing eye to eye again by the end of the season. I was also glad that Matthew and Mary got to have some ‘happy’ moments together too. It was a good thing that he at least got to meet his child and be exceptionally happy...before all that happiness was ripped away due to his tragic accident at the end of the special. He was a good man – he supported Sybil and Branson, had saved Sybil, had stood up for Branson, and seemed to get along with most of the characters the majority of the time. So, naturally, another good person had to unfairly meet their maker. I wasn’t expecting it to play out quite how it did. Like with Sybil, I’d known he was a goner well beforehand, but I’d expected that the last time we’d see him in the show would be as he was smiling/happy while driving his car, then it’d cut to Mary receiving the news while in hospital. I didn’t think we’d actually get to
see the accident (not that we
did really, we mainly just got the set-up for it and the aftermath) or his dead body – that was quite impactful. And that dang car - it was introduced at the start of the season, and since then I'd thought whenever it was shown, "You get Matthew
killed, you deathtrap of a car!" (though, technically it wasn't really the
car's fault. He just wasn't paying attention - and that's all it takes, really, is looking away for a split-second. Pay attention to the road/drive safely, Downton people!).
When you look back, this season certainly seemed to have a lot more doom and gloom/darker moments than previously. Two likeable main characters who we’d gotten to know/care about perished it really unfair ways.
The one bright spot this season was the arrival of Lily James as Lady Rose. She was just the energy injection this show needed, I thought. Not only is she super lovely/gorgeous and got a wonderful smile, but she’s got a different sort of personality to the rest of the characters and hopefully she’ll inject a bit more ‘fun’.
She already had some good/amusing moments just in the last two episodes of the season, so I’m looking forward to seeing more of her.
Also amusing? Drunk Molesley.
Though I couldn’t really take much delight in O’Brien taking down the one who tried to get her drunk (which led to Moseley getting drunk instead) since I HATE O’Brien and have wanted her gone since the first episode of the show.
I’m not sure how much I’m going to enjoy the show with Sybil/Jessica Brown Findlay gone (or Matthew/Dan Stevens for that matter, since they were two of the most likeable characters in the show for me), but at least I’ll have more Lily James to look forward to.