Okay, This Seriously Cannot be Good for Me

[yuji]

 

Recently I have been addicted to Downton Abbey, so much that I felt compelled to string together a couple screen shots from the first two episodes and call it a graphic. The colors and scenery are so beautiful in the drama. I gush over the colors in the landscape scenes every time I watch them. The greens are so green! The yellows pop! Everything pops! I watched a behind-the-scenes episode that went into detail on the production process of making the episodes. The costume department alone spends hours just finding vintage clothes or adding vintage details onto clothes. The furniture needs to be or look authentic, it's insane how much effort goes into each small detail, just to ensure that the viewer is completely immersed into the Edwardian era. 

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of period dramas. I nearly always prefer modern day or science-fiction type settings to anything before computers were invented. But, Downton Abbey is just amazing. I really don't know what it is about the show that makes it so addictive. It's almost Game of Thrones worthy. Actually, I'm pretty sure I rushed through this show faster than Game of Thrones. 

There's a huge amount of characters (33 I believe in total are introduced), and it's a testament to the writers and actors that each is portrayed with enough personality in them to differentiate them all. Game of Thrones is fortunate that its ensemble cast has a huge source of material to fall back on to create well rounded characters. Downton Abbey doesn't have that luxury, but much of its cast is given enough to matter to the viewer. There are a couple flat characters and plot-device-characters (that serve no real purpose aside from making so-and-so do such-and-such), but all in all, the majority of the characters have stolen my hearts. I love them all~ Especially the Countess (Maggie Smith!!), who gets all the one-liners. She's so perfectly snooty and upper class without being spiteful or annoying. 

The show isn't necessarily completely historically accurate (there were a couple "modern" phrases included in the script, and the costumes are not always ~1910-1920's style), but as a viewer who knows next to nothing about the Edwardian era aside from the existence of World War 1, the inaccuracies do nothing to hinder my immersion. From the minute I hear the first few notes of the opening melody (great soundtrack too! Or at least an addictive one), I am just lost within the drama. It's a great way to escape from reality. I can relate more to Owen Wilson from Midnight in Paris now, I mean, who wouldn't want to go back to the past just for a bit?