Downton Abbey'a Last Ever Christmas Special

[shallowness]

I'm basically playing catch-up with all the Christmas telly I wanted to watch.

As an episode, even as a Christmas Special, it was a bit rubbish – a huge lack of tension, and stuff happening for no good reason other than it being the last episode, especially some of the stuff that happened in the New Year’s eve section. Also, the script was...well, I pre-empted most of the characters and you could predict pretty much everything that was coming. Indeed, some of it I predicted at the end of the fourth series and lots should have happened earlier. But there were some really nice touches in the direction/edit (one cut from the sparse table Thomas was waiting to the festive engagement dinner at Edith’s future castle), and I adore the fact that Lady Violet might have had the last line of dialogue, but you could see Isobel eye-rolling her. Also, it looked sumptuous.

They opened with a tableau I expected as the last shot: a multi-generational one. Donk, happy with the grandkids and dog, nannies in tow. But I liked that they chose the last Crawley daughter’s wedding (mild disappointment that nobody talked about Edith’s other wedding) for Robert and Cora to have a moment over, and found a way for there to be torch-passing and change among the servants. The singing and the cutting between upstairs and downstairs was a nice way to have it be about the family and servants, actually, and no-one can quibble with Lady Violet having the last line, or the final shot being of the beautiful building.

It almost feels mean to pick at what happened in between, and though I found some of it too smooth and some of it frustrating, I’ve always had these problems with Downton, and it’s more that I can’t help myself than that I expected better (although I think someone could take all of this material and adapt it into a tauter and less languorous TV show, maybe in a generation’s time, and be smarter about certain actors’ contracts).

Let’s start downstairs, wi’ Daisy, who I was annoyed with quite a lot. Still. However, Mrs P was bang-on with her assessment of Daisy’s predilection for unavailable men and how she goes off men who think highly of her. It was nicely backed up by what happened. And as Daisy/Andy looked inevitable because nearly everyone got paired off, I was amused that she basically started fancying him when he got his shirt off and showed off his muscles, or the 1920s version thereof.

Although the hairstyle was a bit Lady Mary v2.0, Sophie McSheera’s eyes looked huge with the new hair-do. Overall, Daisy should have left to live with Mr Mason years and years ago, or, failing that, left Downton to be a cook in her own right, years and years ago. Not doing so has made her stagnate and come across as an immature brat, whose fieriness has made her most irritating, but they managed to find a nice way to end things for her.

Andy is the newest downstairs cast member, so there’s less to say about him, other than he was basically using Thomas-repelling tactics on Daisy after she wasn’t interested in him. You would have thought in the real world that it wouldn’t have taken them THAT long to start communicating again, but I loved Mrs P turning on him and giving him a lecture instead of Daisy. For a significant portion of the ep, I was in a ‘you’re better than Daisy’ mood. But, again, steamrollered into nearly everyone pairing off.

Spratt and Dencker were a delight, and though the material is thin, and they’re trapped in a cartoony battle for supremacy, they always make me laugh.

I REALLY WANTED BAXTER AND MOLESLEY TO KISS AND FOR HIM TO PROPOSE TO HER AND ARRANGE FOR HER TO LIVE IN THE COTTAGE. This didn’t happen, but it was pretty much hinted that they will. I wanted to see it, though.

Baxter, I luv you, but literally no-one cared about the Coyle storyline since it became obvious (the courtroom?) that we weren’t going to see him. I really enjoyed her maiding for Edith, general competence and niceness towards Thomas.

Anna was always going to give birth on the wedding day. I am amused that she ended up doing it in Lady Mary’s room, and how they milked it, but Mary waiting on her was a nice moment. I wish we knew the boy’s name (I doubt they’d go for Julian; maybe little Talbot can get that or Julia as a summer baby).

You knew Anna had told Bates to be nice to Thomas at the goodbye. (Yes, I have nothing more to say about Bates.) Thomas actually left! Of course, the second we followed him, it was obvious he’d be back. He started listening to Anna and Baxter and automatically became a better person. As they’d gone as far as the suicide attempt, it made sense for the character to have such a huge development, although the ‘boy becomes a man’ line? Would have worked better if we weren’t talking a decade, here. However, for Robert to see him as the solution for the Carson problem and for Carson to show him approval as his replacement was as good as Thomas was going to get.

Mrs Patmore was aces in how she dealt with Daisy (as she has had to do for many a year) and I enjoyed her every time she appeared even though she didn’t get a huge storyline for herself and there was only a smidgin of her BFFing with Mrs Hughes. Again, Mr Mason continues a snail’s pace courtship with her, which was very nice for her I’m sure, and maybe Daisy will be so busy ogling Andy, she will act her age and be happy for her parental figures?

I thought we’d got someone being sick out of the way with Robert (or that he or Violet would be in need of the hospital), so I wasn’t expecting Carson to fall ill. My main gripe was that the stupid man never listened to his wife, even though she is the mighty Elsie Hughes – he should have gone to the doctor as medical science should have moved on since his father’s day. It did lead to some lovely moments for Carson/Hughes, as they faced up to his frailty a little sooner than they’d expected, not to mention the scene with Mary, and I adored that he ended up causing the most scenes of all the servants. Stickler that he is. But also, with Thomas and Molesley deserting him, it worked dramatically.

Mrs Hughes’s snark about The Family was strong. And amusing.

And of course we had one last newfangled thing for Carson to hate on until he found out it was for his favourite. Cue shenanigans with the hairdryer. Oh, Downton.

Upstairs, the answer to the question of who’d be cast as Bertie’s mother was Patricia ‘Miranda’s mother’ Hodge. They even dropped in a blatant Miranda reference!?!? I’ll do her the compliment of saying that it felt like there was too little of her. I thought they could have made more of the Edith-Bertie-Mother tugofwar as a parallel to the Cora-Robert-Violet tugofwar, but, for once, everything had to be steamrollered through. If this was a seventh series, instead of a Christmas special, Edith would have dithered for years over telling her about Marigold.

I’d been spoiled that Rose (and Atticus) were returning. No baby, but I liked how they were still clearly so in love, and Rose sparkled, from visiting the servants to saving Robert’s marriage (I didn’t think it was that bad, but Rosamond’s gentle prods to get him to stop being dog in the mangerish weren’t working). Atticus should be used to her managing everything.

While I am glad that Isobel got her man, she should have got him and quoshed Larry Grey eons ago, and we all know it. I’m sure someone’s used Dickie’s line to his son about loving him but not liking him on Mary. It would have been more satisfying if Isobel had shown him up instead of the way they’ve gone about it. As ever, Amelia was playing tiddlywinks, when Lady Violet was playing three-dimensional chess. Isobel realising she did love Lord Merton and finally making a move was charming, if low-key. I thought that Isobel letting her feelings for Dickie show in front of Dr Clarkson was very bad form. Penelope Wilton is wonderful at depicting the character’s feelings. Another way this plotline got slightly too short shrift is that I’m wondering if I’m right in deducing that the not so pernicious anaemia misdiagnosis was down to Larry and Amelia (or that this was one of those bad Harley Street doctors. I think honours are about even over the run of Downton.)

Rosamund, surprisingly, did not find a paramour (if Bertie’s best man had had a line, I wouldn’t have been surprised that they’d pushed her at him), but had some nice moments. I wish we’d seen her have more of a moment with Edith, perhaps.

Violet was ill! Red herring or (like Rose’s father’s absence) cutting down on the number of actors in a scene? Anyway, no classics from her, exactly, but some cutting comments. I loved her cackling at Spratt and urging Isobel on. She had an anvil about Robert’s jealousy of the hospital, and I’m not sure where all the niceness towards Cora came from at the end, but, whatevs.

As for Cora, I was glad that this episode was about appreciating her. FINALLY. Shame about all the times she’s been underestimated, and Violet giving her her dues NOW seems a bit late in the day. Also, sure, let’s pretend you’ve always supported Edith and thought her awesome. (I haven’t!)

Saw them throwing Tom at the editrix coming, but he’s still overly involved in Mary and Henry’s marriage. Henry decides to be outsiders together? Aw, shucks, just go and play billiards and call yourself Matthew. Tom even found out about the pregnancy at the same time as Henry. I was shocked any time we had an independent thought or emotion from Tom, frankly. But not shocked that he and Henry started a car dealership. I’d been expecting a garage, which is close enough.

It was funny (to me) that everyone was going ‘oh, your newly married husband is sad, Mary’. It undercut the marriage=HEA theme (doing purposeful work came a low-key second to the pairing off). They really had some terrible ‘telling’ dialogue, although they weren’t alone in that. I loved the scene with the kids in the agent’s office showing Henry getting on with George. Mary’s pregnancy was no surprise, either – I’m amazed at the show’s restraint in not having her tell her parents and letting them bask in Edith marrying someone who loves her who happens to be a Marquis. I mean, it was good enough that Mary had decided to keep schtum until after Edith left, to not steal her thunder, but when the four of them left Anna, Bates and the Bateslet, I really was expecting her to tell Cora and Robert then.

As for Mary, she showed signs of turning into a human being. She finally did the right thing WRT Edith/Bertie and FINALLY said ‘I have this amazing idea, because we’re sisters, let’s play nice with each other’ (I imagine she’ll have forgotten that Edith was the one who gave the ‘we’re going to be the only ones who remember our childhood’ speech and there was no good reason Sybil’s death shouldn’t have stopped her from being such a bitch to Edith for all these years). Obviously she was decent to Thomas, Carson and Anna, but didn’t flip at her husband the car salesman. Also, as ever, she looked beautiful.

But Edith got the happy ending!!!!!

I mean, I hate that they wrapped up Bertie and Edith’s issues in one scene. Setting it in the Ritz so that they had to be terribly restrained was a good touch, but having her play the injured party and having them get over it all so quickly? It felt a little rushed. (Ugh, Downton, either it draws things out too long or pulls this.)

However, we then returned to the castle and a new cause of tension. All that stuff about TRUTH throughout the episode was anvilicious in the extreme and a bit mad in an episode full of wish-fulfilment. Anyway, cue happy, drooling parents (heh), a so-so kiss in front of the ‘rents, and shy smiles. She listened when people (her father) told her not to sabotage it this time and TRUSTED BERTIE. And he stood up for her, because he’d learned that he was miserable without her.

Carmichael played the various stages of Edith beautifully, and although I still think they could have addressed the Sir Antony part of her life, for Marigold to be one of her bridesmaids and part of her new life was lovely. They were both so happy, and the smooch in the car was lovely, and I like that she doesn’t seem to care about the elevation over Mary because she’s the bigger person, but it was the right call. Mary was always ‘I WAN’ DOWNTON’. Well, she’s got it (until George is 21), and a man who looks like Matthew Goode. Edith has got someone who loves her (and who has a castle, not a mad wife, which is always good) and her daughter. Robert being bucked about his daughter being even posher is hilarious, because it was all because she got on with an agent.

I am weird, but I was very satisfied to receive an explanation of Edith’s household arrangements in London.

Also, they shot the house beautifully (however Brancaster, with its staircase and library, not to mention its sheer castleness, did top Downton Abbey). It all came together wrapped in a big gold bow, with some clunkiness about pacing and the usual anachronisms, but developments towards happiness for nearly everyone. Goodbye, Downton, you soap in period drama clothing, you. You always provided ridiculous stuff, continually frustrated, but also did right by older women and hats. I’ll miss you next autumn.

The only thing that could make up for no moar Downton, I think (based on the fact that a couple of people in Downton were in The Sound of Music Live’, of which I saw a bit) is for there to be a stage musical. Clearly! Imagine the bass profondo they’d cast to play Carson! Imagine the breakout hits ‘What is a weekend?’ and the ‘Telephone song’!