Andie

What did you like/dislike?

kindness is free

I loved watching how the War affected all the classes. How they had to adjust and how the upper and lower classes mingled more

heart devoured

It's far easier to list my dislikes. Matthew's disability and miracle "recovery" storyline bugged me a bit with it's kind of ridiculousness and soapyness. And I kind of hated that they had to kill Lavinia to get Mary and Matthew together. Though that way Matthew stayed respectable when he didn't have to leave her after she took care of him and wanted to marry him even with his disability and impotence. Not that he was really obligated to marry her just for gratitude, but you know.

kindness is free

I didn't like that Lavinia had to die either but Mary and Matthew did wait a while before getting together.

ScarletCourt

I loved the S/T storyline, though have to say it could have been done much, much better.

I thought that the Patrick storyline was too contrived and closed down too quickly so that the story could move on.

Nothing in the Matthew story lasted long enough. He's missing for 1/2 an ep. He's paralyzed for all of two full episodes. Would have been more angsty if Matthew were paralyzed until S3. Lavinia still could have died. I also thought it ridiculous that we didn't have a Matthew/Lavinia conversation until he had been injured. How do you set the idea that they loved one another enough to get engaged if we don't see them together in a private scene until he's ready to shoo her away? I mean by then she'd had on screen private conversations with Carlisle, with Violet and Rosamund and Mary!

The Robert/Jane affair was also ghastly esp since they spent all of S1 establishing that Robert and Cora had a loving marriage after 20+ years despite how it began.

Don't get me wrong, I love this show, but S2 was definitely nowhere near the quality of S1.

heart devoured

Yeah they waited, but killing her off was so obvious "now MM don't have to feel guilty about Lavinia when ever they get together later on because Matthew couldn't be with her anyway".

Oh, that's a good observation, ScarletCourt, about Matthew & Lavinia missing a private convo scene before the break-up. Maybe that was the writers' intention so that the audience wouldn't actually start to like them together?

Sybil/Tom was my favourite part of this season, too. Yeah they could've made it better. I still kinda feel Sybil gave in to him just to get the heck out of there and I don't think they actually proved that it's more than just unrequited infatuation from Tom's side, but I still love them to bits.

kindness is free

Matthew and Lavinia didn't really have any private conversations that showed how they get on and that they were in love enough to get engaged

I am glad MM don't have to feel guilty about being together.

When it comes to Sybil/Tom I feel that she does have feelings for him but because of their differences in class she was struggling with what to do. Eventually she went with her feelings and left everyone behind. That is a huge decision one she didn't take lightly.

ScarletCourt

I think the problem with the S/T story wasn't that Sybil didn't love Tom, but rather the scenes weren't written well enough to convey that she was actually madly in love with him since 2x03 when she started working at Downton and she no longer had daily contact with him and was the one who continually sought contact with him by visiting him at the garage.

kindness is free

They didn't have the sufficient scenes to fully show how they really feel and how deep their love is

phillips32

I feel so strongly that S2, especially from ep 3 forward, took a scary nosedive in story quality that I don't mind being repetitive of what everyone else has said. S1 as a whole is way, way better.

Matthew's instant recovery and Lavina's convenient death were flat out embarrassing. Fodder for everyone who says DA is nothing but soap for tea sippers.

The Patrick storyline was obvious filer and a bone tossed (and quickly snatched away) to Poor Edith for some semblance of a story. Wish they'd found another way to make Poor Edith much nicer than she was before the war.

After a crackling start late in S1 and very early in S2, Fellows put Sybil and Tom in the deep freeze with scenes so repetitive and predictable that even the actors laughed about them and the show winked at them in the S2DVD bonus features.

I liked the S/T story once it got going again through the aborted elopement and the reveal to the family, but was appalled JF left them out of the Christmas show and had the payoff for all the endless garage scenes happen offscreen.

I may be the only DA viewer not to be overly enthralled with the Bates/Anna story. I love Anna as a character, Bates a bit less since he is a bit over-noble and longsuffering for my tastes. But the device of one of the lovers wrongly accused of the murder of the evil spouse who stood in the way is soap opera to the max. I wish JF had thought of a more original way to test them.

His Lordship snogging the housemaid in the closet didn't bother me as much, though it was pretty contrived. Maybe they should have used it to have Papa secretly understand Sybil's situation a bit more.

Tiny S2 nitpick: why do O'Brien and Thomas have to smoke so fervently while plotting? I get it: they are the villains so they must smoke. But must they huff relentlessly with every draw as if these were the last cigs of their lifetimes?

eta: Forgot my other S2 nitpick: why did neither Carson nor Ms Hughes question why Branson left a note specifically for Lady Sybil asking forgivness for Soup Slopgate? Ms Hughes had long suspected something was going on with them and this should surely have sounded alarm bells for her. Also should have been enough for Carson to do some questioning but that note (as Leech pointed out, one of the many they were always leaving) came and went as a plot device without ever being addressed.

ScarletCourt

I agree with all your points phillips32.

I still don't understand the point of having Edith kissed the Farmer other than for a way to finish Edith's time at the farm. Surely there was a better way to end her time there.

I also think that the Robert/Jane SL was to give Robert some sort of plot point. Never mind it was OOC.

I don't understand the purpose of having Thomas and O'Brien smoking all the time, but I guess they only can talk during their smoke breaks?

Yeah, I was very surprised that they never talked about the note that Tom left in Sybil's room. A number of alarm bells should have been triggered. Anna found it in Sybil's bedroom, which means that Tom was in her room. He had no business being there. Also, how did he know where it was? It's not like he could have slunked through most of the house to find her room and it's not like he could have started some sort of casual conversation about the location of her room with Anna, Ethel or esp Mrs. Hughes. Then there's the inappropriateness of the note itself. Leaving a note for Sybil is wrong considering his position in the household. Carson is such a stickler for protocol and so should have been outraged by the whole thing.

phillips32

I don't understand why they had to end the Tractor Pull Edith storyline at all. In favor of the thought dead relative returning with a disfigured face chestnut? I guess Sybil had dibs on aristocrat falls for underling and after all Branson is far hotter than the Farmer. So once again, Poor Edith.

Its not that Thomas and O'Brien smoke while plotting, its how they smoke. So grand and exaggerated. So comically villainous.

Tom left the note in Sybil's folded laundry, presumably from downstairs. This may or may not be more creepy than his sneaking around her room, depending on how long he lingered over the chemises. Anna found it (hello Tom, you thought Sybil put her own laundry away?) and showed it to Hughes and Carson. This is where it fell apart for me. Carson, the sticklierest of protocol guardians would have blown a head gasket on the spot. And Ms Hughes, we know you've already known for years. C'mon you two. At least investigate.

Branson himself was probably well passed caring whether the note was appropriate at that point. If he had successfully slop-dumped, he would have probably been put in jail. He was desperate to get some kind of message to her. I wish we had seen him apologize to her more, especially in the cut scene where he admitted being a prick for belittling her job. Unfortunately, it's all pretty typical of what happened to the Branson character in series 2.

So we are right. Elizabeth McGovern agrees with us completely.
'Downton Abbey' star: Season wasn't entirely 'to my taste' either - latimes.com
Yikes, maybe Cora will be the one who dies after all. But good for her honesty, The warning signs were there very late in series 1. Like when Cora lost her baby, the potential heir and plot device for keeping M/M at a standstill, by slipping on a bar of soap. Which naturally was planted by the chain-smoking plotter who was made mad with vengeance by misunderstanding an overheard conversation. Sheesh. How did we not see it coming?

HarshBench

I thought there was a lot of pretty awful writing in S2. Bates/Anna and Sybil/Tom spent about four episodes repeating the same conversations. It was maddening. Sir Richard started off as an interesting and viable love interest for Mary and devolved into a cartoon villain. Pity, because IG was/is terrific in this rather thankless role.

The Matthew recovery infuriated me. We've seen shows where disability is handled with sensitivity and an understanding that life goes on. Why did he have to walk again? And him leaping out of the chair was just stupid. Oh, and saintly Lavinia, please!

Poor Edith had a feeble, choppy SL. I hope farmer comes back a widower and they have a hot extra-marital affair. No, he's not that cute but so what? He's virile and that's all she needs.

Vera was another cartoon villain. It's weird because the show actually has an excellent, complex and rather sympathetic villain in Thomas. Maybe RJC is just that brilliant.

Bates is waaayyyy too much of a martyr for my taste. I think it would be more interesting if he actually did kill his wife.

BTW paralyzed men can father children. Often, anyway. Dr. Clarkson is rubbish.

heart devoured

There's a whole lot of things said in this thread that I agree with.

Yes, that recovery must be really offensive to people with disabilities. Like if that was the only way for the story to continue, to have him walk again and not being a damned cripple. Soapy and simplistic.

s e r e n i t y

I just watched episode 7, only 2 more episodes to go so although Im spoiled for essential plots I dont know the specifics and Im not gonna read the posts in this thread before I watch those, I just HAD to come and share my utter despise for the Robert/Jane storyline, I just hated it and urgh, the worst direction the show could have gone in