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Downton Abbey Series 5 Discussions



This thread is for spoiler-free discussions of themes that span multiple episodes of Series 5.
(More episode pictures will be added as episodes are aired.)

What do you like/dislike about Series 5 of Downton Abbey?

*OP in progress*
Reminders: This is not a rant thread, we have an appropriate thread for that. Please talk about multiple episodes on this thread and discuss your favorite and least favorite characters and storylines. Thanks!

Sunshinebright

Zero plotlines, slow movement/pace and I don't at all mind slow pacing but this season's was not great, short/shorter scenes.
What I liked? The Fashions, tasteful story-telling and some of the new characters like Mabel, Blake, Atticus, Spratt etc

aggiemom09121416

Well, it's BORING.
We zipped through earlier series in light years, sometimes one episode to the next was months apart.

And it seems to be getting stale. Losing the young people,imo, is what is making it boring downstairs (Jimmy, Ivy, Alfred,William, etc).
There's nothing exciting going on downstairs except Mrs. Patmore buying a cottage and Mr. Carson extending a quasi marriage proposal (ho-hum, how romantic was that!lol)


I started watching this series because of wondering how society functioned in that time period; now there's electricity, toasters, phones, radios, driving their own cars...
what's next, bra burning and The Beatles?

Andorra

I like the series better than the fourth, but there are some storylines that frustrate me.

Mary's storyline is deadly boring. I don't care for either suitor and just wish they would disappear, so they would stop taking screentime. I like Mary's scenes with other characters though, especially Tom and Robert.

Tom's storyline is a complete waste and the repetition of series 4. That is my biggest frustration. How often will Julian Fellows repeat the "I'm lonely -I don't belong here -should I leave - I don't know my values any more" storyline? He should have resolved this at the end of last series!
Instead he repeats and repeats and repeats the whole thing again and no new development has happened so far!

Anna and Bates have always been boring to me, so I don't care what happens with them. I don't watch their storylines anyway.

Edith's storyline is interesting this year. It also was too repetive in the first episodes, but it took off last episode and I'm curious what is going to happen next.

I liked Cora very much this series and this is surprising, since I never noticed her before. Her storyline with Bricker was good.

Never watched Downton for Downstairs, but I like all the little storylines going on there. I love Baxter! I also like Mrs Patmore's storyline and Daisy's new education. I really like Mosely a lot, too.

Thomas's storyline is good, too. It was also a bit too slow when we only saw Thomas ill for two episodes without really knowing what was going on, but I like the idea behind it and I liked it in the last episode.

Isobel and Violet are wonderful this series! An absolute highlight in their relationship.

Rose and Atticus are meh. I'm so disappointed that they marry her off to a guy we hardly meet. Yes, he's cute, but he's so obviously a plot device to get Lily of the show and the only thing we learn about him is that he is in love with Rose. Nothing about him as a person at all. That's a shame, especially since Rose is one of my favourites. I liked it how she developed at the beginning of the series and I would have liked to see more of her. Now she will only be there for the pretty again. Next week we'll probably see the engagement and in the CS she gets married. Nice but lifeless and shallow storyline.

L i N d $ @ y

This season for me has been a circus, much like the SL going on with Mary/Charles/Tony. I think it's on par with how I was watching S4 last year.

Favorite SLs: Violet/Isobel - always. I like that they are exploring Violet's past. Very nice to meet a man from her past, Prince Kuragin. Also even though we called on Isobel picking Lord Merton in the end, going into the season I had no idea who she was going to pick. But they seem to be suitable together and I was taken aback my his proposal but was surprised in a good way so I like it.

Robert & Cora's obstacle with Bricker this season was interesting to me. While I was sure that Bricker was grasping at straws with Cora, it was how Robert will react that got me curious since we all know that he's not a devoted husband either. But I didn't like how it resolved itself in the end but I did like the drama of Robert seeing Bricker in their bedroom. Of all places Bricker, the bedroom really? And Cora's line to Edith knocking on their door saying that "they're playing a game" will probably be my favorite Cora line this season.

Of course Edith's SL is (for now) getting on well although it was played out too long but I can understand that because we need to see Mrs. Drewe lose it. I didn't see Edith leaving (and taking Marigold) with her but I do sympathize with her. Not only is Mary still cold towards her, none of the other family members really know what's going on with her life other than Rosamund & Violet (to an extent). It's not the best solution (to leave) but it's the decent one to do right now and I can't wait to see what will happen but for now, Edith is happy and that's what's important.

Downstairs, my only favorite SL is the one with Thomas. After all the back & forth with Baxter early on in the season, it was good to see them go back to his sexuality and his struggle with it. It even resolved itself nicely in the recent ep as it looks to be that he's formed a bond with Baxter now. I am still hoping that Jimmy comes back (to visit at least) because I know that Thomas misses him. I miss Thomas and his evil shenanigans with O'Brien but I don't think we're gonna have that again anytime soon and I'm okay with that. I just hope that Thomas is not going to be really sick soon as en effect of all those stuff he's injecting himself though at least Dr. Clarkson has already checked him and he seems to be fine.

Posting my not-so favorite storylines tomorrow.

L i N d $ @ y

My not-so favorite storylines:

Mary/Charles/Tony. First off, it's a love triangle. Second, I'm uninterested (generally) with who she ends up with in the end. The way they were both written was not like how I want my endgame couples to get together. I'm not a fan of love triangles except if they were written well and most often they're not. Also more often the girl gets to be the "bad" one because she's in the middle of it.

Sarah Bunting. But at least she's gone so there's that. Also Tom's SL has been lackluster too. Apart from Sarah, there really wasn't much to go on with him.

Rose and her conquest of who to marry. I wanted to be interested since last season but between Jack Ross and Atticus Aldridge, nah. They were both okay but not enough to give Violet and the family a "challenge".

Most of the SLs downstairs I can't really be bothered with. Why are we still on about Green's death? Anna and Bates should be making babies now. Though at least Mrs. Hughes & Carson's friendship remains strong as well as Daisy/Mrs. Patmore's too. Baxter is okay and I like her friendship with Molesley but even their SLs aren't enough to keep me interested. Molesley I like for the comedic relief and he's one of my favorite characters this season.

carrie.suze

I hate to say it, but Downton's not engaging my interest as much this series, the love triangle with Mary could have been better, in fact I don't know why it was done in the first place, especially if she's going to end up with neither of them.

And I agree about the Downstairs SL's, how much longer is JF going to keep the whodunit with Green going, I'm bored of it now, time for Anna and Bates to move on from this.
On the plus side I'm liking Moseley and Baxter more with each episode.

I hope Edith at least is on the path to happiness now with her little girl, she's been miserable for long enough, finding some romance with a man her own age might be good too.
And the same goes for Tom in the romance department, Bunting was irritating to say the least.

Rose could have done better I think, Atticus is nice enough, but just your average toff, I've a horrible feeling that's what Mary's going to end up with, and I'm not about talking those two in the triangle.

Violet and Isobel always give value for money in every episode, the business with Robert/Cora/Bricker I could take or leave.

So all in all can't say I'll be gutted when this series is over.

lassothemoon

The average toff is waaay worse than Atticus or Evelyn Napier, trust me. See the Crawleys with the exception of maybe Cora and Isobel ( who's not in the house itself so I'm not really talking about her ). They're not horrible people, of course not. But people like Atticus and Evelyn upstairs are like a breath of fresh air, because the genuinely nice toffs are dead ( Sybil and Matthew ).

I actually like this season a whole lot more than last.

Andorra

Me, too. But I think it is too stalling in parts. As if Julian Fellows deperately wants to drag the show out for a few more serieses and since he doesn't like to write "happy" (as he has said), he drags out the romances clumsily.

I think that is a mistake. Either make one series less than planned or take the risk and write a marriage rather than end- end senseless love triangles or giving Tom one completely wrong woman after the next.

I think the romance is the heart of the show and it lacks good couples lately.

Allen Leech has said in an interview in the US a couple of days ago that he thinks the show will end after series 7! He never said a number before, so I thought it might be significant. If that is the case indeed, it explains why JF is stalling things so much IMO.

lassothemoon

Yeah, I agree--I think part of the thing with the romance is he wasn't going to introduce the legit love interests a season after Matthew and Sybil died, because that's crazy, but he did have to keep people engaged. Evelyn is a bit of a different case because we know him, but I don't know what he has planned for Tom.

Season 4 was sort of the "hey we're still here, we've still got it" series, and five is the "ok let me tie up these storylines" series. Six is where I see things advancing more quickly because the obstruction will be gone.

Seven is a good number--that reinforces why I think he's doing things the way he is.

L i N d $ @ y

I will be sad when this is all over but I won't be too sad if it does end next year. Not with how things are going lately. I don't expect it to be S1 all over again with the storytelling but JF has somehow managed to salvage some eps. For example, in the recent ep we all loved it. So there are hits and misses generally. But most of his storytelling nowadays just feels kind of lost like he's not exactly sure how to go about the characters.

For me, I don't think this season was any better than the last one but at least there's no deaths and no horrible and shocking storylines (like Anna's rape last season).

I also agree with Andorra that the heart of the show is the romance and that it's lacking on good couples lately. Dan & Jessica's exit has really made their mark on this show.

ClaireK80

I am one of the few persons who actually enjoyed S4, mostly because Anna's storyline didn't bother me that much, even if I agree it could've been handled better.

I guess the problem with S4 was that many storylines (Greene's death, Edith's child, Mary's love interests) weren't resolved at all, so it felt very transitional, despite some good episodes.

Now in the last episodes of season 5 we're finally getting some answers and personally I've been very satisfied with the last couple of episodes. It finally felt like something was happening. Episodes 2-4 were ok and had some good moments but some scenes seemed to be repeated over and over again (Edith visiting the Drewes, Sarah saying something rude, the policeman interrogating somebody etc.).

I also agree the show lacks some good romance. Merton/Isobel, Rose/Atticus, Carson/Hughes (if Fellowes is going there with them), Baxter/Molesley (ditto) are fine but the show needs a big romance like Mary/Matthew or Tom/Sybil.

Andorra

I agree with you Claire80,
I enjoyed series 4 and 5, but especially series 4 was very transitional and I'm glad we're now finally starting to wrap up the storylines that were raised there.

I wrote it in the 5.7 thread already: Personally I think the reason for this two series who had too much stalling storylines is, that Julian Fellows wants to write 2 more series, not just one, as we expected.

Allen Leech said two days ago, that he thinks the show should end after series 7. He has never mentioned a number before, nor did any other actor. Gareth Neame always said it would be somewhere between 5 and 10, but Gareth Neame also said in an interview at the TCA press tour this year, that they have spoken with the actors ahead of series 5, so that they would not run in danger to get into such a situation as they had in series 3.

So, personally, I think they contracted the actors they want to keep for series 5, 6 and 7 when they had these talks and that is the reason why Allen Leech speaks of 7 serieses now.

I also take it as a hint that Allen will stay IMO. (And boy am I glad about that!!!!)

I think they will start the final storylines in series 6 and then slowly wrap all storylines up over two series. I think some of the actors will leave in series 6, while some will then stay for the final series, which would be realistic for the time, when more and more of the staff left and the big houses more and more went to pieces.

L i N d $ @ y

I often always condition myself that D.A. will be over soon and while we don't have official news for another season, I'm sure there will still be another one for this show next year. In which case I hope that before the show goes, they do tie up all the loose ends. I don't think I will ever be rooting for a couple on this show anymore, I think it's too late for that now.

But I'd like to know everyone's thoughts on how you want the show to end? Which SLs should happen for next season and which characters do you think have already made their time on the show and needs a proper exit?

Andorra

The only thing I care about, personally is, that Tom finds love again. He has been through so much and he just needs to find another love to be happy. He deserves it and WE deserve it.
Wether he stays after that or not, is not important to me. I would stop watching if he left, because I don't care about the rest, but I would stop watching and be happy.
I think he will stay indefinitely though after this CS. I'm sure we will get a definite decision then and I really can't believe JF would write Allen Leech out of the show if he didn't have to.

About the other characters: I honestly don't care. JF is free to do with them what he wants, it's all ok with me. Make them happy, make them sad, let them live, let them die.

I could see the Dowager dying, because it would make sense.

I also could see Robert dying to see Mary and George getting all the responsibility for Downton. I'm not sure Mary is going to marry again. I don't think it will be one of the two "suitors" though.

I wonder if she will give up living there in the last series, because they can't find staff to run it.

I think Mrs Hughes and Mr. Carson will retire in the last episode of Downton, as will Mrs Patmore. Mosely and Baxter could take their place as housekeeper and Butler.

Daisy will leave for Mr. Mason's farm.

Bates and Anna will leave, too.

I think Edith will not find a new man. Maybe it will be left open. I could see her having a meet cute in the very last episode and it is open ended if it means something or not.