nineveh_uk ([info]nineveh_uk) wrote,
2012-02-26 21:24:00
Ow, ow, ow, Upstairs, Downstairs is making Downton Abbey look subtle*, which is some achievement. Though the sudden obsession with brains suggests potential in a zombie crossover. The effing Kennedys? And the vomitous smugness of the whole pre-war plot***.

*Much as I appreciated the asbestos mines**. Occasionally the odd flash sparks through from the first episode of last series, which made it plain the household ran on child labour.

**And I adore the Duke of Kent's screaming campness. He is currently chatting up a young JFK.

***Plot, of course, is putting it generously.

ETA: Bloody Jupiter****? And inventing the Kindertransport? Whilst the worst thing that happened on Kristallnacht was apparently Unity Mitford getting snapped at in a Berlin phonebox

****Which has now turned into "I Vow to Thee My Country" with words, and with children walking forward on a station platform to noble sanctified England. I may throw something.
Tags: television

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  • 15 comments

[info]zwoelfchen

February 26 2012, 21:40:06 UTC 3 months ago

Upstairs, Downstairs a.k.a. I'll watch anything if it has Alex Kingston as a 40s lesbian in it. I am a very, very shallow person. (I have not actually watched it yet, however.) Please tell me her storyline is not too cringe-worthy.

[info]nineveh_uk

February 26 2012, 21:44:58 UTC 3 months ago

I had not read that Alex Kingston was playing a lesbian character in it, but it became blindingly obvious when she received a letter (presumably from an ex-) earlier this episode. Kingston is entertaining, but she ain't no River Song in this.

[info]antisoppist

February 26 2012, 22:33:47 UTC 3 months ago

but she ain't no River Song in this
Someone having a time machine would at least explain the entire plot being driven by the benefit of hindsight.

I do not care. It is worth it for Alex Kingston's hat.

I saw her on Graham Norton where she said she was going to be playing a lesbian archaeologist and terrified the crew by being overly confident at waving loaded guns around. This seemed reason enough to watch it.

[info]nineveh_uk

February 27 2012, 12:15:06 UTC 3 months ago

having a time machine would at least explain the entire plot being driven by the benefit of hindsight

This is true. Though I think River Song would be unimpressed by her clothes. I did not spot a hat, but might have missed it by being occupied with banging my head against the sofa arm.

[info]madamedarque

February 26 2012, 23:01:06 UTC 3 months ago

I don't watch the new Upstairs, Downstairs, although I understand it's supposed to be less soapish/flagrantly anachronistic than Downton? This week The Economist did a vaguely snarky comparison between the two (On Downton: Here the post-war flu pandemic is less a national calamity than an opportunity to bump off awkward characters; truer words were never spoken), although they neglected to mention the crucial fact that the former has the undeniable advantage of Alex Kingston.

[info]nineveh_uk

February 27 2012, 12:51:58 UTC 3 months ago

In some ways it is less obviously anachronistic than Downton. But at least Downton didn't have the majority of the upper class population, including the government, being vigorously anti-appeasement and apparently desperately concerned with the fate of the Jewish population in Germany.

[info]madamedarque

February 27 2012, 21:06:02 UTC 3 months ago

But at least Downton didn't have the majority of the upper class population, including the government, being vigorously anti-appeasement and apparently desperately concerned with the fate of the Jewish population in Germany.

I am depressingly not surprised. I will never understand why white-washing the anti-Semitism of the British upper classes in pieces about this time period is still so pervasive, and no one seems to call it out. I've read that W.E. is one giant apology fest for Edward and Wallis Simpson's Nazi sympathies.

[info]nineveh_uk

February 27 2012, 21:15:05 UTC 3 months ago

I will never understand why white-washing the anti-Semitism of the British upper classes in pieces about this time period is still so pervasive

Because they're still in power. Or at least, because the promotion of a 'national myth' of how the upper-classes were the Saviours of the Nation, Nay, of Europe, in 1939 suits the present establishment. See also The King's Speech, which at least was a better film.

[info]madamedarque

February 27 2012, 22:01:17 UTC 3 months ago

It's been two years since I've seen that film, but I seem to remember there being some nod to Wallis and Edward's Nazi sympathies? Not huge, but the ending of the film seemed to confirm that it was A Good Thing that George and not Edward was on the throne as the country plunged into war.

Or at least, because the promotion of a 'national myth' of how the upper-classes were the Saviours of the Nation, Nay, of Europe, in 1939 suits the present establishment.

Yes, but I just suppose I expect to see more discussion and challenging of it, at least in the British press. I would not expect any sort of WWII-related historical insight about the British upper classes out of the States, but the veneration of benevolent and inexplicably far-sighted aristocrats is particularly grating to people on your side of the Atlantic, yes?

[info]pellegrina

February 27 2012, 08:06:15 UTC 3 months ago Edited:  February 27 2012, 08:06:36 UTC

Our television survived the Kindertransport nobly sanctifying England in hopes that the wash of sentiment may make us overlook the bit where THEY TURNED AWAY ALL THE ADULTS because THEY MIGHT WANT JOBS. But only just.

[info]nineveh_uk

February 27 2012, 12:57:32 UTC 3 months ago

What I found really quite nasty was the enormous concern of the upper-class characters for the fate of the Jewish population of Germany, coupled with a total absence of actual Jewish characters, and most of all in the light of Lotte's storyline in the first series, which appeared to be about nice German upper-class Jews being treated by horrid working class (and dirty) British Jews. It all seems to add up to the Holocaust as a plot device to show how great our ahead of his time chap is. At least the bloody Earl of Grantham isn't depicted as a far-sighted prophet of the Horrors to Come.

[info]pellegrina

February 27 2012, 13:51:00 UTC 3 months ago

I know! I commented to [info]malaheed that all the characters appeared to have an uncanny knowledge of future events.

[info]wellinghall

February 27 2012, 20:43:13 UTC 3 months ago

Off topic, but you might appreciate this:
http://heterodoxy.cc/meowdocs/pseudo/pseudosynth.pdf

from http://boingboing.net/

[info]nineveh_uk

February 28 2012, 10:50:52 UTC 2 months ago

That's brilliant! Hurray again, I suppose, for the NHS, for making it plain that this sort of stupid thing is not cost neutral if you force 60 million people to see a doctor every time they have a cold.

I wonder if the students actually tried it, or just reverse-engineered the process on paper.

[info]bookwormsarah

February 27 2012, 23:23:30 UTC 3 months ago

Wasn't it ghastly? I felt as if the scriptwriter had read a wikipedia entry on that particular year and gone through ticking off major plot points. The Kindertransport bit was horribly manipulative - I can't believe they attempted to wring more pain and drama out of the situation. I also have serious doubts about the efficiency of the arrivals process.

The downstairs staff are a mostly uninteresting bunch too, with little of the charm of Downton. I think the series would be far better if it wasn't trying to connect with every single famous person in london in the '30s.
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