The story is certainly not flying through the calendar. I've completely abandoned any silly hope I had that they were going to get to WWII and falling ceiling plaster from German bombings. We're in the early 1920s, and while we know Season 5 is already being put together, it's unlikely the saga will press on beyond that. The executive producer Julian Fellowes is trying to float an American version of 'Downton' for NBC, set in the Edith Wharton-like Gilded Age period of New York City. If this comes off, no doubt we'll get glimpses of Gramercy Park.
Any entertainment project is dicey, but didn't Scorsese do this with 'Age of Reason.' And how popular was that movie, despite a competent cast of Michelle Pfeiffer and Daniel-Day Lewis no less?
Nevertheless, we have Lord Grantham headed off to America quite suddenly at his mother-in-law's request via telegram, the first form of a Twitter message.
Lord G's mother-in-law is of course Ol' Shirl, who we haven't yet seen again. This might be the segue to get to Ol' Shirl on her home turf, and spin-off a little of 'Downton' to America, in hopes to prime the pump for Mr. Fellowes's next project. After all, didn't 'All in the Family' give us 'The Jeffersons'?
Thus, we have his Lordship filling what seem to be nearly 30 pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage for his trip across the ocean with his pinch-hitting valet Thomas Barrow. Reason for the substitution of Bates becomes revealed, and has to do with the rape of his wife Anna, and the secret that is slowly getting out.
Lord G. explains the valet is so essential because "Americans have a correct uniform for practically every activity known to man." I don't know that it can compare to the British dining attire and black and white ties, but if there was a strict sartorial American style we know it eventually disappeared into Dockers, Nike footwear and puff coats with 'North Face' on the back. He explains mightily that that he'll "cross the raging seas" and provide support for his brother-in-law who is getting pulled into what we'll know as the Teapot Dome Scandal.
The hope here is that on Lord Grantham's arrival in New York Ol Shirl' will be making an appearance. The next question will be if the closeted valet Thomas Barrow finds Christopher Street and makes the return trip, because, as Lady Mary daintily tells her father, she knows of such matters because she's been married, and "knows everything." Marriage will do that to you.
Credit the creators with giving the show major themes to deal with: rape, homosexuality, abortion, and inter-racial puppy love. But, like any good Shakespearean play, there is comic relief.
We have Lady Mary and her ideological adversary, Charles Blake, the economist for the Crown, sloshing around in mud by the light of the moon and delivering buckets of water to distressed pigs. It is an adorable sequence, right out of 'Our Gang' or a Mickey Rooney movie: plucky people making sure the show goes on. Save the pigs. The pigs are saved.
Mary lets her patrician aloofness down just long enough to get mud flung in her face, while returning the gesture with smearing a glob onto Charles's face, somewhat like the bride's early revenge with wedding cake. But at sunrise Mary's composure returns, and while she scrambles eggs, for her and mud-splattered Charles, she doesn't pick up after herself, and lets the kitchen staff do the dishes. She does give credit to Charles with the inevitable line of "you've literally saved our bacon." William Safire would smile from his grave at the correct use of the word 'literal.' Thank God the regular Mary has returned.
And poor Edith. Three months pregnant, and the married cad Micheal Gregson can't be found. He's completely disappeared into Munich without a word, ostensibly to become a German citizen so he can get a divorce. But what to make of the absence? Is he MI-5, MI-6? Is he really already a German and is a spy? It's a little early for WWII spying angles, but England and Germany were quite attached at the hip in that era. Certainly anything along those lines is possible.
The abortion sequence is gripping. Apparently, despite being illegal, such places in England can be found by discreet, coded ads in woman's magazines in doctors' offices. The abortion site is nowhere near as seedy as the one portrayed in 'Love With A Proper Stranger' where Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood are basically sent to an empty apartment and someone opens a suitcase. Here at least you see someone who you assume is a doctor wearing a white coat. Edith, with the resolute Aunt Rosamund at her side, reconsiders the procedure, and leaves to still give us more fuel for future episodes.
Edith's mother Lady Cora will eventually understand, but what of his Lordship? Yikes. the guy has dealt with a dead Turk in a bedroom, a gay valet, a daughter married to an Irish chauffer, who then dies giving birth, a dead son-in- law who drove too fast, and now what looks like an out-of-wedlock birth from a daughter that was left at the alter and later made pregnant by who knows what kind of guy?
And what about what else he doesn't know about? The rape of Anna, and the cousin Rose who likes a black jazz singer. We're clearly not on the Donna Reed show.
Dame Violet gets a star turn as someone who is nearly dying with bronchitis, headed for pneumonia and certain death. Maggie Smith will surely get nominated for another Emmy for her wispy-hair portrayal of a bed ridden dowager who fights off death with help from cousin Isobel, and gains enough strength to lose at gin rummy. Dame Violet is not all wisecracks. She's iron.
And what about the elephant looming over the show? The tightening mainspring of violence that's going to be released? Mr. Bates has clearly put two and two together and come up with two squared when he figures out that Lord Gillingham's valet, Mr. Green is the perp who raped Anna.
Green is a cocky sort who tries to portray the incident to Mrs. Hughes as consenting between two libidos liberated by alcohol. Mrs. Hughes is not buying that one, and as this secret gets out further, there has to be a consequence. Perhaps it will be Mrs. Patmore who skewers the guy's privates with a kitchen knife. Or maybe whacks him so hard with a frying pan that he stops breathing. Hell, the household knows how to deal with dead people and cover ups. You are definitely rooting for revenge in an era with no DNA samples.
You also get the message that while an inter-racial coupling is not embraced, England is not Mississippi. This is the 1920s, and if it were Mississippi, or Alabama, or somewhere where the KKK
has membership and a chapter, Mr. Jack Ross would be swinging from a bridge for consorting with Rose.
I'll soon get to Episode Seven. The show moves slowly though time, but covers a great deal. And by the time the saga of the Crawley clan has been played out and everyone has gone home to other projects and we're onto possibly watching a New York version, we will have absorbed a good deal of human drama, and also learned about what color tie to wear with the tuxedo when dining.
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