katakokk | a surprisingly fandomy, not!variety post

♫ First things first: Josh Hutcherson was cast as Peeta. And Liam Hemsworth as Gale (I keep wanting to say Liam Neeson, argh). RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE. THIS IS NOT ALLOWED. I DISAPPROVE. *STAMP OF DISAPPROVAL* Feel the fire of my disapproval, Lionsgate, it is the disapproval of a thousand suns! Hunter Parrish is Peeta, guys, I refuse to accept any other Peeta. They just don't do it for me. Also, Liam Hemsworth. He's worked with Miley Cyrus. He's dated Miley Cyrus. Just, NO.

♫ But! On a happier note, I come to encourage everyone (or at least those who haven't already done so) to watch Downton Abbey! It is a splendid show, I will try and tell you why.

♫ It's a British period drama, set in the 1910's. The first season goes from the sinking of the Titanic (episode 1) to the beginning of WWI (episode 7), with the help of some not-always-obvious time skips.

♫ It's basically about the noble family (the Earl of Grantham and his wife and children) and their staff that live/work at a country estate in North England called Downton Abbey. The family has three daughters: Mary, Edith, and Sybil. At the start of the first episode, Lord Grantham's heir and the heir's son both drowned because of the Titanic sinking, and so there's the question of whether Mary, the oldest daughter, will inherit, since by male primogeniture, all male heirs must be exhausted before females can inherit. Or something to that effect.

♫ However! A male heir is discovered, a Mr. Matthew Crawley of distant relation (why yes, can you see me putting on my posh voice to talk about these posh people?) who is a middle-class barrister (read: lawyer) in Manchester. He soon moves into the village of Downton and starts hanging out with his nobler relations, and there is much conflict as Mary (supported by both Lady Granthams - one being the Earl's mother, played by the very awesome Dame Maggie Smith) very much wants to inherit, at the very least, her mother's dowry (which is quite considerable, her mother is an American heiress), but it got entailed when Lord and Lady Grantham were married, so it's "part of the estate" and must all go to Matthew. So, much conflict there. Along with some (SPOILERS!) lovely hate flirting. It's quite awesome.

♫ There is also conflict between Mary and Edith, the closer in age of the two siblings. Edith, as a second daughter, never stood to inherit anything, so she basically needs to find herself a wealthy, decent (or decently wealthy) husband. She's the "not pretty" one of the three sisters (though I think she's pretty in a kind of mousy way), and so she doesn't attract nearly as much attention as oldest, gorgeous Mary and pretty, sweet Sybil. Mary and Edith also seem to like be spiteful towards one another, leading to many problems. I shan't spoil too much!

♫ Finally, Sybil is somewhat rebellious. She supports women's rights and wants to befriend and interact with the staff. So she does things like goes to rallies, which gets her into some trouble, as you're not supposed to do that sort of thing as a noble lady. She's awesome, and very headstrong, and sweet, and also her and the socialist chauffeur Branson (he's Irish :D) are adorable. He takes her to rallies! He makes sure she's safe at them (most of the time). She is my favorite Crawley sister. She doesn't get as much screentime as Mary and all her central-to-overall-plot drama, but she is amazing. :)

♫ And then there's downstairs. Downstairs you have the butler, housekeeper, cook, two housemaids, Lady Grantham's ladies' maid, Lord Grantham's valet, two footmen, a scullery maid, and scores of extras. It's REALLY confusing at first - I had to keep the Wikipedia character list open for the first couple episodes (it has a handy chart for who has what job). For part of the time, the drama centers around Bates the valet and his lameness (he has a cane), which prevents him from "fully doing his job." The primary villains downstairs are Thomas the first footman (he is so mean to poor William, the second footman) and Mrs. O'Brien, the ladies' maid. They smoke and scheme together.

♫ SO BASICALLY, I LOVE EVERYBODY ON THIS SHOW. It's a little soap-opera-y at times, but it's not badly acted at ALL, it's excellently written, pretty much everybody is awesome (though I was disappointed at how evil Thomas was, mostly because I thought he was quite pretty at first, but he's much too handsome, if you catch my drift), and I just LOVE it! The plots are really intriguing and everything is interwoven very well, with all the drama up- and downstairs. And it's cute how much the staff cares about the family (except the ~evil ones~), especially when the whole debacle about inheriting ends up as downstairs gossip.

♫ Basically, WATCH IT. It may seem a little Pride & Prejudice-y with all the daughters, but it's not, really. Okay, yes, it's a period drama, but it's wonderful and adorable.

♫ Okay, I really ought to go to bed....soon.