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“Downton Abbey” casts first black character

Wed, 01 May 2013 15:52:00 +0000

Gary Carr will play the first black character on the fourth season of ITV's highly acclaimed costume drama, "Downton Abbey."

Carr will play Jack Ross, "a charming and charismatic young man" in the eight-episode season whose role “will bring interesting twists to the drama," said executive producer Gareth Neame in a statement.

The addition of a black character was announced in February responding to criticism over the show's lack of diversity.

Carr's previous experience includes roles in BBC series "Bluestone 42" and "Death In Paradise."

“Downton Abbey” inspires retail line

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 21:57:00 +0000

ITV's surpise hit "Downton Abbey" is expanding its global empire with a "range of products," turning itself into a brand. According to a CNBC interview with Gareth Neame, the show's executive producer and production company Carnival Films' managing director, you'll soon be able to wear "Downtown Abbey", cook like "Downtown Abbey," smell like "Downton Abbey," look like "Downton Abbey," write like "Downton Abbey" and sit in rooms like "Downton Abbey":

"We'll be working across an entire range of products coming out this year. From fashion, apparel and homeware and furniture to wallpapers, beauty products and stationary," Neame, who is also the show's executive producer, told CNBC.

"Some of these things have been available since 2012 and we publish books and have made a music album, but the more complex products take time," he said, adding that there would be even more scope for merchandizing in the future.

Does “Downton Abbey” perpetuate gay stereotypes?

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 17:00:00 +0000

IT WAS A SEASON OF SADNESS, a season of tsuris; the anti-Passover, I guess, as at the last minute the Angel of Death, that occasional writing partner of Julian Fellowes, stopped at Downton Abbey after all. Yes, Season Three of the most successful drama in PBS history ended with both a death and a birth, as Fellowes is a generous host. If you didn’t watch, you can read on without fear; here be no spoilers. I’ll just say that we were left with a Major Character dead on a country road, blood leaking from (gender unspecified’s) mouth. Season Four, which we won’t get for a year, will pick up six months after the Sadness. Maggie Smith, in the role of Maggie Smith, will once more in her Don-Rickles-with-a-title mode trot out the zingers, his Lordship will disapprove of something or other, and Lady Edith will defy the example set by her late sister Sybil that Girls With Ideas come to early ends. Shit may, as they say, happen at Downton, but Fellowes believes that just getting on with it is the best revenge, a worldview that helps him infallibly locate and dramatize the perfect balance between what needs to change, and what must never change, with the latter given the weight.

“Downton Abbey” to introduce first black cast member

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 21:00:00 +0000

Following up the November announcement to "open the show up ethnically" on "Downton Abbey," casting notes obtained by the Sun today reveal that the show has settled upon casting a black actor to play a jazz musician Jack Ross in the upcoming season.

The Sun reports:

"Casting notes were sent out to actors’ agents earlier this month. They describe Ross as “Male, 25-30. A musician (singer) at an exclusive club in the 20s.

'He’s black and very handsome. A real man (not a boy) with charm and charisma.'

"Whoever lands the role should 'ideally be able to sing brilliantly'. The notes add: 'Overall he should be a very attractive man with a certain wow factor.' Jack Ross will play a key part in the fourth series of the hit TV saga alongside a string of other fresh faces."

“Downton Abbey” recap: “I just can’t see a happy ending”

Mon, 18 Feb 2013 03:40:00 +0000

All together now, let’s get this out of the way:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

That feels marginally better. Marginally.

Sweet, floppy-haired Matthew is dead by the side of the road. Maybe in a few months this will fill me with sadness, for now I feel nothing but outrage. They killed Matthew? So soon after Sybil? Matthew has been a dull, eager drip for weeks and weeks and weeks and the actor who plays him, Dan Stevens, wanted out of his contract, but still. This is like killing Mr. Darcy. And why would you ever kill Mr. Darcy?! It solidifies for me the sense that “Downton Abbey” doesn’t know or care why I like to watch it: Needless to say, not for the tragedy.

Maggie Smith has never seen “Downton Abbey”

Thu, 14 Feb 2013 23:36:00 +0000

Maggie Smith, known to "Downtown Abbey" fans as the acerbic, quick-witted Dowager Countess, recently admitted that she has never even seen an episode of the Emmy Award-winning show. In a recent interview with "60 Minutes'" Steve Kroft (to be aired Sunday), she admitted: “I don’t sit down and watch it.”

“You must be the only person in England who’s not watching,” said Kroft, surprised.

And in the most Maggie Smith-like delivery ever, she replied, “Well, that’s a record then, isn’t it, of some sort." She added,“I always see things that I would like to do differently and think, ‘Oh, why in the name of God did I do that?’”

Like her staunch character, Smith isn't one for Hollywood fanfare in general, though. She has long shirked awards shows, including this year's Golden Globes, where she won Best Supporting Actress for the very role she's never seen herself play.

“Downton Abbey” recap: It’s not against the law to hope, is it?

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 03:30:00 +0000

The two-hour “Downton Abbey” that just aired on PBS was broadcast in Great Britain as two separate episodes, the second of which was the season three finale. After that bucolic cricket match, audiences across the Atlantic had to wait two long months before seeing the Christmas special, which will air next week on PBS. I raise this matter of scheduling not to revel in the fact that we Americans don’t have to wait patiently for our next “Downton” fix, but to point out that “Downton Abbey” is now the kind of show that introduces its audience to a bratty, bright young thing engaged in foolish and clichéd nonsense in the season finale, rather than giving some more screen time to one of the dozens of underserved characters we already know and care about.

I’m as interested in gin parties as the next person — and why, if Julian Fellowes is so keen to show us roaring London, has he refused to let one of the Crawley girls have some fun? — but not when the person going to them is some random character dropped in from a crappy screenplay treatment of one of Evelyn Waugh’s lesser comedic novels. It’s the season finale! Lady Mary has not had a decent storyline since the very first episode of the season. She couldn’t have been making like a Mitford on the London social scene these past few months? Last week Daisy got offered a whole other career. What did she do about it? Who knows! Let’s check in on this Rose character instead!

“Downton Abbey” for grown-ups

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 20:00:00 +0000

The popularity of "Downton Abbey," the British stately-home soap, has set some of the series' more bookish fans on a quest for Edwardian literature. Besides providing Maggie Smith with the opportunity to play a zinger-delivery system known as the Dowager Countess Violet Crawley, "Downton Abbey," in its more serious moments (which are admittedly few), examines a way of life on the cusp of profound change. Even if we're not living in a Jacobethan castle, we can sympathize with just how unsettled all those characters feel.

In a similar, if more elevated, vein, a BBC dramatization of the four Ford Madox Ford novels collectively known as "Parade's End" will arrive on American television at the end of the month. (HBO will air the miniseries beginning on Feb. 26.) The screenplay is by Tom Stoppard, and Benedict Cumberbatch, of "Sherlock" fame, stars. "Downton" comparisons will abound, though some viewers will be disappointed to find "Parade's End" lacks a mansion and wisecracking old ladies -- not to mention the complete absence of attention paid to the servant class.

Could “Downton” ever be spoiler-free?

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 19:21:00 +0000

While other networks were in reruns to avoid a collision with the Ravens, the 49ers and Beyoncé, PBS had yet another triumph on Super Bowl Sunday. "Downton Abbey," in its third season, averaged 6.6 million viewers Sunday night, up 69 percent from its performance the year before. And, as is typical for "Downton," it wasn't just older longtime "Masterpiece" lovers tuning in: A tweet the network sent out urging bored football fans to tune away from a blacked-out Superdome got over 3,500 retweets.

"Our social media guys were on the stick during the blackout," said Paula Kerger, the president of PBS. Comparing "humble little PBS" to other brands who used the New Orleans blackout to get brand awareness, she noted: "It was Oreo, Tide, and PBS!"

And yet questions exist about whether or not PBS is capitalizing as well as it might on newfound attention to its programming. At the center is the transatlantic broadcast lag of "Downton Abbey." The recent death of central character Lady Sybil was spoiled for some viewers by news reports and recaps from the U.K., where the character died on ITV last October; other viewers pirated the series long before its U.S. airing.

“Downton Abbey” recap: The world isn’t going your way, not anymore

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 03:00:00 +0000

Honoring the gravity of last week’s events, this episode of “Downton” picks up pretty much where we left off, with Sybil’s sad, sad, sad death casting a pall over everything and everyone. The residents of Downton are reeling, wearing black, and in desperate need of cheering up, none more so than Cora. Cora, bereft and at an understandable loss to explain how her beautiful, healthy 24-year-old daughter up and died, has channeled much of her grief into anger at her husband. There was a chance Sybil could be saved, but Robert believed Sir Philip because “He’s knighted and fashionable” and he “let all that nonsense weigh against saving our daughter’s life.” Cora cannot bear even the sight of him, in her bed and outside of it.

Robert doesn’t know how to deal with Cora’s anger, in part because he feels he deserves it and in part because, British as he is, he’s terrified of it. This is perhaps the stiffest upper-lipped episode of “Downton” ever, with everyone struggling mightily to keep a straight face, and the Dowager and Robert going so far as to discuss sending Cora off to America because, less than a week after her daughter’s death, she has not calmed down sufficiently. (Just because when these Brits panic, they talk very calmly about shipping someone overseas, it does not mean it’s not panic.)

Sesame Street presents “Upside Downton Abbey”

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:52:00 +0000

Sesame Street has been killing it on the Internet this week. Today the channel released "Upside Downton Abbey," an absurd spoof -- part wordplay, part parody -- of the Emmy Award–winning drama.

"Carson, might I have some tea?" asks the Dowager Countess, upside down. (Carson pours her tea):

Dowager Countess: Oh! Why is the tea not going in my cup?

Carson: Perhaps because you are upside down, ma'am.

Dowager Countess: Well of course we're upside down! This is Upside Downton Abbey!

And it continues:

Bad news: Sex doesn’t burn that many calories

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 13:30:00 +0000

Buried in an article reviewing the myths and facts of obesity and weight-loss in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine is this gem:

“Myth number 7: A bout of sexual activity burns 100 to 300 kcal for each participant.”

There’s no shortage of Web sites extolling the cardiovascular virtues of sex, from undressing to foreplay to intercourse. Suffice it to say that they’re long on pseudo-science and short on data. A random sample:

“Downton Abbey” recap: Tragedy strikes

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:00:00 +0000

Sometimes, when I feel like staring into the abyss, I think about what it is that I like about TV so much. It’s lucky for me that TV shows have gotten so good in the past decade or so, because it offers me cover. Shows like “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” and “30 Rock” are, in their own distinct ways, ambitious and meaty. And while they are not always art, they are always cleverly structured, deeply thought-out entertainments. These types of series have helped elevate TV and the discussion around it into the super-vibrant, cultural touchstone that it is today, which is wonderful and convenient because it makes intellectually acceptable the truth that I would have happily watched thousands of hours of much, much worse.

When I started to really watch TV, I loved “Saved By the Bell” and “Full House” and “90210” and “Dawson’s Creek” and “Buffy.” I can now write lots of sound, well-reasoned sentences about these programs' respective merits (or lack of merits), but that’s ret-conning my younger self because what I loved about those shows at the time would be best expressed by thoughtlets like “Brenda and Dylan ahhhh!!!!" “How rude! Hahaha,””Angel swoooon," but even less coherent and with more excited sound effects. I watched for the plot, for the story, for what happened next to these, incidentally, fake people. I don’t watch nearly as blithely as I used to, but for me the deep, fundamental pleasure of watching TV remains the same. It’s just the simple, sweet, silly act of caring way too much about people that don’t really exist.

“Downton Abbey” recap: Please Mr. Postman

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 04:00:00 +0000

This week on “Downton Abbey” some meaningless, boring stuff happened. This was an episode that revealed how deeply “Downton” has become not just a soap, but only a soap, which is to say a drama that is interesting only when big-time melodramtic events — like a wedding or an interrupted wedding — happen. The plot is the whole ball game — or, to use the appropriate sports cliché, cricket match — so when said plots revolve around the failures of the prison postal service, well, snooze, no matter how elegantly the new footman’s shoulders fill out his uniform.

Lest you think I am being unduly harsh, I really tried to identify some themes: I thought maybe there was some parallel to extract from the Anna-Bates, Sybil-Branson, Ethel-and-her-son storylines because all of them involve women making sacrifices for the person they most love: Anna ends up just as she was, Ethel ends up heartbroken, Sybil ends up getting to be rich again. If you toss in Edith’s act of paternal disobedience, that covers a whole spectrum of possible outcomes for willful women in early 20th century England, or some such high-school-essay-sounding BS. It’s like a novel that appears to contain bird imagery with metaphorical significance but actually just contains a bunch of descriptions of birds. There’s no there there.

National Book Awards wise up

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 18:40:00 +0000

In a bid to "broaden the reach and impact" of the National Book Awards, its annual prize, the National Book Foundation has announced two key changes to its selection process. These alterations appear to be following the example of Britain's Man Booker Prize, a contest that many regard as more influential in the U.S. than its homegrown counterpart.

The NBAs are awarded in four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry and young people's literature. In the past, panels of judges in each category selected a short list of five titles, announcing the candidates in the early fall. The winners of each prize are then announced at a gala banquet and ceremony in November.

On Tuesday, the foundation issued a press release stating that from now on "a 'Long-List' of ten titles in each of the four genres, to be published five weeks before the Finalists Announcement." More significantly, it also announced that the judging panels "will no longer be limited to writers, but now may also include other experts in the field including literary critics, librarians and booksellers." The Booker Prize likewise features both a long and a short list, and its judges are drawn from various walks of literary life, including the occasional import from other media, such as Dan Stevens (who plays Matthew Crawley on "Downton Abbey"), a judge in 2012.

“Downton Abbey” Recap: The Lady Edith problem

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 04:01:00 +0000

“Downton Abbey’s” serial mistreatment of Edith Crawley, the ultimate middle child, is one of its most telling quirks. The deliciously mean-spirited piling on of indignities is unjust, unfair, unkind, good fun and a pure expression of “Downton’s” ideology. Edith, poor pathetic, googley-eyed Edith, who has neither luck nor luminosity, neither her older sister’s stones nor her younger sister’s sweetness, or either of their beauty, is a true personification of “Downton’s” aristocratic worldview: We are not created equal.

“Downton” believes in the aristocracy, in its grace, glamour — why are all the soaring, sexy love stories upstairs? What’s Daisy got to do to get a boo? — and essential benevolence, and to believe in the aristocracy you must believe in a hierarchy of human character. If you are Lord Grantham, you can’t believe we are all fundamentally the same. We cannot be, because if we were, it would be a grave injustice that Bates and Thomas and Daisy have to clean your shirts and cook your dinner, while you flipper away an inherited fortune and, along with it, your one real duty, to provide employment and stability by staying wealthy beyond measure. No, the aristocrats — who are not just lucky, but predestined, their wealth and especially their property an intrinsic signifier of their own substantiality — think of themselves as being made of better mettle, more high-minded stuff, purer raw materials than their charges. They are educated and cosseted and lucky, yes, but they imagine themselves innately better suited to tackle life’s grander pleasures and problems.

Liberace’s homosexuality makes Hollywood squirm

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 17:07:00 +0000

This is everything that's ridiculous about Hollywood in a single sentence. You can put together an acclaimed, hit-making director and two A-list, Oscar-winning actors, promise a low budget and an intriguing subject matter, and have the whole industry run away. The whole liberal, diversity-loving industry. Because, as director Steven Soderbergh explains, "They said it was too gay."

Too gay. That's the reason that Michael Douglas and Matt Damon's "Behind the Candelabra" biopic about Liberace is coming to HBO instead of a theater this year. Because in 2013, apparently the entertainment industry believes we can still only watch stories about homosexuals in the privacy of our homes. Soderbergh told the Wrap, "Nobody would make it. We went to everybody in town. We needed $5 million. Nobody would do it. They said it was too gay. Everybody. This was after 'Brokeback Mountain,' by the way. Which is not as funny as this movie. I was stunned. It made no sense to any of us." Maybe he could have gotten green-lighted with a movie about a gay star who died of AIDS that was just a little bit gay?

“Downton Abbey” recap: A change is gonna come

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 04:00:00 +0000

I think I have watched Matthew and Mary get engaged around 40 times. I may be overestimating how much I’ve seen the final scene of last season’s “Downton Abbey,” but if I am, it’s not by much. It’s at the point where not only could I recite the scene from memory (in poncey accents), but I’ve spent a good deal of time wondering why the crackling-snow-underfoot sound effects in it are so damn loud.

In other words, I cannot imagine two hours of television I would be inclined to like more than one focused on Matthew and Mary’s wedding and — praise the gods of high tea — subsequent boffing. I’ve already seen the third season of “Downton Abbey” in its entirety, including the Christmas special, and generally speaking — no spoilers here — this, for me, is the season of “Downton” where the bloom came off the English rose. But that comes later, in future episodes, because in this episode Matthew and Mary got married, and then roll around in bedsheets.

“Downton Abbey”: Hard times hit the estate

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:37:00 +0000

A few nights ago, I dreamed about “Downton Abbey.” Mr. Bates had taken Matthew Crawley hostage and was holding him at knife point in some soignée drawing room, a costume dream remake of “Misery.” Other people’s dreams — particularly the ones that do not contain the existence of you — are, as a rule, dull, so I won’t go on about the drapery patterns or the motive or Bates' strange expertise with knots. The basic outline makes my point: Over its first two genteel, delectable seasons “Downton Abbey” has sunk its well-manicured hooks in me, lodging so deep that my subconscious now spews out alternative story lines in which the pious Mr. Bates has been made over into a villain (which, not for nothing, would make him a whole lot more interesting).

“Downton Abbey”: The U.K.’s biggest import since the Beatles

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Amid a whirlwind media blitz that had the “Downton Abbey” cast doing a panel discussion in L.A., at Knicks games in New York and spoofing “Breaking Bad” on "Colbert," here at last, in Washington, was a setting befitting the regal cast. The posh British Ambassador’s residence on the embassy grounds in D.C. hosted a PBS-sponsored reception on this month that drew fans, station officials and what serves as celebrity in this town: Bob Schieffer, Gwen Ifill, Andrea Mitchell and Alan Greenspan, among them.

And there, beneath the chandeliers and portraits of royalty past, the seventh Earl of Grantham, in tweed, seemed right at home.

“It’s a beautiful residence,” said the actor Hugh Bonneville, in his familiar dulcet tone before the reception was in full swing. “And it feels, well, it feels like Downton really.”

“It’s just like home,” Elizabeth McGovern, the show’s Lady Grantham, added, playing along.

Using the British Embassy to showcase cultural exports is something that goes back decades and includes reception for the Beatles in 1964 just after their first U.S. show at the Washington Coliseum, when an overly anxious souvenir hunter clipped a hunk of Ringo’s hair. “We didn't stay there long,” the drummer remembered later, saying “These diplomats just don't know how to behave."