Downton abbey season 5 series#
Downton abbey season 5 tv#

Rose behaved as if a dodgy selfie had been posted on Facebook.īack at the house, the police came to visit for the 485th time. I can’t help thinking that in the mid 1920s this would have been: a) very difficult to arrange for a grumpy, impoverished aristocratic woman recently arrived from India, and b) far more of a scandal. Shrimpy did well here: “Get down, you cat!” But the business with the caught-in-clinch-with-Stringfellows-stripper photographs? Just not believable. Denker is doing suspicious things with the new footman! Daisy is thinking about leaving! The police keep coming to interview Anna! The Ill-Defined Suitor is getting married! Who cares! Where’s the other Ill-Defined Suitor when you need him?Īs usual, the strongest moments were the intimate scenes that erupted into sudden violence or repressed passion. Several thousand new plotlines surfaced and were put to bed in this blink-and-you’ve-missed-it outing.

Downton abbey season 5 series#

It felt like a big set-up for the recently announced series six and/or the Christmas special.

Downton abbey season 5 tv#

Like watching a pilot for a completely different TV series that just happened to feature some of the characters and plot lines from Downton Abbey. This feature-length finale was, even by Downton’s standards, odd. But I assumed that would turn out to be wrong.) Now Rose is virtually pregnant and divorced. One minute Rose is getting engaged and Isis is a bit poorly. Pet’s tombstones? What? This is offensive. After all that, the bloody dog is already dead? And we’re expected to behave as if we know about it and don’t mind? I had to check twice that I was not watching the wrong episode. If historical accuracy is to be maintained, Downton – like all entailed estates – must sooner or later come under threat from death duties and social change.What? You have got to be kidding me. ITV has made much of the ‘shaking ground’ beneath Mr Carson’s feet in the trailer for this new series, and the election of the 1924 Labour government was rammed home in the second scene of this first episode. It seemed to me that there was more pace and structure in the writing – to wit, some halfway decent cliffhangers (Edith with Mr Drewe in the barn, Edith throwing her book into the fire) going into commercial breaks, let alone ending the episode.Īnd though the world outside has always had a tendency to impinge on the great house – especially when the world outside was fighting World War I – it seems that this series may include more politics than before. Actor Rob James-Collier has said that Barrow is going to have to come to terms with the fact that he’ll never find romantic happiness with another man (this being 1924) – so his spat with Baxter could herald more sadness to come.ĥ This is a pacier, snappier, more political DowntonĪ couple of final thoughts on the overarching themes that episode 1 established. Only his heroism in the fire saved him from Lady Grantham’s wrath over his treatment of Baxter.Īnd it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a happy season for poor Mr Barrow. He’ll be back…Ĥ Mr Barrow is thwarted – and not for the last timeīarrow’s little plan to blackmail Baxter has been foiled – for now. Now she is planning a dirty week away with Lord Gillingham (Tom Cullen), who (ironically) plans to use her loose morals to show her that she should let him make an honest woman of her.īut Mr Blake may not have been rejected as comprehensively as Gillingham believes – there’s an interview with the actor who plays him, Julian Ovenden, in the season 5 press pack. In season 1, she was famously in bed with the visiting Turk Mr Pamuk when he spontaneously died. The theft (and disposal) of her former employer’s jewels must have had a reason, which promises plenty more Baxter to come.ĭedicated Downton fans will remember that – despite all her icy aloofness – Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) is not above a little slap and tickle when she fancies it. We discovered in episode 1 what she’s done, but we pointedly didn’t discover why she did it. My guess is that she won’t, because – and here’s the second thing – it looks as if Miss Baxter has plenty more storyline in her yet. Which put Mr Barrow (Rob James-Collier) in a difficult position – of which more below – but also set two other hares running.įirst, will Lady Grantham see fit to fire Miss Baxter, who is – as Lady Grantham so pithily put it – a ‘convicted felon’? Miss Baxter (Raquel Cassidy) took strength from Mr Molesley (Kevin Doyle) in this first episode, and confessed her criminal record to Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern). 2 Miss Baxter’s secret is already out – or is it?