Key
cast members gone, the two-hour Downton premiere is stuffed with not only surviving
lead actors but what looks like a lawn sale of forgotten characters from past
years returning for whirlwind reprises. Without a scorecard, there are heirloom
plates in the air everywhere.
Fellowes
has too much aplomb to be overcome by jumping-the-shark anxiety, but some sense
of hurry-up pervades the air in what is normally the most leisurely of
atmospheres, with some moving moments and others more openly contrived.
As
Downton moves through the 1920s with electrical gadgets invading the kitchen,
there is an underlying sense that Fellowes is heading toward some kind of
closure with his award-winning writing debut, Robert Altman’s 2001 “Gosford
Park,” which turned him from actor to author, set in 1932 with a cast of
decaying characters upstairs and down.
A
disappointed aficionado can’t forgive Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown-Findlay for
jumping ship last season to terminate Dan Crawley’s and Lady Sybil’s Downton
lives. A spiteful check of their IMBD sites shows them both working in upcoming
films, nothing major, and...yes, other TV series.
Downtown
will no doubt sort out its transition problems, but a fan is reminded of a
classic line in “All About Eve,” with the playwright yelling at the actress, “When
will the piano realize it has not written the concerto?”
Meanwhile,
Fellowes seems to be hard at work trying to sort out his keyboards for the
future.
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