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Post by ruffles on Jan 3, 2016 9:05:14 GMT -5
This is bitter sweet. We've been loving the best soap on record.
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Post by meggie on Jan 3, 2016 13:09:37 GMT -5
It certainly is! I remember getting up early to watch the eastern feed of the final episode of Guiding Light with all of you. Today feels like that.
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Post by ruffles on Jan 3, 2016 18:43:02 GMT -5
Mr. Fellowes is just going to have to step up to the plate and come up with a new series. Though, in a promo piece about him, he said no one anticipated the phenomenal success that happened with Downton Abbey and no one knows why that happened. My reaction to that was ?Really? We were transported into the most beautiful kind of idyllic worlds with the utmost care and detail where we were smattered with realisms that we could touch.
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Post by ruffles on Jan 4, 2016 1:01:43 GMT -5
Ohhh Man..........This isn't going to be easy. I teared up a few times during the program. The program that PBS showed immediately prior the episode, had a few excerpts from Season 6. The mute button prevented any spoiler info from sneaking out. Plus they announced that the following program would have some preview moments. It was easy to change the channel then.
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Post by meggie on Jan 4, 2016 21:04:21 GMT -5
I haven't watched last night's episode yet. I was exhausted last night & wanted to really enjoy the time. I'll watch it in the next couple of days.
I shut off the "spoiler" program too! I was greatly annoyed that they were showing clips that gave away huge spoilers. Most people had been deliberately keeping spoiler free and they show this?. I want every moment of the series to be a surprise!
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Post by ruffles on Jan 5, 2016 0:31:29 GMT -5
Has everyone gone home now? Can you relax and catch your breath? How was all your visiting? You had to keep everyone fed the whole time. That's a ton of work and it never stops.
It is so good to be free of the holiday pressures. Neither are there any yard work pressures. I am thoroughly enjoying the R&R with the freedom to accomplish what ever I want, or don't want. I am about to sign up for a 6 week on-line non-credit class from our local community college. It covers one of the Adobe programs I have.
In a soap forum, being respectful and considerate with spoiler information is a fundamental part of good manners. However, that seems to be as far as it goes. I know enough to be spoiler suspicious of the adjoining promos. They do want to advertise and attract viewers. One time I was caught by surprise by an article on the CNN site. They just up and stated what was going to happen. Plus I found out Matthew Crawley was going to die when I was browsing a site full of Downton photos which were exceptionally beautiful until I saw him dead on the ground by the car. Then I had to keep my mouth shut the whole season while waiting for it to happen. They closed the season with that one. The mute button works well plus I avoid watching the screen though there are glances so as to know when to turn the volume back on. Even if people are talking, there's no way of knowing what's being said. There was a Downton article headlined on CNN earlier this week which I avoided like the plague.
The record breaking warmth we've been enjoying has ended. The walk out to the mailbox was freezing cold.
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Post by karenk on Jan 13, 2016 7:00:15 GMT -5
As you may recall, I'm not a DA fan, but my curiosity got the better of me for the final season. The thing that most strikes me is how many plot lines there are that could not believably exist in the modern world, the most obvious of which is unintended pregnancy. This applies even to old GL plots, although that was getting increasingly harder to believe it happened so often, especially "with a drugstore on every corner," as my mother used to say. And even if one does have a child "out of wedlock," there's really not any shame about that anymore. Remember the old Carol Burnett bit when they put the baby in the umbrella stand?
Then there's the tried and true "missed communication" plot, not just on DA, but on many movies and tv shows set in the pre-cell phone era. Now they have to work in some bit where their phone doesn't get reception or they lose their phone, but you would have to work that into the story to make it believable. Just think of all the books and shows that are based on miscommunication. That's just not an excuse anymore! So, if you want a real pot boiler kind of soap, looks like you have to set your story in the 1900's.
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Post by ruffles on Jan 13, 2016 9:32:16 GMT -5
One of the things I have thoroughly enjoyed with Downton is the view it gives us into the norms and mores of its time, or times. Also, movies produced when my mother and her sisters were girls can give the same kind of view into their time. In "It Happened One Night" the heroine flees her home of oppressive male dominance. Within its very charming, captivating comedy story line there are open, frank remarks about her needing to be spanked. This is considered to be completely normal and acceptable which it obviously was because this movie received Academy Awards. One of the things that completely annoys me in today's soaps is when a woman character continues to make the same stupid mistakes with the men in her life over and over again. Also, the men still seem to think it is their role to "protect" their women, and the women buy that!
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Post by Amanda on Jan 13, 2016 10:14:23 GMT -5
How many episodes have aired on TV now?
I have finished it and thought season 6 was pretty fantastic and I was pleased with the ending, too, not that I was worried -- it's not Breaking Bad, there's only so many things that could reasonably occur.
But anyway, season 5 was mostly a hot mess, so I'm glad they came back around in season 6 and finished strong. Hopefully you all think so as well. Karen, I almost messaged you to say that you should tune back in for this season, but then forgot. Glad curiosity got you!
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Post by karenk on Jan 13, 2016 16:36:39 GMT -5
It was just like GL, I missed an entire season and pretty much got everything that was happening. Had to google info about "Miss Marigold," LOL, but being an old GL veteran I quickly figured that out.
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Post by ruffles on Jan 14, 2016 10:53:18 GMT -5
Season 6 started on the first Sunday in January so it would be 2 shows. I am really liking the plots and storylines so far. Glad to hear your comments about season 5. The pursuits of Mary's love life were a mess for me as there was no real chemistry anywhere. At this point she's strong enough to stand her own ground which I can appreciate and even respect.
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Post by Amanda on Jan 18, 2016 10:19:15 GMT -5
Having so many men who actually WANT to be with that AWFUL Mary is the biggest suspension of belief in all of Downton Abbey!
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Post by ruffles on Jan 30, 2016 1:23:07 GMT -5
Mary and her family are perceived as very wealthy upper/high class people. Of course men are going to want to marry up with her.
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Post by Amanda on Feb 3, 2016 9:13:56 GMT -5
Surely someone has a high-society daughter that's actually nice! I mean, there's Edith right there!
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