From the SelectedWorks of Nicole Flynn

January, 2016

Deconstructing Downton Abbey: The ousH e that Masterpiece Built Nicole Flynn, South Dakota State University

Available at: https://works.bepress.com/nicoleflynn/2/

It’s the moment Masterpiece devotees have been waiting for. Downton Abbey enters its final season Photos: BBC and MASTERPIECE with the premiere of Season 6 on Ladies Edith, Cora, and Mary Crawley make Sunday, January 3, at 8pm (7 MT) on and break social codes. SDPB1. And while American football may The final season comes not a minute not yet rank as a national sport in the too soon for legions of faithful viewers U.K., the series will be redolently who have longingly awaited a return represented in Pasadena, CA as a to the dramatic, decorous universe of florally festooned model of Highclere the aristocratic Crawley family and Castle (the real-life setting for their contingent of (mostly) dutiful Downton Abbey) floats its way down servants. Since its British premiere the 2016 Rose Bowl parade route. in 2010 and its 2011 stateside debut, Americans are simply mad for Nicole Flynn. Callie Hisek. Downton Abbey has achieved a level Downton Abbey. But as Carson of critical and popular success by himself might inquire, ample eyebrows which forthcoming period dramas vaulted toward the estate’s 50-foot are destined to be measured. The ceilings: “Why on Earth all the fluff of the underclass,” says Assistant production has amassed dozens of and hullaballoo?” Professor of English Nicole Flynn, BAFTA, Emmy and Golden Globe Callie Hisek, who teaches acting, who specializes in twentieth century nominations and awards and copped directing, and theatre history in British literature and theatre at South the Guinness World Record for the Department of Theatre at the Dakota State University. “We get to television’s “Highest Critical Review University of South Dakota, suggests occupy both positions in the class Ratings.” In the U.S., the English Downton Abbey’s main appeal is in structure simultaneously while being entertainment import was the second its twin offerings of escapism and transported back to a beautiful and most-watched program on Super Bowl relatable characters. According to exciting moment in history. What’s not Sunday and is the most-watched PBS Hisek, “Downton Abbey is historical, to love?” program ever. fictional, honest, and portrays a life The blurring of the societal Yankee fervor for Downton runs that many of us dream about being a delineations that separate the elite wide and deep. The Edwardian-era part of – even if only for a moment. from the staff at Downton, set amidst world of Lord and Lady Grantham, Each of the characters in this show the historical scrim of a rapidly their adult daughters and their represents the best and worst of what it modernizing England, provide an personal attendants has inspired in means to be human, but again, they are agile plot device and lend irresistible certain U.S. circles a revival of the honest.” tension to the narrative frame. high-society 20th century British Like its popular 1970s Masterpiece Storylines sparkle with mischief aesthetic. From demure sets of “Lady predecessor, Upstairs Downstairs, and possibility when social order Mary Pajamas,” to manor house Downton Abbey dramatizes, to great runs askew and longstanding class replica lamps, online outfitters proffer voyeuristic success, the interdependent boundaries are busted: Tom Branson early 1900s apparel and household lives of the gentry and the men and marries Sybil Crawley and no longer furnishings. Self-professed American women who dress, feed, and, at times, chauffeurs the family car but drives fans of the show include rapper P. collude and couple with them. “The business decisions for the estate. Dirty Diddy, who confesses to crying at show also capitalizes on the vicarious secrets are divulged and amorous the deaths of favorite characters, and pleasures of seeing how the other half capers compacted as maids and ladies comedian Patton Oswalt, who hosts lives—both the luxury of the Crawleys conspire in dressing room mirrors. Downton Abbey viewing parties. and their milieu and the secret lives Some British critics have chided

4 Learn. Dream. Grow. Mr. Carson and Mrs. Hughes help manage the manor house upstairs and down.

writer and creator Julian Fellowes for distorting an entrenched class system by portraying implausibly sympathetic Who’s serving whom? Valet Mr. Bates; Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham; former upper-class characters colluding chauffer Mr. Tom Branson, and butler-of-all-trades Mr. Mosely. with servants. While Hisek says she understands the point, ultimately the theme of shared humanity trumps century spirit of breaching convention. Era could be seen as progressive, social class divisions. “This idea can “Questioning the unquestionable is a or at least the new ruling class was be seen in the relationship between theme introduced at the very beginning less severe in their moral conduct,” Robert and Bates,” says Hisek. “They of the show and this is the heart of says Hisek. “It is because of this that served together in the war and even modernization,” says Flynn. “The when issues of race, gender, LGBT, though class and rank still play a part show constructs many situations that and class emerged they were handled in service, when someone saves your beckon this kind of questioning: Mary, differently.” life, is there for you in a time of need after eluding her arranged marriage to Both Hisek and Flynn appreciate or crisis, you don’t forget that. Robert Patrick, embarks on a five season quest Downton’s stagecraft and attention to believed in Bates because of Bates’ to choose her own mate; when Rose’s the finer points of the era. “Something character. That is at the core of all of parents choose to divorce, we sense the that audiences have come to love about this. Yes, there is rank, class, wealth, social and professional devastation that Downton Abbey is its authentic nature and power – but in the end all of these this decision could usher in. The show and believability,” says Hisek. “When characters are humans. You can never repeatedly demonstrates why such working on period shows, actors, overlook loyalty, faith, love, and changes occurred and the effect they directors, and designers take great care companionship.” had on a variety of individuals within in creating that life.” Flynn adds: “In For Flynn, the vanishing Victorian society.” particular, I think the fashion draws the era and emerging modernism make for Additionally, as a contemporary viewer in with its breadth and detail, especially engaging television. “The television production, Downton Abbey deftly adds dimension to characters, dramatic changes that occurred in defies some outmoded storytelling and presents a tidy metaphor for the England in the early twentieth century tropes by normalizing characters social and economic divisions and make it one of the most exciting often overlooked or exaggerated for transformations of the period.” periods to explore,” says Flynn. effect. Elders have emotional lives: Julian Fellowes has remarked, “In only a few decades, everything dethroned Russian prince Igor Kuragin “the spine of the story is love,” and changed. All the new technologies— carries a long-standing torch for the executive producer Gareth Neame electricity, cars, trains, telegraphs, Dowager Countess; Dr. Clarkson has said, “Relationships [in Downton telephones, gramophones, moving yearns for Isobel Crawley. Meanwhile, Abbey] are more straightforward. pictures, birth control, penicillin, underbutler Thomas Barrow possesses There was no texting or Tinder.” ammonium nitrate (for fertilizer to dimension and motivation beyond his As the lords, ladies, maids and feed the world or chemical weapons sexuality. “Everyone knows ‘what’ manservants of the house go forth to destroy it)—created shockwaves he is and though they dislike him, this into a future world uncertain to them throughout the culture, revolutionizing is, on the surface anyway, unrelated but known to us, viewers have one the way people communicated, to his sexuality,” says Flynn. In a last season to admire them in all their thought, and lived.” sense, the contemporary production finery and avarice, adversity and Moreover, according to Flynn, mirrors mores unraveling during the courage. Downton Abbey captures the early 20th period it depicts. “The Edwardian January 2016 5