Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno. Americans in the 20's were pretty annoying--with their giant raccoon coats, F. Scott Fitgerald, drinking gin out of bathtubs, dancing the charleston and all that aw' shucks jiggly american enthusiasm and boorish worship of money. To the British, they really saw americans as the annoying little brother who thought he showed up at the last moment and 'saved their bacon' in the war. Accurate portrayal of 1920s americans really.

Yeah, because EVERY American acted like that, just like EVERY American in 2014 acts like the characters on Girls.

Exactly. So tired of these cliches on TV. There are plenty of obnoxious people in all countries and cultures, including England.

It's really sad how few people have any real knowledge of history. Also, it 's drama, for gods sake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno. Americans in the 20's were pretty annoying--with their giant raccoon coats, F. Scott Fitgerald, drinking gin out of bathtubs, dancing the charleston and all that aw' shucks jiggly american enthusiasm and boorish worship of money. To the British, they really saw americans as the annoying little brother who thought he showed up at the last moment and 'saved their bacon' in the war. Accurate portrayal of 1920s americans really.

Yeah, because EVERY American acted like that, just like EVERY American in 2014 acts like the characters on Girls.

Exactly. So tired of these cliches on TV. There are plenty of obnoxious people in all countries and cultures, including England.

Yes, and they are portrayed every day on American tv.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno. Americans in the 20's were pretty annoying--with their giant raccoon coats, F. Scott Fitgerald, drinking gin out of bathtubs, dancing the charleston and all that aw' shucks jiggly american enthusiasm and boorish worship of money. To the British, they really saw americans as the annoying little brother who thought he showed up at the last moment and 'saved their bacon' in the war. Accurate portrayal of 1920s americans really.

Yeah, because EVERY American acted like that, just like EVERY American in 2014 acts like the characters on Girls.

Exactly. So tired of these cliches on TV. There are plenty of obnoxious people in all countries and cultures, including England.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought that Rose was Rosamund's daughter, but Edith pointed out that Rosamund is not a mom.

How are Rosamund and Rose related to lord and lady grantham?

Rosamund is Robert's sister (the Dowager Countess's daughter).

Rose is the daughter of family friends (Shrimpy and Shrimpy MacClare), whose estate they visited last season.

I believe Rose is related as Robert has referred to her as his niece on more than one occasion. Can't quite figure out what the relationship is between him and Shrimpy/Shrimpy's wife, but I think they're family.

Anonymous wrote:I dunno. Americans in the 20's were pretty annoying--with their giant raccoon coats, F. Scott Fitgerald, drinking gin out of bathtubs, dancing the charleston and all that aw' shucks jiggly american enthusiasm and boorish worship of money. To the British, they really saw americans as the annoying little brother who thought he showed up at the last moment and 'saved their bacon' in the war. Accurate portrayal of 1920s americans really.

Agreed. Come on, this is supposed to be historical not what it it's like today. In that day, Americans were perceived and were that way I think. It was a time when American heiresses like Cora married the English peerage for rank and the Brits needed the money to save their estates. It's historically correct.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I'm such an anglophile that I can't broach any criticism of their accents. It's not fair to compare it to any annoying american accent. Americans are known worldwide to be nasally and loud.

Not as loud as the Australians.

Yes but Australian men are always good looking, fun loving hunks. The women are also great fun. Who cares if they are loud and rowdy. Remember they were the ones thrown out of England.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting to me that none of the staff seem to have children; or did I miss something? Were Mrs. Hughes or Mrs. Patmore ever married before? I assume so, since they're "Mrs.". But we never hear any of their backstory. Also, how old would you say Anna is supposed to be? Wouldn't you think she and Bates would want to start a family?

They addressed this--Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore's jobs entitle them to the use of "Mrs." even though they aren't married. Watch Gosford Park for more info on the downstairs aspect. THey don't get married generally because they are at the beck and call of their employers.

BTW this is the reason slavery never took hold in the UK. They tried importing slaves in, but the downstairs folk were all, "hell no, you aren't replacing us with free labor!"

No, this isn't why. I don't even think Wikipedia has such silly and inaccurate theories. The slave trade was over by 1807:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/parliament_article_01.shtml

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the idea that Edith is Aunt Rosamund's daughter, but if that's true I would wonder why she was so against Edith making the same choice that Aunt Rosamund herself did.

That would be an interesting plot twist and would explain why Lady G doesn't to really care about Edith and Lord G does--he would be the one actually related to her even if he were an Uncle.

Aunt Rosamund doesn't want her to have the baby close by so as not to invite scandal. At this point very few people know. If the baby lived in the village, and Edith was visiting all the time, people might start to talk.

Remember during the war when Edith was working on the farm driving the tractor and was very close to having an affair with the married farmer? Now Drewe the Grantham/Crawley's farmer-pigman will raise her child. What's up with her and farmers? I agree that Drewe is, indeed, splendid.

Hopefully, in season five there will be happiness for Edith. She has developed into one of my favorite characters.

Word of God states about Edith that "some people are not meant to have a happy life."

Anonymous wrote:Lady g does care deeply about Edith. You realize your comment is basically saying that adoptive parents can't love their adopted children.... Even after ~27 years?

Re Edith, that may make more sense. She looks more like Rosamund than Cora. Mary and Sybil looks more like Cora. And maybe Cora just went along with an adoption because her husband's family wanted her to.

Anonymous wrote:Agree, it would be terrible but it did happen quite a bit in the old days….actually it happened to my MIL--her "brother" was really her illegitimate cousin. And to my friend in 7th grade; her family suddenly had a baby--it was her cousin's. I think (unlike this situation) when the extended family was tight-knit, the young mom found it a godsend. But it must have been hard later on, when the child was older.

Ted Bundy was said to be effed up partly after he found out that the people he thought were his parents and sister turned out to be his grandparents and mom. Some think the family hushed up his real relationships this because his grandfather might also be his dad. Ted was a smart guy so maybe he figured out as much about his dad.

Anonymous wrote:It's interesting to me that none of the staff seem to have children; or did I miss something? Were Mrs. Hughes or Mrs. Patmore ever married before? I assume so, since they're "Mrs.". But we never hear any of their backstory. Also, how old would you say Anna is supposed to be? Wouldn't you think she and Bates would want to start a family?

They addressed this--Mrs. Hughes and Mrs. Patmore's jobs entitle them to the use of "Mrs." even though they aren't married. Watch Gosford Park for more info on the downstairs aspect. THey don't get married generally because they are at the beck and call of their employers.

BTW this is the reason slavery never took hold in the UK. They tried importing slaves in, but the downstairs folk were all, "hell no, you aren't replacing us with free labor!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the idea that Edith is Aunt Rosamund's daughter, but if that's true I would wonder why she was so against Edith making the same choice that Aunt Rosamund herself did.

That would be an interesting plot twist and would explain why Lady G doesn't to really care about Edith and Lord G does--he would be the one actually related to her even if he were an Uncle.

Aunt Rosamund doesn't want her to have the baby close by so as not to invite scandal. At this point very few people know. If the baby lived in the village, and Edith was visiting all the time, people might start to talk.

I agree that Lady G does love Edith. She's definitely a Grantham, love the one-on-one scenes/visits with GrandMaMa.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the idea that Edith is Aunt Rosamund's daughter, but if that's true I would wonder why she was so against Edith making the same choice that Aunt Rosamund herself did.

That would be an interesting plot twist and would explain why Lady G doesn't to really care about Edith and Lord G does--he would be the one actually related to her even if he were an Uncle.

Aunt Rosamund doesn't want her to have the baby close by so as not to invite scandal. At this point very few people know. If the baby lived in the village, and Edith was visiting all the time, people might start to talk.

Remember during the war when Edith was working on the farm driving the tractor and was very close to having an affair with the married farmer? Now Drewe the Grantham/Crawley's farmer-pigman will raise her child. What's up with her and farmers? I agree that Drewe is, indeed, splendid.

Hopefully, in season five there will be happiness for Edith. She has developed into one of my favorite characters.

Anonymous wrote:All these men hanging around waiting for Mary is just absurd. It has been well-over a year, the last episode was about 9 months ago and they've been there before that, I'd think they would move on.

Not to mention that Mary has been around the block. She's a widow. Not exactly tilling new soil for the fellas.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I'm such an anglophile that I can't broach any criticism of their accents. It's not fair to compare it to any annoying american accent. Americans are known worldwide to be nasally and loud.

Not as loud as the Australians.