Post by Carolina on May 2, 2011 3:13:38 GMT -4
I think it was a teenage rebellion type thing. Persie's just too ignorant and stubborn to realize what she's doing is a colossally bad idea.
I wonder if Hallam will face any fallout at work because of this. I know he's titled and well-connected, but he works directly under the foreign secretary and his young sister-in-law, under his care, has just run off to Germany. I thought it was a kind of ridiculous that he did nothing about Persie after "Eden" gave him the reaming. He should have put her horrid behind on the first train back to Wales.
This version is well done and I enjoyed it. I just wish that the female characters were more likeable. They're all kind of bitches.
ITA, especially with regard to Agnes. It would be nice to think Hallam married her for something other than just her looks. Hopefully with six episodes in the second season there will be more time for character development because it was sorely lacking this season.
My other two quibbles would be the following
A) They fell back on the annoyingly common TV device of lightening fast childbirth. Is it impossible? No, but unusual, especially for a first birth. Plus, I think it would have been interesting to see what an upper class 1930s birth would've been like, similar to what Mad Men did with Betty's 1963 birth. However, time was probably a factor which leads me to
B) The third episode was so rushed. They had the birth, the discovery of Pamela, Persie heading off the Germany, and Lotte. They didn't do any of the storylines justice, Pamela and Lotte in particular. Orphan rendered mute due to trauma is fine by the end of the episode! Happy and ready for boarding school! Sister with Down Syndrome who's been institutionalized for 30 years? Happily back in the family fold in spite of the fact that she still would have been institutionalized had she been born in the '30s! Having Hallam visit her once or twice a month would have been far more plausible than the Hallmark ending they used.
Criticisms aside, I did really enjoy it. Watching the events leading up to WWII unfold and seeing the various members of the household's reactions is great, especially knowing that this is the basically the last gasps of this way of life in Britain. I can't wait for 1937 and seeing how Appeasement plays out with Hallam & Co.
This week: I floved South Riding! If the next two episodes are half as good then we're in for a treat!
