"this isn't capitalism, it's feudalism, duhhh" No, it's not. The workers in Downton Abbey are wage laborers, not serfs. Serfdom is debt bondage and indentured servitude. The workers at the abbey are employed and dismissed as any wage laborer is. They can also quit. It's not serfdom. Wage labor is a feature of capitalism, not feudalism. Also, the Crawleys are engaged in other business ventures that firmly place them as capitalists. Being a "lord" by 20th century British standards is not the same as 15th century standards. The existence of a monarchy in a nation doesn't automatically make that nation's economics system feudalism. A monarchy exists in the UK now. That doesn't make it a feudal nation. The economics of feudal agriculture began to shift as early as the 16th century. Feudalism in Europe was effectively replaced no later than the mid-19th century. Downton Abbey takes place in the 20th century. Downton Abbey was created and written by a Tory in the 21st century. He's praising his politics, not the politics of the 15th century.

*"The rich are not just players in the game, they are the referees, that's why they always win."* -Renegade Cut

"If a rich man wants to help the poor he should pay his taxes, not dole out money at a whim,"-Clement Attlee, UK Prime Minister from 1945.

Answers to two common messages I've received: “But there are parts about how women should have the right to vote and how homosexuality shouldn't be illegal. It's progressive!” Uhh...no? Women's suffrage and decriminalizing homosexuality were progressive causes in the UK in the 20th century. They aren't progressive causes now. They're status quo. An opinion that was normalized decades ago is not radical now or even mildly progressive now. It's status quo even among centrist and conservative politicians. Women's suffrage and decriminalization of homosexuality in the UK were settled last century. Paying lip service to causes from last century is not progressive. It's a way for conservatives to state that's as far as anyone needed to go ("You got the right to vote, what more ya want?") and for liberals to be placated, as they so easily are. Tories aren't pushing for men-only voting or criminalizing homosexuality in the year of our Lord 2020. They've moved on to new boogeymen and scapegoats like transgender people and refugees. Stop being so easily mollycoddled. "this isn't capitalism, it's feudalism, duhhh" No, it's not. The workers in Downton Abbey are wage laborers, not serfs. Serfdom is debt bondage and indentured servitude. The workers at the abbey are interviewed, employed and dismissed as any wage laborer is. They can also quit. It's not serfdom. The existence of a monarchy in a nation doesn't automatically make that nation's economics system feudalism. A monarchy exists in the UK now. That doesn't make it a feudal nation. The economics of feudal agriculture began to shift as early as the 16th century. Feudalism in Europe was effectively replaced no later than the mid-19th century. Downton Abbey takes place in the 20th century. Downton Abbey was created and written by a Tory in the 21st century. He's praising his politics, not the politics of the 15th century.

When I saw Parasite I felt like it was somehow a response to this movie. It has the same upstairs-downstairs dynamic and class in-fighting but it engages with the roots of these conflicts.

I remember when Lord Grantham said that the purpose of the nobility was to provide employment. But do they lose their titles if they stop providing employment? No, of course not.

When I started talking to my mom about how bad the aristocracy was, she started telling me about how "They employed so many people..."

What makes the character arc of Tom Branson even worse is that he’s Irish and by the end of the series - the movie - he’s licking the boots of his British colonisers.

It's not as though there hasn't been a healthy American equivalent to this sort of fantasy-fulfillment for the poor to be able to imagine they can peek into the lives of the more privileged. Shows like Beverly Hills 90201 and The OC have been flagrantly portraying the rich by way of love triangles and interpersonal drama - Given that the characters involved could realistically buy their way out of any other kind of problem.

I actually did like Downton Abbey and I absolutely agree with you. I liked the characters and I'm a sucker for a good historical drama, but there were more than a few times when the show was weirdly self-congratulatory and I was laughing at parts where it almost seemed like a parody of uppity rich people but it was played straight every time.

I hate the movie the Queen too, it seems to suggest the idea that every single critic to the monarchy is a vicious personal attack to an older lady, instead of commentary over an institution that feels anachronic. Among other problematic points.

Real life in service was an underpaid, exploitative and humiliating experience usually meant for women from poor and working class backgrounds who spent their lives scrubbing fireplaces and helping Rich pieces of meat dress themselves.

*Full Disclosure - I Am English* I've been telling people this about shows like Downton Abbey or the Crown for years. Leon you've articulated this so much better than I ever have, and I live this shit. I am sharing this with all the people who've laughed me off when i've said this before. The indoctrination in my country is REAL. I know people who are angry at Meghan Markle for getting out of dodge to Canada to escape papparazi because its a breach of her civic duty. Because 'the royals exist to serve us'. Genuinely. People believe this. Thank you Leon. Keep fighting the good fight.

For me, watching Downton Abbey is an spectacle of alienation. It's truly like watching a show about aliens, the society they portray is so far away from reality, particularly from my reality... and there's also alienation in a marxist way.

The horrific business with Edith and her baby really showed the gap between the classes, more than anything in the show imo. She gave her baby away due to any "gossip" that might originate, then took her back from her adoptive families because she regretted her decision. You cannot just do that. Oh yes, I said families. Edith did this *twice.*

I wonder how P.G. Wodehouse and Jeeves and Wooster fits into Aristo-trash While the stories do generally focus on the upper class, they are portrayed as foolish, trivial, and shallow, while the servants are generally competent and educated. I'll have to read through again and double check.

As an Indian watching this show I never forgot what the British was doing in India during the time it was set in. I did like the show, but still it was hard to ignore the reality of what was being blatantly ignored.

Funny how I always loved Downtown Abbey growing up, yet always felt disgusted and alienated by the terribly written 'upstairs' class. I guess I've sort of been hate-watching this whole time

Some people say "but there's gay representation" but the only gay character is portrayed as a bad person and at the end of the series he's the only one who doesn't end up with a romantic partner (and also the only black character is there bc one of the wealthy women wanted to piss off her parents by dating him. Yikess.)

I love Downton as a guilty pleasure but have always been aware of it's flaws. Interestingly enough, Thomas Barrow is my favourite character. I always found Fellowes' treatment of him really cruel: he starts the series as a stereotypical "evil gay" but is outspoken about injustice and classicism. And the series beats him and beats him and beats him down until he's a quiet shadow of himself. But it's okay! Because the Crawleys know he's gay and do the bare minimum required of accepting his sexuality by NOT firing him and turning him into the police as according to the Labouchere Amendment! (also I'll never forgive Fellowes for writing Thomas as a predatory gay right out of nowhere in Season 3)

What I liked about Thomas' character in the beginning was that he was very aware that the "just be nice" narrative that everyone was trying to push on him wasn't going to get him anywhere in this system. And while i liked seeing him get a redemption arc, the fact that he got what he was striving for once he started being nicer was a bitter pill to swallow. The narrative that capitalism rewards niceness is false & utterly ridiculous.

I watched Downton Abbey for the settings and costumes (I'm a sucker for fashion from decades and centuries past), but the Crowleys were always the most boring, insufferable part of the show, _especially_ Mary. It's _kind of_ hard to sympathize with someone who has literally EVERYTHING whinging about minor inconvieniences when it's juxtaposed next to people who are facing issues that can quite literally destroy their lives. Mary is the fucking worst.

Damn I wish I'd stuck around long enough to see Daisy read some Karl Marx

I'd honestly rather watch a show called Downtown Arby's.

No one: Renegate Cut: *JULIAN ALEXANDER KITCHENER-FELLOWES, BARON FELLOWES OF WEST STAFFORD*

Watching DA, I got a different opinion. I thought the show displayed how the landed gentry of the UK became less and less important. They lost their ancestral homes due to mismanagement, they did not know how to operate in the real world. All they did were 'keep up appearances' and look down on their social inferiors. The best line was from Shirley Mcclain's character. She said the " US did traditions, but they knew when to get rid of them.'

I remember being utterly shocked when I saw the scene where one of the young servants irons the lord's newspaper in the morning, it reminded me of a very similar scene in You Rang M'Lord where the servants actually comment on how stupid it is to do that and could not believe that in Downton Abbey it was done in all seriousness.

I couldn't watch 'Downton Abbey'. The first and only episode I saw was so completely unrealistic, and I'm simply tired of hearing how rich people are providential for the rest of us. 'Why, how could the world get along, without the rich?' Please....

A) it's always amazed me that no one seems to point out that the Crawleys are literally the earls of Margaret Thatcher's home town, if a signpost to Fellowes' politics could be any clearer B) his writing in any project is always shallow rich people porn and I've always despised it C) Upstairs Downstairs did the exact same thing but was better (probably not politically, but the writing was better and wasn't so deathly dull)

But the super rich were chosen by God to rule over the dirty peasants... /s

Great video! If anyone cares, Bob’s Burgers did episode parodying the class inequality of this show in a Downtown Abbey-esque Larp (Zero Larp Thirty)

That scene in the last season of downton when anna pleaded to lady crawly that she needed her to helm downton abbey, that the estate was a diamond for the County, and that it was needed to sustain everyone's lives. It disgusted me when I watched it, despite that I do love the show, and even if it is propaganda, it is very entertaining propaganda, and got excited when i heard news the show was renewed for one more final season

It's funny cause when I saw the movie I thought Daisy was supposed to be the Only Sane Character.

Was "Aristocrap" too much? good vid!

The main problem with DA is that it benefits from superficial attributes from two of the greatest classical British writers while pushing a socially disgusting narrative : it's Austen's miniaturism without the cynicism and Dickens's pauper sentimentalism without any socio-economic perspective.

"There are no Crowleys coming to save us." Anthony J. Crowley would like to disagree

This is great stuff. I’d love to hear your take on why the American news media is so obsessed with the royal family.

This is why I loved the Pythons (Monty Python), they always took every opportunity available to lambaste the wealthy British aristocracy. In fact their "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch should be mandatory viewing after each Downton Abby episode.

There was a classic Mexican soap-opera called "Los ricos también lloran", which literally means "Rich people cry too". You'll be surprised how even among quite, lest call it "left-wing" audiences, those are popular. I know it could sound inconsecuential and almost dumb, but in societies with really strong inequalities, like latin american countries, some people develop certain "suspension of disbelief" in front of the TV and learns to enjoy the soap drama without remotely considering it close to "real life". It becomes like watching talking animals on cartoons: a very enjoyable fantasy experience. As a Spaniard from inmigrant Chilean parents myself, I've always been familiar with that kind of fictionalized and sugar coated version of the upper class. Even as a kid, my parents warned me about the lack of realism and "socioeconomic trickery" those dramas showed, as they warned me about 80s action movies and their "american way of life hyper macho saviours" protagonists. I have really no criticism againts any of your points presented in the video, in fact I mostly agree with it. I just wanted to add a particular observation: The same Jullian Felowes who wrote Downton Abbey is the one who wrote the script to Robert Altman's "Gosford Park". It is a period drama that, while not being "subversive", portraits aristocrats as lazy, overprotected people. One line it stuck with me is when the footman addresses all the other butlers before some bird hunt/shooting contest they're having: "Remember not to correct or point any mistakes this people make (during hunting) even if they seem stupid. They get offended very quickly and you could lose you jobs". I don't know Fellowes personally, of course, but comparing that movie to Downton, I think he's clever enough to discern quite well which elements to keep and which ones to left out in order to create a compelling soap-opera that people could digest confortably. I do love Downton Abbey, really love it as what it is: a soap-opera. Maybe not that different from the Dallas and Falcon Crest (or the BH90210s or The OCs of their time) and again I reiterate: I don't disagree with any of the points you made. I'm not telling it shouldn't be critisized "because it is trivial fantasy", just stating that, as many really flawed products from mass media, it could be enjoyed without remotely taking it seriously as "historic". A series I also love, "Modern Family", is really really fun for me personally when it comes to comedic skits, though their gay characters are "well behaved", not politically active and middle class, and the old white man who marries a latin girl is getting Sofia Vergara, a famous colombian top model, not any regular average brown woman from the valley. They do well on realstate investment and could afford houses that I'm sure many L.A. residents could not dream of. Is it more progressive than "Duck Dinasty" ? ... Maybe ;) Is it really showing that "ABC Television is 100% WOKE"? Not at all. Mass media are in the hands of the ruling class and will almost always defend their points of view. Maybe the internet give some dissonant voices a small space for self expression but the illusion of "new equality of influence through social media" is just a basic control mechanism. On the other hand, even us "dissidents and cynics" want to have some fun for a while following fictionalized drama and fake love triangles :) Thank you for your videos and your clever insight. I've devoured many of them in a row since I (recently) discovered your channel. Cheers from Spain!

I always saw the show as a kind of satire/soap opera, laughing at it instead of with it, but I totally see the point you make about the intention of the series as a piece of capitalist propaganda.

Brilliant video! It always amazes me how many people are eager to worship the rich and powerful rather than hold them accountable

Now I'm going to be using Aristo-Trash in my everyday lingo.

Damn now he's coming for my favorite show about white people

I love how anti-rich this channel is. Like, I always knew I hated the rich but the reasons have never been summarized quite so eloquently before

I caught The Crown quite a bit here and there when my parents were watching it and I'm just left with the feeling that this is a horrible system that leaves nobody well off, including the royal family themselves. It's somewhat baffling to me that it's supposed to make you like the idea of the royal family. I mean sure it makes the royal family more sympathetic but mostly only in the way that they are also trapped in a horrible system in a lot of ways.

well the little interest I had in this show was successfully purged by this vid, thanks for stopping me from wasting my time. great vid. I find it horrifying how much this show whitewashes the history of domestic servitude. Wrapping it up in some kitschy box. There shouldn't be servants in the first place... The 19th century is fully of notable literally works dealing with the harrowing life these people often had. Only if we take that was written in English, like Margaret Powell's works. Okay now I am angry

My mother looooooooooooooves Downton Abbey and I despise it with the fire of a thousand suns ("awwwww, look at those nice rich people generously providing for their grateful servants! The servants who aren't grateful are, of course, evil) so watching this was incredibly cathartic, thank you. Also, can we talk for a second about the way the show handled sexual assault? Apparently the biggest threat to servant women wasn't the masters who preyed on them with impunity - it was the OTHER SERVANTS.

Thank you. This is music to my ears. The number of people who ignore the social message and "why can't you just lie back and enjoy" is depressing. Also, those who, would pull "death of the author" card.

"...the rich are just like us, and therefore would always have our best interests at heart." Which makes less and less sense the more you think about it.. Most people don't even have their own best interests at heart let alone their peers'.

It’s not the only example of this in recent years. Gentleman Jack is extraordinarily classist. Sure, Anne is a lesbian, but she’s from wealth and privilege and has the ability to throw people from their homes at a moments notice and DOES SO. She throws an old man out of his home because she doesn’t think he can make the output she wants on the farm because he’s too old. The person she was based on did EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to secure the status quo for the nobility and their “rights.”

Oof, this was hard to get through since I really loved the show but it is necessary to be blunt with the capitalists themes the show gives. Good video

Hope a "West Wing" episode is coming real soon before the general election. If any television creator deserves an intellectual smackdown everyday of the week, it's Aaron Sorkin.

My history teacher forced us to watch this in high school and would pause it every five seconds to explain how awesome it was

My wife loves this show and we live in Norway. I hate the show but I couldn’t articulate the reason to my wife. Thank you, you hit every single point. Fantastic video!!

I haven't watched The Crown or Downton Abbey in a while now, but somehow it never occurred to me to be critical of the creators intentions as a form of propaganda until the opening of this video. And you know what? That's totally a result of being Canadian. It reminds me of how, while watching something about American Imperialism, I caught myself thinking 'Well at least my country didn't expand beyond it's borders,' forgetting that our 'borders' are a result of imperialism itself. As much as I criticize the idea of Canadian Wholesomeness, I guess I internalized it deeper than I knew.

Sooooooo... eat the rich? (I never liked this show, lol.)

Even before I became leftist this show made my skin crawl. Sometimes when my family was watching it and I was working in the living room I’ld have to put headphones one. I hate what they did to the radical Irish dude.

I grew up liking this show in a weirdly escapist way, but I never sympathised with the Crawleys for a second, and that makes a lot more sense now.

I watched this originally when it came out and thought it was harmless and uplifting. Since turning socialist, every single scene has an irremovable dark tone.

That Angus Deaton quote is chilling. Great video.

The Monarchy is Britain 's Disney Land....... A tourist attraction.

“Superstore” on NBC is a good example of displaying income inequality. It has had several episodes where the “They let them dance, sometimes” act is done for satirical purposes to show how the super rich use it as another means of control and not an actual act of benevolence or generosity.

You are a God, I hate this show

In the words of Baldrick "Death to the Aristos!"

I used to fundraise for PBS and I got an awful lot of older people to donate money after I built repour through their interest in this show. I kinda shrugged and figured it was just some high budget British soap opera. Now I feel a little uncomfortable...

I fully acknowledge the monarchist propaganda inherent in the show (and a lot of the period genre), and how terrible the class system actually was. I am under no illusions that the aristocracy were good people that had purpose through "providing employment". However, I love Downton Abbey and always will; my white ass has a huge soft spot for period pieces and this show was a favorite as I was growing up. I hope it doesn't make me a shit person for liking the show, like I said, I fully acknowledge all its issues and am under no illusions of its message.

Bob's Burgers did a great satirical take on Downton Abbey in "Zero Larp Thirty"

To clarify to those unfamiliar with the House of Lords, Fellowes is a life peer rather than a hereditary peer - most of the hereditary peers are removed from the Lords under Tony Blair. So appointed a member of the House of Lords by government patronage rather than due to birth.

Or the episode where the rich were fucking around in servant rooms and when one of thr servant yelled at them for being in their room they were seen as wrong....the poor weren't even allowed to have their own privacy

A friend of mine from Kenya, who had studied abroad in England, and eventually emigrated to the States summed up the distinctions between the US and Great Britain: class distinction. The US gave her a better sense of the economic divide apparent in England. The former is worse at hiding their machinations, whilst the latter, England, only survives to this day due to their uplifting propoganda of the rich and powerful.

Ugh. I live in a "Right to Work" state. It should really be named "Right to Fire because We Want to Save Money by Hiring New People to Replace Older Ones who Earn More".

Family guy actually had a great joke about shows like this. "It's the story of a rich white family dealing with incremental change."

In the UK us common types rarely even see an aristocrat in normal life. They don't engage with normal life as most people experience it, and for them, the vast majority of the time, the majority of ordinary people they have any interactions with will be their own servants, cleaners, children's nannies etc and a succession of servers, cashiers and waiters etc in shops and restaurants - who are also all, by the nature of the way things work in retail and catering, in a subservient role. Obviously we may very well pass on the street or country path but these can't be counted as interactions. They don't live in the same places we live. They also don't, the vast majority of the time, send their children to the schools our children attend. And the 'commoners' they do meet in social situations generally will be those who's wealth has taken them into the same realm - first or second generation wealth from a retail empire or very successful music or acting career. Anyway it does mean that often our only knowledge of them comes from TV shows and therefore these can be extremely powerful narratives propaganda-wise. But there was a time when I worked in a shop in Pimlico in London. There, in some of the old, grand houses, were genuine Lords and Ladies. I honestly could not though ever bring myself to use their titles. I just could not. Even though I was in a service role and had to politely call them up to pick up orders as with any customer, I couldn't do it. Instead I used full names - which is a fairly easy get-out. So instead of calling to speak to Lord Gregory, for example, I'd say William Gregory. Or instead of asking for Lady Bryant I'd say Margaret Bryant.

I always figured "Why should I watch Downton Abbey when I've already seen Gosford Park"

As a grant writer I can’t tell you how pissed it makes me whenever I see multi-billion dollar companies only offering a few hundred thousand to help those in need.

Making aristocracy illegal may be the best thing my country has ever done lmao

I wonder if you'll do a second aristotrash for The Gilded Age

Thank you so much for this. As someone who was born in the U.K. and remains a U.K. “subject” (yes that is what we’re called, miserably enough) but who has lived outside of the U.K. for decades I find it deeply confounding to see the popularity of media such as Downton Abbey and The Crown. They are unquestionably propaganda and they are seen as defining what it means to be British. If you are British you’re seen as a kind of oddball or crank for not enjoying them or pointing out the evils these IPs represent and promote. Coming from what I would assume from everything I can tell is a generationally UK republican background in which no one has voted Tory in generations I find it bizarre when non-British people assume I must absolutely love the royal family or enjoy media like Downton Abbey. No my family are and probably always have been working class or poorer. Our lives have been blighted and destroyed for hundreds of years by crowned heads and blue bloods. They exploited us for labour, extorted us for taxes and threw us to our deaths in their wars and let us live in disease, ignorance, hunger and abject poverty for at least a thousand years. These people are my enemy, they have made themselves the enemy of me and anyone of my class and they have seen to it by every means possible that they should always be absolved of their hatred of me and people like me.

I love the replayability of this channel. When new episodes come out I watch them like I'm at a lecture. When I'm looking for something to add flavor to the background while performing tasks, rewatching a variety of Renegade Cut videos gives me informative fuel for my soul that I can dip in and out of and never lose the thread.

Wow, it's almost as though someone who has the money to produce, write (and I'm not sure on directed though) a very high-end tv show, purely for the sake of showing how good the rich are might just be a little slanted in how they view things. Hmmmmm.

Guess I wasn’t angry enough. For some reason this video really set me off. Making US poors think it’s our fault and we deserve what we’ve got is the worst thing they have done

I've always loved Downton Abbey. At first, watching this video made me feel extreme shame in the fact that I enjoyed watching it for these past years. Looking back, I realized what attracted me to the show, and what attracts me to other shows such as The Crown. As a middle-class American from Texas, watching things like Downton Abbey and the Crown is so far removed from my modern reality. The fact that these people have a whole staff of people just to wake them up in the morning, get their newspaper, and fix their coffee is mind baffling. I can turn on the television and for a moment be transported to a totally different world than my own. It is the same reason why I love fantasy and science fiction. The level of escapism these types of entertainment present to me is fascinating and probably will always be. Regardless, this show is not one that should be championed or glorified. I don't agree with the monarchy or aristocracy. I would consider most of my political leanings to be left centered and rather socialist. I think there are other narratives we can create and observe about history that can both humanize and critique the aristocracy. And the show is not in any way groundbreaking on its political views, acting, cinematography, style, or even dramaturgy. Will I ever watch Downton Abbey again? Probably. Will I enjoy it? No Side Note: I watched a roundtable of show-runners with the writer of Downton on it. He's a total dick. He always interjected his opinion when it wasn't asked or when someone was talking. His treatment of marginalized experience in media was beyond ignorant. He was a cis upper-class white man who took up too much space.

His series “The Gilded Age” does a similar thing.

The difference between US and UK employment laws was accurate when this was written and produced. But now in 2022, when a couple of months ago the entire staff of a major ferry company called P&O were fired in the UK without any consultation or notice. It's probably no longer the case, and because the UK government have done next to nothing to challenge it, I expect a precedent has been set and other companies will be thinking that they can do the same without any repercussions.

I've watched all the episodes and the movie. I was an anti-monarchist then, and I'm still an anti-monarchist now. I was, a 'left leaning, tax the rich, liberal' before watching D.A. And by golly, I'm still a 'left leaning , redistribute the wealth, liberal' now. But, I still liked the show. It would be a sad day when I let a few hours of entertainment make me blind to what is happening in the real world.

I like the Downtown Abby episode of Bob's Burgers where Bob and Linda win a larp context and ends up as servants in Downtown Abby and have a revolt

When your fined for a crime it should consider your economic circumstances as well as what you have done say the working class get fined 100 the upperclass should be fined a million

If you want to watch a more accurate portrayal of British aristocracy set in the 1920s, You Rang M'Lord is a good satirical sitcom on the matter which doesn't pull its punches and doesn't put the working class on a pedestal either.

A excellent video Leon, with one of the main themes in Claude Chabrol's oeuvre being the study of the rich as antagonists (eg:This Man Must Die,The Cry of the Owl.)

I was waiting for someone to say “Downton Abbey is Aristo-trash, and so am I”. Full disclosure I have no feelings toward this show and would rather watch Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries.

I couldn’t make myself watch Downton Abbey because of the strong feeling of alienation, it was so strange. How could anyone be interested in those posh, insufferable characters? I watched The Crown, though, and despite the fact I should be more disengaged from the life of a monarch than from the life of an aristocrat, The Crown felt more...genuine? Is there any reason for that?

It’s always funny hearing an American (?) say British words, your videos are the best and they have always taught me a lot thank you!

This was annotated wonderfully. I'm a fan of Downton Abbey, but for other reasons, entirely. I teach my students how to annotate the intentions and implications of an author/creator's writing, be it a play, book-segment, tv broadcast, film, etc. You've (as usual) done a wonderful job modelling what annotation-writing is, except you've done it as video commentary. Again, many know how to do this, but rarely recognize how to put it directly to paper. Again, excellent work. -- Glennie @ MGPIS (in Vermont)

I'm interested to see if Leon will watch The Gilded Age, which is also written by Fellowes and is described as an American "Downton Abbey".

Watching Downton Abbey is like an addiction I hate. As an Indian watching the show, so many times I have felt physically pained by their apathy to my country's suffering. The Dowager countess casually mentioning that Mary's great grandmother loaded guns in Lucknow, the constant references to the racist poem "You're a better man than me, Gunga Din" and Rudyard Kipling, Rose's dad casually working in Bombay, the prince's tour, and the superficial mention of Jallianwalah Bagh incident boiled my blood. I hated it. It disgusted me. I wished some woman with a saree would charge in and slap Mary on the face.

What really makes me wonder - the comments here amounting to the great deal the time spent by self-identified leftists willing to overlook the propaganda and endorse it in continuing to watch because "great drama". I have friends, folks with whom I have stood shoulder to shoulder with on the streets or engaging in the more bureaucratic aspects of leftist activism who are deeply engaged in the drama of this show. The power of storytelling. Fascinating and informative. Thanks RC. Well presented as always :)

I want to see what you think of "The Gilded Age"

my professor actually had us watch the first episode of downton abbey when we started our unit on marx

Never having watched Downtown Abbey Jeeeesus Now I never want to. The secretary bit made me go WHAT so loud that I think I woke up the neighbours.

I think it would be cool if you analyzed Upstairs, Downstairs and how VASTLY different it is from Aristotrash like Downton Abbey. Downton Abbey steals a lot of plot lines from Upstairs, Downstairs, but Upstairs, Downstairs does not patronize the upper class and have much more realistic portraits of mental health, death, war, classism etc