I’ve been an enormous fan of Downton Abbey because the first season, and the newest (and certain closing) installment within the franchise, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, which you’ll catch in theaters now on the 2025 film schedule, is a becoming finish to the story, as I wrote in my assessment of the film. One factor I omitted, nevertheless, is one thing that pissed off me about The Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). Rapidly, he’s utterly out of contact with all the things. It’s out of character for him.
The Crowleys Have At all times Been A Little Out Of Contact, However Come On
In The Grand Finale, there are a handful of scenes that see Robert seemingly so out of contact with the actual world that he doesn’t perceive how flats work or that individuals, even wealthy individuals, cook dinner dinner for themselves. These would have been good situations for his late mom, Violet Crawley (performed within the sequence, after all, by the late Dame Maggie Smith), however not for Robert.
The late Dowager Countess was well-known within the sequence for being a Victorian aristocrat who was proudly uninterested within the altering world of the early twentieth century, however Robert was at all times extra pragmatic and reasonable. In The Grand Finale, all of the sudden, he’s the one who’s comically out of contact.
In a single scene, he and Woman Mary (Michelle Dockery) tour a flat in London that Mary intends to be the household’s headquarters within the capital. Robert is seemingly shocked to be taught that different individuals stay within the condo constructing.
In one other scene, Woman Edith (Laura Carmichael), whose character may be very a lot adapting to the instances, makes a joke as they sit down for dinner that quickly all of them could also be cooking for themselves. Once more, Robert reacts very like Violet would have, with shock and confusion. It merely is senseless for the character.
Robert Has At all times Been Outdated-Normal, However He’s By no means Been A Idiot
Each of those scenes make Robert out to be a idiot, and he’s by no means been that manner earlier than. Positive, he laments the altering trendy world and has labored exhausting to keep up the manners (and the manor) of the Victorian Period during which he was raised, however he’s additionally at all times understood that issues change. Whereas Violet balked at electrical energy and telephones, Robert noticed the long run in each. Now we’re to imagine he not solely doesn’t see the long run for what it’s, however can’t even perceive it? I’m not shopping for it.
Simply as all of us miss the presence of Maggie Smith, the characters miss the Dowager Countess, however that doesn’t imply we’d like a personality who has taken on her thought course of, as Robert appears to have within the closing story from the world of Downton Abbey. He isn’t the proper character for it, and nobody else within the film has any illusions as to the place the world, and the household, are headed. Robert could not prefer it, however he’s not blind to it, both.
I nonetheless heartily endorse the film, and I’ve even discovered myself rewatching previous episodes of the present with my Peacock subscription. And sure, I, too, miss Maggie Smith’s biting humor very a lot, however the world, just like the household in Downton Abbey, strikes on.