Salon.com - American's Love Class Divisions
Class-system melodrama as comfort food
The new "Upstairs Downstairs" is the latest show to celebrate the divisions we fought a war to escape
Ellie Kendrick as Ivy Morris, a goofy, sexy maid on the new "Upstairs Downstairs."
Before praising the fine writing, acting and direction on the new "Upstairs Downstairs" (Sundays April 10, 17 and 22, 9 PM/8 central) on PBS' "Masterpiece," can we all take a moment to acknowledge that Americans' continued fascination with this sort of story is more than a little bit sick? It's English class system melodrama as comfort food.
I love the idea of an intimate epic about masters and servants living in the same house -- especially one that gives their stories more or less equal screen time, and that deftly transitions between them to suggest that when you factor out class differences, we're all driven by the same things. But in rewatching parts of the first series and the first three episodes of this new one, the overriding sense of warmth, nostalgia and comfort started to gnaw at me. Much more so than the original, this very belated, three-part update is a somewhat too enamored portrait of a stratified society that the United States supposedly fought a bloody revolutionary war to escape. All of which means that, like its predecessors, "Upstairs Downstairs" will no doubt be a ratings bonanza for PBS, which was so unabashedly Anglophilic in its early years that its name might been an acronym for Prefers British Stuff. (That said, I wonder if the January 2011 stateside premiere of the very similar "Downton Abbey" -- by Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for writing the very "Upstairs Downstairs"-like "Gosford Park" -- might not have stolen some of its thunder).
Set during chronologically from Edwardian times through 1930, the original chapters of "Upstairs Downstairs"Â wove their events into history (three characters in the second series died in the sinking of the Titanic) and ended with a domestic/economic meltdown that didn't so much segue out of the narrative as obliterate it. These three new episodes, which premiered in Britain last year, are engaging, tasteful and very well-made. The production values are leagues beyond anything seen in the previous show. With its faster cutting, elegant camera moves and lavish production values (there's even a bit a of CGI in the exteriors) what's onscreen looks, feels and moves more like a feature film than the original, which had the long-take, no-frills style of a live TVÂ drama. I'm not over the moon about it; my preference in master/servant stories runs more toward "The Remains of the Day"Â and "Gosford Park," which have a more prankish and sometimes bitter undertow. But as a production, it's tops; your mileage, as I like to say, will vary.
Continue reading here:Â http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/upstairs_downstairs/index.html?story=/ent/tv/feature/2011/04/08/upstairs_downstairs_2011
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