How The Mighty Have Fallen

BKTrayner

It's really not polite to directly criticize other reviewers -- they are certainly entitled to their opinion. But it would be interesting to know the ages of the various people who have given this series a high rating.

While it is probably true that the younger, twittering crowd would not sit still these days to watch the original Upstairs/Downstairs, PBS and the BBC have made a serious mistake abandoning the core audience. It's like a farm stand selling Grandma's Homemade Apple Pie that decides to increase business by switching over to sell Grandma's Fastfood Fries -- with the result that after a year or so there is no more Grandma's anything. They've established a trust fund to "save" MPT, but why bother? Use the money to Save the Whales instead.

So here we have Masterpiece Theatre producing a potboiler soap opera in 3 episodes with gorgeous costumes and absolutely nothing else.

To begin with, the series shares nothing with the original except a name. The 20 minutes wasted in the first episode that goes to opening up the old house is simply an attempt to trade upon the original franchise. It is unbelievable that the place would have been vacant that long, and how does it advance the story in any way at all? The maudlin long gazes out the window by Rose accompanied by violins -- the wine cellar key with Mr. Hudson's name being replaced -- what is that all about?

Each episode has improbable plot twists. The new servant in the first episode who turns out to be on parole and ends up back in jail. The servant in the second episode who conveniently has asthma and dies in the final reel. The sudden discovery of a long lost sister with Down's Syndrome in the third episode who is conveniently in the same facility as the conveniently troubled daughter of the deceased maid. (This particular chestnut is inherently improbable as you would think that mom would have put the child in a different facility to avoid her son discovering his sister.) The head butler who moonlights as an obstetrician. The seamy love scenes. All trite stuff.

And where it isn't trite, the material points more to today's concerns than to creating the world of the 1930's. We have the special needs child that was shut away, the refugee from Nazi Germany foreshadowing the Holocaust, the ethnic minority, etc.

In the original series, there were a couple of times when something from the "real world" popped up in an episode as a plot devise. One time Prince Edward came to dinner, and the whole show revolved around staging such a dinner party. And, of course, Mrs. Bellamy went down on the Titanic. Here, we get Moseley in one episode, Wallace Simpson in another, and the Abdication thrown in for good measure. So much for subtly.

In contrast, the original series revolved around the slow development of a group of complicated characters: Richard Bellamy's role as an MP combined with his uncomfortable position at home where his wife had all the money; and the subtle relationship between the servants downstairs and the gentry upstairs culminating, I suppose, when Richard came to the bedside of Mr. Hudson when he was sick; and the problems when Richard married his secretary because the servants would not accept someone who didn't know her place; and the long, slow decline of the brother following WWI; and the cast of characters who made occasional appearances like the family lawyer who would eventually show up to resolve difficulties or Prudence ("Pru") who would stop to see her friend Lady Bellamy and who later thought Richard would be a good match (and so did the audience) but Richard didn't show interest.

So this failed effort is simply a sad parody of the original and inadvertent commentary on how dumbed down MPT has become.

score 1/10

BKTrayner 7 May 2011

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2425178/