{"id":1533256,"date":"2022-06-30T07:51:11","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T11:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1533256"},"modified":"2022-06-30T07:51:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T11:51:34","slug":"downton-abbey-a-new-era-is-a-mellow-family-reunion-for-downton-lovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/downton-abbey-a-new-era-is-a-mellow-family-reunion-for-downton-lovers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Downton Abbey: A New Era\u2019 Is A Mellow Family Reunion For Downton Lovers"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fdownton-abbey-a-new-era-is-a-mellow-family-reunion-for-downton-lovers%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1533256&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Screen-Shot-2022-06-28-at-1.49.15-PM-1024x660-1.png\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p>To my surprise,<em> <\/em>\u201cDownton Abbey: A New Era\u201d appeared on the marquee of the single-film theatre in my little town over the weekend. I\u2019m a big \u201cDownton\u201d fan and was vaguely aware that another film was in the works, but I wasn\u2019t eagerly awaiting it, as it seemed all the loose ends of the six-season television series had been tidily tied up in the 2019 film. Nonetheless, when the Crawleys come to town, you go and pay them a visit.<\/p>\n<p><em>Warning: This article contains spoilers.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Distilled, the plot of \u201cA New Era,\u201d like so much of our modern era, is all about sex: it centers on whether the austere dowager countess of Grantham, Violet Crawley, had a French fling several decades prior that produced Lord Grantham, Robert Crawley. (This would make him illegitimate and <em>not<\/em> the rightful heir to the Downton estate.)<\/p>\n<p>A secondary storyline involves an ongoing will-she-or-won\u2019t-she tension between a seductive movie director shooting a film at Downton while Lady Mary\u2019s husband is off somewhere pursuing his true love \u2014 car racing. A sub-<em>sub<\/em>-plot concerns the butler, Thomas Barrow, and whether he\u2019ll finally find lasting love in a homosexual relationship with a Hollywood star playing the lead in the movie for which the Abbey is the setting.<\/p>\n<p>Despite such a risqu\u00e9\u00a0premise, the story unfolds in a mild manner that borders on boring. As the movie begins, the audience is brought up to speed \u2014 it\u2019s 1928 now \u2014 with a reintroduction to our old friends. <\/p>\n<p>Tom Branson, the chauffeur-turned-Downton estate manager and widower of Lady Sybil, marries Lucy, a former maid, in the opening scene. It\u2019s revealed that Daisy, who has been promoted from kitchen maid to Mrs. Patmore\u2019s assistant cook, is happily hitched to a footman. The presence of several children \u2014 I\u2019d forgotten John Bates and Anna welcomed a son a few years before \u2014 in varying stages of growing up, further alludes to an intervening period of familial health, harmony, and happiness.<\/p>\n<p>It then comes to light that the Dowager has inherited a villa in the South of France from a man the rest of the Crawleys have never heard of. At the same time, a movie production company asks to pay to use the estate as the backdrop of a silent film, and since Downton needs a new roof and is not in the position to be turning away money, Lady Mary agrees. Conveniently, the family is invited to the villa by the aristocratic French family who thought they owned it, and Mary sends them away to avoid the movie-making spectacle the older and more fastidious members of the household would find distasteful.<\/p>\n<p>The plots move along at a mellow speed, with nothing particularly exciting, poignant, or suspenseful happening until the very end, when the best character of the whole series passes gracefully to eternity. <\/p>\n<p>In fact, at parts, the events are so mundane that I found my eyes and mind straying from the speaking character off to some decorative detail in the background (Mrs. Patmore\u2019s copper cookware collection, anyone?!), or focused on a particularly pristine piece of clothing (does Lady Mary ever wear the same gown twice?). No one was wondering, for example, whether Lady Edith would return to her writing career after a child-bearing hiatus, but her uninteresting musings on the subject allow the viewer a break to delight vicariously in the extravagance of a multi-course alfresco meal along the French Riviera during the Roaring Twenties.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2022\/05\/20\/1100366197\/downton-abbey-a-new-era-review#:~:text=&#039;Downton%20Abbey%3A%20A%20New%20Era,represent%20a%20new%20era%20%3A%20NPR&#038;text=Press-,&#039;Downton%20Abbey%3A%20A%20New%20Era&#039;%20does%20not%2C%20in,come%20to%20an%20end%20eventually.\">\u201c\u2018Downton Abbey: A New Era\u2019 does not, in fact, represent a new era,\u201d<\/a> proclaims the headline of an NPR article calling for the \u201cDownton\u201d series to end. There is not enough fresh drama, some critics argue, to keep us interested and coming back for more. <\/p>\n<p>But I would argue that\u2019s the point of Julian Fellowes\u2019 latest iteration of \u201cDownton.\u201d As the world ushers in new ideas about manners, customs, and morality, the Crawleys (and Carson!) stand firm against the tide, maintaining tradition and propriety in the face of modernism, which seeks to destroy what has long been upheld as true and good and beautiful in favor of lax standards pursued for the sake of \u201cliberation\u201d and pleasure.<\/p>\n<p>In an age dominated by desperate social media attention-seekers, it\u2019s refreshing to be transported to a time when, as the dowager countess expresses in her signature arch tone, publicity was still considered something to be avoided. Perhaps that\u2019s the root of our problem: rather than relish what is simple and tried and true, we feel the need to rebel for the sake of stimulation because if there is no change, there is no progress, or something.<\/p>\n<p>What \u201cDownton\u201d offers us, and the reason the series has been such a success, is a comforting retreat to a world where virtue predictably triumphs. It turns out the dowager did <em>not<\/em> behave promiscuously all those years ago. And when tempted by the advances of the handsome director, Lady Mary declines, explaining she is still \u201ctoo old-fashioned to believe what I want is\u00a0all that matters.\u201d Even Thomas\u2019s gratuitous gay scenes are mercifully presented subtly.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, the movie presents a refreshing contrast to the contemporary \u201cdo what makes you feel good\u201d mantra, the consequences of which bring about so much misery. It\u2019s also a soothing refuge from a world where \u201cKhloe Kardashian pokes fun at sister Kim over private parts\u2026 after older sibling revealed she widened \u2018vagina area\u2019 of the SKIMS bodysuit for her\u201d is a real, run-of-the-mill headline of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/tvshowbiz\/article-10957419\/Khloe-Kardashian-pokes-fun-Kim-private-parts-widening-vagina-area-SKIMS-bodysuit.html\">widely read online newspaper.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The latest \u201cDownton\u201d movie feels more like a family reunion than thrilling soap opera, and that\u2019s just fine. It\u2019s a low-key checking-in with familiar faces, wholesome entertainment dripping in aesthetic splendor, and an enjoyable alternative to the over-sexualized, violent, frenetic offerings typical of the silver screen.<\/p>\n<p>You can now welcome the Crawleys to tea in your own home, as \u201cA New Era\u201d was just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/downton-abbey-2-new-era-watch-online-streaming-peacock-free-1718946\">made available for screening on Peacock. <\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Teresa Mull is managing editor of School Reform News for the Heartland Institute. She&#8217;s a graduate of the University of Dallas who lives in Teton Valley, Idaho.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To my surprise, \u201cDownton Abbey: A New Era\u201d appeared on the marquee of the single-film theatre in my little town over the weekend. I\u2019m a big \u201cDownton\u201d fan and was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":992,"featured_media":1533316,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1533256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/992"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1533256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1533256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1533316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1533256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1533256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1533256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}