Unfortunately, both she and Mrs Hughes only get running storylines when they get sick: Mrs Patmore had her eye troubles (in season 2, I think), and Mrs Hughes had her breast cancer scare in season 3.

Sigh … yes, Downton always does this. Its characters simply pack themselves up and put themselves into storage until they are seen onscreen. So absolutely nothing happens to them during the time they are offscreen. The train ticket bit was the most groanworthy … how is it even possible that the ticket remained in that…

Heartily concur with the last point. Sadly, it's the least likely one.

*Sigh* Please read my earlier comment - I said that the fact that Renzo is such a huge stereotype is the problem, not the general fact that as a minor character, he hasn't been fleshed out much.

Most of the 'history' in the Blackadder series is hardly realistic in any case. Dr Johnson died 27 years before the Regency began, for example, and he published his dictionary more than half a century before that.

The title wasn't passed down. The first Blackadder was a prince, but the second one a lord (not sure what his exact rank was), which is understandable, as royal bastards were sometimes given a lower-ranking title in those days. The third Blackadder had no title (he was a butler, after all), and neither did the fourth.

Aww … Blackadder Back and Forth wasn't all that bad. It didn't hold a candle to the older Blackadder series, but it did its bit in filling a Blackadder-shaped hole in my life. Also, it gave us Blackadder punching Shakespeare: "That is for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next 400 years." So worth it.

IMO, a minor character doesn't need to be much more than a blank slate. If they do become better realized, that's great (at least, if it's done well). But they don't have to be.

I agree that Harry has gotten worse as a person, but he's not as immature as Pete was or is. Pete still (i.e. in season 6) believes that the world should revolve around Pete Campbell, and is constantly frustrated that it doesn't. Harry - as horrible a person as he has become - has learnt to deal with the world as it…

While I agree that there are several good points about this episode, IMO they collectively just don't add up to enough. I agree with Todd's characterization of this episode as 'clunky'. The best Mad Men episodes feel like a seamless whole, even when they're telling very different stories about vastly different…

I was just about to post on this very point. Yes, the Don of the earlier seasons does not shit where he eats. Half the women at SC would have thrown themselves at him if he'd given them the slightest encouragement, including Peggy when she was new.

The in-universe explanation could be that Ken outgrew the frat-boy mentality of his early years at SC, while Pete didn't and Harry did so only partially (as for Paul … the less said, the better). The meta reason is more likely that all these characters started off as roughly the same at the beginning of the show, then…

The younger SC men's pickup lines for the twins are so hilariously awful. Ken's line about the Siamese twin calves is particularly groanworthy.

Hmm … but isn't that sort of true for most minor characters introduced as main characters' friends, in nearly every TV show ever? IMO, Renzo's importance is mainly to facilitate Kathryn's plot, so he doesn't need to be a particularly well-drawn out character, He could be just a fun, friendly gay guy who befriends…

Yeah - the objection against Bay and Tank as a couple has nothing to do with their ages or his looks, but just the tiresome idea that any male character introduced in either Bay or Daphne's lives must automatically become a love interest. Why can't Bay and Tank just enjoy an unlikely friendship?

The kiss was more like the last straw, rather than the sole reason Kathryn kicked John out. Besides, John didn't really explain the context (admittedly, he didn't get the chance to do so) - so in Kathryn's mind, it may have been more than a single drunken kiss, and more like the prelude to a full-blown affair.

Mary has her grandmother's acerbic tongue without her biting wit to go along with it. And it will probably get only more acerbic as she ages.

Kathryn didn't kiss the lawyer - he kissed her. IIRC, she was shocked and pulled away immediately. Granted, she doesn't seem to have told John about the kiss - but knowing how irrational and hot tempered he is, that was probably the best course of action.

Ok, the idea that Rosamund might have been in a similar situation in her youth did cross my mind. But the idea wasn't really developed upon in any way. It could be just the way that Samantha Bond played the role, rather than any actual backstory of Rosamund's.