Notice how you were able to say you hated the movie without blaming it on “this woman” and crying about “allusions to homosexuality.”  That’s the difference.

Both are incredible performances in what I would consider each director’s best movie (don’t @ me, Jackie Brown/Edward Scissorhands fans), but I would give the edge to Jackson. Looking back at the past (Jesus Christ!) nearly 30 years, that’s the performance that spawned a thousand imitators and has become truly iconic,…

Just as an aside, I’ve found the older I get as an adult, the less of my time and patience I have to devote to watching stories about characters I find distasteful or unlikable.

Yes, well, Julian Fellowes is, Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford, and a Conservative peer of the House of Lords.

I read the answer to my own question, and is exactly so. In the 1800s a girl was only to put her hair up to signal that she was available for marriage. It meant that she was out in society and considered a woman. Oh, well, it seems that Gladys has many milestones she hasn’t been allowed to reach.

I also loved Agnes’ dress that she was wearing (for afternoon appointments and tea?) that Armstrong dressed her in after luncheon

I have been starving for quality movies over the past couple of years, and was excited to see this. It bored the shit out of me. I wish I was speaking literally, because at least there’s entertainment value in crapping oneself. However, I found it tedious and painfully dull. That’s not to say that I didn’t appreciate…

You didn’t say why you hated it. If you hated it because you thought it was overlong, tedious and/or none of the characters were sympathetic to you, you are in the clear. If you hated it because it was “too homosexual” or “the director was a foreigner with a vagina,” then you may want to be choosy who you express…

I don’t know if I’m hateable for it, but I thought this particular movie sucked, and do not comprehend all the awards attention it’s been getting, AND I’m a fan of Campion. (The underseen “The Sisters Brothers” did a similar story so much better just last year. as did, sort of, “Cow”.)

He liked Brokeback - just not as a Western. I think he’s mostly just being a nerd about what is and isn’t a Western while ignoring that Cumberbatch’s character was essentially a rich kid cosplaying as a cowboy. “Are we to believe he wore chaps while not riding a horse? I hope somebody got fired for that blunder!"

I’m not sure if he meant the “woman” part in a disparaging way - it seemed like he was using the word because he couldn’t say “this guy.” More concerning is the fact that he’s had just about enough of those homosexual cowboy fellers.

“A butler selling out a fellow butler just because his feathers were a little ruffled over one lunch? Narrative punishment.”

Exactly. And it’s clear by now which butler we, as viewers, are meant to sympathize with and like more.

Agnes barging into the Russell’s home was what we were all waiting for, eh?

Agreed — this is going to go very badly for Church, if only because Fellowes (a) clearly has sympathy for British over American butlering, and (b) loves morality tales where a person gets what’s coming to them for forgetting their duty and station. A butler selling out a fellow butler just because his feathers were a…

I completely agree that Raikes would be more interesting as a villain, though I also wonder if what they’re heading for is another opportunity (after the shoe incident) to show that Marian is kind of self-absorbed and silly. She seems to have a kind of romance novel assumption that he will pine for her indefinitely.…

Oh it was absolutely Church--that seemed way too clear and was even telegraphed.  Turner is too occupied with the long game and would have NO reason to do this anyway.  I agreed with most of this review, but that seems a big oversight (I’m enjoying the show, but subtle it ain’t)

I don’t think it was Turner who sent the note to Agnes. I think it was *Church*.

Yes. For a hot minute there I was willing to watch an entire show built around just Peggy Scott and her journalism. Imagine her narrating! Anyway - “an embarrassment of riches, this show” yada yada. Glad the English v American butlering styles came back around to become plot-relevant. 

I made an account to say I love Peggy Scott’s character...Granted, I’ve lurked on AV Club for a few years now, but I felt it was finally time to step into the chat, especially to say that. I know it was a few episodes ago, but that episode got the tears coming down when her story was accepted into that newspaper on…

“as they pursued Morgoth in vengeance for the destruction of Laurelin and Telperion.”