Downton Abbey | David Mitchell's Soapbox
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2012
- David Mitchell gets down with Downton Abbey.
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David Mitchell, star of UK TV favourites Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look, brings us his unique perspective on the issues facing men of the world today. - Komedie
I've never seen a single second on Downton Abbey, yet I watched this video.
I guess that shows how much I like David Mitchell.
Not watched it either but I recognise his point about things that used to be good going bad yet the fans eat it up anyway.
Never seen it also but I did knock over a gate post with my truck there after delivering some wine.
Same lol he can make anything sound interesting! Even though I don’t know anything about the show Downton Abbey itself, his points still make sense in general.
Same 😆
I've seen about 4 episodes ever, and it was all I could do to not scream out "Who cares?! WHO CARES ABOUT ANY OF THIS?!"
But thirst does strange things to a man.
It's quite comforting to know David gets as annoyed as the rest of us by his favourite things going downhill. It's very humanising.
Why wouldn't he? He's human like the rest of you. People in entertainment media aren't another species, you moron.
Oh, did he say Downton Abbey was his favorite thing? I heard milder praise.
Hahahaha, LOVE the slow encroachment of the sci-fi bakcground!
At first I thought "why does the background look like I ate a bunch of mushrooms?" And then it got even weirder.
That is not sci-fi.
When Highclere finally levitates, hovers momentarily, then zooms orf... 😂
"It's just actors saying lies in hats."
That line sounds a bit Brass Eye.
Brilliant comment :)
Ironically I think that these rants are so watchable for exactly that reason. There is something comforting about pondering a set of problems that you would otherwise never consider.
True. It was funny. And then it wasn’t.
1:57 Narnia - A small village in the south of Belgium where General Douglas Haig ordered 3.5 million men to their death to conquer the front half of a small waffle shop.
@Tom Sanders I think the op is indulging in deliberate hyperbole.
@Tom Sanders I haven't heard that expression before.
@Tom Sanders so if only two served and one was killed that's an appalling 50% casualties.i see what your getting at, now back to Mr Mitchell.
@Tom Sanders They were joking.
And then this happened to Game of Thrones, Rip
I stopped watching when Dragon lady was sailing towards an easy target with no useful resources.
wut happened? series 3, 4, 5, 6 AND a major motion picture.
Game of Thrones ran out of books to take the TV story from and the creators had to get "creative".
People DID notice this time though.
@@genstian they knew how if was going to end though and HBO wanted another series but the people behind it where more interested in star wars so rushed it and then decided to go to Netflix instead of star wars after all that.
The problem really was they tried to do at least 2 series worth of stuff into 1 series. If they had a series for the war with the white walkers and then a series to wrap everything up it would have flowed better and you could have seen Daenerys slowly losing it. I don't think anyone would have been happy with how it ended and you can never please everyone but what we got was just too rushed
Soup IS nice.
samwiseshanti Floss is Boss
@David Yeakle Affirmative, especially that red kind.
Soup isn't nice
Soup *IS* nice! Well said, and well pointed out!
How can you say something controversial yet so brave?
I absolutely adore Downton Abbey and pretty much have it just playing on repeat in my house as I work from home. But I’m dying laughing at this because it’s all so true! The long lost cousin story line I always found ridiculous, and that’s why I assumed they wrote him with an American accent. Like it was almost tongue-in-cheek.
Downtown Abbey seems like a rehash of Upstairs and Downstairs.
Even the shell shock for key characters.
yes very very derivative, storylines and the odd line from U-D
Upstairs Downstairs was much better.
I explained to my mother which show I was watching and she kept saying "Yeah, that's Upstairs and Downstairs you are describing." and we both were confused at the end that we seemed to know the same show under different names.
Actor's saying lies in hats is my new favourite way to describe any period drama.
*lines
This is so spot on. I only got to the second episode of the 2nd season because the amount of eye-rolling was going to do me an injury.
That was mildly entertaining harumphing but the background visuals were awesome.
This is among David's most crucial videos, as the type of bait-and-switch tactic he postulates here occurs all over the place, both in the wild and in media and industry.
First you make something with just enough quality to get people with analytic brains saying "yeah this is good". This draws the mops who want to appear on-board with analytic types. Then you ease off on the quality axis in favour of simply more episodes, comfortable than the mops won't leave now it's safe to like the product for a long time. The exodus of the analytics is arguably helpful as it lets them get away with more ridiculous shenanigans for views that would otherwise stir controversy - better to make them leave in mild distaste around the second season. It's the sociop-er, business mindset 101.
I've always found it quite grating how modern and progressive the Granthams are, especially to their servants. That IS Narnia. Surely that grates the good people of UK too? Is it OK that it rather blandly romanticises the class system, or is this precisely why it is termed a guilty pleasure?
+ninmat I imagine some of the wealthy always thought of themselves as being very gracious to the people they walk all over, as it strokes their ego. The good (sarcasm) southern slave owners who always treated their slaves fairly, for instance.
+ninmat I don't think they're particularly modern or progressive as a family. Some of them are, some of them aren't. You know, aristocrats have run this country for hundreds of years, and for most of that time there were both conservative and liberals, in government and out of it. Certainly, classing all aristocrats as evil, backward and abusive towards their servants would be grossly inaccurate.
+ninmat You realize that some people just were that progressive and generally nice?
History tends to make people assume that systems reflect on the people and cultures living within it, but they don't. It's perfectly possible that they were just that liberally minded about their servants.
I find it just as grating when series like The Borgias portray an entire clan of people as pure evil schemers without their own internal morals and principles
+ninmat Have you seen Julian Fellowes being interviewed? It pretty much explains his benevolent, non-confrontational view of the upper classes.
ninmat it's not that unthinkable, rudeness to servants is extremely bad form.
David likes the word "vaguely".
I cant stop laughing at souped up soap... Mitchell... You are a genius
Love the way the landscape changed behind him.
I like Downton Abbey, but man, especially in season 2 the issue he brought up with them continuing conversations from like a year ago but acting like it had only been a day since they last spoke is SO ANNOYING.
Also how they're always like "Do you recall Mr. Pamuk, the Turkish gentlemen?" Like EVERY TIME they have to bring it up as if someone wouldn't remember a foreign diplomat dying in the house two years earlier.
The background in this episode is even more enthralling than the foreground I reckon.
Darn, I really liked that show.
I couldn't agree more with Mr. Mitchell on this one.
I am in love with Downton Abbey, all the seasons, but this was hilarious!
This isn't just about Downton Abbey but could be applied to every song running series of sequels, tv shows and the likes. Very common discussion today with every movie being either a sequel, prequel, adaption, spin off or reboot. Was not expecting to find it in a video from 2012 or from a British comedian (as opposed to movie discussion youtube videos).
His rants about Downton Abbey echo my own rage at the show.
I rage about it, and have watched a single episode. I say this proudly.
Well, eight years later this is quite changed my view of Downton Abbey now.😂
Still love it and its popularity worldwide only went from strength to strength.
Eureka
With all the buzz surrounding Downton Abbey, I've been wondering if maybe I was making a mistake by not watching it. Now I don't feel bad about it. Thanks, David!
To be fair, it really depends on which kind of viewer you are. I can imagine some of the differing perspectives that people have, and I know mine is just one of many. It just so happened that this show intrigued me and amused me enough to enjoy it throughout. I liked the production quality. I liked the attempts at historical accuracy, at least in terms of both technology and people's manner, if not the characters' specific lives. I enjoyed imagining living 120 years ago, both as a wealthy person and not. I found it both humbling and inspiring at times.
One of the best backgrounds so far
That was a good point about the burned man appearing and then promptly disappearing. Still, I found the second series to be pretty decent. The story line in seasons 3 and 4 has been derailed by actors choosing to leave the show.
The thing that annoyed me about the "Is it really Patrick Crawley?" storyline was that they did that _same_ concept in the first season when Cora got pregnant. After all, both situations revolved only around Matthew's suddenly uncertain prospects, and both were solved by the contestant to Matthew's inheritance conveniently running off, or being miscarried/stillborn respectively.
I don't think that the decisions of some actors to leave the show derailed that much. The writers could have worked well with it and put up some hard things for the other characters to work through. Like, after Matthew's death, Mary could have come to the decision that she would not marry anyone else ever again, and devoted her life to preserving Downton, raising George and keeping Matthew's memory alive. Instead, she went flirting, dating, put on nice dresses, tugged a gazillion of conveniently unmarried peers along with her life and ignored her son the majority of the time.
Similarly, I think that Tom could have benefitted from truly realizing that Downton is not his home, though it was Sybil's, and that leaving the town or at least the estate would have provided some great opportunities for him.
Instead, they set him up to revolve around Mary's life, Mary's love life and the preservation of a system that he doesn't want to live on.
The best-done aspects of the show are, in my opinion, Violet's wit and slowly developing friendship with Isobel, and Edith's character development. Everything else was so horridly repetitious that after a while I just waited through it for the parts that I wanted to see (mainly, Violet and Edith).
It's a shame, really. I mean, there were troubles with Edith's plotline in season 5 that didn't need to be there and were basically only written in for cheap drama, but overall it was well done and touching. That's what Fellowes and everyone else that was involved in the creation of that show was capable of. It's a true shame that they didn't use those talents better.
Should have waited till later series when It got properly bonkers.
I know! Mr and Mrs Bates were going in and out of prison on a regular basis, everyone and his dog had died from some horrible illness or another and the Granthams were having a financial rollercoaster ride...
I absolutely adore Downton Abbey.
I also adore David Mitchell.
I adore David for having the audacity to slag off Downton Abbey, and for Downton Abbey to continue running regardless.
I shall continue to adore both David and Downton, regardless of how they interact with each other, because I have just that much love.
The background traveling in time is Amazing!!!! DMitchell... please come back!
They had a movie come out sometime before all the theaters closed and I was like, "They didn't end this show already?" However, I do love Bob's Burgers' parody of it, "Winthorpe Manor." and I will forever thank its existence for that.
I just finished episode 8 of the 3rd series last night and I agree with David. The show went off the rails real quick. The "will they won't they?" Dynamics, the incredibly fast pace, issues being built up then going absolutely no where. Character personalities are constantly changing episode by episode
I don't know Downton Abbey, but this is an excellent video on a general phenomenon in TV. Favourited -- and thank you!
Exactly David! Glad British TV had a glitch in its star filtering system and you scrapped through: you always cheer, the angrier you get the more fun you impart...wish more humans were like that.
I love David Mitchell. He's so witty and has such a fine intellect.
That finale I found, for better or worse, absolutely hilarious.
DEAR JESUS BRING THESE BACK!!
DAVID!!!!!!!
but don't use a Holy Name as a swear word
@@marcokite Why not?
What's more brilliant than that is that he seems to wear that on may TV shows her appears on; TV Heaven Telly Hell, QI, Mock The Week, The Bubble etc.
The swaying flowers in the background is fascinating, and distracted me from David's ranting 😅
"just actors saying lies in hats". If ever I start a theatre troupe this is what it shall be called. 😆
I thought he said “lines” not “lies” 🤣
@@miroslavmilan He did. Not sure why everyone is quoting it as "lies".
ACTORS saying LINES in hats makes a lot more sense if you stop for two seconds to realize what he was saying.
What do you expect from julian fellows? It's not the first time he wrote a book with inaccuracies and turn it into a soap drama.
I picture him chuckling to himself as $ signs dance in his head, thinking, "oh, the Yanks are going to eat this up with a spoon!!"
Somehow your cold dead eyes are filled with so much passion.
Definitely love the backdrops...
And now I'm happy I didn't try watching Downton Abbey in the first place.
I'm slightly frightened by his eyes. The background looks just real enough to suggest he's actually sitting outside, but he's blinking with the same frequency as someone sitting inside. It's absolutely horrifying!
Thank God. It's about time someone blows that shit-show wide open.
I looooo his rants :)
I'm so happy that I get this reference.
Truer words were never spoken
I like the way he used Downton Abbey footage in the background.
I literally have no idea what he's on about but i do like to hear his wonderful way of putting things.
After watching the first series, I nicknamed Downton Abbey 'Hug A Butler'.
Nobody rants better than this man.
I'll just go and see this one again now, the first time I was distracted by the background.
Disconcerting, the way the Basingstoke skyline suddenly hoved into view. Normally this isn’t as visible from the A34.
I generally heart Mitchellian rants, but I do also need to give a (very) belated thumbs up to whomever put together that background montage. I laughed. Good job. :D
I had to watch this three times. The first to hear David, the second to watch what the hell was going on behind him and then, well, just again to hear David, because I love David. :-)
personally I adored the second series, it took me an episode to think "woah everything's gone mental" enableing me to then move on and start to think of it more as an excellent spoof of it's former self, with a few moments that are genuinely touching, I agree that if you were trying to take it seriously then yes, it did go downhill, but if you're not then it became several thousand times more fun to watch :)
Luv David's self righteous indignation.......never watched this show.....find these kind of period dramas boring......also loved the background.....had to watch this twice to appreciate what was going on there....hilarious the castle taking off!
DA had an interesting setting, but its a soap opera. I'm glad someone else noticed that.
I mean, it was better than a normal soap though
🎼Safelite repair! Safelite replace! 🎶
It's like if Lord of the Rings had actually been about Frodo making lists of stuff to take with him and then spent the next 9 hours of screen time packing his suit case and writing his travel itinerary and buying travel insurance.
I like his reference to the car exchange jingle he admitted to liking on Charlie Brooker's show.
I watched this once for the rant and once for the epic extrapolative historical saga in the background.
Best background so far.
...and yet... I still love Downton Abbey...
He was bang on about 'Heroes' there...
The background basically turning into a city in Civilization.
the third one is AMAZING though
Everyone scoffs at people who yell 'first' in the comments section, yet those same people given the opportunity would be overwhelmed with the rare gift that they too will yell first. Trust me, I've been there, it's an awesome and irresistible feeling.
Reassuring to see that critical discussion and logical debate skills are still thriving in the world.
I like the juxtaposition of David's rant about flash and style over substance with the flash and style of the background images. Very clever, that.
Dontcha just love this guy? BTW, the wavy flowers in the background are well trippy.
I love you David
I live in hope.
On top of that, if you discount the Christmas special, it's 3.75 months/episode. Even shorter than series 1.
That background show was Sweet! Which is a good thing because I've never watched Downton Abbey, nor been to a Tesco. Ahh, sweet Ignorance, what a good friend you've become.
Dave, please please please keep ranting. You made my day.
that's 'David' to you han
marcokite I stand corrected sir.
And I wish he would do a topic on people like you who have a compulsion to always respond to people like him.
Today I learned people in the UK say “series” instead of “season” to describe the grouping of TV episodes.
Why thank you kindly. Your comment is much appreciated. :)
The first series wasn't available in Scotland when it was first broadcast. That may have something to do with the rising ratings for series 2.
i ve not really watched any "tv shows" since the last season of peepshow. thanks kindly david..
The last half-decent thing on ITV was Sharpe, and that was back in the 90s and had serious lack of extras.
Bonking.... I cracked up there.
and yet you took the trouble to respond with such wit and eloquence
Downton Abbey is amazing!
Downton Abbey...Captian Picard takes shore leave and has a fling with Cora. Think of the crossover appeal!
I should work in TV!!!
Wow, he was on fire this time.
my parents are in Highclere castle today on a Downton Abbey tour.
I was not surprised when this got to the end and it said john finnemore had co-written it
I only just realised now that show is not called Downtown Abbey
They watched the 2nd series without blinking an eye. What is the sound of a thousand eyes blinking?
Bravo
I can't believe I never realised all the historical inaccuracies before...curses I'll have to sit and wait for the next series of Homeland then...
SO BRAVE!
Amusing animation!
The US equivalent is probably TWD. Holy shit was that a clusterfuck of production past the first season.