A popular article on BuzzFeed right now is: "17 Reasons Why Downton Abbey is the Best Show Ever." Well I'm matching that list (paraphrased below) because after Downton is done depressing us, it's Jeeves and Wooster who bring us back from the brink of suicide.
1. The best love affairs do not go unrequited.
Though Bertie hurts Jeeves' tender feelings with inappropriate hats, socks and mustaches, Jeeves always rallies 'round to get him out of trouble, and in return Bertie hands over the offending article. A brilliant match, as the Regencies would say.
2. Season
3. Period fashion.
4. Period lady hair. Pin curls!
5.
6. Matthew Crawley's Bertie Wooster's hair.
7.
8. Castles. It was Totleigh Towers long before it was Downton Abbey.
9.
10.
11. And fabulous
12. That allow shots like this to be a regular part of the program.
13. The
14. It feels like the long-awaited extended version of
15. But with
16. Dinnertime is beautiful and tension-filled. Like dining with the aunts under false pretenses, or hosting Communists.
17. And finally, "Downton Abbey" is The Best because: the Dowager Countess is TV's last true heroine that we can all believe in. Yes the Countess is hilarious, but Aunt Dahlia is full of bon mots, like her description of how Bertie' looks: "A cross between an orgy scene in the movies and some low form of pond life. I suppose you were out on the tiles last night?"
On the tough side there's Aunt Agatha, who "chews broken bottles" and "devours her young" : "When Aunt Agatha wants you to do a thing you do it, or else you find
yourself wondering why those fellows in the olden days made such a fuss
when they had trouble with the Spanish Inquisition."
But also...
17. Bertie's friends. They always turn to him for help, and they have the best names, like Oofy Prosser, Barmy Fotheringay (pronounced Fungy) Phipps, Tuppy Glossop, Stinker Pinker, Bingo Little, and Gussie Fink-Nottle the newt-fancier.
18. We wish we were members of Bertie's club, The Drones.
19. Bertie's exes...
Florence Craye: "One of those intellectual girls, steeped to the gills in serious
purpose, who are unable to see a male soul without wanting to get behind
it and shove."
Honoria Glossop: Who has "a laugh that sounded like a squadron of cavalry charging across a tin bridge."
and Madeline Bassett: Pretty but with an air of always "being on the
point of talking baby talk. She was the sort of girl who puts her hands
over a husband's eyes, as he is crawling in to breafast with a morning
head, and says, "Guess who?"
20. Bertie singing the hit parade!
21: The best opening credits of all time.
22. And finally, the dialogue is lifted from and inspired by PG Wodehouse's brilliant prose...
Roderick Spode - 8th Earl of Sidcup: He knows why. Because he is a butterfly, who toys with women's hearts and throws them away like soiled gloves!
Bertie: Do butterflies do that?
Bertie: Do butterflies do that?
Bingo Little: We walk together in the gardens most evenings, and it sometimes seems to me there's a look in her eye.
Bertie: Yes, I know that look. Like a Sergeant-Major.
Bertie: Yes, I know that look. Like a Sergeant-Major.
Jeeves: I am
familiar with the name Bassington-Bassington, sir. There are the
Shropshire Bassington-Bassingtons the Hampshire Bassington-Bassingtons
and, of course, the Kent Bassington-Bassingtons.
Bertie: Ah, so, the world's pretty well stacked up on Bassington-Bassingtons then.
Jeeves: Tolerably so, sir.
Bertie: No chance of a sudden shortage, I mean, ha?
Jeeves: Presumably not, sir.
Bertie: Ah, so, the world's pretty well stacked up on Bassington-Bassingtons then.
Jeeves: Tolerably so, sir.
Bertie: No chance of a sudden shortage, I mean, ha?
Jeeves: Presumably not, sir.
____LOVE SONG OF THE DAY____
Ever so goosy goosy goosy goosy.
5 comments:
I watched the first three episodes of Jeeves & Wooster just recently and LOVED them! Once I get resettled, I'm re-signing up for netflix DVDs and getting the rest of them. They are simply wonderful! And yes, they make me feel very cheery.
I am not watching Downton Abbey, even though it's supposed to be all kinds of wonderful.
I haven't even watched Downton Abbey and I can still guarantee I like Jeeves and Wooster better. No one can hold a candle to PG Wodehouse. They shouldn't even try.
I'm so disgusted with D. Abbey that I completely agree. SHould never have started. Long live Jeeves.
Barb!! Say it ain't so!! DISGUSTED??? whyyyyyyyyyy?
@Skye - Yay!! Another fan! I own the DVD set and it's one of my top Pick Me Ups. And if you ever want to try one of the stories/novels, they're just as funny because Bertie narrates them. He's a hilarious narrator.
@JJJ - You'd like the Abbey's old grandmother played by Maggie Smith. She's so aristocratic she can get away with saying anything. Like when Irish Rebels burn down a castle she thought was hideous, and she's like "well who could blame them."
@Simone / Barb - I assume the disgust stems from all the people Fellowes likes to kill off!
Post a Comment