Well, it's official: we're now Downtonians

[thewayne]

We caught the special where the guy who consults on all of the proper manners for Downton Abbey walked through what he does and how the series is shot, and I was quite interested. Then I listened to a couple of podcasts, one with Julian, and went and bought the first season. I watched the first episode solo and thought it was something my wife might like, last night we watched the first two eps and we'll slowly acquire and watch the rest of the series. No idea if we'll succeed in catching up with the current run, we still have 1.5 seasons of Chuck to finish up.

Comments

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I fell in love with that show before the opening credits were over. I'm made to be an Edwardian.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

The Edwardian era would be cool to live in IF you were gentried and monied, maybe even middle class. But I think it'd suck if you were lower class. Considering my skill set, I think I'd be middle/lower.

[artkouros.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I think I could be quite content as a servant in a nice house.

[moiraj.livejournal.com]

I love this show, even though some of the plotlines can be ridiculous. There's one particularly ridiculous one in the second season, but fortunately it doesn't last long. I think the overall quality and the themes they explore make the tolerating the silliness worthwhile.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I'm looking forward to the ep, which I think is second season and might be the one you're referring to, where the guest dies and they sneak out the body. That looks like fun.

[porsupah.livejournal.com]

I'm probably immune, being very much a futurist. =:) Plus, I have such a TV backlog as is - I'm only a few episodes into Orange is the New Black, f'rex, and whilst I've not seen much of Breaking Bad, the opening ep of Better Call Saul was fun. (Check out the iTunes freebies, too)

And then there's The Fades, which I bought, and have still only watched a bit under two episodes of. (Such a pity it never got extended beyond the first series. But then, the BBC's a bit weird when it comes to SF/fantasy, beyond Doctor Who)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I'm sitting here thinking about the question "Am I a futurist?", and I can't think of a straight answer. Right now, in 2015, I'd say no: the space aliens should come and wipe us out. Based on the last 15+ years of politics, I don't see how we can rise above our base nature, especially considering the produced by, and trying to accept, Islam recently.

I remember back in probably the late '80s I was working a fairly major science fiction convention convention in Phoenix, probably a NASFic, running the film room. I was in the far corner of the dealer's room and had to get to the opposite corner and in to the film room for a shift change and was speed walking along the long sides of the square. One of the exhibitors was a cryogenic preservation outfit in Scottsdale, I think the one that has Ted William's head in a vat. I'm walking by and the guy calls out "Do you want to live forever?" I paused and said "No." and kept on walking.

Even though I'm a technologist professionally, I think I'm more of a romantic when it comes to what eras I'd prefer. And I read science fiction regularly. I think, for me, I feel a tremendous pull from Alexandre Dumas and the Age of Sail, etc.

But I also have to look at who I am now versus the era where I'd like to be. I was born with a heart problem, and six years ago we learned that I have a genetic immunity problem. If the actual "me" were born 100 years earlier, I might not have survived childhood, and if my immune disorder manifested early, I would have been dead of pneumonia very soon.

Everything is idealized. I prefer Star Trek over Star Wars because of the evolution of humanity and its transcendence of 20th century problems. I like Firefly for the non-antiseptic quality while human nature is essentially unchanged. And I'd be totally screwed in Gattaca. ;-)