anitakwall

Why are so many female lead characters depicted as highly competent in their field yet so woefully inept in their social relationships? I got tired of yelling at the screen, at her stupid actions and reactions.

I really wish filmmakers weren't so lazy in their storytelling. Many of the challenges faced by so many accomplished females are represented here, especially by females in a mostly male-oriented corporate culture. The filmmaker had opportunities to show a female who recognizes these baiting traps - denigrations based strictly on her sex - so why not show some advancement in the female's abilities to deal more self-assuredly and aggressively with these transgressions?

I'm a renewed fan of Samuel L Jackson because of his portrayal of multiple personas, especially of an elderly person with dementia who harbors several generations of poignant memories. It's authentic and the relationships he has with the other main characters is wonderful to watch. Such a mature portrayal of a man who faces challenges in thoughtful, unpredictable ways. Each episode has me intrigued.

Not much creativity because the same upstairs/downstairs dynamic has been overdone in many other period pieces; the characters are very familiar as are the dramatic scenarios - any Downton Abbey fan or similar ilk will recognize these. Cynthia Nixon's accent and all the Black character's accents are overly dramatized and all are annoying to the ear. Cynthia's character (Ada?) in general seems quite out of place and too much of a milquetoast to be believable; makes me cringe whenever she occupies the scene.

I do enjoy scenes with Mrs Russell and find her voice rather different and pleasant to listen to. But beyond the beautiful costumes the writers did not do much more than adapt well-known antics of the robber barons and their wives from days gone by.