Manor House
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Movie Reviews of Manor House
Movie Review: Upstairs/downstairs drama at its best
Summary: 5 Stars
At the beginning of the show, Anna Oliff-Cooper describes her life as a busy doctor. She seems like the ultimate professional woman, juggling the demands of career and family.
The Oliff-Coopers (Anna, her sister, her sons, and her stuffy husband John) enter the Manor House playing the "aristocrats" and soon enough, this loving mother and doctor becomes lazy and vain. She never sees her children and doesnt care. She and her husband spend all day planning lavish balls, meeting Important People, and worrying about clothes and fashions. Meanwhile, the servants work 18 hour days, exhausted and resentful.
This is "reality tv" at its best, and like all good reality tv, the situations feel real enough to be uncomfortable. PBS's "Fronteir House" showed a disintegration of a family and a petty but vicious frontier feud. "Manor House" has even more memorable characters, including the pompous John Oliff-Cooper, who is soon spouting silly theories about social darwinism. Sir Edgar is the stern but softhearted butler, who at first sides with his masters, but ends up identifying intensely with the downstairs servants. There's an Indian tutor who is shunned by both the downstairs servants for his snobbery and the upstairs family for, well, his being a tutor. There's even a downstairs romance between the scullery maid and the hall boy. A sympathetic Edgar knows abot the romance (which would have been strictly forbidden) but looks the other way.
In the end, upstairs and downstairs look more even than one would imagine. The Oliff-Coopers are indolent, but not really happy -- their small son soon considers the downstairs servants more like family. Anna's sister is so unhappy she leaves the house. The downstairs servants fight but also bond tightly.
Overall, this was a wonderful series.
Movie Review: Excellent, please make a sequel!
Summary: 5 Stars
Manor house is another reality TV series produced by PBS, and one of the better ones in my opinion. I liked most of the cast, in particular, Mr. Edwards and Antonia. I disliked Kenny. I found him annoying and his hairstyle anachronistic. His affair with Ellen was boring and took up valuable screen time. I thought the housekeeper Mrs. Davies was a weak character who did not assert herself or have much of a role. As housekeeper she'd have been more involved with the female staff and their discipline. The tutor character Mr. Singh was quite whiny. Instead of complaining about the `barriers' he felt, he should've focused more attention on seeing his pupil excel. A good rapport with his pupil would've ensured him a good reference and helped his social status. The third housemaid added after the departure of the second scullery maid was not featured at all. Ms. Aniston was a useless character (which was the point), but I would've liked her to do something such as shop, go to the theater or develop a hobby or two. She was bored and depressed most of the time which was boring and depressing. Perhaps another character would've been more interesting.
I would've liked to see the servants at leisure. I'd also liked to see a servants outing, perhaps to the beach in old-fashioned bathing costumes. We never got to see the servants at bedtime or doing any hobbies such as mending, darning, or anything. Overall, I'd love to see them make a sequel, perhaps covering the beginning of the 1rst world war, featuring the same cast (Minus Kenny, Singh, and Ms. Aniston). 5 Stars. Beautiful rooms (even the ones inhabited by the servants), fantastic grounds and environments.
Movie Review: SEE HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES-AND WHO PROVIDES THEIR COMFORTS
Summary: 5 Stars
With a deep interest in Social Psychology, this riviting view of English countryside life during the Edwardian period (roughly 1910-1914) highlights both the extravagances of the gentry class and the oppression of the lower (servant) class.
I'm sure that others have written more detailed or erudite reviews, but I was intrigued to see that, in the end, it was the lower servant class who developed a sense of family with each other, while the gentry class, possessing privilege and leisure, end feeling isolated from each other. The sister of Lady Oliff-Cooper has to leave the series and step outside of her role after becoming depressed and the Indian-born tutor feels resentful and alienated from everyone in the household.
The chef (who comes off as a real prima dona) serves a roasted pig head, causing (understandable by modern sensibilities) deep discomfort amongst the diners, but instead of being angry with the chef, it is the butler who is blamed because he was the one serving the head to the family. Geez, talk about killing the messenger!
Anyway, this is a wonderful show to watch on a Sunday night as you contemplate going back to work on Monday. It will give you an idea of how difficult life was for the working class blokes who came before us. Balancing physically demanding labor with the restrictions of class stratifications and their own personal needs.
Pip-pip, cheerio and all that sort of rot!
Movie Review: Absorbing experiment
Summary: 5 Stars
The formula for the PBS "House" programs guarantees interesting viewing. "Manor House" is easily the best of the bunch; it combines an impressive setting, conventions from a bygone era and unpredictable human interaction into an absorbing experiment.
Essentially, viewers can see how much life has changed since Edwardian times. People no longer have to work impossibly long hours as servants in someone else's mansion. Likewise, the prospect of living in the lap of luxury has also diminished with time. The program functions as super-condensed social history. By the end of the three month experiment, the lowest servants were chafing to get out of the house, while the privileged family were reluctant to leave. Along the way, we see how being a servant or a master affects people, and the conclusion is that Edwardian England (indeed, the whole Gilded Age) was doomed to wither anyway: the program proves it.
I appreciated the insights of the butler, Mr Edgar - an indispensable person in the show. He nails the essential truth of "Manor House" with his sensitive and quietly forceful attitudes about work and reward. Discipline and hard work are necessary for success (upsetting Socialist hallboy Kenny's worldview), but people also need to be fairly compensated for their labor. "Manor House" judges anyone's views; it simply says, you can't push things too far either way. Life demands a hardheaded balance.
Movie Review: Stripping the Romanticism
Summary: 5 Stars
Reality TV is often associated with smut and obnoxious personalities, but these negative qualities are not necessities. PBS does it right with Manor House. A group of strangers from England and brought together to embark on a project to recreate an Edwardian estate complete with the distict social classes and the luxuries the rich were afforded.
Enter the house of the Oliff-Coopers, ordinarily a family of a businessman husband, a doctor wife, and two sons. Their roles are dramatically changed when "Sir John" becomes the Lord of his dominion and his wife the Lady. They rely heavily on their servents who do backbreaking work to ensure that their masters live the lives of extreme luxury. Mister Edgar is the butler, a man whose own grandfather was in service. He executes his job well and is perhaps the most endearing man in the series. He runs the lower floors where chef Monsieur Dubiard, footmen Charlie and Rob, maids Rebecca and Jessica, hallboy Kenny, and scullery maid Ellen live in exhaustion.
Every episode is entertaining. Whether the family is preparing for an important guest, a fund raiser, or a miniature party, something is always happening at Manderston. There is a romance, several parties, and educational information all included in just six episodes. When it is over, one feels just as sad as the participants do in leaving. It is an entertaining and educational trip back in time.