All right, here we go. Quiet! Roll up! Hello, and welcome to The Big Picture Podcast, where we take a look at the latest movie news, the films of yesterday and today, and put them all into some sort of context.
Seated across the microphone from me is FilmBuffOnline editor-in-chief, Rich Drees. And seated across the microphone from me is FilmBuffOnline contributing editor, Natasha Mugatsuki. How's it going, Natasha? Wonderful.
I'm in the process of enjoying Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee. Ah, yes. Which feels right, considering the film that we're going to discuss today. Well, yes, that's true, too.
Okay, I'll stop being proper now. You guys know me. I just wanted to throw you a little bit. I was wondering who this posh woman is on my couch.
Well, yeah, I can be posh. Oy! I'm not up to do an English accent today, sorry. No, that was dreadful.
Yes, I know. I'm willing to fall on my ceremonial sword about that. You have a ceremonial sword? Oh, well, yeah, who doesn't?
Good point. Anyways, yes, Queen's Jubilee is going on. I'm just kind of sitting here thinking about, we have the TV series, The Crown, but I'm trying to think, was there any other films that really examined modern royalty? The Queen.
The Queen, yeah, okay, duh. And I can't think of anything else, even royalty outside of Britain, even. There was Diana with Naomi Watts a few years ago. And the Kristen Stewart thing from last year.
But even that still kind of feels like a historical movie a bit, because, you know, unfortunately, Princess Diana's been dead for two decades now. Well, The Queen, even though it was done in 2006, the film takes place following Princess Diana's passing. So in a weird way, also a historical piece. But The Crown is also historical, because we start before she's...
I think we don't think of it as historical, though, because many of these participants in this story are still alive. I would agree with you. And then we had also the film about Grace Kelly, which was not all that great, but definitely have to put it on the list. Nicole Kidman.
But at some point, how far back do you go before it's really considered historical? I would consider anything about the czars in Russia, like Anastasia. That story entirely is historical to me. And even like I said, The Crown, I'm at that age where I'm like, okay, people are looking at things I remember in the news as not just a news story, but as a history story now.
And I understand that's because I'm getting older. When it comes to royalty, there isn't much royalty left in the world. And those that exist are not very... they don't like to go towards the world stage.
They definitely are more focused on their own countries. And they're also kind of figureheads, because I can't think outside of maybe like some Saudi royalty and some countries in that area where the royalty is actually still in command of the country. Yeah, most of them are constitutional monarchies at this point or parliamentary monarchies. Yeah, there isn't a whole lot of them that are definitely still reigning and definitely in command of the country itself.
But the royal family of England has definitely been more center stage for as long as I can remember. I was at Boy Scout camp the week that Charles and Diana got married. So I actually had never sat down and watched that whole wedding the way so many other Americans had and so many other people around the world had. It was only like in documentaries and in news stories and stuff like that that I saw bits and pieces of it.
So, you know, and again, that was something that captured the imagination of the world. The day that Kate Middleton and Prince William got married, our school actually switched on every television to that channel. Wow. The whole school, the public school in America, watched this wedding.
Right after history class where we learned about the American Revolutionary War. But we found it interesting that it was becoming more commonplace of commoners becoming royalty. And I think that was one of the first major ones that wasn't like... Princess Diana was related to the Spencers, obviously.
She is of a royal... Yeah, you could probably find her in Burke's Peerage. Yeah, exactly. Took me a second to remember.
Yes, Burke's Peerage. I was like, I was letting you go for a moment so I could drag that out. Well, actually, the Spencer family is related to George Washington. Oh, gosh, yeah, that's right.
Yeah, so I thought that was always an interesting connection. I would say the first time... Well, no, wait. Even before Grace Kelly marrying the Prince of Monaco.
And then we had Rita Hayworth also, who had married into a royal family at one point. Yeah, but who was it? There was somebody in England who abdicated in the early part of the 20th century, abdicated so he could marry a commoner. In England?
Yeah, it was on King George? No, King... No, it wasn't King George. It was his brother, Edward.
Edward, that's it. He abdicated the throne to marry an American divorcee by the name of Wallis Simpson. Wallis Simpson. I could remember the story.
I couldn't remember the names, which I think might clue people into how my level of interest in the British royal family versus yours. I know my history. You are just much more of an Anglophile on certain things like that. I am, but I didn't even know about Edward and Wallis until I watched The King's Speech.
But then after The King's Speech, I learned a little more from reading a couple of books, and then I saw the dreadful Madonna-directed film, W.E. Oh, gosh, yeah, I remember that thing was out there. I have not seen it. You certainly didn't give me a...
I did like some of the performances in it. I liked James D'Arcy as Edward, and Andrea Risborough, I thought, was giving one of those breakout star performances in that film. And it's a shame that she never kind of got kick-started the way she should have after that. And then I learned a lot more watching The Crown, because they do a couple of episodes about that.
The Crown deals and delves into some of the darker parts of their history that sometimes they don't like to talk about. Like there was a couple of distant cousins who were not right in the head, and so they were sent off to a mental hospital and recorded dead. Yeah, there is a definite history of hiding, I'm going to say the embarrassments, but they would view them as embarrassments. And the fact that, you know, they sometimes do stuff like this.
Well, they can't get away with it so much these days. No, but the episode actually was... I thought it was very interesting, and it was about Margaret finding out about this and confronting the queen about it and saying, we have a duty to them, they're family. And trying to put things right.
Yeah, but I think it also illustrates a frission between duty to one's family, duty to a country by being a figurehead and having to embody a certain ideal. And if you have a member of your family who's... you're not sure what that was, but just for example, if they had a learning disability or something like that, a distinct possibility with the amount of inbreeding there, or close breeding, then, yeah, then you're confronted with a problem. Do we continue to present this platonic ideal of Britain and stoicism and perfection, or do we admit to this, what they would consider a flaw in their family, which I would think would be the perfect way to say, we embrace all because we are all ourselves.
And we understand that there are, you know, different types of people in our country, and we want to... I know it sounds like I'm promoting diversity and such, and I think that is actually the best way you can be an exemplar of your nation, is if you do that. And that's why when I look and see the hideous and horrible stuff that was thrown at Meghan Markle, you know, I'm like, you know, it's sad that they kind of had to distance themselves from the rest of the royal family, even because of that, because I think if, you know, the rest of the family had kind of stood up more and they took that as a moment to say... Unity.
Yeah, unity, because Britain is made up of a multitude of different types of people, and we want to reflect all of you as well. I think that would have been a greater, you know, uniting moment for the country. And who knows, you know, maybe that would have changed what happened with Brexit. I don't know.
You know, you can't kind of predict what those fallouts would ultimately be across society. I just don't think that there would be too many negatives overall. Yeah. Anyway, I think we're getting a little far away.
We are straight way the far away. However, I will say, if you guys have a chance to check out The Crown, you included, Rich. I know, I know. Seriously.
I watched Westworld first. Yes. From a historical writing standpoint, you would thoroughly enjoy this. OK.
Yeah. And John Lithgow as... I'm in. He's Winston Churchill.
I know, I know. That is one of the reasons why I do want to get around to seeing The Crown, just for John Lithgow. It's fucking brilliant performance from him. That's John Lithgow.
Of course. I'm excited. Really quickly, this will actually carry over in a moment. The new season of The Crown, they switch out their cast every couple of years in order to show a time I can't say I've ever been in that position myself because I think I'm under an NDA.
But I mean, a lot of people are saying, oh, this movie is gonna have legs because it's a dad movie. It does mean that an older demographic is coming out to the movies. Marvel movies can do great, but that's roughly an 18 to 40 year old demographic that's mainly going to Marvel movies. You know, myself may be a little bit out of the mainstream on that.
But a lot of my peers who, especially those who have kids and stuff, who maybe go to Marvel movies with their kids, but they're like, oh, here's a movie for me. Yeah, because we were all 16, 17 years old when the first one came out. I will say I didn't want it to be. It's a thousand times better than the original.
It actually is. And I wanted to see this film flop so goddamn bad. Yeah, because you hated the original. I hated the original.
I know. And I know I need to re-see it before I go. I'll probably catch up with it this week at some point. But yeah, I feel like I really do need to get to this, though.
I'm hearing a lot of good, even from some people who were skeptical about it beyond just you. It's definitely one of the better legacy sequels I've seen, which was very impressive. Which is great because Tom Cruise, you know, the only other legacy sequel he made was The Color of Money. And there he was a supporting character to Paul Newman, of course, playing, you know, the same character he played in The Hustler from the 60s.
So what other legacy sequels do you want to see from the 80s? Let me ask you that really quick. You're thinking. I mean, I was joking about this with somebody the other day and I was like, how about, you know, weirder science or Ferris Bueller calls in sick or something, you know?
My brain just blanked on every movie from the 80s. I want to see the Pork Chop Express roll back into town. More trouble, more China. There's something.
I don't know what you would call it. Big Trouble in Little China sequel. I don't know if that film would fly, to be honest. I think you could still do Big Trouble in Little China today.
I think the time for a sequel was in the 90s when Hong Kong action films were having a bit of a resurgence. And especially in the U.S. here, I think then definitely people would have been like, oh, OK, I see what Carpenter is trying to do here. And then it would probably be even a bigger hit.
I would think also now with, you know, Asians being portrayed now in the media is more than just your average run of the mill joke or supporting character, like actually having great arcs. Like last night I went and saw Everything Everywhere All at Once for the third time. Like that film is amazing. Crazy Rich Asians was fantastic.
Shang-Chi, obviously, one of the better one of the better films of phase four so far. I think now would be a great time to take Big Trouble in Little China and bring it into today's society. I'd love to see how Kurt Russell has not changed. Oh, yeah.
And you could do so much with that character as kind of stuck in the past. A bit of a buffoonish caricature of toxic masculinity, which he kind of already is. And move just beyond the main idea of he's he's a sidekick who thinks he's the hero of the story. Yeah.
And I think that would be that would be really interesting. I like that. Here's a question. Do we get James Hong back?
Sure. I mean, he spends half his time in a wheelchair yelling at people anyways. And we've already seen him do that in Everything Everywhere, as I said before. Somebody.
Oh, gosh darn it. I can't remember the actual quote. Somebody like recently, I think it was on the Dana Gould podcast, described Everything Everywhere all at once as if Terry Gilliam made a Marvel movie. And I was like, yeah, I like that.
That's fun. But I know you wanted to circle back and I apologize because you're making faces at me. Was I? I apologize.
That's okay. Yeah. The casting for The Crown. So a lot of these are going to end up crossing over with what we are about to talk about.
Okay. Obviously, Imelda Staunton. We have Jonathan Price is playing the Duke of Edinburgh. Leslie Manville is coming on to take on the role of Princess Margaret from Helena Bonham Carter.
Johnny Lee Miller is John Major, the prime minister during 1997. That's good casting. Now I hope he doesn't do like the one Johnny Lee Millerism that I kind of noticed. Is Sean Connery somewhere?
No, in between like watching him on Elementary and in the Dark Shadows movie, Tim Burton's Dark Shadows movie, which is shit. Oh, I know. He does a thing when he's nervous. He does like a finger tappy thing.
I've noticed. I noticed that like when I was watching Dark Shadows, I was like, he does that on Elementary as well. That's just an acting thing. That's like his go-to acting thing for me.
So I don't want to see him do that. Hopefully. All right. So I'm sorry to interrupt.
No, it's okay. Elizabeth Tabicki, obviously, as Princess Diana. We've already seen photos of her in the infamous revenge dress and holy shit, she looks more like Diana than Diana does. Olivia Williams is Camilla.
Okay. And I saved this one for last because our lovely Guy Dexter, Dominic West, is playing Prince Charles. Oh, that's classic casting. So we've got two or three of our Downton family joining The Crown.
So I guess the cat's out of the bag right there. If you haven't looked at the title of the episode where I'll probably mention it, we're going to be talking about the new Downton Abbey movie, The Next Era. Or The New Era. The New Era.
Excuse me. Yes, The Next Generation. That's Star Trek. A New Era.
A New Era. Okay, jeepers. Sorry, I thought it was going to be a definitive article era. It's just a generic era.
Okay. Baron Julian Fellowes would probably slap the shit out of you right now. Well, I apologize. So, yes, it's delayed a couple of times because of COVID and everything else.
What did you think about this movie and how it relates to the rest of the franchise? I'm going to start this off by saying a lot of people that I know who are big Downton Abbey fans preferred the first film. Okay. I actually prefer this one.
Pray tell why. I think it follows more of an emotional line through its film. Whereas the last film, to be honest, the only one who really has a big arc in it is Branson. This one, I feel, is a journey for a lot of the characters.
And I don't feel like anyone ever gets snubbed. Okay, I would definitely agree with you on that. And they even bring in old cast members we haven't seen since the television show. So it took six years jump between the ending of the show and the first film.
Add on the last three years since the first film came out. You're looking at almost a 10-year gap. We haven't seen some of these characters. 10 years of their life.
Yeah. We haven't seen Rosamund. We haven't seen Dr. Clarkson.
We haven't seen Mr. Mason at the farm. Murray, the lawyer. Danker.
Oh my God, I have not missed Danker, I will just say that. I have not missed her. And it was nice to see some of those characters get a little bit of a happy ending. Mr.
Mason. He deserved after everything he's gone through. A little bit of joy. And I'm glad he had Mrs.
Patmore. I'm glad Mrs. Patmore got him drunk enough to say yes. Okay, so obviously we're going to go straight into big spoilers.
Well, the film's been out over two weeks. That is true. So yeah, so as a fan, you were very happy with it. I was extremely happy with this one.
As a casual fan, I definitely enjoyed it. There are certain things about it I do like better than the first film. I think the story is, for a story that goes to Europe and takes us out of the country really for the first time with these characters, I dare say it's more compact in that we concentrate on these stories, on these characters and their emotional journeys. Like you said, because, you know, to reiterate my big problem with the first film, it's four acts.
Yeah, it's like two episodes stuck together. It's about nine episodes stuck together. But the idea that they, you know, after the king finishes visiting Downton, the king goes to another country house or whatever and everybody else packs up and follows and the cameras decide to follow them too. And we get even more story and stuff where most of what happens at Hardwick could have happened back at Downton and been more economical in terms of the story.
I would agree and disagree with you at the exact same time. The what we needed to go to Hardwick for was the story of Princess Mary. Yeah, but I'm not sure that was entirely necessary. But, you know, because it just, it just felt like this whole Hardwick section was kind of tacked on.
It was tacked on, definitely. So here, even though, you know, we have half of the cast going off to France to this house to check out and go through this whole process and, and kind of investigate the mystery. And, you know, some people are still back in England. We follow both Caravan, I think her name is, pretty much runs it.
I watched a couple of documentaries with her talking about how Downton has helped to save the estate on a number of occasions. Oh, interesting. They were saying even outside of just location fees, you respectfully turn it into, you know, a tourism destination. And they have.
You can, you know, take them through certain rooms where filming is and still preserve, you know, the dignity of the family, you know, in other spots. There were even times during, like, tours and stuff, it was very rare, it was only like once every couple of years, where they would have, like, a weekend where you could come and be from Downton. You could dress up. You could stay there.
You could have dinner. Almost like a LARP. Kind of, yeah. Now that they've even started their own gin distillery for Highclere itself in the past couple of years, so they've definitely branched out and used Downton as a jumping off point in order to do that.
But prior to that, it was still a working estate. It just was working very tight. Yeah. Yeah.
I would say, you know, if there is no further Downton Abbey product in terms of film or anything like that, they could probably still, at least partially, subsist off of residual income from people visiting it for probably about 30 years. Downton is, and I've said this before a thousand times, the house itself is a character. It would not work if it was just, you see so much in period dramas, like, oh, Mr. Darcy's home.
We drive up, hold. You see it across the lake. It's shining. It's beautiful.
But so much of it doesn't happen there. So it's just, it's the splendor in the background. Downton is a character. It's why it's always the first major character that you see.
You don't see any of the people living in it usually before you see the house itself. Exactly. And that is when the theme always hits. It's because everyone is there for the good of the house.
And the house is there for the good of those who live inside it. We are getting into spoilers. So I'm, I'm, you know where I'm headed. Yeah.
But there's a reason why I wasn't headed there. Maggie Smith's dowager countess, Violet Crawley, does not make it out of this film. She finally does pass away at the end of it. Which, it's about time, to be honest.
From a strictly horrifically pragmatic standpoint, if Maggie Smith had passed away between, you know, movies, you know, or if they let her live through this one, then she passes away before they can make another one. And then they make another one. That's a, you know, that's a, that's a hard problem to address. And I think fans would have problems with not having had that opportunity to say goodbye and have that closure with the character.
She is definitely the head of, she's the matriarch. She is the old guard. So, it also is very symbolic that she would have to pass on in order for the new era. And I, I like that they, they timed it for the end of the twenties into the thirties.
Because that was pretty much the end at that time of the old guard and kind of a new world coming up. We're, we're heading into the thirties and the start of World War II. And that's when everything really, really changed and societal boundaries started to shift. Oh, gotcha.
I mean, just by, you know, having most of your men away at war, you know, women stepping up, taking charge, running things. And then, when the guys came back, they're like, nah, we're good. We're still in charge, right? Nope.
And that, you know, started, you know, certain feelings of unrest, which ultimately came, you know, burst forth in the feminist movement of the sixties. Um, so. But the reason why I brought that up is as I was leaving the film, I looked at Darren, I go, we'll see them again. They're already talking about the third film.
And he says, can you do one without Maggie Smith? And I said, yes, you absolutely can. It's going to be hard for a lot of the viewers who are going to miss that, that banter between her and Isabel. And oftentimes she is the moral high ground.
She puts people in their place. I think a very interesting story is how do you continue? I mean, it's almost metatextual. But how do you continue when a family loses that matriarch and who fills that, that position?
And do they feel comfortable doing it? Do they feel like they're able to step into those shoes? And I think that's a great source of drama. But when I said, when I was talking to him, I said, you absolutely can because the individual Crawleys do not matter.
It's the family. As they said at the end of the first film, Mr. Carson, thank you. In a hundred years, Downton will still stand and the Crawleys will still be in it.
It's, it's just passing it off. Passing the torch. Always. Constantly.
It's not about the one person. It's about the unit. It's, it's about the home and the legacy. And I think we come back to that idea that I had when we talked about the first movie of, you know, checking in with this, this family every so many years and seeing, you know, the younger children growing up and, and things like that, you know, and Downton Abbey, the next generation, et cetera, et cetera.
Downton Abbey, Deep Space Nine, Deep Sussex Nine. Deep South of France with Sybil. Yes, Sybil's house. Okay.
Sybil's Villa. Sybil's Villa is, if, if you know your history, it's not, it's not gonna be with the family that long, unfortunately. Yeah. And that kills me.
Yeah. But I, I think, again, that's a story opportunity, maybe two movies down the line, three movies down the line. Well, you and I definitely talked about, I would love to see Downton through World War II. And um, it's because it's, you know, the house is in Yorkshire and, um, obviously during the Blitz, a lot of the children were sent into the country.
Um, I would like to see Downton become kind of a, I don't wanna say a surrogate orphanage, but imagine taking all these kids in. Um, and it was also something similar during World War I where the kind of like, Convalescent home for the soldiers. Yeah. And they would just say, look, we did this before.
We can do it again. And that continues the idea of tradition, of service. But, it could also change things. Because at that point, the two kids, the eldest of the two kids, George and Sybil, will be hitting around 20 during World War II.
Sybil might be in her villa in the South of France. George is old enough to go into service. He's going to go to war. Now, whether or not he receives a commission and stays on the home front at maybe a Whitehall or, or something remains to be seen.
But he could go, he could go to, into battle. And what would happen to Mary if she lost her son? The only last attachment she had to Matthew. Mm-hmm.
Her heir. Yeah. Again, lots of dramatic possibilities coming up. But let's look at the dramatic possibilities.
This movie. Yeah. We are, you know, like. Julian, you should be watching.
You should be listening to us taking notes. Call us. Call us. I was gonna say, this is not a pitch meeting for Downton III.
Oh, honey, I would love to pitch to, to be. Downton Abbey, the threequel. Let's start with Lord Grantham in this. He goes on quite a physical, emotional, moral journey.
He does. And that, that touched me. Basically, if you haven't seen it, okay, spoilers. You know, there's, you know, he feels his life could be dying.
And faced with that. And he knows his mother is. And he knows his mother is. That's a lot to deal with.
And, you know, I think, you know, we both have dealt with parental health issues. And um, are still ongoing. And to add, you know, one spouse into that kind of stress and that emotional uh wear and tear. You know, I very much when they're at the villa in France and.
And he has that momentary break where he just starts sobbing. Yeah. I, I was pretty much right there with him. I was like, yeah, no, bleh.
Well, what killed me about all of that is, um. All right. Really quick. Quick synopsis.
I'm gonna try to make this four sentences at the most. I'll be counting. Go. The film opens.
Violet Crawley, Maggie Smith, receives news that she has inherited a villa in the south of France from a possible former lover by the name of the Marquis de Montpleur. And the family, his remaining family, is disputing it. So they ask Robert and some of the family to come and visit them at the villa. Whereas at the home front, we need a new roof.
And so the family is approached by a film crew called British Lion about doing a film at the Abbey, at which point Lady Mary takes charge of the ship and is there to oversee the shooting of the film at Downton Abbey. Yes. Was that four? I think that was three.
Ah, even better. But one was a run on. But I'll let Left with the same darn thing they've worn for 15 years now. Yeah, oh my God.
Bless their hearts. Now, I kind of, again, there's probably a metatextual level two to, you know, a film crew filming a film crew in Highclere. One thing, though, that kind of got to me a little bit, once or twice, there's a few instances, and I didn't mark them down because I wasn't thinking, where the dialogue just felt a little too on the nose or a little close to speechifying. And I can't remember exactly where, but I remember walking out of the screening and going, hmm, I enjoyed the movie for the most part, but there was like a couple of times where I just remembered going, hmm, over some of the dialogue.
Now, I would have to go back and rewatch it, honestly. I've seen it twice, and to be honest, I can't think of what those might be. Okay, okay. Barrow, let's talk Barrow really quick.
Okay, yeah, that's, again... That was one of those things that actually hurt. It really hurt me. That the character basically is leaving the franchise, at least for now.
Because, I mean, he left before, didn't he? And came back. Or am I crossing a wire? You're thinking Branson.
Because Branson went to America with Siby. Yeah. But Barrow has gone from, like, being a complete fucking villain in the first season. He went from being the most hated character on the show to one of the most loved.
At least a very sympathetic character. And you, best villains are, have an element of sympathy about them because you understand why they're doing, or why they're acting the way they are. And I think, you know, definitely, the family is much more accepting of Barrow as a gay man than I think probably most aristocracy at the time in England would have been. Yeah, I would agree.
Which, yeah, makes the family look great, but I'm not sure, okay, if we're going entirely historically accurate, you know, for everybody to just be like, ah, it's cool. It doesn't feel right. I think there would at least have been tension, more tension in the house. Or, you know, the father, you know, like Lord Grantham would have been like, we can't have him around here.
And, you know, Mary would have been like, well... I don't think Lord Grantham knows. I think only a select few people know or have figured it out. Okay.
And that may be me assuming my audience knowledge is the same as all the character knowledge, which is a bad assumption to make during movies. Yeah, with, I would think that there are definitely a few people who know. Mrs. Hughes knows.
I think Mrs. Hughes, wasn't she the one who took him to Dr. Clarkson when he was poisoning himself accidentally with those pills to try to make himself different? Yeah.
So yeah, she would be privy. Dr. Clarkson would be privy. But then, of course, Dr.
Clarkson is pretty much privy to everything. I don't think Carson knows. Carson would flip. Yeah, you're right.
Carson would. Mary, Mary knows, but she is much more sympathetic to people than I think sometimes she gets credit for. Yeah, I think maybe Anna or Bates might have figured it out, but they don't talk about it. But, and I don't think Sybil ever knew, but...
But for the people who know. Yeah. They're all very accepting. Yes.
And I'm okay with that, because imagine if our story had taken a different turn of Lord Grantham or Mr. Carson finding out. And having them butt heads against Mary and Mrs. Hughes, their daughter and their wife.
Actually, that's a great drama piece. Hold on. No. Actually, I really enjoyed what they've done with Barrow.
And there were quite a couple of good lines that came out of this film around that situation. Preferably when he turned in his notice and Mary says, I understand. And I hope you are as happy as our cruel world will allow you to be. That is a great line.
That's a great line and it cuts too. Because, you know, it speaks to the time. It speaks to how ultimately things have become, have gotten better. And...
But not enough. But not enough. And how, I think right now at this point in time, there's a definite danger of a lot of that backsliding. And not just for straight, not just for, you know, I don't want to say straight gay people because that is not right.
But not just for gay people, but for, you know, across that whole spectrum of LGBTQ. And I think that's also kind of interesting when they start to layer in something like that in Downton Abbey. Because they don't often have the chance to. No.
America is not going to be any easier than England. In fact, it might become harder. England definitely, in terms of LGBTQ, was more accepting first. But then, of course, as weird as it is to say it, us Americans have always been behind the Britons.
They freed the slaves first. They got through LGBTQ vice squads first. Yeah, although... We consider ourselves such a great nation and yet we can't seem to figure our shit out like they have.
I know. On certain things, yeah. You know, but even, you know, looking at... Oh, crap.
I'm suddenly blanking on the guy's name. Who basically was the codebreaker during World War II. Alan Turing. Alan Turing.
Duh. Yeah. Yeah, so Alan Turing, even, you know, in the late 40s, early 50s, once, you know, he was accused and convicted of being a homosexual, ooh, you know, he took that chemical castration. Yeah.
And, you know, and you think about that happening in the 50s. It's like, that's, you know, it's less than 100 years ago. And, you know, it's certainly outside of both of our lifetime. So we look at it historically.
But there are people alive who at least probably have a vague remembrance of that. You know, in their older years now. So when you think about it, we've come so far, but we haven't come far enough, you know, from there, it seems like. And there will always be an older guard.
Yeah, there'll always be an older guard who decry what's happening with the younger generation. And again, this is something I heard recently on a podcast where, you know, a couple of comics were talking how they know some of their friends in the business are bitching and complaining about cancel culture. Oh, we can't say this. We can't say that because of cancel culture.
We can't, you know. And they were like, you know what? They sound like the old Catskill comics from when we were kids, you know, in the business just starting out who were complaining, all these kids today using all the blue language and all the profanity, they'll never get anywhere. And it's a fad.
It will fall. You know, they, you know. So once you get old enough, you always start to complain about what's happening behind you because you may have seen enough change, but there's always more change coming. And I think that is the ultimate through line of the entire Downton Abbey franchise.
I would agree with you. Okay. Hey, and about on that note. That wraps us up for this week.
Beautiful. That was absolutely beautiful. It really was. Thank you very much.
You're glowing. Ah, yeah. Hey, I wasn't sure I could pull that off, but. No, don't glow too much or you might go supernova.
Okay. Remember, you can find us online at BigPicturePod.com. And we are now available on iTunes, Stitcher, and Google Play. So either use the link in the show notes post or head directly there, search and hit subscribe.
And if you like what you're listening to, please give us a positive review because that always helps us connect with new listeners. Now, before we get out of here, we'll be back next time with a review of something new. But I do want to kind of throw out one promo. You may have heard me on the Loud Nerdy podcast with my friend, J.W.
Caldwell. Well, he's roped me into a whole another podcast called Generation Movies. It's live on Facebook through the India Escape Network. So just search Facebook or Twitter for them every Wednesday night, 10 p.m.
Eastern. Right now, we're doing a look back at the summer of 1982 and discussing in depth one film from each week that opened. So far, we've talked about Conan the Barbarian. Last week was Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.
And this week coming up, if you listen to this and I get this out right on Monday morning, this week is going to be Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan. Oh, God! That's why all the Star Trek jokes throughout our Downton Abbey review. I didn't have any Star Trek.
Well, no, I've always said the Star Trek Next Generation thing. And Downton Deep Space Nine. Yeah, I've made those jokes before, though. But it does kind of help.
Anyway, like I said, we'll be back next time with more news and a review of whatever else we're seeing. And that's all right here on The Big Picture Podcast.