Every Sunday night at 9 o’clock, an ever-growing group of girls trek to Whitley Residence to watch the most-recent episode of TV’s latest phenomenon, “Downton Abbey.”
Many Hillsdale girls have a particular affinity for the show, but the British Masterpiece drama is popular across the country. On Jan. 27, Downton Abbey won Best Ensemble in a Drama Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, adding to a handful of awards and multiple nominations received since the show first aired in 2010.
Downton Abbey is now in its third season, and the weekly suspense and endearing characters continue to draw out fans. Lord Grantham and his crew of girls — three spirited daughters, an American wife, and peppery mother — perpetually face new problems that threaten the economy and morale of the Downton estate.
Fans remained loyal to the show this past weekend, even though the Super Bowl aired at the same time. Junior Grace Marie Lambert, who watches the show with a group that gathers in the Whitley lobby, said that there was no question which telecast they would choose.
“[The Whitley group] watched the Super Bowl up until the last minute and one of the girls there was receiving texts about the Super Bowl while we were watching Downton Abbey. But there was no question that we would watch Downton [Abbey] instead,” Lambert said.
The group was reeling from a dismal plot twist in last week’s episode that made the girls in Whitley threaten to wear black out of mourning. Some have watched season three online as the show has been released in Britain, and they said that episode was the most disheartening, yet and to come.
It brought the group to tears, although a box full of Kleenex soon solved the sniffles, allowing the amalgam of Benzing Residence, Waterman Residence, sorority houses, and off-campus women to continue to watch the small TV intently in Whitley’s lobby. Lambert said that this week’s episode helped resolve the loose ends.
“At the end of last week’s episode, we all thought Downton would never be able to recover, but they did a pretty good job this week resolving it,” Lambert said. “It made me feel like they will be able to bring it to a pretty good conclusion.”
This group formed last year when senior Jen Franklund, an RA in Whitley, invited friends to come over and watch the show with her while she sat desk in the lobby. Whitley House Director Judith Schellhammer joined the group as well. It has grown ever since, crowding the sectional and floor space in the lobby.
“Its like a train station from ten-till nine until ten-after ten,” Franklund said.
The group sometimes breaks out into cries of disapproval, or conversations about the plot — always greeted by a firm “Shhh” — and often someone brings a snack for the group to munch on throughout the show. Last week, Schellhammer brought “tough chick” pink nail polish so they could paint their nails in honor of her friend with cancer.
Most love it, despite criticism that the show is little more than a British soap opera. All claim that, once you watch an episode, you will be hooked.
“No one who has watched it doesn’t like it, but there are some people who just haven’t gotten into it yet,” senior Waterman resident Jill Buccola said.
Buccola’s sister Haley also comes, and says that she loves it for the historical perspective.
“The one thing I do love about it is that it brings in the historical events — they come in and out — but the characters stay the same, so you know these characters through the Titanic and World War I,” junior Haley Buccola said. “It’s really cool that it is identified with history, but does not have to be historically correct, yet you do see those characters through that.”
Senior Maggie Danaher, who lives in an off-campus house and started watching the show the fall of her junior year, loves it for the discussions it allows.
“I love how it sparks really great discussion. You wouldn’t expect that from a ‘soap opera,’ as people are calling it. The show asks a lot of great questions, especially questions about truth, tradition, and forgiveness,” Danaher said. “I’ve heard professors say that one mark of a great book is that there are some passages that can be interpreted several different ways. While I wouldn’t say Julian Fellowes is the next Shakespeare, he does have a knack for sparking some real debate between college girls every Sunday night as they analyze characters’ actions and motives in a particular scene. It’s fantastic.”
The buzzing of the room after the preview of next week’s episode proves that is the case in Whitley: the anticipation kills.
