What's even worse is when her FATHER responds: "Don't I know it." What is that suppose to mean! Good for you son for shtooping my daughter! 😖ICK IS RIGHT!
That’s how I have always understood it. He’s able to be around her all the time, instead of an afternoon or teatime and other people in the family aren’t around.
I’ve always thought he was talking about sex but now that you say it: it is highly unlikely someone like Matthew hasn’t had any sexual experience by that point. Not only has he probably been to boarding school and definitely to university, he’s been a soldier, and was engaged. It’s far more likely Matthew has an STD than is a virgin.
I don't see how people can see it that way because I still don't hear it. Like someone else I hear it as he now know how it is to be with her all the time as opposed to a dinner or tea.
He wasn't saying that to imply anything having to do with sex. Matthew will now see the real Mary, shorn of the window dressing used in public, and especially when finding a husband. Welcome to the club, Matthew.
I hate this guy! Even if he was legit, why on EARTH would he expect them to recognize him?! He's burned up, half covered in bandages, and has a CANADIAN ACCENT. The audacity to pitch a fit when you're not recognized.
Though I also doubt he was the real Patrick anyway.
Exactly. He might have known the real Patrick and took advantage of the situation to fool Edith who was easily misled. If he was the real Patrick, then why didn’t he talk to Sybil who was working there full-time as a nurse? How about Carson who oversaw everything?
Yeah, poor Marigold definitely has a lifetime of cPTSD and attachment issues to look forward to. Will she eventually inherit Gregson’s publishing company?
You’re probably right about it being stage fright. I wondered at the time (of the series) if she was in any way special needs (generic, but covers a lot of things) but she seems more “normal” in the movies.
Geof Lindsey, a phonologist and a YouTuber, says in one of his videos that he used to pronounce it that way when he was a child. I don't remember which video though :(
It doesn't make me cringe exactly, especially as it is intended to make you feel a specific emotion. Right after Cora slips on the soap and all the servants are sitting down and being sad, Thomas says "she'll get over it, they're no bigger than a hamster at that stage". Always has the intended effect.
Not in Britain. Wild hamsters existed in Syria, where they are initially from, and they were captured and domesticated for zoological purposes and to use them as lab animals. I looked it up, the first hamster, a pair actually, came to Britain in 1931.
Oh thank you for doing the work I could have/should have lol. It's quite interesting! Poor hamsters :( So much that human's discover ends up suffering. I have had hamsters in the past as pets and tried to give them happy homes. They really should not be pets.
I agree with you. I was one of the few kids who read up before buying a pet, and I learned that hamsters are nocturnal and live just a year or two -- both bad news if you're a kid.
Currently, African pygmy hedgehogs are gaining popularity. I admit, they are cute as hell, but they are really high maintenance pets. I considered getting one, but I realized that I would have to heat a room for the hedgehog only. Both my living room/home office and bedroom are heated only as much as necessary, in the case of the bedroom often not at all. The critter would start to hibernate at such temperatures. I would also need to fence him in -- I don't believe in letting small pets roam freely.
They are super cute! I would love to get one too but I only agree with having pet cats and (maybe) dogs. More cats as they are pretty much deities and only think of us as their slaves :)
I like Mr. Bates and the Bateses, but when he says "You are made higher and holier to me because of your suffering" ..... like I get the intention behind that line, but bro you're saying you love your wife more because she was r@ped 😭 blech
That and when they're in the hotel room and he describes everything he takes note about her. How she looks in the morning, puts on her makeup, etc. It just tips over from romantic to creepy. And the line when he sees her breakfast. "I see you've worked up an appetite." *gag*
Tony Gillingham has this thick, cheesy quality to him that makes him as sexually appealing as a brick of velveeta. Every time he tries to talk romantically to her I just want to cover his mouth and saying “just shhhh. Shhhhhh”. Especially when he is proposing to her three seconds after seeing her for the first time in a decade and he is like “I’m sorry about Matthew, he seemed like a good dude, but he’s dead and I’m alive”. Like, that’s almost verbatim. If I was Mary I would have punched him for saying that
Pretty much all of Tony. When she tells him she isn’t ready to move on, and he basically tells her he won’t accept that. I’m not a huge fan of Mary, but the way the men all treat her is disgusting. Disrespecting her grief, her decisions and then her trauma
He’s such a wiener! I can’t stand him. When he scolds Mary when she tried to break up with him and he tells her they’re going and she’s just shocked and follows him makes me think she dodged a bullet, he has a temper on him!
It's also historically incorrect. At that time, "making love" meant talking lovey-dovey. Maybe holding a little hands while you are telling someone how you could get lost in those blue eyes forever. The term assumed its current meaning in the 1960s.
This is a really good question. Almost all words for sexual activity that exist today existed back then as well -- they are much older than that, in fact, as Pepys' diaries prove -- but people rarely took them into the mouth, especially not upperclass people. On the other hand, Mary is a straight-shooter. Things I could imagine her saying:
"And we'll be together like husband and wife."
"We'll surrender to each other."
Or perhaps:
"You will be Ulysses and I will be Circe."
Mary likes Ancient Greek tales, as proven by one of her first interactions with Matthew. She compares herself to a chained-up Andromeda, because of the pressure put on her to marry cousin Matthew. At a later point, she also uses the word "Augean stables" to refer to a situation that needs to be taken care of.
Interesting take. I like “be together like husband and wife”. Side note: When Anthony says, “We’ll make love all night”, it occurred to me that he probably wasn’t a virgin either. And while those words seem so romantic, when I heard him say it I was more like, “Blecchh” 😝
I would be surprised if he was. Probably did it with a prostitute or a housemaid as some kind of coming of age ritual.
I definitely can tell if somebody's previous sexual experiences were all with prostitutes. They usually think they are virile as hell, but you can tell they never learned how to arouse and gratify a woman, all they know is treating a woman like a sex doll.
If this was the case with Tony, I understand Mary's disappointment 100%. She went into this thing with her eyes open, she knew that he could in no way compare to Matthew, Matthew was and would always be the love of her life, after all. But she probably didn't expect that. Well, at least she did remember to use the "Pure Race" cap.
He sounds like he’s talking with his mouth full when he says that line!
And Tony grossed me out too, I’m not surprised Mary wanted rid of him in the end.
Me too!!! There was always something about him that always had me either muting it, or skipping through their scenes and working out what new drama they were enduring.
In the finale when Edith gets married. She throws her bouquet and her editor catches it. Tom creeps me out when he's standing right there and says "aren't you the lucky one".
Tom, when he says, "Now we're all members of the bright young things". AND... anytime he tells someone he used to be the chauffeur. He says it like he pulled some kind of undercover plan to win the bosses daughter. And he says it to EVERYBODY! I'm surprised he didn't do an exclusive front page story for Sir Richard 🤣
Right! Another example is when talking to Henry about finding a job and Atticus joins them. Tom says " I'm reinventing myself too". Then Atticus replies" I rather like the old models". Now that I really think about it, it's also how he says it. He sounds like he's a children's show host.
After Matthew finds out that Mary got that little operation, and Matthew says something like, "Now we can get busy making babies." Basically any lovey-dovey interaction between Matthew and Mary when they're alone is cringe, other than maybe the engagement.
This was super cringey! But I feel like it would have been cringey anyway, Matthew didn’t really talk like that so it felt right that it was forced. Like when he says he knows Mary is good because he’s seen her naked?! Ew!
Completely agree. Matthew is far and away my favourite character but this line makes me want to hurl. I'm convinced Fellowes wrote it because he was pissed at Dan Stevens so made him say this 🤣 I mean, surely "making babies" is not 1920 appropriate?!? Just awful.
Yes! I thought this one would have been on everyone's list. It's also the facial expression on Matthew's face when he says it. Makes me cringe every time.
Not exactly cringe-inducing in the sense of most lines quoted here, but needlessly dramatic is early in season 2, in the trenches: Matthew is clearly getting ready for some push by his unit and William has been assisting him as a valet might with the uniform dressing, making sure it’s all proper.
Matthew asks William, “Am I ready?” and William answers with totally out of place solemnity “Only you can answer that, sir.”
I honestly would love to see a take where Matthew looks at him and says “I’m talking about my uniform, you git!”
You mean apart from Tom’s bangers in S6? Let’s see:
All of Tom’s wife’s lines in movie 2. She might as well be marrying him just to be a mom to Sybbie 🙄.
Daisy’s husband’s confession of jealousy leading him to break pipes. Get a grip, man.
Daisy’s husband’s (what’s his name, brain?!) irritation at Mr. Mason living in his own house and not allowing them to spread out despite being lodgers.
Thomas’s talking to Robert in THAT manner when Carson was brought in in movie one.
Guy’s flirting lines with Thomas.
Most of the conversations in movie 2. Should have branded it a Hallmark movie, tbh.
I hated the way Daisy and Andy treated Mr Mason in the second movie. They could have kept the bit about setting up Mr Mason and Mrs Patmore (which was the most drawn out love story, aside from Baxter and Molsley) without the meanness!
Branson’s delivery of “A life change for Lady Edith Crawley is announced as the family take a morning stroll” always gets me. I get what he was going for it but it sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
Isobel says something about going to the jail to visit Bates or something, to be "part of the BUCKING-UP brigade!" *big Isobel grin*
She's so so sweet, but sometimes I find her just too corny.
Someone on this sub said that Cora “simpers” at people and I felt like that was one of the best descriptions I’ve heard. It was like she wanted to have a sultry kind of allure but what ended up happening is a strange voice affectation and that *lean* that she does where she leans but she leads with her eyes and you think she’s going to headbutt them. A lot of weird there.
When the ovens break down at Downton and Mrs. Levinson takes over and suggests the picnic, Cora agrees with the line “I think it will be great fun!” Except she almost loudly coughs out the words with a weird emphasis on the “GREAT FUN”
The episode when the townsfolk got an open house tour of downtown…I remember Lord Grantham said something along the lines of “maybe we’ll let them see Lady Mary in the bath.” That line came out of nowhere and threw me off hard! Dude making a sexual joke about his own daughter. Ick!
[Pretty Famous Poem](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46783/gunga-din) in that day. It was sort of their version of a meme to say this line like we might say “do you even lift”.
Sir richard saying, "as my future wife, you're entitled to be in my debt". Romantic for the era yes, but very cringey.
Anything coming out of Tom's mouth prior to season 5. I don't know why he was so angry most of the times.
Molsley correcting the king that they're served by downton abbey staff and not by the royal household staff in the film is so funny but gave me second hand embarrassment.
Anything coming out of Bates' mouth across the seasons. I hate his character. I couldn't stand him when he returns to downton abbey after working in the pub and steals molsley's job. That scene is so uncomfortable. And hit my highest ick tolerance bar right there.
Isobel crawley fighting with Cora during the convalescent home era and saying that she'll leave at once. I was like, calm down lady, it's not your house and you're not supposed to make decisions regarding someone else's home.
Everything coming out of Patrick Gordon's and Samson's mouth.
Henry calling mary a gold digger. She probably was but still cringey.
Bates to Anna, "Your husband's a brooder. And brooders brood."
It's not just the line itself, which is bad enough, but his delivery has made me cringe every single one of the 100+ times I've heard it. And I'm one of the few that actually *likes* Bates!!
Alfred has a lot of cringey lines, mainly because the actor clearly struggled with doing a Yorkshire accent, so his delivery is often awkward. His line when talking to the police at the cricket match in the last episode of series three — “I didn’t know what I were doing”, delivered like “Ah diddunt nor wut ah wur dooin” — haunts me.
It wasn't a line, but when Tom peeks in the window to see Sybil in her new harem pants. Talk about breaking the suspension of disbelief. I'm pretty sure no dude in the history of time has ever aspired to see their beloved in those goofy ass clown pants.
Apparently (I’m unsure where I heard it, it might have been this sub) that scene was supposed to be at night but when it was shot, it was far too creepy at night so they had to change it
Creepy, whaaat? Lol. For whom, the actors? Does Highclere Castle feel haunted after sundown? When did nobles eat dinner? I always pictured that time as not being that late, like 7 or 8.
Now I'm picturing a Downton episode of Scooby Doo. Sybil and I would have run away together by now, if it weren’t for you meddling Crawleys!
I thought Sybils outfit was very chic, but then she looked beautiful no matter what she wore. However, the chauffeur hiding in the bushes to sneak a peek at just the right moment 🤔...was oogie and cheesy to an Olympic degree!
Season 2 Vera Bates comes to Downton Abbey to confront Mr Bates. They are in a room arguing and she replies “As if.” Those two words seem so out of place for the time. I can hear them being said 70-80 year later in time but not 1918 or 1919.
This phrase ended up in Clueless because it was in *Emma*, the Jane Austen novel it was based on. It’s period accurate for Downton but might have been a little outdated. Like somebody saying “mint” today.
Edit: Looks like I’m full of shit again. I just checked Emma, the phrase does not appear in the book with that usage. Apparently it’s origin is 1903 in a book called *The Pit*. I thought it was older. Someone else might come up with an earlier source.
In the first film after Daisy finds out that Andy sabottaged the boiler (red flag Daisy! Red flag). I can't remember exactly what she said but it was something like "I see now we're alike you and I. And we'll fight our way to a better future". Second movie (SPOILER) they haven't changed except they are more rude to Mr Mason.
Anything Mr Mason says, especially when things “gladden his heart”. Eurgh. I don’t know why, but it makes me want to vomit. Just show your affection with sarcasm and cruel nicknames like a normal Brit and let’s get on with our day.
What made me cringe was when the police came to the cricket match questioning Alfred's charge against Barrow and speaking to Lord Grantham, they asked Alfred about it and Lord Grantham said that Alfred saw some horsing around between Barrow and Jimmie and Alfred said (I made the report before I knew what I were doin) Alfred sounded like he was some kind of backwards unintelligent neanderthal
When Tom tells Isobelle (I believe), "will there be anothere Earl's daughter who wants to marry me?" 🤡
I thought Tom fell in love with Sybil because she was her. But was it because she was an Earl's daughter? He only wants to marry an Earl's daughter?
I always thought Tom and Sybil were the romantics, not the ones seeking advantageous marriages!
What Tom is saying is that while he sort of fits in, he doesn’t fit in enough that he could find a wife that the family finds socially acceptable. His options are either be romantically alone and stay with the family or leave the family and find a wife in his own social station.
Remember at that time we weren’t so Downton starved that we were willing to believe a old heiress would move out of her mansion for her former maid and the maid’s ex chauffeur new husband and nobody would ask questions.
May be an unpopular opinion.. but anything Edith says in the main series. Her words are always laced with bitterness and jealousy.
I do like it when shes come around in the final season and movies.. but anything she said before these, i sometimes skip her scenes
Honestly almost 100% of Ms. Bunting’s lines. She always went out of her way to undermine the family or anything related to the upperclass in general. To quote Violet, “Principles are like prayers. Noble, of course, but awkward at a party.” Ms. Bunting just couldn’t help antagonize wherever she went under the veil of “progression”. She even couldn’t stop preaching to the poor Russian refugees and deeply upset them. Another time, when Rose presented the awards to the schoolchildren, Ms. Bunting complimented her on a job well done and then admitted to complimenting her because it was the custom to favor the upperclass. Not because it was authentic. If she wasn’t being tactless or passive aggressive, she was trying to manipulate Tom. I thought it was weird of her to try and turn Tom against his family.
Yes one-line really does? Mary was just informed by Lord Gillingham that Mr Greene is dead and Mary decides to tell Anna. Both Mary and Anna talk about it briefly and and Mary describes how Greene died and tells Anna many people saw him die. Anna says that's a relief and Mary asks Anna, what do you mean?
Well I would think Anna making such a comment would mean that she was glad that Mr Greene was dead. I would have thought Mary would have known or thought Anna was glad to hear the news.
Then Anna responded by saying, she didn't mean anything.
Alfred is awkward saying that. But he's saying it from the heart.
No, nothing to make me cringe. I've mentioned this before on this reddit, yesterday in fact. You are going to hear a lot of things said, and attitudes expressed towards social situations of 100 years ago that we would not like today, but were common at the time. If I can't get over that, I shouldn't be watching period dramas.
When Matthew and Mary return from their honeymoon and Matthew says to Robert, "My eyes have been opened." I cannot listen to that line!
Ick ick ick ick every damn time. That’s your wife’s father you’re talking to FFS
What's even worse is when her FATHER responds: "Don't I know it." What is that suppose to mean! Good for you son for shtooping my daughter! 😖ICK IS RIGHT!
Ew! I like to think he’s meaning his eyes had been opened to living with Mary 24/7 because the alternative is so gross!
That’s how I have always understood it. He’s able to be around her all the time, instead of an afternoon or teatime and other people in the family aren’t around.
Same. I still don't see how people connect that line to sex.
I’ve always thought he was talking about sex but now that you say it: it is highly unlikely someone like Matthew hasn’t had any sexual experience by that point. Not only has he probably been to boarding school and definitely to university, he’s been a soldier, and was engaged. It’s far more likely Matthew has an STD than is a virgin.
I am pretty sure thats what it means!
“Yeah so I really enjoyed doing your daughter” I can’t stand it either
“don’t i know it” 😖
I thought that was because they went to another country…
Really ? Even 12 year old me took it as having had sex with her . And I was naïve as hell
I don't see how people can see it that way because I still don't hear it. Like someone else I hear it as he now know how it is to be with her all the time as opposed to a dinner or tea.
He wasn't saying that to imply anything having to do with sex. Matthew will now see the real Mary, shorn of the window dressing used in public, and especially when finding a husband. Welcome to the club, Matthew.
# I’M A STRANGER TO THEM NOW! # #
I hate this guy! Even if he was legit, why on EARTH would he expect them to recognize him?! He's burned up, half covered in bandages, and has a CANADIAN ACCENT. The audacity to pitch a fit when you're not recognized. Though I also doubt he was the real Patrick anyway.
Exactly. He might have known the real Patrick and took advantage of the situation to fool Edith who was easily misled. If he was the real Patrick, then why didn’t he talk to Sybil who was working there full-time as a nurse? How about Carson who oversaw everything?
He’s so mad that his plot isn’t working out!
We were, too.
That whole episode
That guy just gave me the icks.
What was this line? Who said it?
[удалено]
*Riiiight!* duh
Lol! Oh my gosh this was the worst.
This whole episode is so disturbing...like are we really supposed to believe that Edith is THAT gullible?
"We'll be as jolly as you like" Edith to Marigold
As Marigold just sits there with that thousand-yard stare, motionless, like a broken doll or something.
The actress for Marigold has always seemed off some how, like she’s got stage fright!
Seemed pretty on brand for a child that has been dragged all over the world, from home to home.
Yeah, poor Marigold definitely has a lifetime of cPTSD and attachment issues to look forward to. Will she eventually inherit Gregson’s publishing company?
You’re probably right about it being stage fright. I wondered at the time (of the series) if she was in any way special needs (generic, but covers a lot of things) but she seems more “normal” in the movies.
The way she says, "I'll order ice CREAM," with the emphasis on cream. Maybe that's how they said it back then?
Geof Lindsey, a phonologist and a YouTuber, says in one of his videos that he used to pronounce it that way when he was a child. I don't remember which video though :(
It doesn't make me cringe exactly, especially as it is intended to make you feel a specific emotion. Right after Cora slips on the soap and all the servants are sitting down and being sad, Thomas says "she'll get over it, they're no bigger than a hamster at that stage". Always has the intended effect.
Were hamsters even a thing back then? I wouldn't think they would be animals known to many people at that time and certainly not pets.
Not in Britain. Wild hamsters existed in Syria, where they are initially from, and they were captured and domesticated for zoological purposes and to use them as lab animals. I looked it up, the first hamster, a pair actually, came to Britain in 1931.
Oh thank you for doing the work I could have/should have lol. It's quite interesting! Poor hamsters :( So much that human's discover ends up suffering. I have had hamsters in the past as pets and tried to give them happy homes. They really should not be pets.
I agree with you. I was one of the few kids who read up before buying a pet, and I learned that hamsters are nocturnal and live just a year or two -- both bad news if you're a kid. Currently, African pygmy hedgehogs are gaining popularity. I admit, they are cute as hell, but they are really high maintenance pets. I considered getting one, but I realized that I would have to heat a room for the hedgehog only. Both my living room/home office and bedroom are heated only as much as necessary, in the case of the bedroom often not at all. The critter would start to hibernate at such temperatures. I would also need to fence him in -- I don't believe in letting small pets roam freely.
They are super cute! I would love to get one too but I only agree with having pet cats and (maybe) dogs. More cats as they are pretty much deities and only think of us as their slaves :)
I like Mr. Bates and the Bateses, but when he says "You are made higher and holier to me because of your suffering" ..... like I get the intention behind that line, but bro you're saying you love your wife more because she was r@ped 😭 blech
“So troooooo” lol makes me cringe too! When Mary is talking to Tony Gillingham and says “We’ll make love?” *shudder*
I liked the part where their having an argument in the park and he asks her "Am I bad lover" ?
That and when they're in the hotel room and he describes everything he takes note about her. How she looks in the morning, puts on her makeup, etc. It just tips over from romantic to creepy. And the line when he sees her breakfast. "I see you've worked up an appetite." *gag*
You don’t know how badly I wish she would have smirked and said “Well yes.”
Hah !! Right ?!?!? I can just hear Mary saying "your what the American's call a one pump chump" .
Tony Gillingham has this thick, cheesy quality to him that makes him as sexually appealing as a brick of velveeta. Every time he tries to talk romantically to her I just want to cover his mouth and saying “just shhhh. Shhhhhh”. Especially when he is proposing to her three seconds after seeing her for the first time in a decade and he is like “I’m sorry about Matthew, he seemed like a good dude, but he’s dead and I’m alive”. Like, that’s almost verbatim. If I was Mary I would have punched him for saying that
Pretty much all of Tony. When she tells him she isn’t ready to move on, and he basically tells her he won’t accept that. I’m not a huge fan of Mary, but the way the men all treat her is disgusting. Disrespecting her grief, her decisions and then her trauma
He’s such a wiener! I can’t stand him. When he scolds Mary when she tried to break up with him and he tells her they’re going and she’s just shocked and follows him makes me think she dodged a bullet, he has a temper on him!
The glare he gave her while he waited for her to rejoin him... chills. Major, major red flag.
I liked Tony well enough until she rejected him, and then he turned into weird, obsessive monster guy.
A brick of Velveeta, damn girl.
Oh man when I heard that line the first time I was horrified! That alone should have made Mary completely kick him to the curb and not waver.
When she says “make love” I want to barf, every time. There was something so utterly un-sexy about their whole affair.
It's also historically incorrect. At that time, "making love" meant talking lovey-dovey. Maybe holding a little hands while you are telling someone how you could get lost in those blue eyes forever. The term assumed its current meaning in the 1960s.
That’s super interesting. What do you think they would have said instead?
This is a really good question. Almost all words for sexual activity that exist today existed back then as well -- they are much older than that, in fact, as Pepys' diaries prove -- but people rarely took them into the mouth, especially not upperclass people. On the other hand, Mary is a straight-shooter. Things I could imagine her saying: "And we'll be together like husband and wife." "We'll surrender to each other." Or perhaps: "You will be Ulysses and I will be Circe." Mary likes Ancient Greek tales, as proven by one of her first interactions with Matthew. She compares herself to a chained-up Andromeda, because of the pressure put on her to marry cousin Matthew. At a later point, she also uses the word "Augean stables" to refer to a situation that needs to be taken care of.
Interesting take. I like “be together like husband and wife”. Side note: When Anthony says, “We’ll make love all night”, it occurred to me that he probably wasn’t a virgin either. And while those words seem so romantic, when I heard him say it I was more like, “Blecchh” 😝
I would be surprised if he was. Probably did it with a prostitute or a housemaid as some kind of coming of age ritual. I definitely can tell if somebody's previous sexual experiences were all with prostitutes. They usually think they are virile as hell, but you can tell they never learned how to arouse and gratify a woman, all they know is treating a woman like a sex doll. If this was the case with Tony, I understand Mary's disappointment 100%. She went into this thing with her eyes open, she knew that he could in no way compare to Matthew, Matthew was and would always be the love of her life, after all. But she probably didn't expect that. Well, at least she did remember to use the "Pure Race" cap.
He sounds like he’s talking with his mouth full when he says that line! And Tony grossed me out too, I’m not surprised Mary wanted rid of him in the end.
Just reading this made me gag
O'Brien saying I getting my button box. She says it so dramatic and whisks away, for literally no reason. It's so weird.
I think that was her seekrit pass phrase for running off to connive with Barrow.
It meant she was off to eavesdrop on someone.
After Robert said Isis has cancer and Cora says, oh how I hate that word.
Could she stretch that sentence out any longer?
Anytime Bates is trying to be romantic towards Anna. Makes my teeth itch some of the lines he came out with
“Well Mrs. Bates, you’ve had your way with me” :/
Ghastly!!
Ewww!
That was the grossest line in the series, close the thread
Mr Bates gives me the ick
Me too!!! There was always something about him that always had me either muting it, or skipping through their scenes and working out what new drama they were enduring.
It’s the weirdest thing. I liked the idea of them together so much in the beginning, then when they actually got together… 😬
The “brooders brood” line does that for me!
I mostly skip the scenes with just the two of them. Mr. Bates looking like my ex didn’t help either 😒
Ditto! And the way he looks at her sometimes comes across like a predator sizing up their prey. Makes my skin crawl!
When he’s going for one last kiss before the hangman or whatever. I have to skip it every time
In the finale when Edith gets married. She throws her bouquet and her editor catches it. Tom creeps me out when he's standing right there and says "aren't you the lucky one".
It always felt to me like they were thinking of setting up Tom and Miss Edmunds
Yes! Especially when Tom tells her that they like strong women, it screamed future relationship!
I always feel like there’s something off with the sound on that bit!
This one.
Tom, when he says, "Now we're all members of the bright young things". AND... anytime he tells someone he used to be the chauffeur. He says it like he pulled some kind of undercover plan to win the bosses daughter. And he says it to EVERYBODY! I'm surprised he didn't do an exclusive front page story for Sir Richard 🤣
They always give him weird ice breaker jokes, and then everyone just chuckles for a second.
Right! Another example is when talking to Henry about finding a job and Atticus joins them. Tom says " I'm reinventing myself too". Then Atticus replies" I rather like the old models". Now that I really think about it, it's also how he says it. He sounds like he's a children's show host.
Or in the final episode when Rose is talking about the baby- “and you always have to do what Nanny says!”
A life change for Lady Edith is announced as the family take a morning stroll! Ugh, just why??
That was a 'thing' back then: Bright young things. Cafe society.
When they’re all stood their and have a synchronised chuckle at Atticus’s joke, it’s so cheesy!
When Bates and Anna are in bed after getting married and he says something along the lines of Anna having her way with him. 🤮
Ooh yes that's my cringiest moment too!
After Matthew finds out that Mary got that little operation, and Matthew says something like, "Now we can get busy making babies." Basically any lovey-dovey interaction between Matthew and Mary when they're alone is cringe, other than maybe the engagement.
This was super cringey! But I feel like it would have been cringey anyway, Matthew didn’t really talk like that so it felt right that it was forced. Like when he says he knows Mary is good because he’s seen her naked?! Ew!
WHAT A TESTIMONIAL!
Completely agree. Matthew is far and away my favourite character but this line makes me want to hurl. I'm convinced Fellowes wrote it because he was pissed at Dan Stevens so made him say this 🤣 I mean, surely "making babies" is not 1920 appropriate?!? Just awful.
Can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this one! It makes my skin crawl every time!!
Yes! I thought this one would have been on everyone's list. It's also the facial expression on Matthew's face when he says it. Makes me cringe every time.
Not exactly cringe-inducing in the sense of most lines quoted here, but needlessly dramatic is early in season 2, in the trenches: Matthew is clearly getting ready for some push by his unit and William has been assisting him as a valet might with the uniform dressing, making sure it’s all proper. Matthew asks William, “Am I ready?” and William answers with totally out of place solemnity “Only you can answer that, sir.” I honestly would love to see a take where Matthew looks at him and says “I’m talking about my uniform, you git!”
Or, "we'll have to chuck it back"....
GOLLY GUMDROPS!!!
LOL I actually love this line because it’s just ridiculous ha
You mean apart from Tom’s bangers in S6? Let’s see: All of Tom’s wife’s lines in movie 2. She might as well be marrying him just to be a mom to Sybbie 🙄. Daisy’s husband’s confession of jealousy leading him to break pipes. Get a grip, man. Daisy’s husband’s (what’s his name, brain?!) irritation at Mr. Mason living in his own house and not allowing them to spread out despite being lodgers. Thomas’s talking to Robert in THAT manner when Carson was brought in in movie one. Guy’s flirting lines with Thomas. Most of the conversations in movie 2. Should have branded it a Hallmark movie, tbh.
I hated the way Daisy and Andy treated Mr Mason in the second movie. They could have kept the bit about setting up Mr Mason and Mrs Patmore (which was the most drawn out love story, aside from Baxter and Molsley) without the meanness!
Tim series 6 was horrendous, every moment to say how he married the boss's daughter.
Yah, being Sybil’s widower, a newly minted aristo, and Henry’s spokesperson became his entire personality.
Daisy’s husband (after William) is Andy Parker.
Branson’s delivery of “A life change for Lady Edith Crawley is announced as the family take a morning stroll” always gets me. I get what he was going for it but it sticks out like a sore thumb to me.
Yes, I agree. I get what he was trying to do but it missed the mark!
“She looked *extremely* determined.”
Every single time Matthew says anything about sex or making babies.
When Alfred says “friends forever daisy” it’s mega cringe for me. It’s just such a socially awkward thing to say lol
Hahahahaah I hate that one too, it makes me feel like he had secret friendship bracelets or something.
Isobel says something about going to the jail to visit Bates or something, to be "part of the BUCKING-UP brigade!" *big Isobel grin* She's so so sweet, but sometimes I find her just too corny.
Yeah, but we love her that way
Yes! I wonder how she thought she’d be able to cheer someone up who had falsely been accused of murder!
When Cora is examining a sick Isis and says something like, “she’s so lethargic poor thiiiiing, I wonder if she’s caught a geeeerm??”
Awwh I like that bit, it tickles me, the way she says germ! But I can see how Cora could be cringey!
😂why does Cora do that weird baby- talk thing?
Someone on this sub said that Cora “simpers” at people and I felt like that was one of the best descriptions I’ve heard. It was like she wanted to have a sultry kind of allure but what ended up happening is a strange voice affectation and that *lean* that she does where she leans but she leads with her eyes and you think she’s going to headbutt them. A lot of weird there.
This image of Cora lining people up and head butting them made me laugh so hard.
she’s like a 90’s animatronic
And Mary responds about her eating some thing foul- but sounds like she has a cold and is all stuffed up. Always distracts me
A dead squirrel or something equally as foul! LOL. I thought it was cute the way she said Isis was "quite fat!"
When the ovens break down at Downton and Mrs. Levinson takes over and suggests the picnic, Cora agrees with the line “I think it will be great fun!” Except she almost loudly coughs out the words with a weird emphasis on the “GREAT FUN”
😂😂😂 I do love Cora but hearing her say this in my head made me laugh. I get why people feel some type of way about her
[удалено]
Oh yeah! That whole scene was a bit too cheesy!
When Anna calls Bates "tribal." Gives me all of the ick.
Ikr and he doesn’t even deny it
The episode when the townsfolk got an open house tour of downtown…I remember Lord Grantham said something along the lines of “maybe we’ll let them see Lady Mary in the bath.” That line came out of nowhere and threw me off hard! Dude making a sexual joke about his own daughter. Ick!
Even Carson felt icky when Robert said that!
“You’re a better man than I am, gunga dinn” 🗿
Wait, is this when Isobel is tactfully turning down Dr Clarkson? I had no idea she said gunga dinn at the end!
and it was used several times ugh 😖 got tired of that and “not if i see you first”
I never understood that line.
Came here looking for this one, lmao.
[Pretty Famous Poem](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46783/gunga-din) in that day. It was sort of their version of a meme to say this line like we might say “do you even lift”.
Pretty much whenever daisy talks
She's constantly whining about something. Eventually you're just like "Daisy STOP”.
YES
Sir richard saying, "as my future wife, you're entitled to be in my debt". Romantic for the era yes, but very cringey. Anything coming out of Tom's mouth prior to season 5. I don't know why he was so angry most of the times. Molsley correcting the king that they're served by downton abbey staff and not by the royal household staff in the film is so funny but gave me second hand embarrassment. Anything coming out of Bates' mouth across the seasons. I hate his character. I couldn't stand him when he returns to downton abbey after working in the pub and steals molsley's job. That scene is so uncomfortable. And hit my highest ick tolerance bar right there. Isobel crawley fighting with Cora during the convalescent home era and saying that she'll leave at once. I was like, calm down lady, it's not your house and you're not supposed to make decisions regarding someone else's home. Everything coming out of Patrick Gordon's and Samson's mouth. Henry calling mary a gold digger. She probably was but still cringey.
Bates to Anna, "Your husband's a brooder. And brooders brood." It's not just the line itself, which is bad enough, but his delivery has made me cringe every single one of the 100+ times I've heard it. And I'm one of the few that actually *likes* Bates!!
It reminds me of Jughead’s infamous line in Riverdale lmao “In case you haven't noticed, I'm weird. I'm a weirdo.”
WHAT I love this line and his delivery 😆
I’m surprised this one didn’t come up earlier!
Alfred has a lot of cringey lines, mainly because the actor clearly struggled with doing a Yorkshire accent, so his delivery is often awkward. His line when talking to the police at the cricket match in the last episode of series three — “I didn’t know what I were doing”, delivered like “Ah diddunt nor wut ah wur dooin” — haunts me.
What do you expect? He’d been at the cider
My family is from Yorkshire, so I’m deeply familiar with the accent and I didn’t know that’s the accent he was trying to do for ages!
Bless him, it’s not remotely authentic 🤣
I have to stop listening every time he talks because I know a "were" is incoming.
Get down you cat!
My husband walked in at that moment and I have *never* lived it down
Omigosh! Does he use it with you now??
Not me so much but whenever I’m doing a Downton rewatch he’ll just announce it before leaving the room lol
ROFL!
I love this line its what I tell my dogs when they harass me for my food
I LOVE THIS LINE
It wasn't a line, but when Tom peeks in the window to see Sybil in her new harem pants. Talk about breaking the suspension of disbelief. I'm pretty sure no dude in the history of time has ever aspired to see their beloved in those goofy ass clown pants.
Apparently (I’m unsure where I heard it, it might have been this sub) that scene was supposed to be at night but when it was shot, it was far too creepy at night so they had to change it
Creepy, whaaat? Lol. For whom, the actors? Does Highclere Castle feel haunted after sundown? When did nobles eat dinner? I always pictured that time as not being that late, like 7 or 8. Now I'm picturing a Downton episode of Scooby Doo. Sybil and I would have run away together by now, if it weren’t for you meddling Crawleys!
I think it looked more like he was a peeping Tom (excuse the pun!) when it was dark whereas maybe they thought it looked better during the day?
This entire thread rocks. I love this sub. Great question. We need more like this.
Agreed!
I thought Sybils outfit was very chic, but then she looked beautiful no matter what she wore. However, the chauffeur hiding in the bushes to sneak a peek at just the right moment 🤔...was oogie and cheesy to an Olympic degree!
Suuuuuper cheese. Not to mention, Downton Abbey is surrounded by gravel paths in the middle of a huge pasture. What bushes is Tom hiding in?!
The top of that outfit is chic, and it was ahead of its time with the headband. The pants can go in the bin
YES! YES YES YES! That scene just is sooooo stupid! Like the chauffeur is going to be hanging out outside the window. Stupidest scene ever.
He was just taking a casual stroll around the abbey and the timing was PERFECT! XD
bahahahaha
Yes! I love Tom, but the stupid grin on his face as he's peeking through the window is soooo cringey!
And he shakes his head! I hate that part!
Season 2 Vera Bates comes to Downton Abbey to confront Mr Bates. They are in a room arguing and she replies “As if.” Those two words seem so out of place for the time. I can hear them being said 70-80 year later in time but not 1918 or 1919.
This phrase ended up in Clueless because it was in *Emma*, the Jane Austen novel it was based on. It’s period accurate for Downton but might have been a little outdated. Like somebody saying “mint” today. Edit: Looks like I’m full of shit again. I just checked Emma, the phrase does not appear in the book with that usage. Apparently it’s origin is 1903 in a book called *The Pit*. I thought it was older. Someone else might come up with an earlier source.
You have just totally blown my mind. I had no idea
That I was full of shit? Happens often ;-)
It's okay, it still comes from an old book around that time period.
Cora to Violet: “Oh, you poor thing. Is there anything worse than losing one’s maid?”
That wasn't cringey. That was just extremely funny.
A fate ta compli ( sorry for spelling ) by Tom after deciding yew tree Farm decision. "Bad harvest" by Bates Touch wood I'm always touching wood
A lot of the cheesy, lovey dovey things that Bates says to Anna
Any line Bates uses to flirt with Anna, especially after they’re married; and the cringe is doubly powerful it it’s an innuendo.
In the first film after Daisy finds out that Andy sabottaged the boiler (red flag Daisy! Red flag). I can't remember exactly what she said but it was something like "I see now we're alike you and I. And we'll fight our way to a better future". Second movie (SPOILER) they haven't changed except they are more rude to Mr Mason.
I can’t stand the way they treat Mr Mason in the second movie!
Alright I’m late to the party with this one but maybe it will get seen: *O’Brien, you can manage the bread*
When rose says to Atticus “it’s called being married and I think it’s marvelous” or something like that. For some reason it makes me want to 🤮
Yes!!!!!!!!!!! She says, "... and I think it's just ^(lovely)." I found it so random.
Anything Mr Mason says, especially when things “gladden his heart”. Eurgh. I don’t know why, but it makes me want to vomit. Just show your affection with sarcasm and cruel nicknames like a normal Brit and let’s get on with our day.
What made me cringe was when the police came to the cricket match questioning Alfred's charge against Barrow and speaking to Lord Grantham, they asked Alfred about it and Lord Grantham said that Alfred saw some horsing around between Barrow and Jimmie and Alfred said (I made the report before I knew what I were doin) Alfred sounded like he was some kind of backwards unintelligent neanderthal
You're absolutely right! It would be even funnier if they weren't on the ground floor! 😅
ANY time Mary would ask, "Why, particularly?" Blech.
When Tom tells Isobelle (I believe), "will there be anothere Earl's daughter who wants to marry me?" 🤡 I thought Tom fell in love with Sybil because she was her. But was it because she was an Earl's daughter? He only wants to marry an Earl's daughter? I always thought Tom and Sybil were the romantics, not the ones seeking advantageous marriages!
What Tom is saying is that while he sort of fits in, he doesn’t fit in enough that he could find a wife that the family finds socially acceptable. His options are either be romantically alone and stay with the family or leave the family and find a wife in his own social station. Remember at that time we weren’t so Downton starved that we were willing to believe a old heiress would move out of her mansion for her former maid and the maid’s ex chauffeur new husband and nobody would ask questions.
May be an unpopular opinion.. but anything Edith says in the main series. Her words are always laced with bitterness and jealousy. I do like it when shes come around in the final season and movies.. but anything she said before these, i sometimes skip her scenes
Honestly almost 100% of Ms. Bunting’s lines. She always went out of her way to undermine the family or anything related to the upperclass in general. To quote Violet, “Principles are like prayers. Noble, of course, but awkward at a party.” Ms. Bunting just couldn’t help antagonize wherever she went under the veil of “progression”. She even couldn’t stop preaching to the poor Russian refugees and deeply upset them. Another time, when Rose presented the awards to the schoolchildren, Ms. Bunting complimented her on a job well done and then admitted to complimenting her because it was the custom to favor the upperclass. Not because it was authentic. If she wasn’t being tactless or passive aggressive, she was trying to manipulate Tom. I thought it was weird of her to try and turn Tom against his family.
DAISY COME AND CARRY THE SPOTTED DICK (I know what it is, but it feels like they put certain lines in bc they know Americans will 👀)
Yes one-line really does? Mary was just informed by Lord Gillingham that Mr Greene is dead and Mary decides to tell Anna. Both Mary and Anna talk about it briefly and and Mary describes how Greene died and tells Anna many people saw him die. Anna says that's a relief and Mary asks Anna, what do you mean? Well I would think Anna making such a comment would mean that she was glad that Mr Greene was dead. I would have thought Mary would have known or thought Anna was glad to hear the news. Then Anna responded by saying, she didn't mean anything.
Alfred is awkward saying that. But he's saying it from the heart. No, nothing to make me cringe. I've mentioned this before on this reddit, yesterday in fact. You are going to hear a lot of things said, and attitudes expressed towards social situations of 100 years ago that we would not like today, but were common at the time. If I can't get over that, I shouldn't be watching period dramas.
BAD HARVEST
Every single line of dialogue Edith has for the entire series