The Crawleys may have survived WWI with Downton Abbey and their way of life more or less intact, but will they survive the arrival of Cora’s American mother, Martha?
Unless you’ve been in solitary confinement for a year or more, you know that Shirley MacLaine is the big addition to “Downton Abbey” this season.
Even though the show won’t start until Jan. 6, I was really curious to see how the two divas — Maggie Smith and MacLaine — would Dame-up against each other.
In this corner of the manor in black, fighting for the right to keep things as they have always been, or at least as long as it’s ever mattered, Violet, Countess Dowager of Grantham (Smith).
And in red, fighting for change is Martha Levinson, the tin-mine-rich, widowed mother of Cora and American wise-ass (MacLaine).
I have to say that although a million other American actresses of a certain age could have played Martha, I’m glad it’s MacLaine because watching these two dueling with each other is more laughs than we’ve ever had before with the dour Crawleys.
Both ladies play big pains in the butt, but Smith definitely gets the better lines.
That said, like the characters they play and the situations in which the characters live, this is a classic face-off between the understated, dry English way of doing things and the big, brash American manner.
Smith’s delivery is so cynical I feared at first she might wither MacLaine in an assault of desert air. But MacLaine holds her own.
The assault begins before Martha even arrives with Violet getting in the first punches.
“I’m so looking forward to seeing your mother again,” she says to Cora over dinner, “When I’m with her, I’m reminded of the virtues of the English.”
Soon-to-be-groom Matthew takes the bait, and says, “But isn’t she American?”
Then without missing a beat, Violet replies: “Exactly.”
Bam.
MacLaine overplays it the minute she arrives on the scene, but it’s hard to be understated with the lines she’s given.
When Martha is told, for example, that Matthew will be coming to dinner, she quips, “Great. Because I’d so like to see why he gets to inherit my late husband’s money.”
Duck!
When the two ladies finally encounter one another (Violet skips dinner, thank you very much), Martha greets her with the condescending “the war has made old women of us both,” to which Violet replies, “I don’t think so.” Pause, beat, beat. “I always stay out of the sun.”
Slam dunk!
What we’ve got here is the old way vs. the new thinking. The old is understated and uniformed and the new is loud but fully comprehending of which way the wind is blowing.
Big question here isn’t whether “Downton Abbey” can survive Martha, but more importantly can they survive without her?
It’s all more fun than an old-lady wrestling match.