The Big Picture
Parade’s End
challenges
Downton Abbey
by offering harsh social commentary and a realistic depiction of post-war society.
Christopher’s honorable behavior in
Parade’s End
contrasts with the scandalous actions of
Downton Abbey
‘s male protagonists.
Julian Fellowes’ newer shows, like
The Gilded Age
, follow the social struggles depicted in
Parade’s End
more realistically than
Downton Abbey
did.
Julian Fellowes’ Downton Abbey, which ran for six seasons from 2010 to 2015, set a new standard for historical dramas, nearly single-handedly rescuing the dying popularity of the Edwardian period. Any historical drama that came after has had to face the challenge of reaching the bar set by Fellowes’ work. Not all are successful. However, the 2013 HBO/BBC miniseries, Parade’s End, an adaptation of Ford Maddox’s novel of the same name, managed to mount a successful challenge to Downton’s legacy. Though the two shows are similar conceptually, Parade’s End is able to stand on its own thanks to narrative and character arcs that zig where Downton’s zag.
Described as “a kind of higher-brow Downton Abbey” by The Hollywood Reporter, Parade’s End actually offers up a version of Fellowes’ show that refuses to filter its events through rose-tinted glass. Apart from the two series featuring stunning Edwardian architecture and period costumes, both also center on themes of British social-class structures, their entitlement to old-world values, resistance towards change, and the consequences of both World Wars on society. Downton offers a crooked representation of the Edwardian social code, keeping its audience in a comfort zone and refusing to represent the truer realities of the 20th century. However, Parade’s End, which was written by noted playwright Tom Stoppard, doesn’t shy away from harsher social commentary and depicts how old Edwardian values could not survive the wrath and chaos of war.
While Downton focuses on telling the story of the aristocratic Crawley family in contrast with the lives of their household staff, Parade’s End centers on a complex love triangle between aristocratic Christopher Tietjens (Benedict Cumberbatch), his self-centered socialite wife, Sylvia (Rebecca Hall), and the idealistic Valentine Wannop (Adelaide Clemens). In Parade’s End’s narrative, the consequences of war shattering and rearranging the elites’ principals is given a significant amount of attention. The men of the series are given different character arcs than what we saw on Downton, despite existing in the same time frame and facing the same historical events.
Parade’s End
A love triangle forms between a conservative English aristocrat, his mean socialite wife, and a young suffragette.
Release Date August 24, 2012
Main Genre Drama
Seasons 1
‘Parade’s End’s Christopher Makes the Men of ‘Downton Abbey’ Look Scandalous
Image via HBO
The two shows can best be put under a comparative lens by noting the social and moral compasses held by Parade’s End’s Christopher (Cumberbatch) and Downton’s Matthew (Dan Stevens) and Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville). All three of these characters are introduced to represent the morally rigid men of Edwardian England who believed that respectable men must adhere to a sense of “parade” — a code of conduct essential to self-respect and social standing. For an upper-class man in Victorian society, a scandal meant the danger of being outcast by all social circles, which would ultimately lead to financial losses. Downton’s male protagonists don’t adhere to the proper English code of conduct that was expected of them. Comparitively, Christopher’s unrelenting sacrifices for his unfaithful wife puts the Downton husband’s faithfulness to shame.
On Downton Abbey, Lord Grantham’s Season 3 scandal with his household maid, Jane, took fans of the show by surprise. Viewers had a hard time believing that a character whose entire arc was about adhering to old-world values and resisting change would cheat on a wife as lovely as Cora (Elizabeth McGovern). And he didn’t just stop with a romantic attraction, smooching the maid at the heart of his estate. Despite the fact that he’s busy cheating, Grantham considers the idea of her doing the same unacceptable. Considering the era in which the show is set, such actions could have ruined the husband and destroyed the Granthams’ societal standing. Similarly, Matthew Crawley broke off his engagement with Lord Grantham’s daughter, Mary, and left her for Lavinia Swire. But soon after, he found himself in a love affair with his ex-fiance, with Lavinia discovering the two kissing. Later on, after Lavinia dies, Matthew marries Mary and is haunted by the idea that Lavinia died heartbroken after discovering the affair.
Conversely, Parade’s End takes a completely different approach to its primary male character. Christopher remains faithful to a wife who tricked him into marrying her while being pregnant with another man’s child. Throughout their marriage, Sylvia involves herself with multiple men and doesn’t bother hiding her actions from her husband. Christopher finds himself in love with his acquaintance, Valentine, and the two share an intimate emotional bond. However, he chooses not to make any advances towards Valentine for the sake of his values and the family’s social standing. In fact, Christopher is described by his promiscuous wife as a paragon of honorable behavior, even though she is bothered by her husband’s virtues.
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Since Downton Abbey ended, Fellowes has moved on to shows like The Gilded Age which, similar to Parade’s End, represent the social struggles of its time in a more realistic manner than Downton did. Perhaps he, in turn, was inspired by Parade’s End, which refused to glorify the characters’ resistance to social change. Parade’s End refused to bend reality for the sake of story dramatics or for its viewer’s comfort. It’s a fancier Downton Abbey, one that’s less soapy and offers a more realistic representation of its period. It also serves as a comparatively harsher commentary on post-war society and the complications of a period caught between waves of old values entering a changed new world. Because it adheres so closely to the social norms of the day, Parade’s End becomes all the more powerful for it once those norms are shattered.
Parade’s End is available to stream on Max in the U.S.
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