'Downton Abbey' and why stories have endings

Plus: Reviewing 'The Time Traveler's Wife,' true crime recommendations, and what's making us happy!

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when Monopoly power took on a whole new meaning. It was the week when we lost the chance to see the Wonder Twins. And it was the week when the network upfronts were as corny as always. Let's get to it.    Opening Argument: 'Downton Abbey' and why stories have endings The answer to why franchises last too long is usually money; let's say that plainly. Few people are naive about it. That's often the practical reason why stories that have gone dry are wrung out again over and over, yielding less and less.  The result is often something like the new movie Downton Abbey: A New Era, which does not represent a new era. It represents a revisiting of the comforts of the old era, the old characters doing exactly the same things they have always done: Barrow trying to reconcile his sexuality with the homophobic reality of the society he lives in, Daisy being chipper and excited about things, Carson hating change, and so forth.  And where new stories do appear, they cannot carry the weight placed upon them. One story is shamelessly copied from a classic film, another is a rote execution of a story that's been a soap staple for decades, and one is essentially a reenactment of a story from the last Downton movie. A subplot is devoted to dressing inappropriately for the weather. There is no gas in the tank; there is no water in the well. Focus Features Here's the thing: That's okay! From both my history as a critic and my history as a writer, I have come to believe the best fiction finds characters at the most interesting moments of their lives. These are the moments in which they face a huge challenge, or they change the most internally, or they have the most complicated relationships with other people. The reason sequels often don't work is that most characters who feel like they are leading real lives don't live every chapter and phase of those lives in a manner you'd want to read about. People settle in, they live, they love each other, they work, they get sick and get well.  Think about the exceptions, the cases where you can read about a character over and over. They're often detectives, doctors, lawyers, spies, criminals – people who are constantly confronted by stories external to them that are fresh and new. You don't have to find a lawyer or a detective at the most important moment in her life if you find her client at the most important moment of his.  In an ensemble show like Downton, this is sometimes easier to overcome. That's how a show like this lasts for so many seasons. We met Mary when she was coming of age as a woman expected to marry for position rather than love, and Robert and Cora when they were preparing to enter the phase of their lives when they would ready Downton to outlive them. We met Edith when she was chafing under the sense that she would always be ignored, Sybil when she was pushing against her parents' politics and finding love, Barrow when he was wicked and lacking in self-awareness, Bates and Anna when they were meeting and falling in love, and so forth.  These arcs, and most of the others that resonated emotionally, gave a lot of room to work with, but they have largely concluded. Marriages became happy, futures were secured, people died and were born. The ensemble is large, but it is not infinite. Increasingly, the franchise has turned to little stories that offer a tiny amount of screen time to simplistic romances just to create two ends that can be tied into another bow. Meanwhile, the main cast – the group of people audiences want to see – has run out of conflicts that don't feel forced or borrowed.  There is no shame in ending a story. It doesn't happen for business reasons, or it doesn't happen for contractual reasons, but the idea that a tale centered on a core cast should be able to run forever defies what we know about life: If it were full of fiction-worthy challenges indefinitely, we would be exhausted. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend I've been listening to and enjoying the WNYC Studios podcast Dead End. Very good true crime, if you like that kind of thing.  Want even more true crime (that's also a lot of other things)? I'm also reading Monica Hesse's book American Fire, and that's also very good.  Or if you prefer a very, very lighthearted (and very long) podcast to sink into, try the delightful Screen Drafts episode in which friends of the show Alan Sepinwall and Dan Fienberg draft the best '70s sports movies for three hours. (I also did Screen Drafts with Alan a while ago; we drafted NASA movies for only about two and a half hours. Efficient!) What We Did This Week Macall Polay/HBO I wrote about HBO's The Time Traveler's Wife. Stephen and Glen summed up Eurovision and Ukraine's big win. I talked to our pals Katie Presley and Kat Chow about the Hulu adaptation of Conversations with Friends. (You can also read my review at NPR, if you haven't already.) We shared an encore of the episode I did with R. Eric Thomas about The Flight Attendant. Stephen talked to Christina Lee and Marcus J. Moore about the Kendrick Lamar album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers. And Glen and I talked to Tobin Low about Downton Abbey: A New Era. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: What's making Glen happy: The audio book for Harvey Fierstein’s I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir What's making Tobin happy: The second season of Bling Empire on Netflix What's making Linda happy: Kathryn VanArendonk’s review of The Time Traveler’s Wife in Vulture Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WBEZ (edit station). Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! 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