![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
All Creatures Great & Small (S1)
Friday, 18 June 2021 01:45 amMy family recorded a show on Masterpiece on PBS that aired for about two months in the winter, but we didn't start watching until now because we actually had shows to watch then. I haven't read the book series that this show is based on, but my mother has heard of them at least (All Creatures Great & Small), and the basic premise isn't that hard to gather from any promotional content that you might've seen (guy fresh out of veterinary school becomes an assistant to an established vet in a farming community).
Dunarby (sp?) Darrowby, which in Yorkshire [somewhere in the north of England].
I, too, fear the prospect of getting off public transportation at the wrong stop, but thankfully, I haven't ever had to walk from a random crossroads surrounded by fields into town before, so. Mrs Hall looks after the house work and stuff for Mr Farnon, who is a stubborn and resistant to having an assistant man. He's not presented as immediately disliked per se, but his method of seeing if Harriot is capable of being hired is trial by fire.
Harriot's rushed all the way to this place expecting an interview. He's sent into the enclosure to work his way through the mud in dress shoes. Him being kicked by the horse and falling over is presented as funny. However, he figures out which leg is bothering the horse, asks for the correct tool, and gets a pocket of pus to open up. Mr Farnon administers a drop of iodine and some turpentine (so they think they're getting their money's worth).
I definitely can't keep all the farmers distinguished from one another (so I don't have names), but Mr Farnon leaves Harriot with some of the locals at the pub. He's supposed to be answering easy questions that don't yet require a visit to the farm (the runt of the litter of pigs needs time alone to suckle or bottle fed). But, well, it was absolutely obvious that mistakes were going to happen when someone suggested that city folk are lightweights. He probably would've been okay with the two pints of ale, but someone's homebrew got brought out. He got back to the home [slash] clinic alright, but he didn't put the cats in the correct cages after feeding them.
Harriot oversleeps. He's hungover at breakfast, and he struggles a bit with remembering what advice he gave to people. He does fine at someone's farm where they're looking at a cow. We were introduced to Clive, a bull, with a funny hiding on a wall bit, but point was that he met a young woman close enough to his age for a small crush to develop. The real mistake didn't happen until they were doing the clinic hours for some of the small animals [that is, dogs and cats]. There were two black cats and one orange tabby; Mrs So-and-so just needed to pick up Jasper, and Mr Farnon was going to do a simple castration. Jasper was not the first black cat nor the second black cat, and it turns out he was the orange tabby chloroformed for the castration by mistake.
Mrs So-and-so's husband was at the pub last night, so Mr Farnon finds out that Harriot got a bit too drunk the night before. Harriot's supposed to leave on the bus in the morning. Mrs Hall and Mr Farnon play a game of what looks like Scrabble, while they have a bit of a disagreement over Mr Farnon letting him go. (He's a good lad - People trust us with their pets - You knew Mr Something was in the pub when you left. You led a horse to water, really. - Something about not feeling like he needs an assistant. - Something about not really giving any of the other ones a chance either.) Anyways, it's not a surprise when Mr Third Farmer shows up in the middle of the night because the calf's stuck, and Mrs Hall lets Harriot go instead of waking Mr Farnon.
Based on there needing to be the rest of a series, it's not a surprise that Harriot struggles but ultimately succeeds with getting the calf out alive. Mr Farnon rushes there in the morning expecting him to have failed, and he winds up getting a bit of honesty because Harriot barely got any sleep ("Has anyone ever told you how insufferable you are?" "Not to my face"). Clearly, Harriot stays on. The thing that mostly stuck out was that we were expecting the calving to go a bit differently. We watch more than one vet show on other channels, and we've seen someone try to help during a calving. The cow often tries to get up and lay down at several points. It was likely for the show, but this cow just laid down the entire time.
It's not like it was distractingly wrong or anything. An actual vet fictionalized his experiences when he wrote the books to begin with, so we're not really expecting a lot of obvious suspension of disbelief when it comes to some of the diagnostics and treatments shown. It's just a bit odd sitting there like, 'Do calf pullers exist yet? What do you have to help you? That looks like the chain with handles you need; yes, use that.'
Secondly, the big plot point is that Siegfried's younger brother, who's supposed to be studying veterinary medicine in Edinburgh, is coming home to Yorkshire after finishing his exams. In theory, he'll join the practice one day. But Tristan is not quite as committed as James is. (He actually failed two out of the three exams he sat - Parasitology and Pathology.) Shout out to Mullany because here's a recap if you want it.
My unsolicited additions:
- We couldn't really blame James for thinking the cow who couldn't get up within three days of calving had milk fever (aka a calcium deficiency). We've seen that more than once on other vet shows, and I've got to say that the 'have you tried yelling Cush at the cow' part was funny, if useless.
- Mrs Pumphrey absolutely spoils her Pekinese named Tricki Woo. It's a bit annoying but not uncommon. Tricki Woo is overweight due to lots of human food (I can't remember half of what she listed, but I know Beef Wellington was mentioned). She's rich, and that dog eats better than some of the other humans in the story.
- Mrs Hall and Tristan play some sort of game while Siegfried and James are at Mrs Pumphrey's party. It's during the bit where she asks him why he lied about passing his exams and when he's going to tell his brother the truth. It shifts some of his earlier so called laziness when on calls with James to a different light; actually, Tristan might not be that qualified if he's failed his exams. I have no idea what the game was that they were playing. It's a bit annoying.
- It's revealed at Mrs Pumphrey's party that Helen has a boyfriend named Hugh Holton. I'm going to need people to stop having so many H names.
- I have a sneaking suspicion that we're supposed to be getting seeds for Mrs Hall and Mr Farnon to potentially have feelings of some sort, even though he immediately hid behind a question about if he was taking anyone to the party with something about there are certain lines between employers and employees. (Mrs Hall's response: "When it suits you.") There was something about his acknowledgement with Mrs Pumphrey that he was there to entertain some of the other ladies by dancing with them (Helen's observation: "He'll dance with at least five more, never more than once") that can almost be read as a desire for singleness. Siegfried Farnon isn't exactly young, and he's described as eccentric and devoted to his career.
- Mrs Hall has an adult son that's some sort of troublemaker, and she still tries to reach out to him, even though they seem estranged. In this episode, she sends off a letter with a tin of shortbread biscuits. I've no idea if I was supposed to get any information from the brief shots of the letter or parcel being addressed. (Is the town close? Should I know what's happened by where he is? I dunno.)
- That cow didn't get better after a bottle of calcium. James thought her pelvis had broken and there wasn't any hope for her. The only thing you can do now is send her to the butcher, and all that. Siegfried was not pleased to hear about this from George, an up and coming rival veterinarian in the area, at Mrs Pumphrey's party. Because - you'll never guess - her ligaments hadn't healed properly from the calving, so she didn't actually have such a horribly broken pelvis. She recovered (the sheepskin on the back was one of the old ways the farmers suggested, and it helped here), and James was admonished for making a rookie mistake.
- Tristan is the epitome of 'I'm here for a fun time, not a long time'. He winds up bonding with James instead of the quasi-rival thing that initially happened after he tells his brother about failing his exams. He's the kind of annoying type of fun friend who would probably help you commit petty crime.
Heads up: As with many fictional and nonfictional vet shows, animal euthanasia will eventually be brought up. This is an unavoidable part of S1E3, really.
Siegfried is going through an in-person evaluation to see if he'll become the official veterinarian for the Darrowby Race Course. It's a big deal, and he's going to be tied up all day. James goes out on calls. A calf has heat exhaustion. We finally see what happens when two cars try to drive on one of the one lane bridges. An urgent call from the stable guy at Holton's about colic leads to a really important decision.
Naturally, there's been back and forth between showing scenes about Siegfried and the others. We know that Andante is the projected winner for tomorrow's race and owned by Hugh Holton. There's a revealing scene with Siegfried and General Ransom (who's evaluating him) about how Siegfried's sense of repaying a debt towards horses dates to his war experience (1917) and how many of the horses were shot to avoid the hassle of bringing them back. The full quote is in Janet Mullany's recap here.
James has done a standard rectal exam on the horse with suspected colic. He doesn't think it's colic that could be treated but a torsion - the bowels have twisted and cut off blood supply. It's a serious diagnosis, and the answer is euthanasia.
Someone on the staff had called Hugh away from the race track a bit earlier, but no one can currently get ahold of Siegfried for a second opinion. My family's fairly used to modern euthanasia involving an injection, but the steps of process presumably at this time created more suspense. James got a box labelled 'Horse Killer', loaded a bullet into a not quite gun looking device, and he needed to hit a rock on the end to fire the bullet. He had time to find out he was euthanising Andante, to pet and comfort the horse, and you know, literally look it in the eyes beforehand. The death didn't happen on screen because the stable staff were trying to explain to Hugh what was going on, but there was no mistaking what the sound like a gunshot meant.
Hugh is clearly upset and doesn't believe James that it was necessary. James cries in the car before heading to the pub. Tristan uses the knowledge that Andante is now dead to bet on the #2 horse in the hopes of regaining the lost bill money. General Ransom tells Siegfried that he only has the veterinarian position at the race course if he lets James go (it doesn't look good, you know?), and Siegfried winds up turning him down. James doubts himself, and Hugh informs Siegfried that he's been advised to seek a solicitor. Siegfried volunteers to do a necropsy to verify that Andante has a twist in his bowels, and James will be let go if there isn't one. No one's really happy that there is a severe twist, but James' diagnosis and treatment were textbook correct.
Tristan's bet on the #2 horse worked, and he turns over the ledger and money owed for Siegfried to double check. Quite a few clients only want Mr Farnon to go out on calls, but he purposefully sends James to help rebuild his confidence and let everyone know that he's still his assistant. The calf was licking peeling paint off a board in the barn, and it had lead poisoning because it was lead paint. A nice and simple one. Granted, several locals already had taken to calling him 'Harriot the Horse Killer', but there's hope that that nickname will eventually fade away.
Heads up: Tricki Woo is supposed to be on a diet (no rich and/or fatty human food) and getting daily walks because he's overweight from his human's means of expressing love. You know, humans are not exactly like dogs, but some of this still might be triggering.
- I'm not sure when Tristan arrived exactly (he finished sitting his exams, but that's not very helpful for pinpointing at least a month). In this episode, he wants to go back to retake the two classes he failed the final exams for, and he has a week before he needs to leave with a cheque from his brother to cover it. I'm honestly not sure if I'm supposed to know this is around August or September, or how long Tristan's been around by now.
- It's been long enough that when James runs into Hugh and helps him fix his tire that Hugh isn't as upset about Andante anymore. I'm so not great at passively getting time passing clues.
- I have no idea when Siegfried is going to realise that James has a crush on Helen. It certainly was not during the breakfast conversation where he told James that he'd need to make a call out to Helen because Clive was having trouble servicing the cows. (Tristan: "That'll be awkward." Siegfried: "Why would that be awkward?" James finally recovers his voice to say that it won't be a problem.)
- Mrs Pumphrey sends special chairs and a hamper full of obnoxiously rich human food for Tricki Woo to have while he stays at Skeldale House. Part of the humor of the episode is that various other humans swipe some of the food, including Siegfried. He is responsible for the hamper being on the floor of the study where Tricki Woo was able to also get to the food inside (and literally get inside where no one could find him for a bit). It's his fault that Tricki Woo was able to eat all the liqueur chocolate things, and Tristan actually did not make a mistake this time. (Tristan: "Are we hallucinating?")
- That stuff that Mrs Hall sent to her son Edward came back because the recipient didn't live at the address. Siegfried said something about going to Scarborough to find him, but she said that he knew where she was if he wanted to find her. I had to look it up, but Scarborough is also in the North Riding of Yorkshire. According to an internet search, it's about 45 miles or 1 hour and 10 minutes drive to one of the real places that Darrowby is in the area of. I honestly thought Edward was farther away all this time.
- Siegfried was going to give Tristan the cheque to go back to college, but he realised as he watched Mrs Pumphrey literally give Tricki Woo a rich human snack before the vets had even left her house that he was expecting a different outcome from the exact same circumstances that led to Tristan failing last time. So, he's going to tutor Tristan who can still sit his exams whenever they come up next.
- There was also a bit of a funny thing with Mr Mulligan's dog who kind of scared Siegfried and Tristan when they were supposed to give him an exam at earlier points in the episode. Mr Mulligan lost his hearing in the war, so he's not as aware of his dog barking and growling while at the vets. Both Farnons pluck up the courage to actually give the dog a proper exam at the end of the episode, and he makes up to them. I can't remember if the dog has a name, but he's not exactly a small breed.
- I would appreciate an animal cast list. Was the dog a German Shepherd? Or one of the other breeds that gets used in K9 units? It was a good actor; lots of barking, great job. But what was it?
I'm going to link to Mullany's recap here, and give my unsolicited additions:
- Tristan says that this summer has been fun to Maggie, so I presume we're around the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. I still need not subtle tells for time passing.
- James set a very clear basis for determining who would win the pet show. The child had to be able to answer questions about what their pet needed to eat and how to take care of them. It wasn't really his fault that the only child able to answer his questions was the one who brought the goldfish.
- Backstory unlocked: Mrs Hall left an abusive husband to work as the housekeeper for Skeldale House. Siegfried's wife Evelyn died four years earlier. I apparently didn't realise Mrs Hall's first name was Audrey until now.
- Siegfried kind of has a crush on Dorothy, and Mrs Hall may or may not have some sort of feelings for Siegfried. I think this is a fine time to put on the OT3 goggles. We don't need to have so called love triangles, you know.
- So they comment on the chill and James gets a hat and scarf as a birthday present, but it still doesn't feel like the actual scenery is giving me 'the summer has definitely ended' vibes. (I live in a place where I'm surrounded by deciduous trees, and it feels weird that there are no changing leaves for this autumnal attempt.)
- The dialogue says that James has been at Skeldale House for six months. Please just slap a month up on the screen.
- I want the scarf that James gets as a present. (Photo can be seen in the recap above.)
- Tristan's supposed to be answering an essay portion of an exam throughout the episode but drew on the back. He eventually gets it done, but the for a moment there, it was like, 'Ah, yes, of course he's a doodler.'
- Tristan using his artistic skills to help come up with a solution for the abscess (for that time, a risky surgery) was interesting. He comes off as a visual learner who seems unaware of being a visual learner.
- Oh, yeah, and Hugh proposes to Helen.
S1E1: You've Got to Dream
The episode opens in Glasgow [Scotland] in 1937. The main character is James Harriot, and he's in that post-graduation phase of looking for work after finishing veterinary school. His mum's certain he should be realistic and get a job with his dad on the docks, but he gets a letter inviting him out toI, too, fear the prospect of getting off public transportation at the wrong stop, but thankfully, I haven't ever had to walk from a random crossroads surrounded by fields into town before, so. Mrs Hall looks after the house work and stuff for Mr Farnon, who is a stubborn and resistant to having an assistant man. He's not presented as immediately disliked per se, but his method of seeing if Harriot is capable of being hired is trial by fire.
Harriot's rushed all the way to this place expecting an interview. He's sent into the enclosure to work his way through the mud in dress shoes. Him being kicked by the horse and falling over is presented as funny. However, he figures out which leg is bothering the horse, asks for the correct tool, and gets a pocket of pus to open up. Mr Farnon administers a drop of iodine and some turpentine (so they think they're getting their money's worth).
I definitely can't keep all the farmers distinguished from one another (so I don't have names), but Mr Farnon leaves Harriot with some of the locals at the pub. He's supposed to be answering easy questions that don't yet require a visit to the farm (the runt of the litter of pigs needs time alone to suckle or bottle fed). But, well, it was absolutely obvious that mistakes were going to happen when someone suggested that city folk are lightweights. He probably would've been okay with the two pints of ale, but someone's homebrew got brought out. He got back to the home [slash] clinic alright, but he didn't put the cats in the correct cages after feeding them.
Harriot oversleeps. He's hungover at breakfast, and he struggles a bit with remembering what advice he gave to people. He does fine at someone's farm where they're looking at a cow. We were introduced to Clive, a bull, with a funny hiding on a wall bit, but point was that he met a young woman close enough to his age for a small crush to develop. The real mistake didn't happen until they were doing the clinic hours for some of the small animals [that is, dogs and cats]. There were two black cats and one orange tabby; Mrs So-and-so just needed to pick up Jasper, and Mr Farnon was going to do a simple castration. Jasper was not the first black cat nor the second black cat, and it turns out he was the orange tabby chloroformed for the castration by mistake.
Mrs So-and-so's husband was at the pub last night, so Mr Farnon finds out that Harriot got a bit too drunk the night before. Harriot's supposed to leave on the bus in the morning. Mrs Hall and Mr Farnon play a game of what looks like Scrabble, while they have a bit of a disagreement over Mr Farnon letting him go. (He's a good lad - People trust us with their pets - You knew Mr Something was in the pub when you left. You led a horse to water, really. - Something about not feeling like he needs an assistant. - Something about not really giving any of the other ones a chance either.) Anyways, it's not a surprise when Mr Third Farmer shows up in the middle of the night because the calf's stuck, and Mrs Hall lets Harriot go instead of waking Mr Farnon.
Based on there needing to be the rest of a series, it's not a surprise that Harriot struggles but ultimately succeeds with getting the calf out alive. Mr Farnon rushes there in the morning expecting him to have failed, and he winds up getting a bit of honesty because Harriot barely got any sleep ("Has anyone ever told you how insufferable you are?" "Not to my face"). Clearly, Harriot stays on. The thing that mostly stuck out was that we were expecting the calving to go a bit differently. We watch more than one vet show on other channels, and we've seen someone try to help during a calving. The cow often tries to get up and lay down at several points. It was likely for the show, but this cow just laid down the entire time.
It's not like it was distractingly wrong or anything. An actual vet fictionalized his experiences when he wrote the books to begin with, so we're not really expecting a lot of obvious suspension of disbelief when it comes to some of the diagnostics and treatments shown. It's just a bit odd sitting there like, 'Do calf pullers exist yet? What do you have to help you? That looks like the chain with handles you need; yes, use that.'
S1E2: Another Farnon?
The first thing is that I can actually use names. Mr Farnon's first name is Siegfried, Harriot is James, and his kinda-sorta crush is Helen. Amazing what double checking names can do. Apparently, the name of the house slash clinic is Skeldale House. I can't remember what they say when they answer the phone, though (Darrowby and then two numbers - 22, 97?).Secondly, the big plot point is that Siegfried's younger brother, who's supposed to be studying veterinary medicine in Edinburgh, is coming home to Yorkshire after finishing his exams. In theory, he'll join the practice one day. But Tristan is not quite as committed as James is. (He actually failed two out of the three exams he sat - Parasitology and Pathology.) Shout out to Mullany because here's a recap if you want it.
My unsolicited additions:
- We couldn't really blame James for thinking the cow who couldn't get up within three days of calving had milk fever (aka a calcium deficiency). We've seen that more than once on other vet shows, and I've got to say that the 'have you tried yelling Cush at the cow' part was funny, if useless.
- Mrs Pumphrey absolutely spoils her Pekinese named Tricki Woo. It's a bit annoying but not uncommon. Tricki Woo is overweight due to lots of human food (I can't remember half of what she listed, but I know Beef Wellington was mentioned). She's rich, and that dog eats better than some of the other humans in the story.
- Mrs Hall and Tristan play some sort of game while Siegfried and James are at Mrs Pumphrey's party. It's during the bit where she asks him why he lied about passing his exams and when he's going to tell his brother the truth. It shifts some of his earlier so called laziness when on calls with James to a different light; actually, Tristan might not be that qualified if he's failed his exams. I have no idea what the game was that they were playing. It's a bit annoying.
- It's revealed at Mrs Pumphrey's party that Helen has a boyfriend named Hugh Holton. I'm going to need people to stop having so many H names.
- I have a sneaking suspicion that we're supposed to be getting seeds for Mrs Hall and Mr Farnon to potentially have feelings of some sort, even though he immediately hid behind a question about if he was taking anyone to the party with something about there are certain lines between employers and employees. (Mrs Hall's response: "When it suits you.") There was something about his acknowledgement with Mrs Pumphrey that he was there to entertain some of the other ladies by dancing with them (Helen's observation: "He'll dance with at least five more, never more than once") that can almost be read as a desire for singleness. Siegfried Farnon isn't exactly young, and he's described as eccentric and devoted to his career.
- Mrs Hall has an adult son that's some sort of troublemaker, and she still tries to reach out to him, even though they seem estranged. In this episode, she sends off a letter with a tin of shortbread biscuits. I've no idea if I was supposed to get any information from the brief shots of the letter or parcel being addressed. (Is the town close? Should I know what's happened by where he is? I dunno.)
- That cow didn't get better after a bottle of calcium. James thought her pelvis had broken and there wasn't any hope for her. The only thing you can do now is send her to the butcher, and all that. Siegfried was not pleased to hear about this from George, an up and coming rival veterinarian in the area, at Mrs Pumphrey's party. Because - you'll never guess - her ligaments hadn't healed properly from the calving, so she didn't actually have such a horribly broken pelvis. She recovered (the sheepskin on the back was one of the old ways the farmers suggested, and it helped here), and James was admonished for making a rookie mistake.
- Tristan is the epitome of 'I'm here for a fun time, not a long time'. He winds up bonding with James instead of the quasi-rival thing that initially happened after he tells his brother about failing his exams. He's the kind of annoying type of fun friend who would probably help you commit petty crime.
Heads up: As with many fictional and nonfictional vet shows, animal euthanasia will eventually be brought up. This is an unavoidable part of S1E3, really.
S1E3: Andante
Tristan has been tasked with getting farmers to pay their billed amounts for veterinary care. He's sort of successful until drinking with clients at the pub leads to not having all of the money he's supposed to. Maggie, the bartender, is taking information for bets on tomorrow's race.Siegfried is going through an in-person evaluation to see if he'll become the official veterinarian for the Darrowby Race Course. It's a big deal, and he's going to be tied up all day. James goes out on calls. A calf has heat exhaustion. We finally see what happens when two cars try to drive on one of the one lane bridges. An urgent call from the stable guy at Holton's about colic leads to a really important decision.
Naturally, there's been back and forth between showing scenes about Siegfried and the others. We know that Andante is the projected winner for tomorrow's race and owned by Hugh Holton. There's a revealing scene with Siegfried and General Ransom (who's evaluating him) about how Siegfried's sense of repaying a debt towards horses dates to his war experience (1917) and how many of the horses were shot to avoid the hassle of bringing them back. The full quote is in Janet Mullany's recap here.
James has done a standard rectal exam on the horse with suspected colic. He doesn't think it's colic that could be treated but a torsion - the bowels have twisted and cut off blood supply. It's a serious diagnosis, and the answer is euthanasia.
Someone on the staff had called Hugh away from the race track a bit earlier, but no one can currently get ahold of Siegfried for a second opinion. My family's fairly used to modern euthanasia involving an injection, but the steps of process presumably at this time created more suspense. James got a box labelled 'Horse Killer', loaded a bullet into a not quite gun looking device, and he needed to hit a rock on the end to fire the bullet. He had time to find out he was euthanising Andante, to pet and comfort the horse, and you know, literally look it in the eyes beforehand. The death didn't happen on screen because the stable staff were trying to explain to Hugh what was going on, but there was no mistaking what the sound like a gunshot meant.
Hugh is clearly upset and doesn't believe James that it was necessary. James cries in the car before heading to the pub. Tristan uses the knowledge that Andante is now dead to bet on the #2 horse in the hopes of regaining the lost bill money. General Ransom tells Siegfried that he only has the veterinarian position at the race course if he lets James go (it doesn't look good, you know?), and Siegfried winds up turning him down. James doubts himself, and Hugh informs Siegfried that he's been advised to seek a solicitor. Siegfried volunteers to do a necropsy to verify that Andante has a twist in his bowels, and James will be let go if there isn't one. No one's really happy that there is a severe twist, but James' diagnosis and treatment were textbook correct.
Tristan's bet on the #2 horse worked, and he turns over the ledger and money owed for Siegfried to double check. Quite a few clients only want Mr Farnon to go out on calls, but he purposefully sends James to help rebuild his confidence and let everyone know that he's still his assistant. The calf was licking peeling paint off a board in the barn, and it had lead poisoning because it was lead paint. A nice and simple one. Granted, several locals already had taken to calling him 'Harriot the Horse Killer', but there's hope that that nickname will eventually fade away.
Heads up: Tricki Woo is supposed to be on a diet (no rich and/or fatty human food) and getting daily walks because he's overweight from his human's means of expressing love. You know, humans are not exactly like dogs, but some of this still might be triggering.
S1E4: A Tricki Case
I'm going to link to Mullany's recap here, and give my unsolicited additions:- I'm not sure when Tristan arrived exactly (he finished sitting his exams, but that's not very helpful for pinpointing at least a month). In this episode, he wants to go back to retake the two classes he failed the final exams for, and he has a week before he needs to leave with a cheque from his brother to cover it. I'm honestly not sure if I'm supposed to know this is around August or September, or how long Tristan's been around by now.
- It's been long enough that when James runs into Hugh and helps him fix his tire that Hugh isn't as upset about Andante anymore. I'm so not great at passively getting time passing clues.
- I have no idea when Siegfried is going to realise that James has a crush on Helen. It certainly was not during the breakfast conversation where he told James that he'd need to make a call out to Helen because Clive was having trouble servicing the cows. (Tristan: "That'll be awkward." Siegfried: "Why would that be awkward?" James finally recovers his voice to say that it won't be a problem.)
- Mrs Pumphrey sends special chairs and a hamper full of obnoxiously rich human food for Tricki Woo to have while he stays at Skeldale House. Part of the humor of the episode is that various other humans swipe some of the food, including Siegfried. He is responsible for the hamper being on the floor of the study where Tricki Woo was able to also get to the food inside (and literally get inside where no one could find him for a bit). It's his fault that Tricki Woo was able to eat all the liqueur chocolate things, and Tristan actually did not make a mistake this time. (Tristan: "Are we hallucinating?")
- That stuff that Mrs Hall sent to her son Edward came back because the recipient didn't live at the address. Siegfried said something about going to Scarborough to find him, but she said that he knew where she was if he wanted to find her. I had to look it up, but Scarborough is also in the North Riding of Yorkshire. According to an internet search, it's about 45 miles or 1 hour and 10 minutes drive to one of the real places that Darrowby is in the area of. I honestly thought Edward was farther away all this time.
- Siegfried was going to give Tristan the cheque to go back to college, but he realised as he watched Mrs Pumphrey literally give Tricki Woo a rich human snack before the vets had even left her house that he was expecting a different outcome from the exact same circumstances that led to Tristan failing last time. So, he's going to tutor Tristan who can still sit his exams whenever they come up next.
- There was also a bit of a funny thing with Mr Mulligan's dog who kind of scared Siegfried and Tristan when they were supposed to give him an exam at earlier points in the episode. Mr Mulligan lost his hearing in the war, so he's not as aware of his dog barking and growling while at the vets. Both Farnons pluck up the courage to actually give the dog a proper exam at the end of the episode, and he makes up to them. I can't remember if the dog has a name, but he's not exactly a small breed.
- I would appreciate an animal cast list. Was the dog a German Shepherd? Or one of the other breeds that gets used in K9 units? It was a good actor; lots of barking, great job. But what was it?
S1E5: All's Fair
Focus: The Darrowby Show, which seems similar to county fairs (other than not seeming to pull the whole county to one event). James really was not prepared for how the townsfolk would react to competing for prizes.I'm going to link to Mullany's recap here, and give my unsolicited additions:
- Tristan says that this summer has been fun to Maggie, so I presume we're around the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. I still need not subtle tells for time passing.
- James set a very clear basis for determining who would win the pet show. The child had to be able to answer questions about what their pet needed to eat and how to take care of them. It wasn't really his fault that the only child able to answer his questions was the one who brought the goldfish.
- Backstory unlocked: Mrs Hall left an abusive husband to work as the housekeeper for Skeldale House. Siegfried's wife Evelyn died four years earlier. I apparently didn't realise Mrs Hall's first name was Audrey until now.
- Siegfried kind of has a crush on Dorothy, and Mrs Hall may or may not have some sort of feelings for Siegfried. I think this is a fine time to put on the OT3 goggles. We don't need to have so called love triangles, you know.
S1E6: A Cure for All Ills
James saves Strawberry the cow via a risky surgery for that time. I'm going to link to Mullany's recap here, and give my unsolicited additions:- So they comment on the chill and James gets a hat and scarf as a birthday present, but it still doesn't feel like the actual scenery is giving me 'the summer has definitely ended' vibes. (I live in a place where I'm surrounded by deciduous trees, and it feels weird that there are no changing leaves for this autumnal attempt.)
- The dialogue says that James has been at Skeldale House for six months. Please just slap a month up on the screen.
- I want the scarf that James gets as a present. (Photo can be seen in the recap above.)
- Tristan's supposed to be answering an essay portion of an exam throughout the episode but drew on the back. He eventually gets it done, but the for a moment there, it was like, 'Ah, yes, of course he's a doodler.'
- Tristan using his artistic skills to help come up with a solution for the abscess (for that time, a risky surgery) was interesting. He comes off as a visual learner who seems unaware of being a visual learner.
- Oh, yeah, and Hugh proposes to Helen.
