Return to the House at Eaton Place - Season 2 - DVD

Film: Dark clouds hang over the house at Eaton Place. Lady Holland has died, long-time housekeeper Miss Buck has been admitted to the sanatorium with tuberculosis, and Lady Persie (Claire Foy) still vehemently refuses to leave Germany, even though tensions between the Nazi regime and England are mounting. The only bright spot is the birth of Lady Agnes' (Keeley Hawes) and Sir Hallam's (Ed Stoppard) second child. But their marriage is on increasingly shaky ground. Hallam cares too much about his diplomatic career, while Lady Agnes feels more and more left alone. Tensions are also rising among the staff. There is a rift between Mr Pritchard (Adrian Scarborough) and Mrs Thackeray (Anne Reid), whereupon the resolute cook quits her employment. But all this is just the beginning of a stirring, dark and difficult time for the residents and staff at the House at Eaton Place - a time after which nothing will ever be the same again...

After a very short first season, Return to the House at Eaton Place enters its second and concluding season with six new episodes. The sequel to the classic '70s series The House at Eaton Place didn't exactly exude pure, ideal-world romance in its first few episodes. But the paths taken in the concluding episodes are altogether even darker and at times quite heavy fare. Because in addition to all the fear, uncertainty and tension that the impending war brings, the protagonists also have to cope with all sorts of personal strokes of fate.

Abortion, adultery, betrayal, alcohol addiction, death - these are some of the central themes of the second season. True, there are always small moments of happiness, such as when Mrs. Thackeray gets to meet her little grandson or when Pritchard finally gets to fall in love. But every moment of happiness is quickly followed by bitter despair or great sadness. It almost seems as if the makers have tried with all their might to give the series more depth and to stand out more clearly from Downton Abbey, to which the comparisons almost force themselves. But unfortunately it comes at the expense of the charm that made the original series so popular.

No question, Return to the House at Eaton Place is not a bad series. The set, dialogue, and cast performances are consistently compelling. But if the first episodes had a bit of upbeat levity to offer throughout, here the viewer is increasingly crushed by the pervasive gloom. Thus, the series takes a direction from which even the creator of the original and actress of Miss Buck, Jean Marsh, has distanced herself so much that she was no longer involved in the second season - neither in front of, nor behind the camera. In fact, the tone of the series takes some getting used to. Still, it's worth getting into. Because even if these six episodes are not particularly light fare, they are worth watching and entertaining in their own way. Therefore, if you liked the first season and can accept the somewhat dreary tone of the stories, you should not miss these final episodes!

Picture + Sound: The great work that has been done here in terms of equipment, costumes and set design, comes on the DVD thanks to a good image sharpness and a coherent color scheme adequately. The picture quality rarely exceeds good TV standards. But since the action takes place primarily in the house at Eaton Place anyway, this is perfectly adequate. The same goes for the sound. There are a few minor moments where the surround channels come into play in each episode, to be sure. But primarily the quite frontally mixed dialogues and the restrained film music play the main role. Therefore, a big sound fireworks should not be expected. Good!

Extras: Unfortunately, the DVD has no bonus material to offer.

Conclusion: Return to the House at Eaton Place is a high-quality produced BBC series, which tries to stand out from other successes such as Downton Abbey by dealing intensively with much heavier themes. What was still a fairly balanced picture in the first season, repeatedly pushes the viewer's mood down significantly in the episodes of the second season. You have to get involved with that, which the good actors and the excellent set make relatively easy, though. But the cult status of its legendary predecessor series, this return to the house at Eaton Place on this gloomy way guaranteed never attain. Still, if you liked the first season and have a soft spot for historical BBC productions in general, these six episodes are not to be missed. Recommended

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp