Downton Abbey (but mostly Thomas)

thomas making sure tom is having the most uncomfortable lunch of his life....the awkward silence when thomas purposefully doesn't answer until tom adds 'mr barrow' at the end of his sentence....thomas' clenched fist in the foreground WITH sound effects...the way you can slowly see the will to live leave tom's eyes as the scene goes on....a true masterpiece

my loneliness is killing me | my loneliness ain’t killing me no more

#tfw you are an edwardian era gay butler trying to claw your way out of a life of anonymous servitude#& into some kind of love or relevance#via ur extremely awful lesbian best friend and a variety of plots & schemes#except walls have ears and the house is haunted and literally everyone is out to get you all the time.#so you get yourself shot and take up chainsmoking and try to ruin everyone’s lives before they can ruin yours#but somehow the good guys are always a step ahead; all you’re doing is making enemies#but it’s alright. ‘cause one day you’ll beat the game and none of them will be able to touch you.#well surprise they get you in the end! just not in the way you always thought they would#the house now knows every sin and weakness you’ve ever had#and instead of spitting you out it’s devoured you whole#and now all that’s left to do is die there#no rest for the wicked ( @ophelia-thinks )

Thoma trying to be nice by being mean to the grocery store delivery man and by buying everyone a soda at the fair

Thomas trying to be nice but being so bad at it (+ nobody expects it from him) that no one realizes that’s what he’s doing is my favorite thing. And by favorite, I mean when I think about for more than 3 seconds I get incredibly sad because this is part of how he ends up so isolated, but also it is So Relatable and funny and I giggle with delight at each instance.

I don’t think Downton Abbey gets enough credit for introducing a gay central character to a period drama in 2010, where being gay isn’t his defining trait. His defining trait is that he’s Evil.

one of the moments the strikes me the most in downton abbey is when thomas is interviewing at dryden park, and sir reresby is describing the splendor of the past, recalling watching the ladies going up the stairs for the night, their faces lit by their candles as they walk up into the dark. it's 1924. the great houses have had electricity for a decade or more. many of these great houses are shuttering. thomas looks on as this man, who's outlived his wife and has no surviving children, is left in the past and it's devastating every time