A Look at Fackham Hall – This Fast-Paced, Humorous Parody of Downton Abbey That's Refreshingly Lightweight.

It could be the notion of uncertain days around us: after years of inactivity, the comedic send-up is enjoying a comeback. The recent season witnessed the re-emergence of this playful category, which, in its finest form, mocks the grandiosity of overly serious genres with a barrage of pitched clichés, sight gags, and stupid-clever puns.

Playful times, it seems, create an appetite for deliberately shallow, gag-packed, refreshingly shallow amusement.

A Recent Addition in This Absurd Trend

The most recent of these goofy parodies is Fackham Hall, a parody of Downton Abbey that jabs at the very pokeable pretensions of gilded British period dramas. Penned in part by British-Irish comedian Jimmy Carr and directed by Jim O'Hanlon, the film has plenty of source material to draw from and exploits every bit of it.

Starting with a ridiculous beginning to a outrageous finale, this enjoyable upper-class adventure fills every one of its hour and a half with jokes and bits running the gamut from the puerile to the genuinely funny.

A Mimicry of Upstairs, Downstairs

Similar to Downton, Fackham Hall presents a spoof of extremely pompous the nobility and excessively servile servants. The plot centers on the incompetent Lord Davenport (played by a wonderfully pretentious Damian Lewis) and his book-averse wife, Lady Davenport (Katherine Waterston). Having lost their male heirs in various unfortunate mishaps, their hopes now rest on marrying off their daughters.

The junior daughter, Poppy (Emma Laird), has achieved the family goal of a promise to marry the right first cousin, Archibald (a perfectly smarmy Tom Felton). However when she pulls out, the onus transfers to the single elder sister, Rose (Thomasin McKenzie), who is an old maid of a woman" and who harbors dangerously modern notions concerning women's independence.

The Film's Laughs Works Best

The film is significantly more successful when sending up the oppressive expectations placed on pre-war ladies – a topic typically treated for self-serious drama. The stereotype of respectable, enviable womanhood provides the richest material for mockery.

The narrative thread, as one would expect from a deliberately silly parody, is secondary to the jokes. The writer serves them up arriving at a consistently comedic clip. There is a killing, an incompetent investigation, and a forbidden romance involving the charming street urchin Eric Noone (Ben Radcliffe) and Rose.

Limitations and Pure Silliness

It's all for harmless amusement, however, this approach has limitations. The dialed-up foolishness characteristic of the genre might grate over time, and the mileage for this specific type diminishes at the intersection of sketch and a full-length film.

After a while, audiences could long to return to a realm of (at least a modicum of) reason. Nevertheless, one must applaud a genuine dedication to the craft. In an age where we might to amuse ourselves relentlessly, we might as well laugh at it.