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Downton Abbey ITV1 promo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M3moEeErr8)

New British thing, starts in 1912, they reran the first series (7 episodes) over the weekend as it got such a massive critical reception.

Series 2 planned, I have watched the first four so far with the Mrs and it's really excellent, best thing on TV for ages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downton_Abbey

Costume drama! :yahoo:

Thanks, will watch.

Watched two episodes, really great. Recommended. You Brits sure know your way around period drama.

P.S.
Daisy is weird.

Just watched the first episode.  Good stuff.

EDIT: Just finished episode seven.  Very good stuff indeed.  I'll be looking forward to the second series.

The duchess' and Matthew's mother's ongoing battle of wits is  :awesome_for_real:

Lord Grantham: "To think Taylor’s gone off to run a tea shop. I cannot feel it will make for a very restful retirement, can you?"
Carson: "I would rather be put to death, my lord."

Necro!

Am watching this and enjoying it MUCH more than I thought I would.  I was hooked about halfway through the first episode.

Series 2 has been pretty good so far.

Unfortunately, we don't series two in the states until sometime next year.

bummer. its such a good show.

 :cthulu: RISE :cthulu:

PBS is replaying the entire first series at the beginning of the year (check your local listings), and putting up a few episodes on their website for online viewing. Then the second series starts playing in January or February (again, check your local listings).

If you've missed it, check it out. End-of-their-era Edwardians at their BBC best.

Er, it was commissioned by ITV not the BBC.

I am suitably both informed and chastened.

It's on netflix and amazon streaming as well.=

For those who aren't regular watchers of Masterpiece, the second season starts in the US next Sunday.

You can watch episodes of S2 on PBS.org after it airs as well.

Maggie Smith may get more zingers out of this than Kate Hepburn got in The Lion in Winter.

The interaction between her and Mrs. Crowley is one of the best parts of the show.

This is definitely one of the best things I have watched in a while.

Yikes.  That may have been the most depressing episode of TV I've never seen. Next episode looks to more of the same.  War is hell.

Yes, quickly losing interest.  This aspect of the story has been told 1000 times; Downton pre-war was a glipse at something different.

The war will certainly be over in the next episode going by events mentioned in this last one they are at most six months or do from the end of it.

I'm a little disappointed with their decision to...

Watched the whole two seasons over a week after seeing a random episode on PBS. The show has an amazing first season with a massive cast, costumes, really great character development, and my god that theme.

(season two spoilers below)

This last episode was horrid.  Chalk full of soap opera-y crap. 

First season was quality TV, the kind of which is seldom in witness. As, previous posts specify, the repartee between Crowley's mother and Elder Lady Grantham is done well, as are the costumes and the whole eloi v. morlock theme (LOLed when H.G. Wells was invoked by Lady Grantham…)…

…I've only watched 1st episode of 2nd season, but the most of the story lines have went from sublime to simply absurd. Though to be fair, some are rooted in the last pair of episodes in the 1st season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=15BRI2_GlK8

So, is no one watching this? I can't be the only one. Am I finally too old for my peers?

I've seen all three seasons already.

Here too. Really enjoying it. Just for some reason not much to talk about I guess? Like any number of good quality but discontroversial shows maybe?

Same here, we've had it with PBS. I liked it in general and was pleasantly surprised by Shirley McClain who I was rather dreading. It's weird seeing what we watched a while back treated as current.

This season isn't terrible so far.  Matthew is a bit of a bitch, and the legal aspects of their primarily issue bothered my wife.

 

Also,

 

I'll keep watching, although knowledge of issues outside of the show means that this season will likely end in an unsatisfactory way.

Second season lost me because it became soapy and dumb almost from moment one. Haven't felt the need to tune back in.

I've heard that from other folks too, so will ask what I did them: at what point did this historical soap become too soapy? I went into it figuring it was going to be like a more tolerable General Hospital being set 100 years ago. Maybe it was low expectations :-)

I agree with Rasix though. Matthew was being a bitch.

What do you mean? Like RL actor drama?

Yep, like it always is. Be thankful you don't have a sister-in-law that reads TV gossip columns.

The thing that really annoyed me at the start of season 2 was the Bates storyline. They've set up this interesting character and this great political struggle inside the downstairs half of the cast, and then we get this whole story that is one step away from giving him an evil twin--that pulls him out of this great little world they spent a whole season building up.

Pretty much everyone hates the Bates storyline as far as I can tell.

Yea I really don't get it. Heck, I can accept prostitute lady as part and parcel with the era. And this coming Sunday's episode looks like it's kind some bit of abandonment drama.

But this Bates thing: wtf? I sincerely hope there's some master plan where he comes back all macho and taking-no-shit like Tom Selleck from An Innocent Man. Even though that too would be a retarded story arc for Downtown Abbey*, at least it would give some context to this wierd branch.

* I did like "we could call it Downtown Place"  :oh_i_see:

This show is definitely suffering from "wrote exactly one superb, self-contained season" syndrome. The same amount of love and dedication simply have not been present since the start of series two, but since all the same characters and actors and sets and trappings are present we poor dumb audience members keep watching hoping they'll magically become great to watch again.

This might have some errors regarding plot since it's been a while...

I watched three or four episodes of season two before abandoning it myself. The characters and relationships became too established far too early on. Already in season one I felt Mary falling in love with Matthew was much too convenient, but could accept it. In season two they had become soulmates and Matthew's new girl was such an obvious red herring. Bates and Anna were the same, starcrossed lovers whose future together was telegraphed with a sledgehammer. Edith's tryst with the farmer was altogether unconvincing. Branson's profession of love to Sybil was hammy and sentimental and lacked personal risk and therefore substance.

Amidst all the lame-handed relationship drama, the estate drama fell by the wayside, which further undermined the former, since the show no longer had any proper overarcing storyline. It was all bits and pieces of sentimentality that didn't feel like it built toward a climax or really much of anything.

I guess the bottom line is that the lack of commitment in writing ruined believability for me. There was no real conflict where someone actually risked something tangible. They were all being too nice.

Season 2:

Season 3 (this is a full season spoiler, don't read if you're watching it in the US):

Downton Abbey for the SNES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3C454Xye_W0

:awesome_for_real: pillow fluffing

Full Season 3 + Xmas spoilers

Downton Arbys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NMykqW9ibiY

FYI: Its streaming free to Amazon Prime members.

Or, you know, PBS.

Amazon claiming "exclusive" but yes, you can stream these right off of PBS (via Web or even their iPad app, which we use AirPlay to beam unto big screen) right now (or at least up to the current U.S. episode showing) instead of waiting until June.

I checked out the season 3 bluray from the local library this week. Am going through a marathon today.

My wife watched the entire first 2 seasons in a weekend on Comcast's OnDemand. Then started in on Season 3, which is also on OnDemand for those with the misfortune to have Comcast. I started and have so far made it through episode 2, season 1. I like it. It's on my list of things to watch once I catch up to Spartacus.