My Newest Guilty Pleasure - Downton Abbey?

I'd heard about it, but had written it off because it lacked space ships, Ninjas, Vampires, and gratuitous mayhem. Earlier this week though, I decided that since I've watched everything else on Netflix, I'd give it a try.

Watched the entire first series on Netflix, and my Aunt's got the second on DVD. Hopefully I can catch up before Sunday!

So I've already taken up gardening,canning, and baking...and now I'm hooked on what's essentially a period Soap Opera. I've officially become my Grandmother.

Well, this did receive praise from all directions and an 8.9 on imdb... haven't watched it, however.

Great show. Not a guilty pleasure for me at all, I really enjoy watching it.

Keep hearing people talk about this. May have to check it out.

Wife madero watch it all last month. Such commentary on English society.

I'm hooked, but then I'm the target demographic. Still, I never cared for Upstairs, Downstairs.

Last time I was at Biltmore House, I did the "Behind The Scenes" tour. The servant areas there are the same as in the series. They lived in the "attic" but worked in the "basement".

I've got to say though, Carson's pantry has absolutely nothing on Biltmore's butler's pantry.

I was a little disappointed by Shirley MacLaine's appearance, given all the hype.

Maggie Smith gets all the best lines, though.

Maggie Smith could read the numbers from 1 to 256 billion and I'd be hooked.

Paging MAoHS...thoughts on last night's episode?

(When I saw how Thomas the valet reacted to the news, I thought of you.)

I think they should do a series about a hooker, set in modern London, called "Downtown Abby."

Very sad. Although, "Maybe she just has fat ankles" made me choke on my popcorn.

Kinda saw it coming though.

He's full of surprises. Of course, he and she were actually kind of close. Next week he'll be back to being his nasty self. I want to sympathize with him, but he's such a jerk most of the time. I have a feeling O'Brien's about to spring what ever trap she's been patiently baiting.

Yeah, me too. Shame the nice sister had to be the one to go. But it does set up a future battle between Tom and the Crawleys to determine the baby's fate.

Oh, yeah. O'Brien's setting him up for a charge of sexual harassment, "unseemly" being the key word there.

Nice to see him showing he is human after all, though. And I kind of thought you might be sniffling a little over Sybil.

Yeah. Mary started out nasty, but has been maturing, Edith started out pathetic, but has been moving toward nasty (though it's hard to hold it against her...poor girl cannot catch a break), but Sybil is the only one that was just plain nice all the way through...albeit a rebel.

I felt like once they introduced Tom they just had no idea where to go with her character. Her entire story revolved around does she love him? Yes, no, yes, no, yes, no, oh they're running away, oh they're getting married, oh she's gone to Ireland never to be seen again. Not to mention she always stuck up for herself until she became a doormat to her complete dick of a husband. It's sad, her character had a lot more potential than that.

^A "complete dick"? Why?

Nah. He's way more complex than that. He went from "downstairs" to "upstairs".

I just watched the Christmas Special that comes at the end of season 3 - you guys have to catch up so we can talk about it, I'm chomping at the bit here.

For some peculiar reason, my PBS station played that before the rest of S3. I guess they figured "It's Christmas, throw it out there." Refused to watch it out of order. Hope they're smart enough to run it again once they get to the end of S3.

Considering the major events that happen in the Christmas Special, that's a HUGE mistake by PBS. I'm shocked they'd do that.

They played the special where it takes place in Scotland first?

Yeah, weird. I didn't watch more than a few minutes of it, because I'd missed the beginning, and I hate coming in in the middle of something. Checked the TV Guide and then IMDb and realized it was out of order, so I shut it off.

Maybe it was intentional, or maybe somebody at KOCE screwed up. I dunno.

It's PBS.

Okay, I've found myself not only fully sympathizing and feeling sorry for Thomas, I'm even rooting for him (or at least against O'Brien), even though he's a mean, hateful, evil scheming hump. I suspect that there's a serious butt stomping coming his way soon thanks to O'Brien.

Side note, The Warden-in-law was in for the weekend, and in getting her caught up with season three, we streamed the episodes from PBS.org on Saturday, and it looked as if they had all the episodes through 7.

No doubt. He'll eventually make an outright pass at Jimmy, Jimmy'll deck him, and Carson will sack them both.

I'm beginning to suspect that Mr. Bates is actually Jesus H. Christ.

With just a touch of the blackmailer. Very complex character - magnanimous whenever possible, but ruthless when needed. I almost have to wonder if he really did kill Vera after all.

Something else: While I enjoyed the machinations (Will Jimmy rat Barrow out or won't he? Will O'Brien win this one or finally get her comeuppance?), I couldn't help but wonder whether there wasn't a bit of revisionist history injected into the "Thomas can't help being what he is" theme. I doubt the majority, particularly downstairs, would be as forgiving of his proclivities IRL.

Mrs. Shoes thinks he did it.

I disagree.

Yeah, Lady Sybil marries "The Chauffeur" or Branson decides his daughter will be <gasp> Catholic, and apoplexy abounds, but Thomas basically sexually assaults Jimmy at a time where just being gay is a crime, and most everybody's like, meh....how was he to know Jimmy was straight? .