Downton Abbey seasons 1-2

By RedAmarilla (Flickr: National Television Awards 2012) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

As some of you have already noticed, we have a new page telling you what shows we will be blogging about and what days of the week to expect posts on each show. That way things aren’t so random and you know when to stop in. Be sure to drop by Sunday for unlisted shows, books, and movies, and Tuesdays for music. Something you also might have noticed is that we listed “Downton Abbey” as one of our regularly covered shows. You may be thinking, “What the heck IS that show? Why do I keep hearing about it? This blog has never mentioned that show before, so why is it now in one of the coveted ‘regularly covered spots’ and not [insert your favorite show that we rudely ignore most of the time]?

Well, we’re addicted to Downton Abbey now, that’s why. We cover what we love SO MUCH that we also want to write about it. We watched four episodes of Downton last year, but we got too busy to finish all the episodes and bookmarked it for later. This very week, we started watching it again and by the end of season one, we were completely hooked. There are only six episodes in season one and nine episodes in season two, plus a Christmas episode. Even though they are about an hour long each (and some are longer), we breezed through it and are now having withdrawals.

The show is set in England, from 1912-1920. That’s eight years in two seasons, so yeah, the show moves fast. Downton Abbey is a rich family’s house. The show follows the family’s lives, loves, and dramas, as well as those of the family’s servants and a few friends. Do you like Pride and Prejudice, Anne of Green Gables, and stuff like that? Well, you’ll love this. The dialogue is witty, snappy, and refined. The characters are interesting. The action is in the conversations and relationships. No scene is wasted. It’s clean, it’s fun, it’s romantic, and it’s a quality import.

For those of you who have seen it: l;asyfoiadhf rskldf## THE LAST SCENE OF THE CHRISTMAS SPECIAL OMG WE SHIP THEM SO HARD. People we don’t care about: Bates. People we care about: Everyone else. Who we really, really care about: Mary, Matthew, Sybil, Violet, and Isobel. If you want to catch up, you have a week. Do yourself a favor and make a list of the servants as they are introduced. That's the weakness of this show: There are a lot of characters and at first it's hard to keep track of everyone. But this is like crack to us. Also, it has Maggie f***ing Smith. DUH.

Show grade so far: A-