Pajiba

Goddamn't what am I missing here?

Farewell indeed. I loved season 1 so much and hated season 2 sooo much.

I wasn't crazy about season two, but I have high hopes for season three.

Yes season two wasn't quite as awesome but Maggie Smith people. Can you really find fault while Maggie Smith breathes air. AND BRANSON!

BATES FOREVER.

Au revoir

There, I fixed that for you.

I might have to get into Downton just for Shirley.

And, clearly, CLEARLY....the hats

Bates?? Really?? God I can't take his sanctimonious martydom. I'm sure he's innocent, but I wish they'd hang him anyway. I have no tolerance for men who think they are too noble to shit. Anna could do better.

Everyone is complaining about Season 2, but I loved it. Look, it's a soap. A magically costumed, gorgeously shot soap, and Season 2 embraced that with more and more ludicrous plotlines and more and more sexual tension - which is why I come to Downton! None of it is well-written; but it's pretty as hell and has great cliffhangers.

It's not War and Peace, people. It's Days of Our Edwardian Lives. [And I love it for that].
Now fetch me another serving of repressed sexuality in pretty dresses, thank you, Carson.

SPOILERS

1. I'm sorry, but Bates and Anna's love scenes squeaked me out. EWWWWWWWWWW! He's old and fat and milquetoast and has no backbone. Anna's only with him because she doesn't get out much, and William was smitten with Daisy and Thomas is a gay asshole (love to hate him).

2. Maggie Smith can do no wrong. She steals every scene she's in. I'm currently Netflixing stuff she did in her youth (well, her 30's and 40's). I've got a disk of a double feature of a monologue, and then a play with Tom Baker (pre Dr. Who) and Charles Gray (no neck M).

3. Cora's accent bothers me, but I know it's the actress' real accent, which bothers me even more.

4. They just don't know what to do with Edith.

5. In real life, Mary and Sybil would have been disowned and Edith would be the sought after sister (as long as she wasn't tainted by association).

6. With the speed they've been skipping years, aren't these girls like 30 now? They haven't aged a day, but their dresses have.

7. How does O'Brien get her hair to do that? Don't tell me. I really don't want to know.

8. Anyone else think that Lord Grantham is the secret father of the widowed maid's son. It was like they knew each other from "before" and were picking it back up. He kept doing nice things for the son.

I'm a bit sad, but thanks to Netflix streaming, I can visit whenever I want.

I was a bit swoony over Matthew and Mary at the end. Sure, fake snow and hackneyed phrases, but his eyes are just too blue to resist. And disheveled Thomas was a lovely sight.

Did anyone else's PBS have a little behind the scenes interview-y thing on Sunday night? Ours did, and I'm now even more swoony over Matthew. Guess I'll need to imdb him & watch some other stuff.

I only recently started watching Downton, so I never saw the first season. I don't know what it is, since a lot of things were and still are mysteries to me. But I still liked it. It is totally soap-opera like, but much... classier (...dude, I HATE it when people refer to things as "classy" it sounds SO white trash, must find thesaurus) than watching Nicky and Victor or Luke and Laura.

And Maggie Smith is hilarious, who ever is writing her dialogue deserves a slap on the ass for a job well done. And the clothes and set... yeah, I'd watch it even if they made Lady Edith a pole dancer.

and of course... the hats.

Not my cuppa, but I get the sense that the true lust in the loins for Ms. J are the hats.

I'm with everyone who wants Bates and Anna to go away. Especially Bates. It's come to the point that I mute the TV when he has any lines. He's supposed to be noble and righteous and he just comes across as the most boring, annoying, self-aware martyr TV has ever seen (and I speak as someone who was raised by the Queen of Self-aware Martyrs) .
I really want Bates to hang. I have no doubt his wife killed herself if she had to listen to him moaning on for more than five minutes. There have been many Bates-centric scenes where I would have reached for the arsenic myself if I had any.

And as I mentioned yesterday:
I want Anna to find an age-appropriate fun man.
I want them to stop making the only gay character so evil that Jodeph Stalin looks like a teddy bear in comparison.
I shall also miss our Sunday night drinking game of taking a shot every time the Turkish diplomat was mentioned....although Monday mornings may seem a lot less fuzzy now

Oh, oh, if anyone still has it handy, do yourself a favour: Go the episode (SPOILER) where Matthew starts to walk again and fast forward to the scene where they tell the family. Elizabeth McGovern/Cora Crawley's face is a symphony of exquisitely bad acting. She looks a 7 year old in in a school play who is pretending to be excited to get ice cream. Look for it, you won't be disappointed. I'd be willing to pay for a GIF of it.

I believe The Guardian reviewer started the trend of referring to Bates as Eeyore. He deserves a journalism award for that one.

Can't

click

link.

I can see it but it won't take me anywhere.

What sexual tension, Slash? Banana/Eeyore & Anna? Ick. Matthew and Mary? You know they'd be living in a tense silence after the first 6 weeks of marriage.

Maria Doyle Kennedy looked damn good, but let's face it, crazy people are hot.

I'm pretty sure she wasn't crazy when she married Bates. I see it as a long process of trying hard to put up with his endless miserable demeanor; thinking she had some respite from him in a cozy Bates-free jail cell when she stole the regimental silver until he turned that around on her and took the blame himself; and then finally snapping one day and descending into full madness.

Eh, I also don't get the lust/love for Bates. I mean, he put his loyalty to his boss's family ahead of the happiness of the woman he supposedly loves. I guess I have no sense of romance, but I don't get how that makes him a romantic hero. A good employee, sure, but NOT a good boyfriend.
But whatever, it leaves more Branson for me.

Paddydog,
You may be right about Mrs. Bates, but I've seen too many people who are manipulative and hateful, and their long suffering spouses, to think otherwise. Our experiences drive our perceptions.
It may be my limited (read: American) knowledge of the time, but wasn't this type of behavior toward the aristocracy, and rigid class disctinction, a mark of this period? The horrible losses during the War was a catalyst of change, and I think the show does try to portray that. Bates' loyalty to Crawley stretches back at least 20 years, and it seemed logical to me that he'd fall on his own sword. Stiff upper lip and all that.

I can go with that. Party on!

Brother Julien is in the process of divorcing a sadness junkie. Perhaps Anna is one of those.

Season 2 was certainly mediocre compared to the first, but dammit, Mary and Matthew twirling in the snow at the end gave me all sorts of warm fuzzies. That scene alone made me forgive the show for jumping the tracks for most of this season. Yes, I'm an idiot romantic at heart. Sue me. I love that they're together and happy and engaged.

What confused me more than anything about the last episode is how in the hell the prosecutor seemed to know about every single one of their private conversations at Downton. Was he hiding in the closets? How could he have known about Hughes eavesdropping on Bates and Vera? I don't get it.

beckster.
Me too. It was as if there were hidden microphones in the whole house, even in Grantham's dressing room. I can only think that Isis has been selling secrets on the sly. It was so ridiculous, and let's not even talk about the fact that Bates' own lawyer seemed not to bother defending him at all.

@PaddyDog
Of course this is Lord Fellowes' rosy-hued view of the wonders of aristocratic rule, lordly benevolence, etc., etc.
What I find kind of hilarious are the VIEWERS who see Bates' behavior as crushworthy. "Oh, your guy thinks the reputation of his boss's family is more important than you?" *swoon*
I guess it's the Edwardian equivalent of bros before hos.
Re. Carson's pecker: Ha! I wish that scene had been in there. Doesn't Carson have some sort of heart condition, though? He might be worried that it wouldn't live up to expectations. What he SHOULD have done was make that a condition of Thomas's rehire -- you know, to prove his loyalty to the Crawley family honor and all. And then, when Bates inevitably martyrs himself again, Thomas won't have to resort to dog-napping.
I actually don't hate Bates, I just find him kind of tedious. And the show is such soapy fun that I am going to miss it.

Ah of course. Patton Oswald.

Thank you.

God help me, but I want "A Very Carson Christmas"...as well as Hugh Bonneville, that golden voiced hottie.

Love this show.

I know people hate on season 2, but I have to say one thing. It could have easily become a war show for much longer than it did. I respect that it didn't. I mean think about it, war=drama on a silver platter. They could have ridden that wave of tears for much longer and they didn't, which I respect because the show is called " downton abbey" after all.

About the Anna bates lovin, I found it refreshing. There was no panting or humping,It was nice to see anyone but washboard abs and fake tits all the time.

Maggie Smith and Shirley MacLaine? He who interrupts will suffer dreadfully!!

I've looked through the comments and haven't seen this anywhere...but I really think that Sir Richard killed the awful Mrs. Bates. He was in London the same time that Bates was...and he has a motive...Mrs. Bates could have tried to get more money out of him by trying to revive the dead Turk story..but I do confess to a Bates crush..as noble and pudgy seems to work for me...

This is just what I've been in search of all day long. Don't stop updating your blog.