Laughing was wrong of us, wasn’t it? We’re going to hell. But come ON; that was a ludicrous way to handle a main actor’s exit from the cast. In fact, it was so godawful that it smacked of some form of revenge on Dan Stevens by Julian Fellowes; a case of “You’re...

Okay, Julian Fellowes. You are back in our good graces again. If only we could rely on you to write every episode of Downton Abbey the way you write the final episodes of each season. It seems a typical Downton season can be broken down into three parts, in succession: first, table-setting;...

Oh, Julian Fellowes, you hack. We have to laugh, because this seems to be the pattern with Downton’s creator and writer. He’ll give us a moment of      sublime melodrama, like last week’s emotionally brutal death scene, in which the morals and mores of the aristocratic class...

To get us past all the weeping over last night’s Downton Abbey episode, let’s all discuss the cast’s modern dress at the SAG Awards. The ladies have big hair and too much makeup on. It always looks that way when we see them out of costume. Phyllis Logan, Michelle Dockery,...

Wrecked. There we were, making fun of Cora’s crazy eyes and rapidspeak  (“YOUREBEINGSILLY OFCOURSEWEHAVETOTALKTOTOM!” “IWOULDHAVESENTHERANHOURAGO!”) and Robert’s thickheaded aristocratic buffoonery, when the rug, it was pulled right out from under our feet....

This was kind of an odd episode, in retrospect. It had all the feeling of a table-setting episode; one where various characters and plot points are arranged just so, in order to pay off storylines later on. And those types of episodes are usually difficult to assess because it’s all so...

Oh dear. That didn’t take long. We’re afraid this episode represents pretty much everything that’s bad about the writing on Downton Abbey and all of Julian Fellowes’ worst instincts as a writer. The man has absolutely no sense of pacing and thinks plotting consists of...

The trick to watching any episode of Downton Abbey – if one really needs a trick to get through it at all – is to look for that one perfectly “of its time” bit of dialogue and vow to use it in conversation in the coming week. For a second, we really thought...

We’re going to a screening party of the new Downton Abbey season tomorrow night and half the cast is going to be there! Neener-neener! Jealous, bitches? We went to the same event last year and it’s one hell of a shock to see the cast in modern dress; especially the ladies, who all...

Here’s some pretty for you, gals: the men of Downton Abbey wearing the latest in fashion, styled to look like the latest in Edwardian fashion.   Hugh Bonneville in Ede & Ravenscroft GQ UK December 2012 Issue Editorial: “To The Manor Worn’ Photographer: Charlie Gray...

Darlings, let’s take a break from criticizing children and look at the official poster for Season 3 of Downton Abbey, which is out and ready to be discussed. And like all official Downton Abbey cast photos, perspective and physics take a back seat, as the cast are turned, through the...

Darlings, if you’re a fan of the show, season 3 of Downton Abbey feels like a distressingly long way away (some time early next year for U.S. kittens). But while we were scrolling through the list of topics for today (looking for something easy because those Project Runway posts really...

“Life is a game in which the player must appear ridiculous.” Given how poorly the previous season was paced – so badly that “poorly paced” serves quite well as a primary descriptor for the season – it’s a bit astonishing that so much happened in these two hours...

For the second week in a row a super-serious plot development was greeted with gales of laughter by us. “Leaped up to save her from the threat of footstools! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!” “Everyone starts dropping like flies and then gets better! Except –Oh,...

Darlings, a trio of Downton Abbey ladies (actually a duo of ladies + one maid, if you want to get pedantic about it) hit the red carpet of the 2012 London Evening Standard British Film Awards, with, shall we say, varying results.   Elizabeth McGovern Elizabeth McGovern apparently really...

We suppose it would be a bit obnoxious to start this review off with a long, healthy round of belly laughter, wouldn’t it? Because there was quite a bit of sustained belly laughter last night when they tried to foist a blow-to-the-head-causing-amnesia plot on us. The singing was bad...

The war came to Downton. Oh, sure; the war came to Downton back when Lord Grantham first announced the beginning of it at their garden party. The war came to Downton when the Crawley daughters all felt the call of responsibility and left behind (mostly) the trappings of the idle rich. The war...

This was the hour of Series 2 where everything seemed to come together. Not that the first 2 hours were a mess or anything, but there was an awful lot of catching up and setting up to do before we could get to the meat of the story. With this hour, we felt like we could see the shape of the...

War has driven right up to the front door of Downton Abbey, drastically upsetting the status quo and working its way into every corner of the house, much like the smell of Lady Mary’s burning hair caused by her new-fangled curling iron.  From where to store the sheets to centuries-old class...

Say what you will about Downton Abbey creator and lead writer Julian Fellowes, he doesn’t waste time. Not only did this first episode plunge us right in the war by sending us straight to the front lines, it checked in on every single character and introduced storylines for all of them,...

With this final installment of the first series of Downton Abbey, it seems to us that the writers did everything they could to wrap up every storyline of the series while leaving just enough dangling plot threads to entice the viewer to come back for more. Of course, ending just as World War...