Downton Abbey

[Honeybee]

Okay, I'm only catching up on the first season of this phenom on Netflix, but it's rather delicious and soapy and all costume-y.

Anyone else watching?

[Artisticmom2]

Yup! We previewed the first couple of episodes so we could find another historical show to watch with our kids. We had just finished watching Larkrise to Candleford (another good historical drama). Other then the one scene in the first show... we thought it would be good to go. We put it down for some reason... oh, a friend lent us the first two seasons of Enterprise! ANYhow, we liked it and can't wait to get back to it.

[Honeybee]

I'm really liking it, though I'm not fond of the nominal heroine, Lady Mary. I find myself on Team Edith all too often!

I think Thomas and O'brien are great, hissable villains. Maggie Smith is wonderful. I like Isboel (although she'll always be Jones, Harriet Jones to me).

And I adore the low key Anna and Bates romance. Talk about rootable. Bates is a great hero. I like the undercurrent that him and the Earl would be good friends if class didn't separate them. They are sort of friends now, but only as much as two men of such a huge class difference can be.

[BobReed]

I have only seen season 2 but my favourite characters are Anna and bates, out of the upstairs people I like m'lord and civil.

Can't what happened to bates, I think that the Richard man was the real killer of that lady and he did it to stop her going to the other publishers. He went in the same car and train as baits and at the same time. I don't think the trail was very fair.

[Glory1863]

I only saw some of it when it originally aired, but WTTW reran the whole first season before last Sunday night's debut of season 2, so I got caught up. Apparently, it did rather well. I really enjoy these period soap operas with high production values. If the BBC stops producing them, then I am really going to be in trouble. Network TV here just doesn't do shows like this! The only thing that kind of bugged me was that the only gay characters rather predictably fell into Honeybee's hissable villains category.

Just a gentle reminder to our members in the UK. We're a year behind you in seeing this series. Please consider using spoiler bars where appropriate.

[Honeybee]

Episode 2 of Season 2 airs tonight! Will Lady Sybil and the socialist Irish chauffeur finally connect? Will Lady Mary become the Wendy Deng of Sir Richard's life? Will Bates pipe up for once so Anna and Lord Crowley can help the poor man? Will Thomas find a nice roommate?

[BobReed]

Are you just getting season 2 now? What country are you in?

[Glory1863]

Some of us are in the US, BobReed. Downton Abbey is being carried here by PBS rather than a commercial network or cable. How that works is that TBTB at PBS watch the series. If they like it, then they decide to buy, rent, lease or whatever so they can broadcast it here. Then they have 6283 pledge drives (at least is seems like it) to scrape up the money. Then we get to see it. It takes awhile! Pretty much works the same way for Sherlock, Inspector Lewis, Doctor Who and just about anything Jane Austin.

[Honeybee]

In the USA, we are just getting season 2.

[tish]

Yes, my daughter hooked me on to Downton Abbey's first season last fall. We get it with Netflix. I watched it all in one week, I loved it sooooooo much! We both just started season 2, and we both adore Anna and Bates.

I did not realize season 2 was already viewing elsewhere....so I guess we are on to spoiler bars again! Doctor Whomall over again.