Good Show! Sundays with Downton Abbey

I once hosted a Twin Peaks party. Many friends joined me to watch the TV drama, eating cherry pie and drinking damn fine cups of hot, black coffee as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper tried to figure out who murdered Laura Palmer. The show was smart, quirky, inventive — unlike so many other TV shows of the time, which is why I was sucked in.
 


Over the years, as family and work obligations have taken center stage, watching TV hasn't been high on my list of priorities. I've avoided making commitments to various series because I know I'll miss episodes and feel irritated at falling behind. Instead, I wait until a series has run its course and then, when I can, I watch complete seasons, without commercials, on DVD.
 


It's amazing what you can find at your public library. Last summer, I picked up and watched the complete Pushing Daisies (only two seasons long, unfortunately), and all six seasons of Lost. I'm eager to get up to speed on 30 Rock, Mad Men, Glee, Rome and Dexter.  
 


But they'll have to wait because I'm hooked on Downton Abbey. Seriously hooked. After watching the first season over several nights in the fall on the recommendation of a friend, I've abandoned my watch-it-later rule. I'm now glued to the set on Sunday nights for Season Two, which started airing on Jan. 8 as part of PBS' Masterpiece series.

And I'm seriously contemplating hosting a drinks party to coincide with the last episode or maybe the two-hour Christmas Special, which aired in the UK in December, though I have no idea when we Americans will get to watch it (Warning: Do not even Google "Downton Abbey Christmas Special" unless you're prepared to read spoilers!) 
 


Is Downton Abbey that good? Yes.

If you don't know, Downton Abbey is the story of life at an Edwardian country house. It begins in 1912 at...



"...an estate [that] stands as a splendid example of confidence and mettle, its family enduring for generations and its staff a well-oiled machine of propriety. But change is afoot at Downton — change far surpassing the new electric lights and telephone. A crisis of inheritance threatens to displace the resident Crawley family, in spite of the best efforts of the noble and compassionate Earl, Robert Crawley; his American heiress wife, Cora; his comically implacable, opinionated mother, Violet; and his beautiful, eldest daughter, Mary, intent on charting her own course."  
 


Not everyone's cup of tea (pun intended). But there's so much to like. It's smart, but not stuffy. The characters are well written and complex — the servants downstairs and the lord, his lady and their three daughters upstairs. The costumes are gorgeous, the country house is authentic, the story is compelling, an historical drama that manages to seem very modern.  
 


"This fascinating period is the beginning of the modern era as we know it," said Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, explaining why he set the series in the early 20th century. "There are no high-bosomed ladies skipping down the stairs to collect a letter as you'd get in a Jane Austen novel — people had cars, electricity and telephones. They had begun to commute on the Underground, and families were getting pensions and mortgages. There is so much we can relate to."
 

There's also humor, subtle and clever. Maggie Smith, who plays Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham, has the best zingers. There's this exchange, with the would-be heir to Downton Abbey, Matthew Crawley.
 


Violet: [rocks unexpectedly in her chair] Good heavens! What am I sitting on?


Matthew: A swivel chair.


Violet: Oh, another modern brainwave?


Matthew: [smiling] Not very modern. They were invented by Thomas Jefferson.


Violet: Why does every day involve a fight with an American?


Matthew: I’ll fetch a different one.


Violet: No, no, no, no. I’m a good sailor.
  

Or Violet's back-and-forth with Matthew's mother, Mrs. Crawley, which one site has dubbed "When snarky old ladies collide."  
 


Violet: You are quite wonderful the way you see room for improvement wherever you look. I never knew such reforming zeal.


Mrs. Crawley: I take that as a compliment.


Violet: I must have said it wrong.
 


I'm not the only one who's hooked. The season premiere averaged 4.2 million viewers — not including viewers who watched later station replays or checked out the show on DVR. That was double PBS' usual prime-time average and 18% higher than Downton's first-season average, according to PBS.  



Season Two runs through Feb. 19, five more Sundays to enjoy the machinations of O'Brien and Thomas, to untangle the romantic tangle between Mary, Matthew and Lavinia, to see if Mr. Bates and Anna can figure things out. What the heck am I talking about? See for yourself. You don't even have to make a trip to the library. PBS has the full episodes from Season 1 and the first from Season 2 online, ready for viewing. Good show! — CG

Photo of Downton Abbey cast courtesy of Masterpiece/PBS, via KPBS

Photo of Maggie Smith, courtesy of PBS