downton abbey

Downton Abbey 6:4 Review

First things first: an observation. Downton has fallen pretty far from grace, if I can make any conclusions based on the sort of response these reviews get. Gone are the halcyon days of yore, when Downton was a major pull in pop culture. These days, there are a few stalwart fans sticking with the show, but by and large, the rest of the world has moved on. Which is sort of fitting, I suppose, considering what the theme of this last season of Downton is all about. That said, on to the episode! I enjoyed it, overall. Nothing really gasp-worthy, […]

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Downton Abbey 6:2 and 6:3

I lost a week from the funeral, so you get a two for one special from me today on Downton. Good thing, because 6:2 left a fair bit to be desired . . . My main beef with 6:2 was that so many of the conflicts centered around the same problem: lack of communication. I get that it’s a common occurrence, but who wants to see it portrayed fifty different ways in a single hour? So much of the time, I just wanted to reach into the screen and throttle these people until they started behaving reasonably. Let’s give it

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Downton 6:1 Review

Ah, Downton. Back for one last season. I’ve stuck with you for this long. I might as well stick with you to the very end. (If you haven’t been following along over the years, I have been doing Downton responses for the last four years or so. Welcome to the final series of those.) Last season was a mixed bag. It started out so-so, took a turn for the terrible, and then redeemed itself. (I gave the episodes the following ratings: one–2/5, two–2/5, three–1/5, four–0/5, five–1/5, six–3/5, seven–2/5, eight–4/5, nine–5/5. That’s a whole lot of slog to get through before

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Downton Abbey 5.9 Review: The Christmasing

It’s been an up and down season for Downton this time around. What started as pretty weak (for Downton standards) really came into its own over the last few episodes. So the question then becomes, how will it finish? With a bang or a whimper? Often the Christmas specials are the best ones (for values of Christmas specials that don’t involve bloody car wrecks at the end of them), so I had high hopes going into this finale. They were easily met. This was by far the strongest episode of the season, and one of the best of the series.

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Downton 5.8: The Season Finally Got Good

Well, it took an entire season, but the show finally had a really solid episode. Almost fantastic, really. (I’ll get to you in a minute, Anna and Bates.) I know many people have given up on the show a long time ago, and there have certainly been a few times this season when I’ve envied them. But then something like episode 8 rolls along, with (almost) everything running just as it should, and it makes me glad I muddle through the bad episodes, just so I can see the good ones. When the show is good, it’s as solid as

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