SPOILER ALERT! This post is intended for those who have already seen Season 5 Episode 1
Downton Abbey is back! Much as I dislike the fact that we have to wait 4 months later than the Brits for our Downton fix, it does help to brighten the cold dark winter months doesn't it? I keep asking myself why I enjoy this miniseries so much and all I come up with is that the eye candy and the humour keep me going. That and the fact that Julian Fellowes has us truly attached to these characters after all these years and event.
I mean Lady Mary is going all slutty-Season-1 again for us (hurrah!), Thomas (I still can't get used to calling him Barrow) is still doing his evil even without O'Brien egging him on. And the tenderness between good old Molesley and Cora's new ladies maid with the secret is adorable. I just love Molesley! The hair dye thing was a hoot!
Many thanks to Lord Fellowes for writing Anna Chancellor a wonderfully cougarish part as Lady Anstruther, who has to come sniffing around for Jimmy when he doesn't reply to her letters. Bravo!
And Lady Edith's frustration with the whole Michael Gregson/lost to the Nazis/Marigold being raised by the farmer-come-fireman, conveniently gave us the mini-fire plot mover. Edith chucks the book in the fire, Thomas Barrow is saved again and off goes Jimmy to London!
But the whole Miss Sarah Bunting thing is really getting to me I am afraid. What a horrible character. She is enough to keep Branson as toffee-nosed as Lord Grantham would want for the moment. Ugh!
So with Daisy learning Algebra, the tedious war memorial plot, Lord Merton sniffing around Isabel to Dowager Violet's chagrin and Baby Sybbie calling her grandfather Donk, we have a promising start to the new Downton Abbey year!
Now let's just get Lady Rose married off, or at least Lady Mary or Lady Edith. We need a real wedding for a change!
Best Lines of the Week:
Lord Grantham: I couldn't care less if he was the son of Foo Manchu!
Countess Violet: There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends, that's the real test!
Countess Violet to Lord Grantham: Your father always told the village what they wanted.
Sarah Bunting: The rule of the gong. It sounds like life in a religious order.
Lady Shackleton: A single peer with a good estate won't be lonely long, if he doesn't want to be.
Countess Violet: You sound like Mrs. Bennett!
Lord Grantham: Do people think we're a public house on the great road north?
Lord Grantham: Molesley, you look very Latin all of a sudden. Do you have Italian blood?
Lady Ansthruther: Look at your parents, thirty-four years. I'd never manage it. That's the advantage of an older husband. One gets an early release.
Countess Violet: Principles are like prayers. Noble of course, but awkward at a party.
Happy 2015 and for an extra treat, here is a link to the George Clooney Downton Abbey spoof which was an ITV fundraiser for Text Santa. It's a hoot, especially Maggie Smith literally rolling on the floor laughing after having her hand kissed by George Ocean Gravity, The Marquis of Hollywood!
Lord Hollywood Part 1
Lord Hollywood Part 2
I read this, and I haven't seen it. Anything DA is too unresistable for me. :-) Oh, and I LOVE how the Dowager made a p&p reference! She's SO my favourite character!
ReplyDeleteHi Naomi! I hope you have been watching DA so far as the Dowager has been getting some great storylines. The older ladies are getting most of the romance this year!
DeleteSo many plot lines, new and old, but IMO Molesley's hair and Spratt (what a prat!) stole the show.
ReplyDeleteIs Jimmy/James really going to leave us? Will Mary and Lord Gillingham really get as daring as he suggests? Is Edith ever going to look happy again? And why doesn't she at least give the other Drewe kids a glance or two when she's fawning over Marigold? I'm sorry, I know she's suffering, but that's really cold. At least her congratulatory comment after the school award ceremony made up for it a little bit.
WHY did Baxter steal the jewelry, and why won't she tell us the backstory (which I'm sure will vindicate her)? Will Lord Merton get wise to the DC's attempts to sidetrack him, and will Isobel ever learn to appreciate Merton's charm and devotion? Is Sarah Bunting going to make Daisy a math whiz, and what will that mean for Daisy's future?
Cora seems to be getting back some of her war-time moxie -- good for her! -- and poor Robert seems as clueless as ever, on just about everything.
Love. This. Show. My anguished cry as the final scene faded out: "They're leaving us HERE?!!?!!!"
Hi JB! Sorry for the delay in my replies. I am now a Spratt devotee as well. I hope the Dowager never sacks him!
DeleteWell I didn't see the end..our public station had a technical problem and cut out at the fire....they have put it online, so I'll watch it when I get home later today....
ReplyDeleteHi Gracy...if that is your name! I hope you got to catch up with the story. It is truly addictive even if it is getting rather soapy! :)
DeleteYes, the school teacher is very annoying and rather rude. First, she hesitated going to the party and after was not a very gracious guest. Lady Rose, although well meaning, ought not be such a meddler. Thomas, well there has to be something to his story yet to be discovered. Something must have happened in his past to make him so cut throat. Poor Lady Edith, that is hard to watch and Lady Mary....oh, my!
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed in Sarah Bunting character--school teachers, even radical ones, know how to behave at an anniversary party. Grrr.
ReplyDeleteOther than that I loved the first episode and enjoyed your recap of it.
I really wanted there to be a major clue in that book! I despise Bunting. She can go!
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