Blog of Myself

(Source: redhotfool, via theinvertionist)

1. Classic British Drama: With the sinking of the Titanic comes the death of the two closest heirs of Downton Abbey. And, because of an absurd inheritance clause, the only person left to inherit the estate is some third cousin once removed (“Whatever that means” says a snobbish Maggie Smith). As you can imagine, the whole household is in uproar over it. Nothing like some early 1900 British drama to hold you over until another Dickens miniseries is made.
2. Julian Fellowes: The writer of Gosford Park draws on similar material in this miniseries that he also produced. He, once again, does a great job of bringing to life the British upper class and their servants. And you can probably expect a little murder mystery to appear sooner or later (especially after that incident with the poisonous salts). 
3. Upstairs/Downstairs: No good British tale is complete without a look at the servants. These servants are mostly entertaining (and bitchy and backstabbing) and not afraid to post what they overhear their masters say on Gossip Girl (er…to each other). It’s always fun to see how this “lower” class can so perfectly manipulate the upper class.
4. Maggie Smith: Enough said. She plays the bitchy Dowager Countess who teams up with her daughter-in-law (whom she’s not very fond of) to right the inheritance issues (which sounds a lot nobler than it really is).
5. Gays in the house!: It’s easy to spot which guy is the homosexual (a somewhat malicious homosexual). And his past is fleshed out a bit in the first episode (with a twist I saw coming). Let’s just hope that he can maintain a decent subplot storyline. No one wants to go around screaming:  

xoxo, JK

Side note: If you don’t feel like watching it once a week on PBS (Sundays at 9) then you can order the DVD series online (or Netflix). I don’t really get the point airing it if we can just find it on DVD, but at least Laura Linney gets to host it.