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Monday, June 18, 2012

Small Screen Scenes: Downton Abbey Season One Episode Seven Highly Recommended by Whom You Know Available Now From PBS Distribution

Dusting the chandelier in the morning-at Downton Abbey-that's just like your first cup of coffee if you're a housemaid!  And ah, to be either a deb or a survivor.  But would one want to be tidy in love?  Poor William is grieving and Bates is living under a black cloud, and the Archduke has been shot...but not all is rotten in the state of Downton, a new character may be born!


And of course it's important to see each episode, but it is also important to see, period!  Eyesight is central to this episode, quite literally.


Here's what we thought of Episode One:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2012/03/small-screen-scenes-downton-abbey.html
& Episode Two:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2012/03/small-screen-scenes-downton-abbey_29.html
& Episode Three:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2012/04/small-screen-scenes-downton-abbey.html
& Episode Four:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2012/04/small-screen-scenes-downton-abbey_10.html
& Episode Five:
http://www.whomyouknow.com/2012/06/small-screen-scenes-downton-abbey.html
It is so exciting, by the end of this episode you'll have needed to acquire the second season to carry on so you don't display withdrawl symptoms!

Someone is newly single...and gossip can be nasty.  But the biggest backstabbers can be the ones related to you and that's not such a surprise to the victim, though it can be to the onlookers.  Conflict, conflict, and is there anything worse than losing one's maid?  Of course the Dowager Countess is a gentle as a lamb!!!  What would being the wife of a country solicitor be like?  So many questions, but the only answer is to watch.

It's a state of flux, and how exciting: a telephone is about to arrive for the first time!  And you'll never guess what character is really a romantic underneath the exterior, but not for long- "any port in a storm."  And a silver thief in the house?!?!  The onion skin is peeled, and peeled, and peeled on the servants and you won't believe what you'll learn.  And one of them turns out to be a bit of a Sherlock!   Oh Carson, one day you will learn that a telephone can be a toy indeed if you live long enough!

You'll start to not to want to take baths anymore.  
And you'll be sad, because you have been drawn into this family and there is good news for Bates.  What it is on both accounts, we will not tell you.  Watch this!
And Thomas will successfully engage in the continuity of being able to make your skin crawl with his every word, action and motive.
What a lovely garden party!  We're afraid it trumps even the finest in Central Park.
And what is the cry of a banshee?  You'll find out, and you'll also find out that it's not a good idea to provide Lady Mary because you'll get it right back but worse.
Who has turned in their notice?
And what interrupts a perfectly pleasant garden party?
Shame on Germany.

And finally, our last appeal to get you to watch this episode:
What promoted Violet to say: "So put that in your pipe and smoke it!"
and TO WHOM!!?!?!
Whom You Know Highly Recommends Downton Abbey Season One Episode Seven!

EPIC BRITISH TV PERIOD DRAMA


“DOWNTON ABBEY”


WRITTEN AND CREATED BY


OSCAR-WINNING JULIAN FELLOWES


AVAILABLE ON DVD FROM PBS DISTRIBUTION THIS JANUARY


Special Extra Features Include “The Making of Downton Abbey” and “A House In History”


Arlington, VA November 1 -- PBS Distribution is pleased to announce the January DVD release of “Downton Abbey,” MASTERPIECE’s lead program for its 40th anniversary celebration. Written and created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes (“Gosford Park”), “Downton Abbey” is an epic British TV period drama which will air on PBS over four Sunday nights in January and will be released on DVD January 11, 2011. Special bonus features on the DVD include two featurettes:“The Making of Downton Abbey” and “A House In History.” The dealer order date is December 14, 2010.

A smash hit when it aired in the UK, “Downton Abbey” follows in the tradition of the Emmy Award-winning “Upstairs, Downstairs” (a MASTERPIECE THEATRE favorite when it aired in the 1970s), which portrayed the lives of a wealthy aristocratic family and the relationships they had with their servants. “Downton Abbey” features lavish costumes, beautiful cinematography, seamless direction, and impeccably accurate set design. The cast includes Dame Maggie Smith (“Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone”), Hugh Bonneville (“Notting Hill,” “Iris”) and Elizabeth McGovern (“Clash of the Titans,” “The Wings of the Dove”).
Quotes about “Downton Abbey’s” British Premier on ITV
“An impeccably polished stroll back to the past.”
--London’s Metro

“…a sumptuous, instantly riveting glimpse of a world – and family – on the verge of profound change.” 
--London Telegraph

“The whole thing looks divine, and has the distinct advantage of being an original story and so completely unknown to all the viewers.”
--The Yorker
Plot Details
Set in 1912, “Downton Abbey” encompasses all the drama, romance, and politics of this era and is comparable to any lavish period piece on the big screen. Dame Maggie Smith portrays the matriarch of the Crawley family, desperately trying to navigate and strategize so her son (Hugh Bonneville) can hold onto the multi-million dollar inheritance he married into. Elizabeth McGovern gives an outstanding performance as the mother to their four daughters, each dowry-endowed, to attract an appropriate suitor. The eldest, Mary (Michelle Dockery) is as interested in being married through arrangement as she is in socializing with the servants downstairs.

And as all the drama is happening upstairs, downstairs also has its share. The servants are shaken up with the arrival of a new valet, John Bates (Brendan Coyle). Bates arrives at Downton in the first episode to take the position, but the servants are not supportive when they see he is wounded from the war and is lame. The help is as fiercely possessive of their ranks as anyone above and Thomas (Rob James-Collier), the first footman, wants Bates’ job and will do anything to get it – including theft and deceit. Some of the other servants are loyal to the family and are committed to Downton as a way of life, but others are moving through, on the look out for new opportunities, love or just adventure.

Much like blockbuster epic films such as “Young Victoria,” “Sense & Sensibility,” “Gosford Park,” “Howard’s End,” and “A Room With A View,” “Downton Abbey” is an engaging series that fans of period pieces will love. The series is comprised of three discs which have an approximate running time of six hours. 


###


“Downton Abbey”
Genre: Drama
Price: $34.99
Running Time: 6 Hours/3 Discs
Street Date: January 11, 2011

Bonus Features


The Making of Downton Abbey (Running Time 13:09)
A House in History (Running Time 9:43)





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