Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Let’s finish the job.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Come on, man.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

You can’t love your country only when you win.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

You are here: Home / TV & Movies / Television / Downton Abbey Open Thread

Reader Interactions

84Comments

  2. 2.

    RinaX

    I tried to watch the first season of this on netflix and…no. It has been amusing reading about the goings-on of Season 3, though.

  7. 7.

    gnomedad

    Screw it, I’m not waiting for an “open” open thread any longer. I’m sure at least some BJers will be interested in this:

    Goatse Mail

    Well, I thought the video was funny, anyway.

  8. 8.

    redshirt

    @Maude: LOL. Exactly. It works too – I read EW and I’m like down with everything going on, though I have no true idea at all, since I see none of it. Modern Problems!

  10. 10.

    Rosie Outlook

    No, but I get really excited at seeing new pictures of Tunch and the dogs. If you would, please.

    I might as well not have a TV. After a big storm last summer one of the neighbors was remarking on the cable having been out for a day and a half. You couldn’t have proved it by me. I just hardly ever remember to turn it on.

  11. 11.

    melissa

    One of my favourite CBC shows, Republic of Doyle, is on at the same time here in Canada. I can’t decide which to watch and which to tape.

  12. 12.

    the Conster

    I’ve really been looking forward to it, since I’ve just spent the last week watching 4 seasons of Breaking Bad – the opposite of Downton Abbey.

  14. 14.

    parsimon

    Good grief, I haven’t been this silly about a TV show in quite some time. Along about 7 p.m. I thought I’d better check when it started: is it at 8? If so I’d best finish washing these dishes and reheat some of the curried sweet potato soup from last night, for dinner, and get my lunch together for tomorrow. Oh, it’s at 9? Cool, I am with the program.

  15. 15.

    S. Holland

    Can’t wait!!! Been waiting for what seems like months! Shirley & Maggie alone would be worth it….but, love the series!!

  16. 16.

    Maude

    @redshirt:
    It’s better, because if there are commercials, we don’t have to put up with them. I haven’t had tv for a long time. Got out of sync with it. When I see it someplace public, it irritates me. Especially anything newsy.

  17. 17.

    Mystical Chick

    I’m in on the Downton train! I couldn’t get past the pilot (tried 3x!) finally skipped it and was totally hooked. Spent many weekend nights watching and catching up.

    Looking forward to Shirley McClain coming in as Cora’s mother.

    FUN!

    (All you “but I don’t own a television” or “I can’t be bothered to watch” people just step off! This is our thread! heheh)

  18. 18.

    HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist

    Conster, did you see the Colbert Nation spoof “Breaking Abbey”? If not, go to his website and check it out.

  19. 19.

    ruemara

    uh, no. Can’t say I understand this affection for these things. Not a single zombie or Dalek? Pass.

  20. 20.

    Lolis

    @the Conster:

    I started watching Breaking Bad a couple weeks ago, too. I had to take a break in the last season because it was so dark. The part about Skylar is so depressing. I am not optimistic about how they are going to end the show based on interviews I am reading.

  21. 21.

    Emerald

    @maye: Indeed. Bates has been falsely accused several times too often. Enough already!!

    However, this actually is quite a predictable soap opera, so we know he’ll be vindicated in the end. After that, I hope the damned writer leaves him alone.

    I got lucky. After ignoring the show for two years, I decided to catch up on it with Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Videos. Just watched both seasons this week, without knowing that season three starts tonight!

    T-t-t-t-timing!

  22. 22.

    ulee

    If you don’t watch tv, you missed The Sopranos.
    But tv is such a waste of time when one could be viewing sunsets.

  23. 23.

    Xantar

    @redshirt:

    You could always watch off the PBS website. Or hook your computer up to a digital antenna and receive PBS over the air like I do.

  25. 25.

    Poopyman

    Never watched it, never will.

    I guess that’s a long way of answering your question “no”.

  26. 26.

    Hawes

    “What’s a week end?”

    As for Breaking Bad, have you seen Colbert’s version Breaking Bad as performed by the characters from Downton Abbey?

    Sublime.

  27. 27.

    Kass

    It’s bad! Go back to Upstairs, Downstairs to see how it’s done, with no smarmy familiarity with the help on an hourly basis. On Downton, only Cora and Violet treat the help as they should be treated. I watch for the costumes and hats, which I suspect don’t interest Cole.

  31. 31.

    master c

    Im getting ready as we speak…..do we just not like Bates? or is he truly a bad person? I like the whole shooting match, very much looking forward to two old broads squaring off.
    It’s going to be a bumpy night!

  32. 32.

    TheOtherWA

    @master c: Bates is not a bad person. He and Anna are basically normal people. There are others we love to hate, like O’Brien and Thomas, but Bates is not like them.

  34. 34.

    RaflW

    I am waiting for DVD 2 of season 2 to arrive tomorrow in my mailbox, and DVD 3 on Tuesday. Gotta cram a lot of episodes in before the local re-broadcast of Downton on Wednesday evening here in the Twin Cities.

    I watched Season 1 in a day and a half on streaming last weekend. Then discovered that Season 2 was DVD only. Sad trombone!

  38. 38.

    PurpleGirl

    New line from the Dowager Countess,

    Whenever I’m with her [Cora’s mother] I’m reminded of the virtues of the English.

  39. 39.

    Southern Beale

    We capitulated. This weekend starting watching Season 1 on Netflix streaming. Just now watching the last episode of season 1, we’ll catch up on season 2 this week and we’ll be all ready for season 3. Trying to avoid spoilers until then.

    I have to say, while we’re enjoying it, I’m old enough to remember “Upstairs, Downstairs.” Downton Abbey strikes me as a slightly more tabloid-era version of that.

  41. 41.

    TaMara (BHF)

    If I thought it would do any good, I’d wear a Free Bates t-shirt across my ample bosom.

    And Maggie Smith has no peer.

    90 minutes and counting here.

  43. 43.

    PurpleGirl

    @Southern Beale: I never really got into “Upstairs, Downstairs”. I remember back to the early days of Masterpiece Theatre and “The First Churchills” and “The Forsthye Saga”.

  44. 44.

    PsiFighter37

    Is this a real thread?

    I liked your taste in TV shows, Cole (thinking Chuck in particular), but now you’re pushing it…

  49. 49.

    TheOtherWA

    @Southern Beale: Did you watch the remake of Upstairs Downstairs? I can’t compare it to the original, but it was ok. Didn’t get into it like Downton Abbey, but it was better than a lot of the other crap on tv.

  50. 50.

    johnny aquitard

    @Southern Beale: Upstairs Downstairs, that’s it! Wife is watching Downton Abbey right now. She had me watch for 15 min, (before I got bored and left to go read BJ ) and I vaguely had this sense of deja vu. It’s Upstairs, downstairs but with better production values.

    God I hated that show. Would have rather watched Room 222, or just sit and drool on myself, if staring at cobwebs on the ceiling were not possible.

  51. 51.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I love them all. First Churchills, Upstairs Downstairs, Downton Abbey, Brideshead Revisited, all of them.

    And I love Bates and Anna. Go away, all of you haters :-P

  52. 52.

    johnny aquitard

    @Southern Beale: OMG, Upstairs Downstairs, that’s it! Wife is watching Downton Abbey right now. She had me watch for 15 min, (before I got bored and left to go read BJ ) and I vaguely had this sense of deja vu. It’s Upstairs, downstairs but with better production values.

    God I hated that show. Would have rather watched Room 222, or just sit and drool on myself, if staring at cobwebs on the ceiling were not possible.

  53. 53.

    Mrs. Peel

    Just don’t get too attached to Matthew. They kill him off for good in the last episode of this season.

  54. 54.

    noodler

    pbs had all of season two this afternoon. darn nearly made me miss some football.

    cant really believe that I just wrote that, but my giants are out of the fight.

  55. 55.

    noodler

    pbs had all of season two this afternoon. darn nearly made me miss some football.

    cant really believe that I just wrote that, but my giants are out of the fight.

  56. 56.

    noodler

    pbs had all of season two this afternoon. darn nearly made me miss some football.

    cant really believe that I just wrote that, but my giants are out of the fight.

  57. 57.

    johnny aquitard

    @Southern Beale: OMG, Upstairs Downstairs, that’s it! Wife is watching Downton Abbey right now. She had me watch for 15 min, (before I got bored, opined it was a soap poera and left to go read BJ ) and I vaguely had this sense of deja vu. It’s Upstairs, downstairs but with better production values.

    God I hated that show. Would have rather watched Room 222, or just sit and drool on myself, if staring at cobwebs on the ceiling were not possible.

  58. 58.

    master c

    Okay peeps thanks for the explanation of the Anna Bates thing, this episode is all over theplace, but loving it! I think I hate Lady Mary!

  61. 61.

    Librarian

    I don’t watch Downton Abbey. I’ve seen it all before, in Upstairs Downstairs and Brideshead Revisited, and with better writing.

  62. 62.

    johnny aquitard

    Sorry about the repeats. Never did a multiple comment before. My first, so its kind of a rite of passage I suppose.

    Oh, and FYWP.

  63. 63.

    PurpleGirl

    Did anyone else see the show about Highclere Castle that was on before Downton Abby? It featured the current Earl of Carnarvon and his wife talking about the history of the estate and the various business ventures he has been involved in to make the money needed to maintain the house and the estate (a cool million pounds a year). It was interesting and was the first of a new series about other estates and manors of England.

  65. 65.

    gogol's wife

    When it started, I thought, oh, they’re all strained and affected. Five minutes later I was completely engrossed. I thought it was great.

  67. 67.

    PurpleGirl

    Jon and Mrs. Peel: Please restrain yourselves. You may not like the series or us, but some of us would prefer to let the story unfold without knowing what is going to happen.

  68. 68.

    gogol's wife

    @PurpleGirl:

    The f–king New York Times did it for me already, I didn’t even have to wait for an idiot on the internet. But I don’t care! I enjoyed Season 1 and 2 just as much the second or third time, even though I knew everything that was going to happen.

  69. 69.

    James E. Powell

    I watched every episode of the first two seasons, plus Christmas show, when they were broadcast. Then I watched the whole thing again in a marathon. I don’t get why I keep watching. Given my political attitudes and given my belief that nearly every problem in the world can be traced back to the high-handed bungling of the late British Empire, I should hate these people. I should be reacting like I do to Gone With the Wind, which I cannot watch. But I don’t hate them. I’m not saying I like them, I just don’t hate them.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @PurpleGirl: Yes, I did. It was very interesting. I hadn’t made the connection before that it was the same family (Earls of Carnarvon) who discovered King Tut’s Tomb back in the ’20s — the present Earl’s great-grandfather, I think they said.

    There was a long interview earlier today on Bob Edwards’ Weekend (it’s a Sirius XM production but airs on some NPR stations) with the actors who play Carson and Thomas. So interesting to get the actors’ takes on an undertaking as massive as Downton Abbey.

  73. 73.

    Radio One

    Downton Abbey was a lot more fun when it was the evil servants and their rich conspirators in London waging total war against the Crowley family and Mr. Bates. I assume Mr. Bates will probably have future complications in Season 3 for his wife’s murder, but otherwise it looks like the Crowley family is pretty much set.

  75. 75.

    Mystical Chick

    This. “Lavinia died because you broke her heart? Oh please, get over yourself. She died of Spanish Influenza which killed about 3% of the world’s population. And who are you to know what was in the heart of Lavinia’s father? Take the money or don’t take the money, but stop inflating your ego.”

  77. 77.

    master c

    The Matthew spoiler was out there, since the actor has been making the interview rounds, saying it was his last season. Now I can only hope Lady Mary bludgeons him with a candlestick cuz he wont give up the money.

  81. 81.

    Tehanu

    @PurpleGirl:
    I hated “Upstairs, Downstairs” because I couldn’t stand Jean Marsh … although I worship Eileen Atkins like the goddess she is. But the original Forsyte Saga — the one with Eric Porter as Soames and Susan Hampshire as Fleur, not to mention the late great Margaret Tyzack as Soames’ sister — was the greatest thing evah.
    As for last night’s 3rd season premiere, we were riveted to the screen for two solid hours and it wasn’t nearly enough. I can’t wait for Edith’s wedding, even though I think Strallan is a wimp.

  82. 82.

    Liane B

    one-liners? all she has to do is give a look. Wish I’d known it was gonna be two hours, though.

    loved, loved, loved that the wedding was entirely anticlimactic. Totally perfect.

  83. 83.

    Liane B

    @Radio One: Crawley, I think. Crowley is the former punk-ass crossroads demon now the king of hell demon on Supernatural. subtle difference.

  84. 84.

    keestadoll

    Dear spoiler-slinging asshats: Here’s hoping you meet with a very disquieting and extended bout of diarrhea during a traffic jam.

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