I hope someone will start a new thread for the second series.
Downton Starship is a bold narrative leap 
We are looking forward to the Christmas special, obtained by methods best left unsaid.
What I saw were episodes somewhere in the middle of the series, so I only got part of the subplots, enough to be interested but not to see how anything turned out. I won’t say more, since I know how sensitive some people are to spoilers.
I see on Amazon that the DVDs will be released in February, so I’ve ordered mine in advance. No sign of the Christmas Special.
When my mother finally gets to watch series 2, is the Christmas episode airing today the season finale/set after the last episode of series 2, or is out of timeline like all the Christmas specials on the syfy channel?
It’s set between series 2 and the planned 3rd series. She’ll probally be* extremely *confused if she watches it before seeing series 2.
Thank you 
After watching a couple of episodes I don’t understand the appeal of this show at all, but she really liked the first series and is looking forward to the second.
Downton Abbey fans will love the Christmas special!
I rewatched some of it this weekend–but that brilliant all-star British parody of it has ruined the series for me. I kept thinking “I only got *knitting *for me hair!” and “How could such things happen in these period times?”
Wait, you Yanks have not seen Downton Abbey series 2 yet? OMG you are going to love it
WWI starts
and
lots of people die
;0)
seriously
Williams dies after being married to Daisy for about 6 hours. Thomas has a horrid time in the trenches and dilberatly gets himself shot. Downton becomes a home for convalescent soldier which is run by Mrs Crawly, the Doctor and Thomas who gets transferred back. Bates ex wife show up and blackmails him into leaving as she has found about the Turk and Bates wishes to protect her. She is eventually found dead after Bates leave and he married Anna. Matthew has a new girl much to Marys distress though she ironically gets along well with her. Mary finds a rich man who is a newspaper publisher who keeps the story silent but bullies her and threatens her with exposure. Earl Grantham starts an affair with a maid but breaks it up. Matthew is injured and believed paralyzed and impotent, but he gets better. Sybill becomes a nurse and later elopes with Branson and eventually gets the Earls reluctant permission. War ends and there is much rejoicing. But Spanish flu arrives and most of the people are ill, though only Matthews fiancee dies telling him he should get together with Mary. Bates is arrested for his wifes murder.
Come Christmas special which is one year later, Sybill is married and absent and pregnant, Thomas is once again a footman and hopes to become a Valet. Cora tells the Earl about the Turk. He takes it rather well considering and tells Mary to dump her new guy, which she does happily after Matthew knocks his block off (the Dowager Countess is brilliant in this scene). Bates is convicted of murder inspite of the Earls testimony in support and gets the drop, which is later commuted to life imprisonment. Thomas becomes the new valet though some excellent shenanigans. At the end Mary tells Matthew of the Turk. He is surprised but says she has nothing to be ashamed about (words to that effect). He proposes. She accepts.
A truncated version true, but I think I got most of the salient point. Some other things that happened were, that Maggie Smith was sublime, the duel between her and Mrs Crawly went to new heights (“to crack your nuts”). It turned out that the guy who dies on the Titanic was not quite dead, but disfigured and Canadian. And oh Edith was around, but frankly I did not pay her much attention, in consonance with everyone else in the Abbey.
I just watched series 1 and 2 over the span of the last few days. I can’t believe it but I actually like this show a lot! I normally loathe television dramas, and although there were a few plot points that seemed contrived or made me kind of want to roll my eyes at the implausability or exploitative nature of the drama, most of it has been very organic and believable. I love the fact that there really isn’t a main character, and you grow to know and care for SO many of them. Even the “bad” characters have their soft side (except for Vera), and I just really like it a lot! Can’t wait to see the Christmas special and series 3!
Just in case you haven’t heard, here is the PBS national schedule of Masterpiece Downton Abbey Season II —
Airdate(s):
1/8/2012, 8:59 - 11:00 PM ET
1/15/2012, 9:00 - 10:00 PM ET
1/22/2012, 9:00 - 10:00 PM ET
1/29/2012, 9:00 - 10:00 PM ET
2/5/2012, 9:00 - 10:00 PM ET
2/12/2012, 9:00 - 11:00 PM ET
2/19/2012, 9:00 - 11:00 PM ET
I certainly did. I can’t wait to see Downton in the '20s. The absence of a certain major character was felt, but hopefully that character will return for series 3. Dame Maggie Smith is brillant; I don’t care if they have to age the Dowager Countess past her hundredth birthday (when did the birthday telegrams start) as long as they keep her on.
Also apparently Lord Fellowes as written a miniseries about the Titanic. I’ll watch it, but I do hope the 2nd Class passengers get a subplot. That always seems to be lacking in Titanic movies (other than that one from the '70s, which I’ve only seen a truncated version of).
Grrrrr! Something will have to come off my DVR schedule, because I sure as hell don’t want to miss this.
Ok, I must firstly apologies for sounding like a teenage girl in my last post. Secondly any clue why its delayed broadcasting in the States, when Doctor Who is not* and IIRC BBC America does show ITV shows.
*Or only delayed to account for the time zones.
It’s being syndicated to public TV by Masterpiece Theatre, which, so far as I know, always gets all its shows well after they have been aired in the United Kingdom.
PBS often co-produces British TV shows, then gets first broadcast rights over here. They did Downton with ITV & we’ll see the next series soon. And PBS helped the BBC do Sherlock–which begins again Over There on New Year’s Day but won’t show up on PBS until May. (Although Blu-Rays & DVD’s will go on sale by UK retailers at the end of January–for those with the right hardware.)
With no US company as co-producer, BBCamerica (owned by the BBC) is free to coordinate Doctor Who premieres on both sides of the Atlantic. And, yes, they also offer shows from other UK sources. Plus reruns of some US SF series–since SyFy would rather show wrestling…
Reminder that Downton Abbey Season 2 premieres this evening on PBS. Set those DVRs!
So how did America like it this time?
I missed Season 2 over Christmas. Look forward to catching up with Downton Abbey again. What an amazing show.