life with more cowbell

WARNING: Spoilers ahead. Wow. So I’ve been watching Downton Abbey on Vision on Wednesday nights and the season one – or “series one,” as they would say in the UK – aired last night.

The drama of the 90-minute episode was heightened by a neighbourhood power outage during the last half hour! This occurred just after a pregnant Cora fell while getting out of the bath (an accident that was engineered by creepy maid O’Brien, who was under the – mistaken – impression that she was about to be replaced). Luckily, the power came back on 5-10 minutes later, so I was able to catch the final lawn party scene and learned that Cora had, in fact, lost the baby, and that Matthew had had enough of the entail politics and Mary’s hot and cold running affections and was getting outta Dodge (and who could blame him?). The news and announcement of Britain being at war with Germany (WWI) was the final blow – and book-ended the series opening (the sinking of the Titanic) nicely. Historic events and the impact on people – on both a personal and national scale.

Series two is now airing in the UK – and I have no idea when we’ll get to see it over here. The fate of the show appears to be currently in limbo – writer Julian Fellowes was hoping to do a third series, but don’t yet have the green light.

Check it out on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1606375/

p.s. – Just learned from my friend/co-worker Brenda Sharpe that Maria Doyle Kennedy will be playing Bates’ wife in series two. You may remember her from The Tudors (Queen Catherine of Aragon) and/or The Commitments (Natalie Murphy). She’s hard to forget – here she is singing lead on I Never Loved A Man:

Thanks Brenda! I totally didn’t make the connection that it was the same actress in The Tudors, which I guess says a lot about her ability to disappear into a role – which is a good thing.