LITTLE ROCK — What is it? Downton Abbey, Season 1, seven hour-long episodes on three discs; and Season 2, with eight hourlong episodes and one 90-minute episode on three discs from PBS Distribution.
How much? $34.99 for Season 1; $44.99 for Season 2
When? Now
What is Downton Abbey? It’s a grand English estate with expansive grounds and dazzling rooms full of antiques.
As Season 1 opens, the year is 1912. The estate is a well-oiled machine full of servants and masters who each know their place and what’s expected of them.
Upstairs, Robert (Hugh Bonneville), Earl of Grantham, lives in comfort with his American heiress wife, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), and their three daughters, who have and cause their share of problems. His deliciously snobbish mother Violet (Maggie Smith) lives nearby.
Below stairs, butler Mr. Carson (Jim Carter), housekeeper Mrs. Hughes (Phyllis Logan) and cook Mrs. Patmore (Lesley Nicol) keep the large staff of maids and footmen running at peak efficiency.
But their world is soon to change. They just don’t know it yet.
It all starts with the sinking of the Titanic, a tragedy that puts the future of the estate in doubt and creates a new heir - Matthew Crawley(Dan Stevens). He’s a working lawyer and isn’t entirely sure he wants to live the life of a country gentleman. Though he does find himself very much drawn to Robert’s eldest daughter, Mary (Michelle Dockery).
Similarly, in the servants’ quarters, the arrival of Robert’s new valet, Bates, brings its own drama with plenty of scheming and personal tensions.
Over the course of two seasons, the series follows the characters from April 1912, to December 1919. Along the way, there are lies, narrowly averted scandals, romances, jealousies, thorny legal issues and the occasional dark secret.
What’s it like? Did you ever see the 2001 film Gosford Park? If you did, you have a good idea of what this is like. The series and the film were both written by Julian Fellowes and, like the movie, it’s witty, complex and insightful.
It’s an immersive experience, a close look at a society that’s quite alien to us. Through these people, viewers learn quite a bit about the English aristocracy and the serving classes and the complicated, often touching, relationships between and within the two groups.
This series has an enormous cast portraying a long list of characters - some significant, some minor, but all important to making up the whole - and the acting is uniformly excellent.
That said, it’s also a big soap opera. A beautiful, brilliantly acted, well-written soap opera, but a soap opera nonetheless.
Are there extras? Yes. On the first season, you get two short featurettes about the making of the series and about the manor-house society and culture.
On Season 2, there are features about various aspects of English life during World War I: fashion, romance and general upheaval.
New this week: Family Matters, Season 2; JEM and the Holograms, Season 2; Murder, She Wrote, Movie Collection; Robin of Sherwood, Season 3.
Next week: Borgia, Season 1; The Fades, Season 1; Hazel, Season 2; Matlock, Season 7; Nurse Jackie, Season 3; Rules of Engagement, Season 5; Simon & Simon, Season 6; Underdog, Complete Series; Weeds, Season 7; Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego?, Complete Series.
Style, Pages 46 on 02/12/2012