Downton Abbey


Hubs and I don't watch a lot of television.  It may be "on" but that doesn't mean we are watching it.  My father was a television news announcer when I was a child and the television was always on with him keeping up with the news of the day so he had some idea of what he would be reporting on at 10 p.m.  After he left news reporting he worked as a cartoonist and, because he had always worked at night, he continued to work at night so there was always noise, either the television or the radio.  So, I became very accustomed to the constant noise factor and I still find myself comforted by it. 

We do watch a few things on a regular basis, however.  We watch my soap opera "Days of Our Lives" every evening -- we DVR.  Then, we watch "Elementary", "Revenge" and "Parenthood".  A year or so ago we got rid of all our "premium" cable channels, bought a Roku and subscribed to Acorn and Hulu Plus.  A great deal of our television viewing is done via this device as we love all the British mysteries on Acorn.  We are working our way through the Hercule Poirot mysteries now, having finished the George Gently mysteries, which I absolutely loved. 

However, there is nothing like Masterpiece Theater on PBS which usually has such wonderful offerings.  We have all been looking forward to season 4 of "Downtown Abbey" which began airing last night and we weren't disappointed!  A two hour episode of this series to start us out was pure delight  I love the setting and scenery as well as the costuming.  The characters are wonderful -- glad to see O'Brien go -- she was so devious.  And what about that dreadful Nanny?  It is so much fun to see the personalities of the staff as well as the "upstairs" family and to see them interact so personally.  I remember watching "Upstairs, Downstairs" and while both sides of the house were represented in the story, I don't remember there being such interpersonal relationships between the staff and the family. 

It was a wonderful evening for television viewing and I heard recently that they have already started filming season 5!  I hope this series is around for a long time!