Mar 6 2016
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Downton Abbey’s final Christmas special opens on an idyll. The Crawleys gather on the lush grounds of the manor,…
Downton Abbey
Feb 21 2016
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The series finale of Downton Abbey (with the Christmas special still to come) doesn’t pull any punches: a death, a…
Feb 14 2016
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This episode is transparently, cynically manipulative, and I resent how efficiently it worked on me, from the tense…
Feb 7 2016
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Readers, we have seen the star of tonight’s Downton Abbey, and he is us:
Jan 31 2016
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As Downton Abbey races toward its conclusion, everything, and I mean everything, comes out. Mary confides in Tom one…
Jan 24 2016
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“Tom the peacemaker is back,” Edith Crawley says after a contentious dinner, and she’s right. Over the years, Tom…
Jan 17 2016
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In the first scene of Downton Abbey’s wedding episode, Mrs. Hughes sighs, “I don’t mind. Not really.” Those aren’t…
Jan 10 2016
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For six seasons now, and over the years between 1912 and 1925, the residents of Downton Abbey have spoken of changes…
Jan 3 2016
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Downton Abbey’s return spotlights more than ever the era’s changing social and economic mores, the seismic shift…
Mar 1 2015
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In this last gasp of season five, there’s plenty to grouse about, then—as befits Downton Abbey’s Christmas…
Feb 22 2015
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Now, this is what I like to see from Downton Abbey: deftly paralleled characters, a dragging plot arc culminating in…
Feb 15 2015
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Feb 8 2015
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There are plenty of stories on tonight’s Downton Abbey, but Edith’s and Thomas’ are the most immediate and…
Feb 1 2015
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No one in tonight’s episode really listens to the things they’re told, or to the silences that say so much. Nobody…
Jan 25 2015
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Called on the carpet by Lord Grantham, Daisy speaks with a candor and passion that seems to surprise even her. She’s…
Jan 18 2015
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In this episode’s opening scene, Lady Mary and Lord Gillingham sprawl amid tangled sheets, looking appropriately…
Jan 11 2015
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The world is getting smaller, and getting bigger. The wireless brings news and music from afar, even carrying the…
Jan 4 2015
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The fifth season of Downton Abbey opens with Edith on a bicycle, riding away from the manor, past a crossroad, as…
Jan 2 2015
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As they digest the show’s fifth season, Downton Abbey diehards will stumble repeatedly into the same conversation…
Feb 24 2014
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I can forgive Downton Abbey a lot of flaws when it delivers pomp and circumstance. This fourth-season finale is a…