An act of treachery at the Royal Wedding sends Tyrion toward a new destiny and Sansa into greater peril. Daenerys learns how to rule over the recently liberated Meereen and Stannis provides relieve to the Night's Watch only to find more obstacles on his quest to the Iron Throne. The fourth season of Game of Thrones is a marked improvement over the previous one, with the intrigue at King's Landing exciting enough to cover for the dull wheel spinning that continues to go on elsewhere (i.e. The Wall, Meereen), only to return for a dreadful, monotonous fifth season that brings nothing closer to resolution except in killing off several major characters in the end, which surely will thrill many fans but seems a giant waste of their protracted storylines. Without having read the books, it almost seems as if George R.R. Martin crafted an excellent first entry, which was then adapted into a great first season, and then had absolutely no idea what he signed on for or where it was going after that. While watching the "previously on" segment for Sunday's finale I realized that I had never seen a show with so much going on where so little actually happens.

A long and brutal winter is approaching the kingdom of Westeros and treachery is afoul as the Hand of the King has been murdered. Surrounded by the cunning and powerful family of his duplicitous wife, King Robert Baratheon sends for his old friend and battle mate Eddard Stark to take up the position of the deceased and be unwillingly hurled into the deadly title scheme. The HBO adaptation of the George R.R. Martin novels is an excellent entry in the fantasy genre, simultaneously telling an involving, intelligent, violent, but grounded other worldly tale. Filmed throughout Northern Ireland and Scotland, as well as in parts of Morocco, the series features the most stunning visuals to be found in any television series. Its epic cast of mostly British players is uniformly excellent and if forced to select a handful as my favorite I would chose Iain Glen as a courageous exiled knight, Emilia Clarke as his queen and charge, samely exiled, Peter Dinklage as a witty and underestimated dwarf, and Sean Bean as the noble, sullen Eddard Stark. "Game of Thrones" is wonderfully engaging entertainment that isn't afraid to break the "rules" of television and has characterization and intelligence to match its harsh tone and violence.

*** 1/2 out of ****

The Abominable Bride (2016)
** 1/2 out of ****


Series 3 (2014)
Following his supposed demise Sherlock reemerges in deep cover in the Middle East, an elaborate plot hatched with his brother Mycroft to foil a terrorist plot, and returns to Baker Street to resume his detective duties with John, cases which include a lethal blackmailer, a murder conspiracy at Watson's wedding, and another terrorist threat. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman remain the sole reasons for Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's Sir Arthur Conan Doyle reimagining, which feature too cutesy and insipid storylines that border on stupid.
** 1/2 out of ****

Series 2 (2011)
With Moriarty hatching an even more diabolical plot, Sherlock and Watson find themselves entwined in three more mysteries, this time versions of Conan Doyle's revered classics A Scandal in Bohemia, The Hound of the Baskervilles, and Reichenbach Falls. In Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's sophomore run of their retelling of the stories of the world's most famous detective, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman still remain the chief asset of the series, delivering compelling and intensely likable performances (I can't wait to see them both in "The Hobbit" later this year). However, as was my chief complaint last season, and one which has regressed even further here, these wonderful stories are given shabby and paper thin treatment. I also found Andrew Scott to be a poor choice for Moriarty. I feel odd complaining about a crime show with such rich character development, but here in a mystery series as such, storytelling must come first, and given the wealth of material given to the developers, we should be given something much more compelling.
** 1/2 out of ****

Series 1 (2010)
The most popular character in literature is supplanted to present day London where he acts as a freelance detective, only offering his unsurpassed brilliant assistance in the cases that interest him the most. Taking on a flatmate who has just been psychologically wounded in the Iraq War, he also proves to be quite resourceful in the detective's inquest, all of which seem to be the masterwork of an equally brilliant and secretive criminal mastermind. "Sherlock" is a BBC reworking of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stories by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss in a three part series, each entitled A Study in Pink, The Blind Banker, and The Great Game. The series does an excellent job capturing the spirit of the Conan Doyle novels, and compared to the blasphemous Guy Ritchie movies, it is a most welcomed excursion. As Holmes and Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are excellent at capturing the essence of their roles and Cumberbatch is a particular joy to watch as the ingenious and sociopathic detective. I did feel the episodes were marred by overlength and "The Blind Banker" segment seemed to be an unworthy entry. "Sherlock" does succeed in being escapist entertainment, an acting showcase for the stars, and a return to form for the character following the recent film mistreatments.
*** out of ****

Detective Chief Inspector John Luther is the most brilliant minds on the London police force, making wild yet flawless deductions that would make Sherlock Holmes proud. He is also an unstable ticking time bomb, dealing with marital problems with his wife, a psychological examination and internal affairs inquest following the death of a suspect, and the advances of a like-minded and beautiful murder suspect he was unable put away. Like "Prime Suspect", another series about a British DCI, "Luther" is a splash in the face compared to banal American cop programs. Idris Elba ("The Wire") is outstanding as the troubled inspector, projecting sadness and inner turmoil as well as being engaging as a detective. There are many implausible developments on the show, not the least being Elba's relationship with serial murder suspect Ruth Wilson (who is good here), but I don't really think it matters because the show plays like good theater. "Luther" is an intelligently written series that like most good cop shows founded on a great lead performance.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Usually I keep television shows out of the blog, but I feel Boardwalk Empire is a series that approaches great film and, while watching, it feels like a solid 12 hour movie. This should come as no surprise since the show is brought to us by legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese. He directed the first episode, offering the blueprint for the subsequent episodes. He also produces and consults on other aspects of the show. Boardwalk was created by Sopranos veteran Terrence Winter and he brings along other members of that great show. Again, we have a show set in New Jersey, this time in Atlantic City and again we follow professional criminals who drink, screw, curse, lie, cheat, steal, swindle, and murder. We follow several story threads and the main character is AC treasurer Nucky Thompson played by a finely tuned Steve Buscemi. This is not another Tony Soprano, as Thompson has more of a soft spot. This doesn't mean that he isn't capable of carrying out heinous acts. We meet a young Irish widow (Kelly McDonald) who comes into his life and also Jimmy (Michael Pitt) and young enforcer he sees as his own son. The story mixes real characters with fictional ones and all are played by fine actors: Michael Stuhlbarg plays Arnold Rothstein, the New York gangster who becomes at odds with Nucky and his crew. His segments are a highlight of the show and wonderfully acted by Stuhlbarg. Michael Shannon plays an agent and religious zealot on the hunt for bootleggers. We also meet characters such as a hot headed Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, and Warren G. Harding. Boardwalk Empire is also a visual success and a screenwriting success. In an era when ignorance passes for good television, this show is like a breath of fresh air. I urge you seek it out on DVD or on reruns on HBO.

****

In 1964, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey and his Merry Band of Pranksters dropped acid, repaired and vividly decorated a dilapidated school bus, and made their way from Northern California to the World Fair in New York, the start of a journey where they would begin to promote the use of LSD in a series of shoes. Largely cobbled together from actual Prankster film, the novelty of seeing The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test brought to life quickly wears off and Alex Gibney's documentary becomes wearisome. Tom Wolfe's book is oddly not mentioned (which is preferable to read over this film) and judging from it, Gibney leaves many glaring omissions and glosses over much more, resulting in a major disappointment from the usually reliable director.

** 1/2 out of ****

(Spoilers Ahead. This whole show is a series of spoilers, so be forewarned)
** 1/2 out of ****

Seasons 3 and 4
Season three picks up with Carrie being the subject of Senate Investigation following the catastrophic attack on CIA headquarters, Brody seeking asylum in South America, and his family grappling with the horrific act. The fourth season sees Carrie named station chief in Kabul where she is faced with a Benghazi-like invasion and a hostage situation involving her mentor Saul. Following the outlandish second outing, Homeland returned with an intense, exciting, though still nonsensical third season, with superfluous domestic scenes at the Brody household taking away from the focus of the show. The fourth series is somewhat lacking and, due to the "terror threat at home" nature of the program, loses something by being set almost entirely overseas. Rupert Friend shines in support.
Season 3: *** 1/2 out of ****
Season 4: *** out of ****

Season 2
Following the botched attempt on the Vice President's life, Brody is now learning the ropes as a freshman U.S. Congressman while Carrie, teaching English as a second language and recovering from her stint in the booby hatch, is contracted by the CIA to lend her expertise to an expedition in Beirut. As Abu Nazir moves his pawns into place for his next terrorist attack, Carrie and Brody's stars align once more, placing their careers and lives into imminent danger. It becomes clear that the high-wire act done so well during the first season cannot be maintained, and while all the pieces don't quite come crashing down, preposterous plotting  has seized the day. Clare Danes character, where she was so effective before, has become nearly intolerable, going into hysterics several times an episode. Damian Lewis is doing what he can, and I think he should be commended for going through some of the things they put his character through with a straight face. Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the show is how insipid Mandy Patinkin's Saul has become and the addition of Rupert Friend adds very little, if anything to the series. Most of these complaints can be chalked up to the writing. How could anyone seriously expect the show to maintain its momementum? And while the leads still maintain rooting interest, the second season plays its cards way too fast and serves them up in ways we can't possibly accept.
** 1/2
sidenote: As the "Homeland" season finale concludes the shows I watch for the year, I feel obliged to comment on the disappointment of nearly every series I've followed this year, especially one's in their sophomore season ("Homeland", "Games of Thrones", "Downton Abbey", "Sherlock"). In what has been termed as a "Golden Age of Television", these and other fan favorites such as "Boardwalk Empire" and "Breaking Bad" make it seem like a low karat era.

Season 1

A Marine (Damian Lewis) is rescued after eight years of being held captive in an Iraqi compound, and returns home to much fanfare and great difficulty adjusting to domestic life. Meanwhile an ambitious, volatile, and surreptitiously bipolar CIA agent (Clare Danes), having been informed several months prior by an al-Qaeda bomb maker that an American POW has been turned, suspects the heralded Marine of being the conduit of the next terrorist plot against the United States. "Homeland" is an ingeniously plotted tightrope act, which seems doomed to fail but never looses its footing once. Developed from the Israeli series "Prisoners of War" by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa, who take their unlikely story to an intense, sheerly believable level because they always prioritize the human elements. Ten years after his tremendous work on "Band of Brothers", Damian Lewis returns with another powerful performance in a uniquely American role. As the unorthodox agent running a one person operation, Clare Danes is excellent and has some heartbreaking, almost unbearable scenes later in the season. Mandy Patinkin also contributes tremendous, nuanced work as a veteran operative and mentor/counterbalance to Danes. The plot description for "Homeland" makes one think of something destined for a short-lived run on network television, but due to the intelligent and sensitive writing (I can't stress this enough) and its endearing, perfectly realized cast, the first season is something of a wonder.

****

Using the death of print media in the modern technological era as a springboard, Page One is not so much a window to operation of the revered and usually cloistered 164 year old publication, but a look at its recent history through the eyes of an array of its reporters and editors. Including a war correspondent, a newly appointed editor, a much hated social media expert, and David Carr (pictured above), a memorable and abrasive reformed drug addict and recently deceased columnist, all of whom guide us through such stories as the Judith Miller and Jayson Blair controversies, their involvement with WikiLeaks, the coverage of the Iraq War, the race to keep up with social media and news aggregators, and the decline in quality and general collapse of the newspaper industry.

*** out of ****

In 1973 PBS released An American Family, a documentary series that followed the day-to-day ongoings of a middle class family which proved to be an early predecessor of reality TV. Cinema Verite tells the story of how producer Craig Gilbert (James Gandolfini) developed the idea for the show and convinced his friend (Diane Lane), her husband (Tim Robbins), and the rest of their family to participate in the landmark experiment and goes on to record the expected dramatic fallout that ensued. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's film tells an intriguing behind-the-scenes story which moves at too brisk a clip and does not spend enough time letting you get to know all of its players (while time spent on major characters is quite fascinating). Lane nails her highfalutin character and Gandolfini and Robbins both turn in equally strong performances.
*** out of ****

Season 4 (2013)
Over three years after the great tempest that almost toppled their fair city, the inhabitants of the 9th Ward celebrate the historic presidential election of 2008, deal with rampant corruption of their local government, prepare for another Mardi Gras, and face their continuing trials and sparse victories: Janette battles with her former partner for the use of her name while reuniting with a subdued Davis whose 40th birthday acts as an unlikely beckoning to maturity. LaDonna tries to get her bar back in order, Annie's musician perils continue, Toni and Terry see daylight in their lengthy fight for justice, and the community prepares a sendoff for one of its most revered members. After some major stumbles in its third season, Treme generally rights it ship and goes out on a high note, in the jubilant yet angry manner you would expect in this its final, abbreviated season. Some items worked soaringly well, Kim Dickens and Steve Zahn's stories and eventual linkup had a special poignancy to them and Clarke Peters and Rob Brown's journey continued to be the heart of the show (their characters alone would be able to carry a series), while other storylines continued to vex or took unfortunately disappointing turns (David Morse's One Good Cop subplot, Melissa Leo's unyielding quest for righteousness, Lucia Micarelli cliched music industry struggles). The series attempts a complete transformation for Wendell Pierce which they successfully achieved in The Wire but here seems forced but works nonetheless. Treme was an ambitious undertaking for series creators David Simon and Eric Overmyer and although it tended to get out of hand with its redundant sermons and often treated its charming cast as little more than mouthpieces for their political rhetoric, it is a spirited show which achieved its goals while showing off the best and worst of its city.
***

Season 3 (2012)
It is now September, 2007, another year removed from Katrina, but the inhabitants of NOLA continue to bear her effects as they try to get on with their lives: Jeanette (Kim Dickens) continues to dissuade anyone from wanting to enter the restaurant business, as a return home proves less than satisfactory as Davis (Steve Zahn) provides a similar caution against the music industry as he struggles to produce his "epic" opera. Toni (Melissa Leo) teams up with an investigative blogger (Chris Coy) as police harassment hits home and Terry  (David Morse) is given a Serpico-like plot, becoming a pariah in the Homicide Department. Big Chief (Clarke Peters) celebrates the release of the jazz CD with his son (Rob Brown), but receives some bad news which he shares with a new friend (Khandi Alexander) who is undergoing heartbreak of her own. Season 3  is where all of David Simon's sermonizing and blame casting finally begins to wear on the viewer's patience (at least on my own) and  mute some of the elements that it does exceedingly well. Characters who were once perched at the show's zenith, namely Zahn, Alexander, Leo, and Morse, now fall prey to wheel-spinning storylines, while others include Peters, Brown, Dickens, and Wendell Pierce (who unexpectedly endears himself much in the same way he did later on in "The Wire") continue to be compelling as does, of course, the music.
***

Season 2 (2011)
Season 2 picks up about one year following the storm, and the residents of NOLA and principals on the show are still struggling: Toni (Melissa Leo) is fighting to overcome a personal tragedy and the delinquency of her daughter (India Ennenga) while taking on a case involving an officer involved shooting, while Ladonna (Khandi Alexander) and Annie (Lucia Micarelli) face the horrors of urban violence. Batiste (Wendell Pierce), and Davis (Steve Zahn) face the trials of musicianship and band leading while Albert, surprisingly, embraces a musical partnership with his son (Rob Brown). The sophomore season of David Simon's lively series resumes with the same festive fervor that predominated the premier outing and made it such a rare joy. In some ways, Simon is more successful this time around because he has gotten past much of the preaching that slightly inhibited the first run, now allowing him to focus more on the elements that make this series great: namely acting, sensational photography, and of course, the music.
*** 1/2

Season 1 (2010)
Three months after Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans and particularly the cultural district known as the Treme is reeling. As residents begin returning to their homes, they find obstacles in the form of weather damage, police and government obstruction, urban violence, national ignorance,  patronizing, and just general bad luck. As Mardi Gras approaches and the second line parades begin to form, the citizens of the Big Easy fight to restore their great American city. "Treme" is David Simon's followup to his acclaimed series "The Wire" and is not that far removed from that loving portrait of another American metropolis. Focusing on the stories of a few wide ranging individuals, from a woman (Khandi Alexander) and her attorney (Melissa Leo) searching for her incarcerated brother lost in the storm, to a struggling trumpet player (Wendell Pierce), to a trouble making activist (Steve Zahn) and his on again off again girlfriend/struggling restaurant owning girlfriend (Kim Dickens), master storyteller Simon is able tell a touching, angry, and sometimes overbearing story of The Crescent City. Additionally, each episode contains scores of wonderful and (assumedly) authentic New Orleans music. As for the performers, I really liked the work of Alexander, Clarke Peters as a headstrong local, and especially Zahn who gives a magnetic performance as a rapscallion activist. The series does have a tendency to preach and sometimes I have a hard time understanding its viewpoints. John Goodman's blowhard character states that a great city must speak for itself and through this series, for the most part, it does.
*** 1/2

Known as a king of the Bs, Roger Corman has produced over 400 pictures with titles ranging from Dinocroc vs. Supergator to Bloodfist 2050. Carrying himself in an anachronistic, professorial manner Corman has also directed a series of heralded Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, brought the films of Bergman, Fellini, Antonioni, and Kurasawa to the attention of American audiences as a distributor, fought Hollywood excess and championed many charitable causes, and cultivated the careers of such talents as Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Jack Nicholson, Ron Howard, Dennis Hopper and many others. Corman's World is an loving look at the career of the virtuoso producer, with many of his admirers and former apprentices on hand to sing his praises.

Walter White's life is not going as he would like it too. Once a chemistry prodigy with a successful future ahead of him with limitless possibilities, he is now reduced to teaching the Periodic Table to bored high school students in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He even has an after school job at the car wash to help make ends meet. The passion has gone out of his marriage and his disabled son mouths off to him so when his doctor informs him he has stage 4 lung cancer, he seems curiously impassive and more concerned with the mustard shirt on the doctor's smock. Not wanting to leave his family in dire straits, and with a little inspiration when hearing about a drug bust from his DEA agent brother-in-law, Walter decides to seek out one of his old students and current drug dealer and cook crystal meth. Breaking Bad is a strange show that doesn't (really) moralize the situation its lead character has thrust himself into. Bryan Cranston, a TV veteran whom most remember as the dad in Malcolm in the Middle, hits all the right notes as the internalized and Aaron Paul is just as fine as he reveals an intelligent person in his seemingly idiotic drug dealing character. I wouldn't call the writing great and situations are often contrived, but this is highly original, entertaining, and engaging programming.

sidenote: This inaugural season was a victim of the writer's strike and was unfortunately cut short to 7 episodes. It does feel somewhat condensed and does not have the feel of a full season.

Undefeated tells the story of the Manassas Tigers, a high school football team in a highly impoverished area of Memphis who has never inhaled a whiff of success on the playing field and whose prospects aren't much better off of it. Filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin, who won a Best Documentary Oscar for their work, follow dedicated and overextended team coach Bill Courtney as he turns the team around by taking a vested interest in his players. Undefeated is an inspiring story above all other things but, like many first person documentaries, there is some playing to the camera which must be taken with a grain of salt.

A resident of the small village of Neya, Russia helps his friend bury his recently deceased wife according to the painstaking, ritualistic guidelines of the Meryans, their ancient people. Silent Souls is a turgid and plodding film (I thought a lot about Tarakovsky's Stalker during the movie) that does contain fine cinematography and some impressive visuals, but still feels interminable even at a meager 75 minute running length.

In the Nazi occupied town of Lvov, Poland, an anti-semitic sanitation worker agrees, against all instinct and strictly as a business proposition, to shelter a dozen Jews in the town's labyrinthine sewer system, which he has detailed knowledge of. As the money runs out and the threats to his own safety increase, he develops a bond with the sheltered and takes increasingly dangerous risks to protect them. Agnieszka Holland's "In Darkness" is a well-made, lengthy, occasionally intense and perceptive film which, as much as it pains me to say it, is little more than a poor man's "Schindler's List," and says little else than was said in that great film.

A beautiful, impoverished young woman longs to win the Tijuana beauty contest, and does see her dream fulfilled, although it unfortunately comes at the hands of the ruthless cartel members she unluckily happens upon, who use her both as bait for their criminal enterprises and as a sex slave for their own personal devices. "Miss Bala" is an unrelenting exercise in realism, which features a fine performance from Stephanie Sigman, and had me all the way up until its way too fanciful ending.

A Montreal middle school is rocked by the in-class suicide of one of their teachers. Offering his services as a substitute is Bachir, an immigrant escaping his own turmoils in Algeria, who perhaps takes an overly abrupt approach in helping his new students heal from their shock and grief. "Monsieur Lazhar" is an excellent school drama, Canada's submission for Best Foreign Film in 2012, which is seemingly stripped of all the cliches and expectations you would have for a film of this nature. Mohammed Fellag is superb in the title role.

A linguistics professor (Shlomo Bar-Aba) and Talmud expert at the University of Jerusalem is far more conservative and significantly less successful than his highly lauded son and contemporary (Lior Ashkenazi). When the elderly scholar receives official word that he is to receive Israel's highest honor for his work, he feels vindicated after a lifetime of methodical labor, which puts the son in a moral quandary when he is informed that a grievous mistake has been made and the honor was actually intended to go to him. Joseph Cedar's "Footnote" is an impeccably constructed film which strains to be quirky, audacious, and self-aware early on but quickly reveals how deep and layered its story is, with a great moral conundrum which it refuses to compromise.

Season 3
The Earl of Grantham finds himself being left behind in the postwar world as control of a poorly managed Downton is subtly rested from his hands by Matthew and his other rebellious son-in-law returns to the estate a fugitive from the law with his very pregnant wife in tow.  A doggedly determined Anna struggles tirelessly to spring the wrongly accused Bates from the pokey, the usual members of the staff are up to their old tricks while a few more are introduced, and the Dowager Countess is given a run for her money when her daughter-in-laws mother pays a visit from America. Continuing the trend which was evident in season two, moves full force into unashamed, almost unwatchable melodrama, relieving itself almost entirely of any goodwill it had attained up to this point. Shameless plotting, irksome acting, horrid writing, boring new characters, and a surprising disappointing guest appearance from Shirley MacLaine are just a few of the general lowpoints on a season where nothing works. "Downton Abbey" is a prime example of what is wrong with television today: stories have beginnings, middles, and ends and most TV execs don't realize that. This series should have been treated like a mini series (which I believe it was initially intended to be) and cut off after the first go round.
* 1/2

Season 2
(spoilers herein)
As the Great War shakes up the caste system, the residents of Downton Abbey's lives are thrown into disarray as a betrothed Mary yearns for the return of Matthew, Lady Sybil takes up the practice of nursing and with the inflammatory chauffeur, and Anna deals with Bates' preposterous conscious. The second season of "Downton Abbey" is quite a letdown compared the marvelous inaugural one. Where the first felt fresh and garnering genuinely earned emotions, here it feels silly and recycled and in often cases shameless, including such instances as a deathbed wedding, a miraculous paralysis recovery, and the deadly Spanish flu carrying off only an inconvenient cast member. It also seems the effects of World War I, devastatingly felt across the continent, barely impacted the characters in this series (which could quite possibly be the point). Also, storylines keep going in circles (the Bates one is ludicrous and becoming insufferable). And still, after that harping, the show does retain much of its charm with not everything totally lost (Maggie Smith is a wonder) and is likely to keep on delighting the less discriminating viewer.
***

Season 1

The Earl of Grantham, the head of the prestigious English manor home of Downton Abbey, has just received the tragic news that his heir to the estate and his son have perished on the recently sunken Titanic. Now, having three daughters and no sons, the benevolent Earl and his American wife must find a suitor for their eldest and stubborn daughter Mary before their title and fortune passes on to someone else. Meanwhile the passing over of a malevolent footman for a coveted valet's job which was given to the Earl's lame Boer War soldiering mate is the impetus for drama, nastiness, and romance in the servant's quarters. As war approaches and their safe world is continually changing, the members of Downton Abbey struggle to hold on to their way of life, while some pursue their long thought impossible dreams. "Downton Abbey" is a magnificent series originally produced for the BBC and impeccably crafted by creator Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for writing Robert Altman's "Gosford Park". Fellowes draws you in with his beautiful photography and sumptuous score by John Lunn, and creates multi-dimensional, sympathetic characters whom you never can seem to quite peg down (except maybe for the sinister footman Thomas). The performers are all wonderful, and this is the type of series where different characters would appeal to all kinds of people. For me, I really admired Hugh Bonneville as the Earl, trying to be decent while simultaneously maintaining tradition and order. Or Joanne Froggatt as an angelic maid or Siobhan Finneran as a not so angelic servant, though not entirely unsympathetic. And of course Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess who plays the role that, well, only Maggie Smith could play. Sometimes you can see where the story's headed and sometimes the writing is a little too convenient ("well I know a butler in Leeds who knew a valet who worked for a count who saw so and so, etc. etc."), but regardless, I don't remember ever being so involved and moved by a series before.
****