‘Downton Abbey’ recaps coming to TFT Sunday

And I before I start, I have to make a few confessions

The English period drama Downton Abbey’s season 2 is premiering in America on PBS this Sunday night at 9pm. Haven’t heard of it? Downton mania has swept Britain, rocketing the staid miniseries’ lead actors to stardom and becoming a topic of national discussion — much in the way Mad Men did here a few years ago.

Downton Abbey snagged miniseries Emmys last fall, which was when many Americans (including myself) heard about the show for the first time. Season 2 just finished airing on ITV in the UK, and the Season 2 finale drew 10 million viewers, no mean feat. (Someone at BBC must be kicking themselves for not taking on the show.) Season 2 was further capped with a two-hour Christmas special (the most adorably British television convention ever) that drew 11.6 million viewers. So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal, and it’s just going to keep coming: ITV ordered 10 more episodes for Downton Abbey’s third season, starting September 2012.

Downton Abbey’s first season is available on Netflix Instant, if you want to blitz through them and catch up before Sunday. (It may seem like a tall order to watch seven hours of television in just a few days. It isn’t. Season 1 is entirely addicting. The only reason I didn’t watch all seven episodes in one 24-hour span was because I convinced myself I needed to go out and get dinner.) The first season introduces us to the Earl of Grantham, who lives on his estate, Downton Abbey, with his wife Cora and three grown daughters, Mary, Edith, and Sybil. They are accompanied by his mother, the Dowager Countess, played to perfection by Dame Maggie Smith, as well as a friendly dog and — oh yes, about 40-odd servants.

Writer/creator Julian Fellowes is not new to period dramas exploring class lines — he wrote Oscar-nominated Gosford Park(2001), which has a similar setting, if not similar themes. Downton Abbey’s narrative boldly travels both above and below stairs, capturing the inner lives and personal struggles of the highest-born ladies and the lowest-born scullery maid. At the end of season 1, which spans 1912 to 1914, war is declared on Germany — the beginning of the UK’s involvement in World War I. Season 2 picks up two years later, in the midst of that awful war, and goes on to 1919.

Now then. I think I’ve told you while the show is so great. And I definitely think you should tune in to PBS this Sunday to watch it in all its glory. But I have to come clean with you on a few fronts.

First: I’ve already seen Season 2. And not because I’m a real critic who gets screeners in the mail, but because I literally could not take the suspense and there were bootleg copies everywhere online. I don’t feel great about this (in fact, Hugh Bonneville, who plays the Earl of Grantham, chastised a reporter at Vulture for watching them online), but I do feel that ITV and Masterpiece Theatre (who owns the US rights) didn’t give non-UK viewers many options. Short of moving to Britain for eight weeks, and then coming back again for the Christmas special, there was no way I could have watched those episodes legally.

Second: I am a hardcore Matthew/Mary fangirl. I haven’t been this emotionally invested in two characters since I was in high school.

Third: I didn’t think Season 2 was that good. I know! It’s the worst thing to say. But I’ll amend that by adding that I thought the Christmas special was really good, and addressed a lot of the flaws the show ran into. It’s hard to top Alan Sepinwall’s excellent review of Season 2, but my quick take is that it got soapy. I mean, suds everywhere. The line between emotional drama and soap opera is easily crossed, but this was a particularly egregious hack job. That being said — war can make anyone mawkish, especially Brits reliving their glory days. I think some of the unrestrained emotional blubbering of Season 2 was an attempt to contrast wartime with the luxurious peace that preceded it. And also? This all really happened. World War I was an enormously devastating war, and it was in fact followed quickly by Spanish influenza, that ended up killing more people than the war.

It should be further added that while the plot got crazy, the acting and production of the show remained top-notch. The cinematography of this show is gorgeous; you could watch it on mute and be thoroughly happy. The actors are equally gorgeous. I think Michelle Dockery (Mary) and Dan Stevens (Matthew) are two of the handsomest actors I’ve seen, and I’m purposely using that archaic term because they suit the period so well. They seem to have independently developed a range of emotional expression that adds a depth to their characters the writers struggle to find. For me, they are what brings me back to the show again and again. But they are by far the only reasons to watch — most of the characters have rabid fan followings on Tumblr.

Fourth: Because I’m reviewing both The Good Wife and Downton Abbey, I won’t be watching the PBS episodes live. As far as I know, Masterpiece is packaging the eight-episode ITV season into four two-hour episodes for PBS (not sure yet what they’re doing with the Christmas special). But if you see something egregiously off in my recap, tell me and I will fix it! (I’m easily found at @soniasaraiya.) [UPDATED: PBS will be showing the Christmas special as episode 7 of the American series. Episodes 1, 6, and 7 will all be 120 minutes; all other episodes will be 60 minutes. More here.]

Fifth: I’m not unaware of the issues involved in being obsessed with a show that essentially glorifies British aristocracy. Check out my earlier piece on the show, “#OccupyDowntonAbbey.” And come back Sundays for my thoughts on each episode as the season unfolds.