For the three day "Presidents Day" holiday weekend I watched both seasons of the PBS mini series "Downton Abby". I found the first (last years) season on my Netflix streaming account and watched it Sunday. On Monday, I watch this season on PBS video on my computer. As an Anglophile I loved it. It reminded me of Brideshead Revisited, Upstairs Downstairs and Mrs Miniver all rolled into one. I first learned of the series while watching the Golden Globe Awards show and later from my wife and daughter who are fans. In some ways there was a little too much "soap opera" for me but I loved the setting a lot.
The following is an overview from Wikipedia:
The series is set in the fictional Downton Abbey, the Yorkshire country house of the Earl and Countess of Grantham, and follows the lives of the aristocratic Crawley family and their servants during the reign of King George V. The first series spans the two years before the Great War beginning with news of the sinking of the Titanic, which sets the story in motion. The second series covers the years 1916 to 1919,(World War I) and the 2011 Christmas Special December covers the 1919 Christmas period, ending in early 1920.
There will be a third year that will include the "Roaring Twenties"
I watched all 14 episodes for about 17 hours of viewing time. Perfect way to spend a cold rainy three day weekend with no football.
Three of my favorite lines from the movie are when a "middle class" lawyer talks about how he can keep his law practice and help manage the estate on "weekends" the old aristocratic grandmother (Maggie Smith) asks "What's a weekend" or when the Lord of the house tells his American heiress wife "Don't go American on me" when they get into an argument or when the Lord tells his daughter he loves her and then says that's hard to say "for an Englishman."
