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Watch Downton Abbey Online: PBS Masterpiece Classic

Missed Downton Abbey? Want to see the first episode again? PBS will be making each episode available for a few weeks after its initial airing. Watch the first episode on January 10. The episodes of Downton Abbey are available for online viewing from January 10 – February 22, 2011.

 Five reasons to watch Downton Abbey

1. A Powerhouse Cast

For many Jane Austen fans many of the actors in this mini-series will be familiar: Dame Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Jim Carter, Dan Stevens, and Robert Bathurst. Others are well-known faces for other reasons: Elizabeth McGovern, Penelope Wilton, Brendan Coyle, Joanne Froggatt, Michelle Dockery. The list goes on. Does it help to know that all look excellent in period costume? Oh, yes. Expect Dame Maggie Smith to steal all her scenes and to spout zingers left and right.

2. Excellent Story and Characters

The first episode starts with a bang with the sinking of the Titanic. From that moment on, the Crawley family’s well-laid plans are turned upside down, for both male heirs to the estate are lost at sea, and Lady Mary, the eldest daughter, cannot inherit, for the estate is entailed to the next male heir. The new heir, Matthew Crawley, a third cousin once removed, and an attorney who comes from a middle class background, has a great deal to learn before he can assume the title of earl. (Thankfully, Lord Grantham is a healthy middle-aged man, which will give the reluctant Matthew plenty of time to learn the ropes.)

While I won’t reveal the plot, I can safely say that a number of the characters are not cut from cookie cutter molds. I am thinking of Edith, for whom one alternately feels compassion and disgust, or of Matthew Crawley, whose stubborn insistence on living as he always had negated the services of his butler/valet, diminishing his man’s role in the household. The result is a case of reverse snobbism.

The clashes between the dowager countess (Maggie Smith) and Isobel Crawley (Penelope Wilton) are a joy to behold. To be sure, O’Brien’s and Thomas’s machinations as ladies maid and first footman are one-dimensional, and the butler’s (Mr. Carson’s) story of hiding a secret past echoes that of the butler (Alan Bates) in Gosford Park, but I didn’t mind. Overall, I found the story riveting and the choice of actor for each role superb.

  
3. The Sets and Costumes

The lush grounds of Highclere Castle and the great house itself provide the internal and external sets of Downton Abbey. The Castle, which is a mere 15.8 miles from Steventon, where Jane Austen grew up, was designed by Sir Charles Barry, who also designed the Houses of Parliament. The town scenes were filmed in Brampton, a small town in Cumbria, far north from Highclere Castle.

4. Life Upstairs/Life Downstairs

All the ceremony of a grand country house is on display in this mini-series. The interplay between the family and their guests and the servants is integral to the story. John Bates, the earl’s valet, was also his batman in the war. He must deal with his injured leg while providing perfect service to his master. While the Crawleys are just and fair with their servants, they expected them to perform their duties as expected. While the Countess has friendly feelings towards her maid, O’Brien, she does not hesitate to tell her when she has stepped out of bounds. The same goes with the Earl, whose sense of duty extends as much to himself as towards his family and staff.

The quarters upstairs are lavish and beautiful. The servant quarters are plain and sparse. Sleeping quarters are located in the basement or attic garret, and underground tunnels connect the kitchens and outhouses to the main building. Except for the upper servants and the footmen, the staff is expected to remain out of sight, performing their duties when the family is asleep or in other rooms. Within these rigid set of standards, the servants manage to stand out as memorable individuals that the viewer either roots for or not.

A Changing World

Lady Sybil and Gwen, the house maid, represent the women of the future. Lady Sybil attends political rallies and supports the suffragette movement, and Gwen aspires to move out of service to become a secretary. The world is rapidly changing. One sees the anachronistic horse passed by an automobile; and an electric chandelier in the drawing room, but candles in the servant rooms. Julian Fellowes says about the time period:

that system…was sufficiently modern so that you could kind of understand who they were. So you don’t run down the steps in a dimity dress to get into a carriage. These people travel in cars and trains, and they have a telephone and electricity. So even though it’s not up to date now, nevertheless you can recognize that world and you can see them moving into it. – The Sunday Conversation: Julian Fellowes, LA Times

MASTERPIECE, Classic, Downton Abbey, Trailer, PBS

MASTERPIECE Classic | Downton Abbey | Trailer | PBS
www.pbs.org Sundays, January 9 through January 30, 2011, at 9pm ET on PBS (check local listings) MASTERPIECE's 40th anniversary season premieres with a quintessentially MASTERPIECE production, Downton Abbey, an Edwardian-era spellbinder created by Oscar-winning writer Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park). Starring Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill), Maggie Smith (Harry Potter), Elizabeth McGovern (A Room with a View), Dan Stevens (Sense & Sensibility) and a country-house full of other great actors, the miniseries set audience records during its recent UK broadcast and was hailed as “a sumptuous, instantly riveting glimpse of a world—and family—on the verge of profound change” by the London Daily Telegraph.