Anglotopia

Downton Abbey: Series 2 – Episode 2 Review – SPOILER FREE!!!

September 25, 2011 By jonathan

After the events of last week, I was interested to see where they’d take us next this week.
As usual we were able to watch Downton Abbey Series 2 here in the USA by using the service TheTelly.net – otherwise you’ll have to wait until January 8th 2012 to continue the show.
Episode two of this season takes place a few months after the events of last week. Much has changed since then off screen.

We’ve got a new valet to replace Bates named Lang who’s a shaky war veteran and the Lord doesn’t seem to like him much – nor does anyone else mostly because he’s not Bates.
Brave and foolish William finally gets his call-up for training and he’s quite excited about it. Downton Abbey is getting rather short staffed which leads to Carson getting more overwhelmed to the point where he has a nervous breakdown during dinner.

I probably should have felt it last week but things seemed real dark and sinister this week – like the gravity of what’s going on in the world around is finally catching up with Downton.
Poor Lady Mary as she has yet another pompous bore arrive at Downton Abbey as a prospective husband. This one is a newspaper magnate, Sir Richard Carlisle played expertly by Iain Glen. He’s an interesting character but there’s something ever so slightly shifty about him, particularly when he appears to have a previous relationship with Lavinia Swire, Matthew’s fiance.

Noticeably absent from this episode is Bates, it was too optimistic to hope that that plot thread would be continued this week but as is typical with drama, they’re going to keep us guessing until next week by keeping it unresovled. Everyone misses Bates though. Thomas is back and most people aren’t happy about that either as he’s still a dick.

It was a very good episode – not as good as last week but still enjoyable and I can’t wait until next Sunday.
What did you think of Episode 2? Let us know in the comments!

rated 4.8 by 5 people [?]