December 25, 2011 By
Our Christmas treat this year was two hours in the best-known country house in Britain in the Downton Abbey Christmas Special.
The residents of Downton Abbey celebrate Christmas 1919 with a lavish party in the first Downton Abbey Christmas special. Tensions are in the air as Bates’s situation casts a shadow over the festivities. Mary has to consider her future with Sir Richard Carlisle following a disagreement at a shoot and Violet has concerns about Rosamund, whose new suitor – the dashing but raffish Lord Hepworth – is not all he seems.
As the doors open again at Downton Abbey, the magnificent Christmas tree is lit and masters are giving servants their gifts. But there’s a shadow across the celebrations as decent, wronged John Bates (Brendan Coyle) languishes alone and quietly despairing. There’s a new opening especially for Christmas and Downton is resplendently decorated for Christmas.
There are many atmospheric establishing shots showing Downton during the winter season and it looks just as beautiful as it does any other time of the year.
The house is bubbling with the conflict of the many romantic entanglements that have been festering for two seasons. It’s also rather entertaining to see a real old school English shoot and how the English upper classes celebrate the holiday season.
I'ts not too much to say that Lady Mary’s dark secret is finally coming out to pretty much everyone else that didn’t already know about it and there are many surprising results and many satisfying conclusions to the related plot threads.
There were some major weaknesses and plot absurdities in series 2 (which we talked about in our previous reviews) – the Christmas special more than make up for all of them by wrapping up a bunch of plot threads and telling a tight knit Christmas themed story.
Overall the Downton Abbey Christmas special was a satisfying way to spend a Christmad Day afternoon. There were many shocking story turns but also many happy ones and writer Julian Fellowes as done a superb job of whetting our appetites for more Downton next fall.
The Christmas Special will air in the USA as the end of the PBS Masterpiece airing of the show starting next week.
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