Yeeeeah, with Rosamund and Edith planning to tuck Marigold away in a discreet school, that will make two families Edith has torn the girl from. At some point, surely she has to face the idea that she isn't concerned with Marigold's best interests, but her own.

If she were a nuanced character, I would be sorry to see her go. But she wasn't, and I'm not.

Agreed! Showing up for a split-second role? That's a real game-day player.

I hasten to point out that the comparison is not mine, but Tom's. When Robert and Mary ask why he continues to see Miss Bunting, he tells them, "Since Sybil died, I've forgotten what it's like to be with someone who feels about things as I do. That's why. Or that's been why."

They're making a concerted, conscious effort to show him that his long-sought position isn't just one of dignity, but of greater responsibility and work.

I laughed out loud when he asked "Am I a bad lover?," and, um, not in a nice way.

I'm going to give it a few more episodes.

Keep in mind that the NYT review is for the series rather than the pilot alone. I'm holding out hope for the series to improve, and indeed Noel Murray's overview of the first seven episodes notes some moments I'm looking forward to.

I'm not suggesting specifically that Dr. Railly should be a fragile character damaged by her contact with Cole, only that if they're going to stick in a scene where she's passing time in the hotel bar with her back to the door (and only occasionally checking the room in the mirror) as she knocks back drinks instead of…

I think so, too: Cole's immune to paradox effects that leave bystanders dazed and helpless. But the actual effect of that scene, at least for me, was just flabby action in slow motion, and the show's presentation left me having to puzzle out the meaning after the fact rather than conveying it in any coherent way.

As I mentioned in a comment above, it's one thing for Miss Bunting to be rude to someone above her station (and I agree that she was quite rude, and to her host's guests, which is particularly vulgar).

I think it's clear both to the characters and the viewers that Carson's speaking about the tea service, and also clear that the line is intended to have a double-meaning for the television audience.

I'm sadder that I ran out of room to include "There's nothing simpler than avoiding people you don't like. Avoiding one's friends, that's the real test."

Based on her reticence with Lady Grantham, I suspect (and am annoyed by the suspicion) that there will be some extenuating circumstances to motivate Baxter's theft and refusal to return the jewelry.

Miss Bunting was quite rude, agreed. But an Earl being rude to a guest, however unwelcome, at his table is different from a guest being rude to the Earl. Cora is right that it's the height of impropriety to answer rudeness with rudeness, especially when the Crawleys imagine themselves models to and authorities of the…

And Dr. Clarkson is [hushed tone] in a profession, which plants him solidly in the middle class. Sprat is being a prat.

It's the way of Downton Abbey: every season, it seems, there's irrefutable reason to dismiss Barrow in disrepute, then he's redeemed.

I'm not saying it's a mark of a mathematical genius, just that it's a swift totting up for someone who thinks she's "pig ignorant" to do off the cuff, especially when she's distracted by an especially heavy work load and all the bustle of a manor kitchen. Daisy calls herself dumb as a kipper, but she obviously has an…

Thank you for your kind words, and thanks to everyone who read along! I enjoyed covering Benched this season, especially watching it evolve from a beat-by-beat joke factory with an underused ensemble to something more.

I loved the pilot (though, like all pilots, it did a lot of heavy lifting and therefore necessarily felt very plotted) but the next few relied heavily on fast-talkin', Eliza Coupe's slapstick chops, and sitcom tropes. I enjoyed the first few episodes more than you did, but I know more or less what you mean.