So, this is a remake of that British show of the same premise from a few years back, The Palace? King dies unexpectedly, young tabloid-fodder prince becomes king.

Scottie irritated me as well. You can't blame Jessica for putting that financial barrier there to make sure Scottie was going to stick around. When she was bitching about it, I was half expecting her to bail on both Harvey and the job when she was faced with having to effectively put half a million down on their…

God, I didn't even notice the lack of Laurel until you pointed it out. She's been successfully left out of a few episodes now with no loss to the story.

Sorry, but I can't agree. Edith may not have had a gun held to her head, but she was essentially forced by her position in life and what her family's expectations of her would be. At that time (and even decades later), her life would have been essentially ruined had she kept the baby.

There was an imbalance even before the war, though. There's only a limited number of peers (and upper class non-peers) and not all of them would have had enough of a fortune to not take a potential wife's money into account. Plus you've got younger sons angling for a rich wife to maintain their lifestyle because it…

I also think Fellowes is also pandering a lot more to the American audience who he seems to think just want pretty clothes, toffy aristocrats and love triangles.

I get your points about Mary and Blake, but still maintain that eligible men would look elsewhere for a wife, particularly an aristocrat. They'd want breeding (which she obviously has), but failing that they'd want a fortune and they'd want someone young enough to pop out the heir and spare. Trade would still be a bit…

Yes, it would have been very improper for a young single woman to visit the upstairs part of a private home with a man. And considering she is a school teacher, you could argue that she'd be judged much more harshly than another young woman.

Oh come ON. A- for this? Strip away the courtly feathers and finery and it's a pretty weak episode, a C+ at best. Paul Giamatti is basically wasted, we get the "Bates killed his wife" mystery brought up again through the reveal that he's an expert forger, and Mary shows her mercenary side yet again.

I'm not quite sure what you mean but I'll take a stab. George is now Robert's heir because he is Matthew's son, not because he is Mary's. If Matthew had lived to become earl, Mary would have been Countess of Grantham because she was Matthew's wife, not because her father was the previous earl. Mary has no claim on the…

To be the dowager countess, you have to be the countess first. If Matthew had inherited, Isobel still would have been Mrs Crawley because her husband died before becoming earl. But yes, agree with your sentiment.

Except Mary will never get that title because Matthew did before becoming earl. And unless she marries someone with a title higher than her own, she'll remain Lady Mary.

I actually wish Baby George had ended up being a girl so that Mary was back in the position of seeing the title and estate go to yet another distant cousin. While, at the same time, Edith was actually allowed a decent storyline. It would have been great to see how Mary would cope with being in the shadow of Edith for…

It's significantly better than the accent she used as Lady Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel.

I think it works by Julian Fellowes googling "significant events 1910:1930" and then not worrying about jumps of months between episodes. The pacing is all over the shop when you consider 2 1/2 years for season 1, 5 years for season 2, maybe 2 years for season 3.

A- is a bit much for this. Downton may still look as beautiful as ever and feature the same amount of snappy lines from the Dowager, but it's nowhere near as good as it once was.

I still love the fact that the salmon ladder is positioned right in front of Felicity's workspace.

She's definitely lost weight off her face, but I'm wondering if there's a bit of jaw/chin augmentation as well. Last season Katie Cassidy didn't have much chin at all and now that's all she's got. A thinner face won't have that much impact.

You're reading a bit too much into the adoption storyline, aren't you? Red might have his own agenda, but Lizzie did the right thing by calling off the adoption. I hardly think it's a good idea to bring a baby into a marriage that's clearly got issues and that became apparent to Lizzie when she spoke to the foster…

Hmm, it was pretty great, but it wouldn't crack the top 5 for me.