As a U.S. viewer, I can agree.

The assistant, Cheryl, is a poorer version of Maggie in Extras, the dumb blonde sidekick.  But I loved Maggie because she was genuinely sweet, funny, and loyal between her bouts of (hilarious) daftness.  Cheryl's idiocy is usually grating rather than funny (although her super slow delivery has made me laugh a few…

I think it's supposed to be "boss," but you know, stupider.

Nice observation.

Cooking with flower can be tricky at the best of times.

To be fair, Matthew's recovery wasn't a miracle; it was a misdiagnosis—not surprising from what we know of Dr. Clarkson.  And Matthew's condition, though temporary, allowed us to see a side of Mary we had never seen before.  Last season, Mary did not deserve Matthew.  Now she's grown.

I think it's Project Gutenberg that has an 19th century slang dictionary.  It's hilarious.

Jane even asked Grantham "How are you?"  I'm pretty sure that generally, servants did NOT ask personal questions to their employers; I think in that instance she was actually being rather forward.

I just don't see how the fact that this show is a melodrama somehow makes the events less believable than, say, an action drama (like Breaking Bad, a show that drowns in the AV Club's collective jizz).  Come on, people, it's TV.

In the Christmas special, Thomas will do THE MOST UNFORGIVABLE thing ever done on this show.  We'll have flashbacks to Duck Phillips in Mad Men.

Most unintentionally funny comment ever.

Mary says "governess," not "countess," which makes Edith second-guess everything she'd heard from P. Gordon.  Mary has a good point there.

I'm calling it right now:  Bates killed Vera.  It's the only possible direction for the show to go with this plot line.

I disagree; I think Lavinia is supposed to be very sympathetic.  She's so sympathetic that even Mary "at-least-I'm-not-fishing-with-no-bait" Crawley is nice to her, because Lavinia is so sweet and harmless that no one could be mean to her!  We as an audience find her unlikable because a) she isn't as conventionally…

Haha, kudos for your great answer and your very appropriate username.

The winner was Tommy Boy.

One of Daisy's most defining character traits is her suggestibility.  She is so easily influenced by what other people tell her, she barely has any thoughts of her own.  Because she's so naive, she thinks everyone else knows more/is better than her and therefore she should listen to what everyone says.  That's why she…

Can you imagine the Mary from season 1 carrying a bowl of vomit? Vomit!

I have watched this episode many times, and I can't believe I missed Matthew moving his legs when he vomits.  I think that was just a mistake, though.  If he could move them, he would have felt them move.

I don't think it was unrealistic simply because Lavinia puts it more delicately than Major Clarkson— "We can never be lovers," she says.  And she and Mary have already spoken about being "lovers" when everyone suspected Lavinia of being Sir Richard's former lover.