Heh- we'll have to agree to disagree on Isobel's snobbery. I think she is absolutely a snob and a paternalist, albeit one with excellent intentions.
I really like that about her characterisation, that however genuinely progressive she may be she still has the marrow-deep casual entitlement and security of her…

Yeah, I get that it's unfair, and I'm not calling Ethel evil, only dumb. She can't have been surprised that she was operating in a sexist, classist, incredibly unfair world. She chose to have sex, didn't she? If you commit a dangerous action, you have to assume responsibility for it.

I quite enjoy them, but the reviewer and I do seem frequently to be watching shows with different aspirations. I was still confused by the original poster's objections.

Ah? It's been a while since I've seen the episode, but I always read it as "Don't bother me with your working-class morality". I enjoy Isobel, but she's always struck me as a classic paternalistic late-Victorian Reforming Woman. I don't dispute that Ethel needed the job more than did Mrs. Byrd, or even that Isobel's…

Also a nice nod to Isobel's unwitting hypocrisy- she is attempting to help Ethel the prrrosssstituuute "rebuild her life" and she believes in a more egalitarian society, but she doesn't take her servant's clearly-sincere moral qualms seriously.

@avclub-9972c46d0d80cfb94c14d0f62345b01e:disqus , ooooh that would be louche! Toby Stephens is a natural fit for Downton. He's raffish, swashbuckling, just the right amount of ham and Maggie Smith's son besides.

I was with you until you said "Branson". Allen Leech is cute, but Branson is a vile cockmonkey who does not deserve Downton's Valentino.
I'd prefer Thomas to rumple Ser Richard, Evelyn Napier or-and this will never happen, but hey- Dominic De Courcy- Beaufort, a dashing, terribly wicked baronet played by Toby Stephens.

There is. It's… not as unsatisfying as it could have been?

Sigh. I wish someone WOULD throw rocks at Branson.
Yes, yes, I am holding tightly on to my hatred for the recently-bereaved new father. I am either that awful, or Branson is. Or, you know, both.

Well, the show would have us believe that she's had SOME sort of intercourse with Squid-Boy (as Matthew is fondly called on the Guardian boards). So either she roofied her chinless milksop of a husband, or she got over the trauma caused by Death Snatching her first lover. Pregnancy terror seems the natural progression.

Eh? I'm not sure I understand either your premise or the specifics of your argument. Firstly, a reviewer is not obliged to like a piece of entertainment. All that one can reasonably demand is that the reviewer like the GENRE so as to adequately judge one particular work. The reviewer's already said that she has no…

Even that- Mary, you of all people should understand the principle of busying oneself with chores in a time of grief. Upper lips must be kept stiff.

I am beginning a Thomas Appreciation Thread. Matthew and Branson get all the love, and I find them respectively dull and loathsome. Thomas, now- Thomas is a selfish, scheming reptile with a habit of looking for love in all the wrong places. Also, Rob James-Collier has blindingly shiny black hair, haunted, almost…

Seriously. Mary, sweet, don't you know by now that your Papa shouldn't be allowed in the same LATITUDE as any sum of money greater than sixpence?

And thankfully this week he allowed them to operate without violins sawing through our eardrums at Important Moments.

Robert is useless, but in this case honestly I sympathised with him. Clarkson has rampaged through that family like a scourge with a stethoscope since the beginning of the series. Ex ante, his decision was right. Yes, Cora's furious with him, and that will be awesome, but-sigh- of course the catalyst for her rage is…

So it was the show's unreasoning belief in Doctor Death that led me to believe that Sybil was for the chop. Initially I thought "Ah, okay, there'll be a last-minute dash to the hospital and Clarkson will be vindicated." Then Sybil gave birth at home upstairs and Clarkson was stewing. It was then that I thought "Oh.…

Carson's quiet "I knew her all her life, you see" had me blinking back tears fiercely. But then Maggie Smith hove into view. DAMN YOU, SHOW!

It was a very elegant way to communicate how universally loved Lady Sybil was, that even flinty-eyed, egotistical Thomas could break down at news of her death.

@avclub-b2a1da123acbee8ada6d584671408900:disqus , Robert's "I've always thought that there was something Johnny Foreigner about Catholics" remark was, if not strictly racist, xenophobic and parochial. Also weird, since there are quite a few very old aristocratic families in England (notably the Howards) that have…