Downton Abbey Seasons 1 & 2 Limited Edition Set - Original UK Version Set [Blu-ray]

We hadn't caught any "Downton Abbey" on TV, but bought this DVD set based on the praise the series had received, and the question everybody was asking after the Christmas Special (included in this set): Is John Bates going to hang? How could I resist a cliffhanger like that?At the beginning of season 1, it's 1912 and the prospect of WWI looms. But the denizens of Downton Abbey have other things to worry about. Such as meeting the stranger who will inherit the home out from under the family when the Earl leaves this Earthly plane. There are also tensions below stairs, as when John Bates joins the staff as the Earl's valet, but cannot perform all extra duties expected of him due to his war wound.Spreading over both seasons is Lady Mary's scandal, which starts off hilarious - for the viewer, not for her.Season 2 starts in 1916. England has been at war for a year and a half. In January, 1916, England began forced conscription. In 1918, the Spanish flu began its course, killing 20 to 50 million people worldwide over the next two years. All of these affect Downton Abbey. But the plot line that takes over at the end involves John Bates and his wife. His odious loathsome wife.This is a review of the combined two-season set,  Downton Abbey Seasons 1 & 2 Limited Edition Set - Original UK Version . Sometimes Masterpiece Theater-worthy series can be too drawn out, too much of little happening for a half hour at a time. But "Downton Abbey" is not one of those. Though there is plentiful character exploration, and there's a huge cast of characters to explore, the plotting is so excellently choreographed that we never got bored. As far as writing and dialogue, I thought "Downton Abbey" to be average for Masterpiece Theater. But as far as interesting characters and gripping plot-lines, this series is top of the line.Everything you've heard about Dame Maggie Smith's character is true. She has many of the best lines in the show. Totally irksome, annoying and maddening. But often the truthsayer, and she sometimes surprises.This 2-disc set has season 1 on the first disc. The second disc has season 2, the 2011 Christmas Special and the Limited Edition boxed set Special Features.Special Features:1. Fashion and Uniforms (17 minutes) This consists of film clips interspersed with interview snippets with the cast and crew. Most of the people are talking on set, with actors usually in their costumes. Commentators include Rosalind Ebbutt (costume designer), Alistair Bruce (historical advisor), Anne 'Nosh' Oldham (hair & makeup designer), Rob James-Collier (plays Thomas), Hugh Bonneville (the Earl), Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley), Susannah Buxton (costume designer), Penelope Wilton (Isobel), Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil), Laura Carmichael (Edith), Michelle Dockery (Mary) and Zoe Boyle (Lavinia).Season 1 takes place in the post-Edwardian era, and the men wear tuxes and the ladies wear lovely beaded gowns over corsets - think Titanic style.The 2nd season starts in the middle of WWI. Before the war, women in trousers were common only in the fishing industry. This is the beginning of the "panting" of women in all walks of life, though it's unlikely that Lady Violet, Dowager Countess, ever resorted to pants.Though what is said in this special is interesting, it lacks depth, and with such a popular show, it's too bad BBC didn't have the funds to present something more comprehensive.2. Romance in the Time of War (16 minutes) The format is the same as special #1, and apparently filmed at the same time. Many of the speakers in #1 also appear in this special, and there's new people: Julian Fellowes (writer and creator), Iain Glen (Richard Carlisle), Thomas Howes (William), Sophie McShera (Daisy), Lesley Nichol (Mrs. Patmore), Joanne Froggatt (Anna), Brendan Coyle (John Bates), and Phyllis Logan (Mrs. Hughes).It is hard for us to understand, now, how massive a break with the rules it was for Sybil to marry the chauffeur. The reactions seems overblown to us, but this was earthshaking to a family like the Earl's in that time.Zoe Boyle says that her hair took and hour and a half to set up every day. This is in part because she has an added hairpiece, but, still, it gives me an idea of why the ladies of that set couldn't do without a maid.3. House to Hospital (13 minutes) Commentators include some also appearing in special features #1 and #2, with the addition of: Donal Woods (production designer), Gareth Neame (executive producer), Jim Carter (plays Mr. Carson), Dame Maggie Smith (Countess Violet) and Elizabeth McGovern (Cora).Most of the great houses of England were converted to some sort of wartime use. In real life, the families usually moved out of their mansions during their war-time incarnations. The producers needed the Earl's family to stay at home, of course, so they figured turning Downton into an officers' convalescence home would be more believable than if it had turned into a full-blown hospital.Though Season Two's war scenes are brief, they are in excellent juxtaposition to the trials and tribulations of the people at home. As Elizabeth McGovern says, "You go from these horrific scenes of wartime in the trenches, with men being blown up. Then you cut back to these rather petty domestic battles that are being fought in the home front with every bit the passion and energy and commitment."4. About VisitBritain (1 minute) This is a video ad, with no narration, for the VisitBritain website.Happy Reader

'Downton Abbey' (2010-present) is the outstanding period drama and British-American production created by Julian Fellowes.Unlike AMC's 'Mad Men,' which also took America by storm a little at a time, and also largely by word of mouth, 'Downton Abbey,' which considers Edwardian England, the Great War, and its aftermath, was predominantly created by native British citizens, and carefully analyzes the period it covers without wholly trashing it, as 'Mad Men' subtly and unsubtly does 1960s America on an episode-by-episode basis.In an era of exploitive programs like 'American Horror Story,' which is as extreme as anything ever produced for television, and which regularly traffics in horrific amputations, sadomasochism, genetic deformity, and torture, it is wonderful to discover a series like 'Downton Abbey,' which proves, among other points, that adults everywhere are absolutely starved for intelligent, ethical, and mature dramatic fare, such as was regularly produced in decades past on both sides of the Atlantic, especially in film.Opening in 1912, 'Downton Abbey' is the story of the aristocratic and genuinely noble Crawley family, who live in contented luxury at Downton Abbey, their immense Yorkshire estate, and of the lives of their multitude of servants, who the Crawleys treat with humanity, decency, and respect.Their fairly idyllic lifestyle is rattled by the loss of the family heirs on the Titanic, and then the coming of the Great War, which turns Britain and its social traditions upside down in a thousand painful ways.What makes 'Downton Abbey' almost radical in this age is that it refuses to denigrate the Edwardian aristocracy it examines. While both Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith) and American-born Lady Grantham (Elizabeth McGovern) are initially shown to be somewhat priggish and short-sighted, one of the themes of the program is the dual nature of most men.Thus, homosexual footman Thomas (Rob James-Collier) is, along with lady's maid Miss O'Brien (Siobhan Finneran), initially something of a villain, but as the series progresses, even sociopathic Thomas is shown to have, or to develop, a good side.Likewise, overlooked middle sister Lady Edith (Laura Carmichael) foolishly betrays her elder sister, Mary (Michelle Dockery), but this action is shown to be a lapse, if still a serious one, in an otherwise good personal character.As a whole, 'Downton Abbey' believes in the predominantly ethical and decent nature of man. As such, it depicts both the aristocrat and the 'common' working man, such as Christ figure and valet John Bates (Brendon Coyle, whose performance dominates the first season), as capable of integrity, empathy, courage, nobility of purpose, and basic human goodness in all its forms.It is this vision of mankind that gives 'Downton Abbey' its power.Though the series has the occasional weak treatment of a plot thread--such as dignified butler Carson (Jim Carter) being revealed to have once been a vaudeville performer or the rather unconvincing return of an heir thought dead, 'Downton Abbey' usually steers clear, not of soap opera cliches unfortunately, but of the standard melodramatic treatment of them when they do appear.For 'Downton Abbey' to continue to thrive creatively, however, the writing has to remain focused primarily on the historical period, and continue to provide viewers with 'a window into the past' instead of becoming bogged down too heavily in the lives of the characters themselves. By Season Three, for example, the lame and long-suffering Bates has been put through so many sensational reversals of fortune that such events no longer seem very credible, and audience sympathy for the character wanes considerably.In Season One, the various characters appeared largely to represent objective principles as much as they were presented as three-dimensional human beings; in the opening episodes of Season Three, however, the same characters are instead depicted strictly in human terms, and the writing is far more self-conscious in every respect. Thankfully, by the fifth episode and following, the writing is the best it has been since the first season.'Downton Abbey,' in its worldwide success, should not be playing to its audience, but going its own way and forcing the viewer to make all the effort necessary to follow it.Still, 'Downton Abbey' remains outstanding on almost every level, from the writing, cinematography, set design, costuming, and score to the brilliant acting by Hugh Bonneville as the Crawley family patriarch, Dan Stevens as heir presumptive Matthew Crawley and Smith, McGovern, Dockery, Coyle, and well over a dozen others, 'Downton Abbey' sets a new standard for 21st century television, and, by extension, asks us to reconsider the lives we lead and the society we support today.All students of Edwardian England, of Rupert Brooke, Vita Sackville-West, Kenneth Grahame, J. M. Barrie, the Sitwells and others will admire and deeply appreciate this intelligent, thoughtful, and moving series.

Downton Abbey has been phenomenally successful, which is why we decided to purchase this boxed-set. Yes, it's well made, slick, very easy viewing. Alas however, it doesn't really hold a candle to previous, other highly successful series, going back to the Forsyte Saga, Brideshead Revisited etc. This has to do with the absence of a sound literary base to it, a novel written by someone like Evelyn Waugh, who knew what he was doing. Julian Fellowes and Gareth Neame are no Galsworthys or Paul Scotts. The major gripe is that, so like banal soap operas such as the Archers or Coronation Street, the story line is merely based on events, rather than on both events and character development linked with them. The characters are often wooden, flat and uninspiring. The Bates couple is an excellent example, as is the Matthew - Mary couple and Lord Grantham. However, buying the DVDs rather than watching Downton Abbey when broadcast on television has a major advantage, which of course is that no episodes are cut by adverts. The televised version is ruined by 5-minute commercial breaks every quarter of an hour, which is absurd. After all, there is a limit to the number of cups of tea you can get up to make or trips to the loo to be taken in the space of an hour. In France, French television is not very good, but at least it respects films and other works by not having them cut by adverts.As an historical saga it has some interest; the episodes dealing with World War I are interesting, as is the evolution of the female condition and issues such as women dying in childbirth. However, these serious issues are too often dealt with in a superficial or OTT manner. Did Sybil really have to run off with an Irish revolutionary-cum-chauffeur? She gets her comeuppance though, big time. Suspension of disbelief is the order of the day here. There are also occasional linguistic anachronisms with dialogue slipping dangerously towards early twenty-first century idioms.The one saving grace of this series is of course the inimitable Maggie Smith, doing a brilliant job of playing ... the inimitable Maggie Smith. Alas her character is getting on in years and one lives in constant fear of her being written out, especially with the fairly high death rate amongst some of the younger members of the cast. She really makes this series, and without her I'm sure it wouldn't be anything like as popular. Long may she continue to rescue this series from tedium.

I have recently ordered and received from Amazon Series 1&2 as well as the stand alone Christmas edition.The Series one had started in South Africa recently and is televised on Sunday nights.We were bugeyed slaves of the series from episode one!!!!The decor and costumes is so authentic period ,the cast is absolutely brilliant,the story line the best I have ever experienced.Although we do not have the British first hand experience we were soon in teary eyed empathy with the various characters and their intricate trials and tribulations.After the third episode we decided that it was more than what mere flesh and blood could endure to wait a whole week for the next episode to show and promptly ordered the whole set as well as the Christmas DVD and paid for super fast delivery.Our package arrived within 5 days after ordering (WHAT SERVICE!!)Our experience was that the Blu-ray edition was even better viewing than the televised edition for picture clarity.My wife and daughter went through both series like hot knives through butter in a week's time.We are absolutely delighted with our purchase and Amazon rose enven higher in our esteem for promptness and selling quality products.a Truely wonderful experince.I have deliberately not said a word about the story line, suffice to say it remains spellbinding to the last scene!!!Five stars at least for both the product and Amazon!

What can be said about Downton Abbey that hasn't been said?It's elegant, bright and conveys great acting and a reasonable epitome of the time it is set, the acting, the scenery the Photography are all exceptional!!!Some of the dialogue is 'too modern' as in expressions like 'No way' or 'our lot get shafted' which strikes me as only a recent comment, as in the past 30 years (or there abouts), lol.Women love the dressage, the make up, (for both the females & males), I think it just takes them to a time of elaborate glamour, love stories and wishful thinking, basically fantasy for women but mystery from the male audience!What's all the fuss about?Ask a woman who watches it, she will explain why she loves it but you, (the male) just won't get it.....and there is a Christmas special too...Ho Ho Ho...or no no no no no!!!!!!

The title did not make much impression at first. In fact I wrote "Downtown" instead of Downton, so I did not bother with it for quite a while, then when family and friends started to wax lyrical about it, I decided to find out what it was all about and ordered the DVD. To say it was excellent, is putting it mildly, it was certainly a treat to both my husband and myself. The actors are excellent, but my favourite is Lady Violet and I don't think that any other actress than Maggie Smith could have made the character more vivid and likeable, my second favourite is Lady Sybil - she is loving and beautiful, but I don't know how her story will end. We are looking forward to watching Christmas at Downton and the rest of the series.

Definitely worth the small amount of money I paid for series one and two of this excellent step back in time 100 years ago. The days of unsinkable ships are a precursor to the upcoming darkness of the first world war but that is not the focus here. Highclere Castle is the perfect setting for a peek inside the lives of Nobleman Lord Grantham and his family in their social follies and day to day activities. I am not sure how historically accurate all the tales are that we see unfold and no doubt certain dramas are played out for cinematic effect but I for one enjoyed glimpsing the cars and vehicles that we see in the series. Spoiler alert..................comedy gold when a phone is introduced to the household for the very first time.