Free John Bates! (No spoilers)

Ok.  Forget everything I said last week.  This week, I want an English accent!  Time for J to get to speech training!

Free John Bates!

Do you know what I am talking about?  
If you do: Ermigurd! Isn't it awesome?!?! 
If you don't: that's ok.  I am going to tell you all about it. 

I am a new convert to the Downton Abbey cult.  Come along with me.  Drink the Kool-Ai.. er, cuppa tea. I've been hearing about Downton Abbey for a while but had never seen it.  I hate to come into a serial in the middle so,  once I've missed the beginning, that's it- I'm out.  (I missed Lost that way; never saw Mad Men...)  I figure that at some time, in the future, the kids will move out and I will be able to catch up on all that great TV I missed.  (Or not.  Without people raving about it in the future, I will forget and, consequently, lose many Trivial Pursuit games in my Assisted Living.)

I realized a while ago that Netflix had the first season on line and added it to the queue but never got to it.  (All my "previously viewed" selections are Disney, Mythbusters and teenagery stuff.  Not my choice.)  But, after a lapse, I started exercising again and decided to give it a try on the treadmill.  [Let me say again,] Ermigurd! One episode and I was hooked!! Exercising had never been so awesome before!  I was happy to do it for the full hour long show.  (And I am never happy about exercise!) 

Everyone should watch it. (See, all cults DO try to suck you in; your mom was right.) Though I don't know if the boy-types of "everyone" would like it.  Because, make no mistake, it is a soap opera.  (Scandal, death, romance.) A beautiful, lush, slow burn that sucks you in.  The "action" takes place over years.  Between one episode and the next, a few weeks may have passed or six months.  The cast is huge and yet each role is wonderfully and subtly acted.  Does anyone remember "The Remains of the Day" with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson?  Remember how much Anthony Hopkins could say with just his body language and expression?  This entire cast is wonderful in the same way.  The relationship between the family and the servants, the changing of the times, the stresses- it's all wonderfully done.

Once when my daughter was little, we went on a house tour of a American mansion in Virginia.  The house had once belonged to a wealthy family I can not now recall.  As we were touring the rooms, there were velvet ropes to constrain people to certain areas of the room.  My daughter asked, "Did they have these ropes here when they lived here too?"  I laughed but it IS hard to imagine people living in those beautiful historic places.  Part of the draw of Downton Abbey is that it seems SO alive.  And to me, because I don't know the actors (except for Elizabeth McGovern) from any other roles, they ARE the fictional people.  I am loving it! (And may have my children watch a bit to see how those big houses worked.)

So, you all need to give it a go! It's not too hard to catch up.  As I said, I started watching the series on Netflix and there were only seven episodes in the first season.  A week on the treadmill and done.  Week two, I fired up Netflix for Season Two and [ALAS!] noooo! They don't have Season Two streaming!  But, when you are obsessed, you will find it at the local library or from someone who got the set for Christmas!  And Season Three has just started but you can stream the episodes from PBS online.  Get cracking.  You already waste too much time online.  [Like coming here.] A couple of weeks and you'll be up to speed. Go, go, go!

There is a problem with devouring the series so quickly:  It has brainwashed me.  I find myself wanting to answer my children with an English accent. (I will never make fun of Madonna for acquiring an English lilt.) And, since I am a "servant" to them, it's often a sarcastic, "My lady" in my head.  Or, "Yes, your Lordship."  (Which I am SURE my husband would love...) 

Now, I am all caught up and the effect (or affect) is wearing off.  But, for a while, everything sounded so boring in our plain old accents and dull, utilitarian manner of speaking that I wanted everyone to use big, beautiful words and enunciate!  For example, in writing this, I actually wrote this sentence:  It sucked me in like a shop-vac.  Descriptive yes.  But,  the Dowager Countess would be aghast.  So I took it out.  I need to find a more British way to tell you that it will hook you... because it will !