I was reading other people saying there were two more two hour blocks of Downton to come.

If the S2 finale has aired, the only thing left is the 90 minute Christmas special.

(The S2 finale had me shouting at the TV. Seriously, how does Dr Clarkson still have a job? Between the "oh wait, did I say never walk again? My bad!" and his apparent total ignorance that the Spanish flu had killed 100,000 people in the UK that summer...and that maybe a wee little quarantine might be a good idea so EVERYONE DOESN'T DIE? GAH. What an idiot.)

A friend of mine went to a Downton Abby tea - not in costume, but dressed up, with a hat and pearls.

Umm, it did look rather xmasy from the preview.

Yeah, they also combined eps 7 & 8 into one 2-hour show, and the result was close to Moldavian Massacre levels of melodrama and WTF-ness. The dresses and people are still pretty.

Oh, okay, that was this week? Did I mention attention? Not paying much?

The building just rumbled in an atypical fashion. The place is made of tinkertoys, so I'm never surprised when the floor shakes daily, but this felt different, and you couldn't hear anyone stomping by concurrently.

Jessica, YES to your spoiler-fonted text. Also, I felt like I was checking off a list of melodrama tropes while watching this season. I mean, seriously: deathbed marriages, out-of-wedlock baby spurned by the upper-class family, straying patriarch, PARALYSIS, amnesia/Brat Farrar plot, multiple affairs with lower-class characters, heroic save by the servant, OMG I CAN WALK AGAIN, meddling old ladies, EEEVIL media mogul, blackmailing ex-wife, stupid public snogging/kissing overheard by the person most likely to be hurt by it, self-sacrificing death, etc etc. It's just so completely over the top, way too much going on. And the scene at Lavinia's grave, with Matthew wailing about them being cursed? I couldn't stop laughing. It's all just so ludicrous. All we need is for one of the women to be raped. That's about the only soap opera plot element I haven't seen yet. Or maybe an evil twin: we haven't had an evil twin yet.

we haven't had an evil twin yet.

We did have the dread Canadian imposter!/maimed unrecognizable heir.

ETA: You forgot: Matthew's apparent transformation into a zombie after Lavinia's death. What was up with that makeup.

Yes, we certainly did. Which was lifted right out of Brat Farrar, by Josephine Tey. Also adapted for Masterpiece Theater, back in the 80s. I think it starred Bruce Greenwood, but I could be wrong.

ETA: I was wrong: it starred Mark Greenstreet.

Sue, yes, Matthew's graveside zombie makeup of I CAN NEVER BE HAPPY AGAIN DRAMACAKES was something else.

There was so much terrible about this season, but I still loved it. However, I rewatched Series 1 over the past week and the greatness in it was all the drama found in the household. I do hope it calms down in series three now that they've dealt with the war.