Three Up, Three Down: Downton Abbey, Season 6 Episode 1

One last go 'round with the world's favorite northern English household. Let's see how this ends up!

Three Up

1. Mr. & Mrs. Bates. The ongoing saga of who killed Mr. Green has (apparently) come to a conclusion, as a woman (another victim of Green's) has confessed to the killing and there's a witness to corroborate her story. This frees them up to plan for the future again, and while Anna is concerned that Bates will be unhappy at their lack of children (she's had several miscarriages), Bates appears sincere when saying he has everything he wants. The news even gets the Crawleys to come downstairs and break open some quality bubbly!

2. Mrs. Hughes. She's been putting off her wedding to Carson, concerned that she won't be able to meet his expectations in the bedroom as she's older and not what she once was. She gets Mrs. Padmore to raise the issue with Carson, and once the awkwardness subsides he confirms that he wants a full marriage, and that his love for Mrs. Hughes will see things through. Carson thinks she's going to call things off, but she confirms that she's in for the long haul.

3. Lady Edith.  She seems to be the one person on the show who is embracing change and the possibilities of the future. She's kept Gregson's publishing firm, but is having issues with an editor who doesn't like working for a woman. She's also kept his London apartment, and with the tenants moving out the idea forms that she could keep the apartment for herself and have a place to stay when in town on business. A chat with her aunt also raises the idea that Edith could bring Marigold with her, as in a place as big as London there would be less notice of an unattached woman raising a child. So maybe this will be the season of Edith?

Honorable Mention - Lord Robert. He gets to ride a hunt rather than attend a hospital board meeting, celebrate the exoneration of the Bateses, and in between gets rid of a blackmailer (more on that anon). He's also becoming accustomed to the idea that the old way to running the household will have to change (more on that anon as well). It's a pretty good outing for the Earl of Grantham, all things considered.

Three Down

1. Rita Bevan. A chambermaid at a Liverpool hotel, Miss Bevan knows that Lady Mary and Lord Gillingham had an assignation, and she intends to get paid for her knowledge. Miss Bevan says she wants Mary to pay her 1000 pounds, or else she'll go to the papers. Mary says no, but has no plan other than not pay and ride out the scandal should the press run with the story. But daddy comes to the rescue, paying off Miss Bevan with 50 quid while getting her to sign a confession to blackmail, which will go to the police should the story come out. So while she technically didn't fail, Miss Bevan certainly came out on the bottom of this transaction.

2. Lady Violet and Isobel Crawley. Going back to that hospital board meeting, it turns out that the big hospital in York is looking to take over the village hospital. Lady Violet got this information from a friend on the York hospital's board, but hadn't shared it with anyone before the meeting. This gets under Isobel's skin, as she thinks Violet is trying to conserve her power by withholding the information to gain time to block the move. Isobel (backed by Lord Merton) thinks the merger would be a good thing, while Violet (backed by Dr. Clarkson) wants to keep things local. Will this conflict cause a permanent rift between them?

3. Daisy Mason. The owners of a neighboring estate are selling up, and as part of that their tenants have been given notice. This means that Daisy's father in law may wind up having to leave the farm his family has tended for generations (assuming that the new owners don't take the tenants back on). This all comes to a head at an auction of the goods from the main house, when Daisy decides to confront the new owner in front of everyone at the auction. This puts the new owner in much less of a mind to bring Mr. Mason back, and puts Daisy's job in jeopardy. Lady Cora intercedes to keep Daisy from getting fired (which was Carson's preference), but she's still likely caused her father in law to be cast out with no prospects for the future.

Honorable Mention - Miss Denker. Lady Violet shares the prospect of staff reductions at Downton with Denker, and asks her not to share this with anyone as no plans have been made. Feeling a little too secure in her position, Denker wastes no time telling the Downton staff, and gives Spratt the business by adding that he's the most expendable member of Lady Violet's household staff. This leads Spratt to ask Lady Violet if he can get reasonable notice of when the cuts will be made so he can prepare, and mentions that he heard about the cuts from Denker. Lady Violet manages to turn this into a conversation with Denker saying that it may be Denker who gets let go, which puts a fright in Denker, as she doesn't know that Lady Violet said that without any intention of letting her go. Always a hoot, that Dowager Countess.

Catching Up

So with summer gone and the new TV season starting up, a quick look back on what I wasted my time with over the past few months:

Under the Dome - we're about halfway through this, and I'm not particularly impressed. Too exposition-heavy, odd moments of illogic (a meningitis outbreak that can be cured in hours using one dose of antibiotics, no one finds that strange?), and not particularly great acting (though the guy playing James "Junior" Rennie could probably make a career out of playing sociopaths). But it's interesting enough for a summer series, I suppose. It is picking up a bit now that the thing that's apparently causing the dome has been discovered.

Hell's Kitchen/MasterChef - I found the former more watchable this time around if only for the casting of perhaps the most incompetent group of one gender in the show's history (the men, who proved almost incapable of winning a team challenge). The latter is much more watchable this time around, not sure if it's the contestants or the (relative) streamlining of the tryouts. It's not the Walmart product placements or the Glee-themed episode, which pretty much proved that Jane Lynch will appear in anything (as if Celebrity Game Night didn't do that already).

Masterpiece - after working through Mr. Selfridge (kind of not worth it, unless 14 episodes of Jeremy Piven given license to overact is your kind of thing), we got what appears to be the last season of Inspector Lewis (boo) and the first season of Endeavor, a Morse prequel series that I've enjoyed quite a bit. Neither have particularly long runs (3 and 5 episodes respectively, I think), so easy to cover if you're so inclined.

The Killing - you may have noticed that I tailed off of the weekly coverage, thanks in part to a move and in part to the show not really having three characters who have an "up" episode every week. Turns out the show's been cancelled (for good this time), which isn't helping me finish the season. Don't think I'll miss the show per se, but I will miss Joel Kinnaman's performances as Stephen Holder. Here's to hoping he gets the higher profile role he deserves, but soon.

American Ninja Warrior - modeled after a Japanese show, it features a variety of folks (many of whom are either rock climbers or devotees of Parkour/freerunning) trying to conquer obstacle courses in the hopes of conquering the final one (which has never been done). It's not something we'd have tuned into, but the oldest boy found it one rainy weekend afternoon and it quickly became his program of choice. I fear future trips to the park will be ruined as he finds that none of them have a salmon ladder or warped wall. Also problematic is the change from G4 to Esquire Network, as the show went off air for a few weekends, but it appears to be back, for better or worse.