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Downton Abbey: Seasons 1 - 2
Limited Edition
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Masterpiece: Downton Abbey Season 5Hugh Bonneville, Laura Carmichael, Michelle Dockery, Maggie Smith, Jim CarterBlu-ray
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
The original and unedited UK version of Seasons 1 and 2 of the hit show Downton Abbey in one limited-edition boxed set.
Welcome to Downton Abbey, the splendid ancestral home of the Earl and Countess of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville and Elizabeth McGovern) and their daughters, who live there under the watchful eye of the Dowager Countess (Dame Maggie Smith). The household is a complicated community, with the servants below stairs as fiercely jealous of their ranks as anyone above. From the sinking of the Titanic to the First World War, the secure and ordered world of Downton is rocked as the lives of the inhabitants are shaped by romance, ambition, and heartbreak.Enjoy this collection of both seasons of the Golden Globe® and multi-Emmy Award®-winning, Guinness World RecordTM-holding (highest critical review rating for a TV show), most talked-about program in recent memory, including the special Christmas episode.
This Blu-ray set features subtitles in English (SDH).
Amazon.com
Downton Abbey's first two seasons are packaged in a splendid boxed set that every fan of the series, and any historical drama, will love. Season one sets a lavish stage of beautiful scenery and architecture, and a class structure rigid yet just beginning to give way at the beginning of the 20th century, and of the Great War. Season two picks up two years later, in 1916, as the war rages on over Europe, and grand Downton Abbey has been converted into a convalescent hospital for wounded veterans of the brutal combat. Throughout both seasons, the storylines involving the wealthy Crawley family and their servants are captivating, richly developed, and all too human. Season one focuses, as it must, on quickly giving biographies of the main cast members and their roles in the stately home of Downton Abbey. Standouts include Hugh Bonneville as Lord Crawley, Earl of Grantham, and Elizabeth McGovern as his American wife, Lady Cora. The Crawleys' three daughters quickly show their distinct personalities and passions--and passion they are determined to have. Downstairs, the servants include Brendan Coyle as Mr. Bates and Rob James-Collier as Thomas Barrow the footman, whose rising position in the household is threatened by Bates's return; Thomas immediately begins schemes to undermine Bates. Maggie Smith steals every scene she's in as Violet Crawley, the Dowager Countess of Grantham. The bons mots fly out of the countess's mouth and she is wickedly funny as the elder stateswoman who has seen it all and is shocked by absolutely nothing. If Smith tends to chew the scenery, it doesn't really matter--since Downton Abbey has scenery to spare.
This boxed set is rich with extras. Fans will be captivated by the making-of featurette showing the details as originally envisioned by series creator Julian Fellowes (writer of Gosford Park and the TV series Titanic). Another feature examines the incredible attention to period authenticity paid to costumes, dialogue, and décor. Another short feature examines the many love stories unfolding--and given urgency--with World War I as the backdrop. And the transformation of the stately home into a humming wartime hospital is also fascinating. All in all, there are more than 15 hours of immersive entertainment in this five-disc set--best put on another pot of tea before you settle in. --A.T. Hurley
From the Back Cover
The label might not exactly match the display on the disc menu nevertheless the content in each disc is unique.
Label: Disc One - Menu Display: Season One, Disc One
Label:Disc Two - Menu Display: Season One, Disc Two (neither disc one or Two says Season One on the display)
Label:Disc Three - Menu Display: Season Two, Disc One
Label:Disc Four - Menu Display: Season Two, Disc Two
Label:Disc Five - Menu Display: Season Two, Disc Three
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.78:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- Product Dimensions : 6.5 x 5.25 x 0.55 inches; 7.28 Ounces
- Director : Julian Fellowes
- Media Format : Multiple Formats, Blu-ray, NTSC
- Run time : 58 minutes
- Release date : October 2, 2012
- Actors : Maggie Smith, Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern
- Studio : PBS
- ASIN : B008HT4FUW
- Number of discs : 6
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Top reviews from the United States
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This is my favorite type of series because though it is mindful of the history its characters are living through, all of the main characters are fictional - so there's no specific history to get upset modern screenwriters fail to take into account. Here were some striking things to me...
1) As tragic as we still feel the sinking of the Titanic was, the series gives one a bit of a glimpse of how overwhelming it was to people of certain social classes at the time. Losing so many heirs, friends, other family members, people they grew up with - all at once like that.
2) the series takes on a very interesting period which is not covered very often (on the Royal level, Fall of Eagles is awesome telling the big story) where the world did in fact change. The whole of society was being uprooted as the 'modern world' emerged. Those who can't wait for the change interacting with those who want things to stay exactly the way they have always been - tons of opportunity for dramatic interactions.
3) One of the easy-to-miss side stories is of Cora and her money. There were tons of American heiresses who married titles in England during this time frame - Consuelo Vanderbilt and Jennie Jerome (both, incidentally, married into the same family - the one that produced Winston Churchill). Lots of these relationships were miserable. I was glad to see this one; while not perfect, it is happy over the long run.
4) LOVE Maggie Smith and her character. She seems to get all the curmudgeonly matron roles lately but this one is great. Tough and sarcastic on the outside, she has a heart of gold and is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.
5) Finally, love the English terms we Yanks haven't picked up - but we should because we really don't have our own jargon that quite fits. Example: The Earl tells Matthew (the heir) that he should dance with the formidable (and nasty) ladies maid Ms. O'Brien at the Servants Ball. His response "Crikey!." Loved it!
The story focuses in the Downton Abbey, a lavish and beautiful estate owned by the Crawley family, its inhabitants, and their servants. I could write an entire raving review about the ensemble cast but that would take too much space and time so I'll say this instead; the cast is quite large but each member plays their part perfectly. I've seen a few British dramas but have never been enthralled with a show like this before, thanks mainly to the terrific job done by the actors.
There really isn't anything about this show that misses the mark; the acting (as mentioned), the sets, the cinematography, the historical references, the costumes...it's all there and it's all great. This set comes with the first and second series, as well as some very informative featurettes.
I haven't met anyone that's watched the show and didn't enjoy it. I've known quite a few people that were hesitant about watching it, mainly because they thought it would be boring or slow. Their minds were quickly changed upon giving it a chance. It's to those people that I would recommend this show; give Downton a shot a prepare to be amazed by how much you enjoy it.
This is as true of programs based on books like Brideshead Revisted and Poldark as it is of the show that Downtown Abbey most resembles - the original Upstairs Downstairs. It's also just as true of the first series of Downtown Abbey meaning that, while there was a distinct dip in quality between the first and second series, it would be a mistake to attribute it to the show suddenly becoming a soap opera. The real culprit seemed to be a lack of focus on the part of the writer, weaving in so many plot threads that not only was it was sometimes unclear which ones we should care about some of those we clearly are meant to focus on felt rushed such as the problems encountered by Mr. Bates late in the series.
Despite that, you have to give credit to the actors for continuing to approach even the more preposterous plot lines with conviction. This is most apparent with Brendan Coyle as Mr. Bates whose dignified performance is a stark contrast with the sensationalistic storyline he's been given. Coyle also starkly contrasts with Maggie Smith as the Countess, whose role has largely degenerated into throwing out pretentiously pithy comments every so often whether the story calls for it or not.
With the third series of Downtown Abbey premiering on PBS tonight, too long after its UK run for most American fans, the biggest question is not what will happen to Bates but rather whether it will be more like the first or the second. Whichever turns out to be the case, the new series is sure to have one thing in common with the previous ones, it will be the classiest soap opera on TV, and that's not a bad thing.
Top reviews from other countries
Here, we have entered the strange, pseudo-historical world of Torydom as seen through the eyes of true-blue Julian, where a gang of stalwart character actors do their best with trite lines and superficially realised stock characters, bringing to life a nostalgic world of hackneyed and repetitive plots set in a fantasy lime-green world. Even the First World War trenches are overlain with what, I'm sure, the dowager countess Maggie would call a painful vulgarity.
Upstairs, Mi'lord a beneficent and ideal employer loves every last brick of his Elizabethan manor house and treats all his underlings with the utmost respect and propriety while his lovely, supposedly American wife, looking for all the world like Wallace Simpson, nods dutifully. His three daughters engage in their girly squabbles while really wanting to show they are enterprising modern young things by doing good works and falling in love with old men and undesirable foreigners.
Meanwhile, below stairs amongst the forelock tuggers, innocent maids, jolly cooks and country bumpkins, lurks the heart of darkness. Yes, there's a footman named Thomas: he's a thief, a bully, a coward and all the slimy, horrid things a Tory would make a gay person to be. He steals the wine, rifles the pockets of the butler, he bullies wee Willie the good Christian kid and even tries to take away the girl he's sweet on. Perhaps worst of all are his attempts to do down the Saintly Bates Mi'lords war-wounded valet. Master Bates has had a tragic life, marrying a shrew of a wife who might even have been a socialist! Oh, the calumny! The only other character who comes close to Thomas's evil is his sidekick, O'Brien, the Mrs. Danvers of Downton. She actually causes Mrs. Simpson to abort her baby boy by means, appropriately, of a bar of soap. Mi'lord is tearful but soon regains his stiff upper lip.
Three stars for this tosh? Well, there are three ways to view this: with open-mouth incredulity; admiration for a post-modern comedy; or to believe . . . .
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.


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