Downton Abbey

When I started blogging, it was because I couldn't sleep at night (hence the name "Insomni-Mommy"). Then I got a job working the early mornings, spent my days with two hyper boys, and couldn't fall asleep fast enough at night. Occasionally something would keep me up, like when I read Twilight and The Hunger Games, and the suspense was too much to take! Now I have 3 children, and no longer work outside the house because its way too much anyway. So the stakes have gotten much higher to keep me up at night. And I was totally shocked that the Masterpiece Classic show Downton Abbey would fit the bill. I heard about the show from facebook friends and then on the Golden Globes (which I primarily watched in disappointment that Ricky Gervais was not as snarky as the previous year). It showed up on Netflix Watch Instantly, and I put it in the queue, thinking it would work well to help me unwind after a long day of child-raising. So not the case! Within the first five minutes of the first episode, I was sitting up in bed, completely rapt to the action on screen. When the episode ended, I described it as a cliffhanger to my disbelieving husband. And I was hooked. I watched both seasons in the course of about a week, staying up until 3 am (what am I, 19?) and devoured every moment of restrained passion and delineated social position. I think what this show has going for it are the beautiful location, costuming, all that visual stuff that makes you totally wish you lived in a Yorkshire manor in 1912, and the themes of class and generation, not to mention Dame Maggie Smith, who could be the new Girl Next Door and make me watch that ridiculous show. I love her line about how young people are so much more likely to see things as not set in stone, and it resonates with how I'm feeling now that I'm about to be 30. I am no longer completely that person who sees the world as open and full of possibilities. Some doors have closed, and some traditions make sense to me. I think that is one of the real hallmarks of growing older. And Downton Abbey does a fabulous job of illustrating that point in every episode, by the reactions given to a situation by the Dowager Lady Grantham, Lord and Lady Grantham, and their daughters. Particularly in the early part of the 1900's when so much was changing, and the world was becoming the one we are familiar with today. I also thought during the first episode, how much it reminded me of Gosford Park. A little IMDB search showed that the show's creator also wrote that amazing movie, as well as The Young Victoria, which is possibly one of the most romantic movies EVER! So I was an insomniac for a week, now I am a lovelorn American desperate for news about season 3, and horrified that I have to wait until 2013 to see any new episodes!