What Downton Abbey Can Teach Us About Effective Communication.

And we're off! Downton Abbey season 4. Everyone is looking refreshed. The men look thinner and even the older ladies' faces more pert. I don't know what benefits get written into the contracts after a series hits it big like this but let's just say everyone looks more awake, even playing sad people in mourning. I also love how the season opens on Valentine's Day. Reminds me of that season of Mad Men that did the same. Inbuilt drama always, on Valentine's Day.

Initial observations.
(1)
I love watching the clothing that everyone wears evolve. We have gone from the Edwardian era to the beginning of the '20's and we can already see the jaunty turns of flapper fashion working their way into the evening wardrobes of people like Lady Mary and Lady Edith. With the men I see more subtle shifts but of course Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess looks appropriately steeped in traditional garb suited to her.

(2)
Hello! Lord and Lady Grantham are sleeping in the same bed. Yoo-hoo, did anyone else notice this? Where have I been...did this start last season (I admittedly missed an episode or two). I always thought they slept alone - or was "sleeping in my dressing room" just a euphemism for "being in the doghouse"? Doesn't Lord Grantham look like a cardboard cutout sitting there? Strange. I guess everyone is just swimming with the tide of the times.

(3)
I am awash in the lush detail of the costumes and set design. I die for "period dramas" and thought, when I discovered Downton Abbey in its lull between seasons 1 and 2 that I would be among a very small cadre of nerds watching this show. Imagine! A PBS Masterpiece Theatre show garnering such a wide swath of the American audience! So great - now we're all in this together. Never mind that my husband just about fell asleep watching hour 2 of the premiere with me.

(4)
I love that Mary and Matthew's baby is named George. How fitting, given the little prince born in England last summer. Do you think that was a shout out to the Royals?

(5)
Speaking of George, don't you love how no one gives much of a look to the kids until it's time to throw Nanny (Wicked Witch of the) West out on her ear? That was a close call.

(5)
All this wariness and hullaballoo about electricity. So funny that Ivy is afraid of the blender.

(6)
Mr. Barrow is Templeton the Rat of Downton. His deviant, self-serving behavior is kind of fun to watch and it's in rare form in this episode.

(7)
Love that dinner gong.

(8)
Who is King Knut?

Alright. Glad to see Mary breaking out of her mourning clothes and getting a little more informed. Michelle Dockery played the deadness of her new widow depression perfectly though did anyone else chuckle at how even with her voice seeming one register lower, her depressive demeanor is not much different than what we knew to be her "normal" state of being? She's so deliciously melancholy and snarky.

Mary's life has largely been the pivot on which a lot of the action in the series turns. But boy she can't catch much of a break - remember her first fiancee was killed on the Titanic in the very first episode? And then Mr. Pamuk, the GQ cover model of a "house guest" who died in her bed? Who's next? At least now she is a recognized half owner of the estate. Didn't you love the chit chat with Thomas about selling off the farmers' land as she stood on the hill overlooking her inheritance? I enjoyed that.

What I love about this drama is how much anger and vitriol surfaces with beautifully British turns of phrase. In Mary's pulling up Carson's indiscretion by saying,

"Carson, this is my fault. I'm afraid I may have encouraged you to feel you have the right to address me in this way...I'm sorry you feel entitled to overstep the mark. We're old friends, and as I said I'm sure this lapse is as much my fault as yours..."

I need to remember how to put people in their place Mary style when next needed.

Also to be noted is how much goes unsaid. I mean, the amount of deception and running around taking place at Downton! From Lord Grantham kissing the staff girl to dragging a dead body around the corridors in seasons past?!

Another very telling line about what fabulous communicators the Granthams and co. are: Violet's line as she shepherds Mary through the machinations of her inheritance:

"There can be too much truth in any relationship."

Really, now! I loved the sparkle in her eye as she said that. It about sums up half the interactions in this series. But that's what makes drama! Leave it to Fellowes and the other writers to give Maggie Smith understated zingers like this. That was a great line.

My other favorite line was

"What the --- " when Jimmy sees Rose dressed as a staff worker to meet the Dance Hall guy who schlepped all the way in from town on foot to see if "she's alright." Got to keep an eye on that one.

Until next week...