As I said in my review for Season 1, I hate this genre. And yet, here I am again, watching Downton Abbey Season 2. Granted, I will say that I was asking myself why I was watching Season 2 through most of Episode 1 and that's only because I forgot some of the smaller things that happened in the first season. By the second episode, I was back into the groove of the series and ready for more. By the time the last episode of the "season" was done, I was begging for more. At least I won't have to wait long for Season 3 since I'm just waiting for it to be transferred to my Library.

As for this season, I will say it was much better than the first. But why? I think because they more or less shifted some of the focus off of Mr. Bates and Anna's story, and gave a good arc for Daisy, who is turning out to be my favorite on the show. Having her deal with the implications of leading William on and then marrying him on his death bed was good for the character as well as the show itself. I hope to see her get more screen time in Season 3. They did end up giving Bates and Anna a good curve ball with his arrest for murder.

Even though Matthew and Mary's story was paint by numbers predictable in where it was going and how their problems for this season would wrap up, I still found it to be a good ride. Thomas and Mrs. O'Brien were still the same which is a good thing. You have to have "villains", even if they really aren't. They need to give Edith more to do. Kind of wasted here for the most part. I liked that they gave Sybil something to do as she became a Nurse, but honestly, I found her romance with the Chauffeur to not be entertaining at all and to some degree boring.

But other than that little misstep, overall, this season was better and I highly recommend this as a Rent. If that is not enough for ya, Maggie Smith steals all her scenes. So good and so frickin' awesome. And not to be outdone, there is Lesley Nicol as Patmore.

Without giving too much away, you better learn to like Branson.

I like the villains in the show, but the show is really good about making sure that every person, no matter how despicable, contributes something so important and beneficial that you couldn't just wish them away.  I like that a lot.  Even Mrs O'Brien, who does something horrible in series one, still manages to score a victory that makes you glad she's still around.  You can't just get rid of characters you don't like in this world, because you know you could wind up worse off.

Daisy... did I say this last time, but I think in the first season Daisy's meant to be like 12 years old or something, she's still young during the War and in series three which is afterwards.

What I love about the show is it's constantly changing, jumping from era to era and seeing how the (changing) cast reacts to it.  I think part of the reason that the show is such an unmitigated success is that it never sits still, there's SOME stuff I felt that dragged on a bit too much but the ground is always shifting beneath everyone's feet and they're trying to catch up.

But MOST of all, and I realized this from the first episode, this is a show about death.  Death of innocence, death of class, death of lifestyle, the world is slipping away from the characters, and they can either adapt or die (or both) and we want to see if they can because we start to fall in love with this sort of dream kingdom that they live in that won't be around much longer.