We don't watch "Downton Abbey" because the Crawley family is unusually susceptible to tragedy. In fact, I suspect many of us watch it because it extracts such high doses of drama and tension from such trivial concerns.

Thomas is kissing boys and getting caught. Cousin Rose is dancing to jazz. Edith is flirting with another married man. Matthew and Mary are sneaking around behind each other's backs. Branson's disgracefully Irish brother won't stop drinking beer. On and on it goes!

Sybil's body isn't even cold, yet the residents kept scheming, especially Matthew, who just can't wait to get cracking on his plan to reform the estate. And speaking of Matthew, there sure was a lot of foreshadowing in that one scene, wasn't there?

Now that we know that "Downton" creator Julian Fellowes is fully capable of going "Game of Thrones" on us, I have to wonder what else could happen. Could Lord Grantham really lose Downton?

It was only last week that we saw Edith writhing in bed, wondering how on Earth she'd survive without the slithering presence of Sir Anthony in her life, but here she is making herself useful, or at least trying to.

Deception swirled upstairs and down and sudden revelations brought both salvation and devastation in tonight's episode of "Downton Abbey" -- but, hey, what else should we expect from everyone's favorite purveyor of class-system porn?

At Downton, everyone has a job to do, whether it's to uphold centuries of aristocratic tradition, serve meals, or smoke conspiratorially in the courty...

There was a bit of belly laughter last night when they tried to foist a blow-to-the-head-causing-amnesia plot on us. The singing was bad a couple episodes back, but now they're diving into a pool of soap opera tropes.