Downton Abbey: Season 2

Following the enormous success of the first season of the BBC's elegant period soap opera, writer Julian Fellowes picks up where the previous run ended, with the aristocratic Crawleys and their many servants facing the outbreak of World War I. The second season of Downton Abbey covers the years of conflict, during which the estate presided over by Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), and his American wife, Cora (Elizabeth McGovern), is transformed into a hospital for wounded veterans, although the emphasis remains on the household's emotional entanglements. Will headstrong Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) wed ruthless press baron Sir Richard Carlisle (Iain Glen) to save her family from scandal, or will she wind up with her true love, cousin Matthew (Dan Stevens), who is engaged to sweet Lavinia (Zoe Boyle) but comes home from the front seriously injured? Will the earl's long-suffering manservant Bates (Brendan Coyle) secure a divorce from his nasty wife in order to wed loyal housemaid Anna (Joanne Froggatt)? Will Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) ever be allowed to marry lowly chauffeur Branson (Allen Leech)? Happily, the scene-stealing Maggie Smith is still on hand as dowager Lady Violet, ready to puncture even the most serious moment with some nugget of waspish wit. Presenting all nine episodes as originally aired on British television (before being re-edited for American broadcast on PBS's Masterpiece Classic series in 2011), DVD extras include three behind-the-scenes featurettes. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)