conversations.from: system
conversations.value: ROLEPLAY_MODE: Develop the plot slowly, always stay in character. Describe all actions in full, elaborate, explicit, graphic, and vivid detail. Mention all relevant sensory perceptions. Keep the story immersive and engaging.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: downtonabb: Boardwalk Empire Season 4 Episode 4 the labrador, from the opening credits is surely cause for great alarm. She has been Downton Abbey's comforting rear-view intro for many years now. Thank heavens, then, that Isis's role has been upgraded, and she featured in no fewer than three scenes in tonight's episode. Perhaps it's time for her to get her own Facebook page and stop having to share one with Pharoah (the labrador who used to be in it). (Highly recommended interview listed there, by the way, where Hugh Bonneville reveals that Isis is "a moody bitch".)
  
     CLICK HERE TO WATCH FULL EPISODE IN HD   
  
  The Uncle Julian award for gratuitous anachronism
  
  Uncle Julian and his team of mouse screenwriters love to manipulate their best actors by giving them storylines and dialogues that are totally out of place in the period. "That's the understatement of the year," says Anna, on Ivy being drunk. "Go to bed. You look done in," says Lord Grantham to Mary. These are modern utterances. Irritating.
  
  The plot also had incongruous developments. Yes, every scene featuring Dame Maggie Smith was utterly beautiful and perfect. And I am not ashamed to reveal that there were tears in the Groskop household when she murmured to Lady Mary, "The difference is ... I love you." And the interchange between Lady Mary and Carson was wonderfully poignant.
  
  But the problem with these scenes, as with the ones featuring Lady Mary's miraculous transformation from grieving widow to tycoon of estate management, is that they are utterly anachronistic. A dowager countess would never talk to her granddaughter like that. A butler and a lady would never have that close a relationship. And a woman would never be welcomed at that table in 1922. If this series is going to have some kind of revisionist feminist agenda, I may have to lay in extra reviving violet macaroons.
  Translators' corner
  
  "You are letting yourself be defeated, my lady. I'm sorry if it's a lapse to say so. But someone has to." Carson to Lady Mary. Translation: "I am your real father."
  
  "I know Mummy thought that O'Brien was very good at doing hair." Rose on her mother stealing O'Brien as a lady's maid. Translation: "I come from a family of deceivers and soon I'm going to get involved in some crazy wayward behaviour myself, just you wait and see."
  
  "Just because you're an old widow, I see no reason to eat off a tray." Dowager Countess to Mrs Crawley. Translation: no translation necessary.
  Melty-Faced Patrick mad tribute moment
  
  "You wicked little cross-breed!" Nanny West to baby Sibby. Would anyone actually say this? I don't think so. But I'm so glad she did.
  Next week
  
  There is a letter from Matthew. Oh, what a surprise. Anna has an argument with Edna. And there are indeterminate fisticuffs at a thé dansant. Pass the smelling salts.
  
  Carnival Films and ITV and MASTERPIECE on PBS/WGBH announce that Emmy®, Golden Globe® and SAG® award-winner Paul Giamatti (John Adams, Sideways, Barney’s Version, Cinderella Man) is joining the Downton Abbey series in the Season 4 finale. Giamatti will play Cora’s maverick, playboy brother Harold, starring alongside the iconic Shirley MacLaine and the regular cast members for the dramatic climax to Season 4.
  
  
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