From USA Today
The "upstairs" half of this upstairs/downstairs drama from Oscar winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) is pure Austen, from its wit and compassion to its propriety obsessions, despite its 1912 setting. The comparison starts with the well-meaning proprietor of this sumptuous estate, the Earl of Grantham (Hugh Bonneville), who married his American wife, Cora (an exquisite Elizabeth McGovern), for her money and fell in love with her later.
They have three daughters to marry off: Mary, beautiful and willful (Michelle Dockery); Edith (Laura Carmichael), plain and waspish; and Sybil (Jessica Brown-Findlay), sweet and with a budding social consciousness. And they have the Lord's imperious mother to fend off, not easy when she's played in a constant state of high dudgeon by the peerless Maggie Smith.
They also have a very British problem: On his death, Lord Grantham's title and estate, including his wife's money, will pass in total to his closest male heir, cutting out his daughters entirely. That was all right when Mary was engaged to the earl-in-waiting. But now he's dead and the new heir, Matthew (Dan Stevens), is a middle-class Manchester lawyer. The horror!
Where Abbey exits Austen and enters Gosford Park is in its "downstairs" interest in class conflict, not just between aristocrats and servants, but among servants themselves, with their carefully constructed hierarchy. But here's the egalitarian bit: From the heads of the staff (Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Joanne Froggatt) to the opening episode's newest employee (Brendan Coyle), the servants are as universally well written and played as their employers.
