I recently watched the first two episodes of "Downton Abbey" on PBS. Luckily, these episodes are available for a limited time online at PBS since my Tivo has for some mysterious reason twice rebuffed my command to record what I tell it to. 

If you liked "Gosford Park" (also created by Julian Fellowes), the reality show "Manor House," and/or the old school originator "Upstairs, Downstairs," then you will love this series, set in pre-WWI England. 

The Crawley family resides at Downton Abbey (not DownTOWN, but DownTON) along with what seems like hundreds of servants. Like "Gosford Park," what's good and bad for the family is often bad and good for its staff. Class lines get periodically crossed, re-crossed, and double-crossed as the estate machine encounters a few cogs in the form of dying heirs, dubious suitors, and god-awful grandmothers.

There are also plenty of good looking English chaps and chapesses (what is the female version of chap?) to go around. And, unlike so many poorly written and conceived American TV series and miniseries, the characters populating "Downton Abbey" are actually three-dimensional people who have realistic flaws, contradictions, problems, and saving graces. This is a real feat, since it would have been all too easy to portray class distinctions "way back then" as simplistically as all too many U.S. television shows portray class distinctions "then" and "now."

"Downton Abbey," however, doesn't take the easy way out. Thank goodness for that.

Watch it while you can!