Culturebox: Terms of Entailment

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television Terms of Entailment Elizabeth McGovern is delightful in the upstairs-downstairs drama Downton Abbey. By June Thomas Updated Friday, Jan. 7, 2011, at 11:00 AM ET The best way to determine the quality of a show in the PBS "Masterpiece Classics" series is to measure the skirts. If they're too short, it means we're in England's grim midcentury period, and I prefer my classics to be set long before the reign of the current queen. I'm pleased to report that the frocks of Downton Abbey reach all the way to the ground, just as they should. Indeed, all the period costumer's occult arts are on display: corsetry, millinery, the starching of detachable collars. The show, which was a hit in Britain, is set in the world of immaculately turned-out servants who rise at dawn to light their masters' fires, iron their newspapers, and prepare their meals, while their own breakfasts are constantly interrupted by summoning bells from upstairs. In the first episode, the papers bring devastating news--the sinking of the Titanic means that Lord Grantham (a likable Hugh Bonneville) has lost his heir and the spare. What's worse, one of the men was unofficially engaged to Mary (Michelle Dockery), the eldest of the earl's three daughters. Since the family estate is entailed and can pass in its entirety only to a male heir, the marriage would've solved Mary's problems. But her prospects went down with the great ship. Unless the entail can be smashed, all the land and property and her American mother's fortune will be passed to a third cousin once removed, a lawyer from Manchester. To continue reading, click here. June Thomas is Slate's foreign editor. You can e-mail her at intpapers@slate.com or follow her on Twitter. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate NPR Fired Juan Williams Unfairly. Is It Doing the Same to His Boss? How the Senate Could Kill the Filibuster Forever (With Just 51 Votes) What Country Has the Simplest Tax Code?	Advertisement
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