to you, dowager countess. (spoiler-free!)

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ohhhhhh dowager countess.  how do i love thee???  let me count the ways!
(also: spoiler-free post!  and comment thread too--please!)
let's start at the beginning: steve and i have watched it all, straight up until the end of season three.  it was our second attempt because after one episode a few months ago i was all, "booooring."  luckily we gave it another try because i was wrong!  i admit it!  i fell hard for downton (downTON.  TON.  TON.  do you know there are still people out there calling it downTOWN!  lord grantham would never allow it!  we must make it stop!)
and so, we watched it all.
i have a lot of favorites.  favorite moments, favorite characters, favorite scenes.  let's talk about them, shall we?
anna is one of them.  oh, i love that anna.  she is salt of the earth, i tell you what.  and are her and bates not the sweetest couple on that side of the atlantic?  and sybil, oh sybil.  an english girl with a good dash of rebellion but not too much to make her obnoxious.  she's just the sweetest.  and the relationship between carson and mrs. hughes?  i can't decide if they're like a precious brother-sister duo or if they'll eventually fall in love.  but, i love them just the same.  and the way mr. carson talks about watching mary grow up?  that man.  he's such a stickler for keeping things the way they are and always have been but at the same time has this sensitive side that surprises you.  and the opening credits??  the song, the camera work through the house... i just sit back and think, "ahhh downton.  bring it," every time that familiar tune begins.  
i know, i know.  i'm talking about it all like it's real.  in my mind, it is.
but dowager countess!  she might just be my favorite.  she can make an episode.  her voice, the inflections, the tone, the facial expressions.  she nails it every time.  maggie smith, you genius you.
i can't say i have a favorite dowager countess moment.  every time she opens her mouth, i brace myself for another gem.   when sir richard carlisle says he's leaving and may not see her again and she says, "do you promise?"  TEN POINTS.  or when she turns to lord grantham to order a drink when he wasn't in the right attire, "oh!  i thought you were a waiter!" TEN POINTS.  they're all tens.
she's witty and quick and clever.  serious when she needs to be and has a surprising amount of liberalism in those bones for an elderly english woman.  
basically, she's perfect.
just watch it.  ok?  if you haven't, of course.  which, at this point, is probably very few of you.
{it's all here -- free and through the end of season 3!}