Max-stravaganza

Season three of Downton Abbey  (or "Series Three" as BBCphiles refer to it) proved that Julian Fellowes is walking the path of least resistance.  The plotlines were engaging, but with the exception of the occasional death, the resolutions were far too simple, sacrificing any potentially profound moments of dread and doubt in order to maintain the understated Colin Firthiness of the status quo. At the first hint of conflict, characters will worry, demonstrably pace back and forth, make loud declarations about how there is no easy resolution to the problem.  Barring an act of God, Downton will be doomed to financial ruin, scandal, a world war!  There are no simple answers, and we cannot stress that point enough. Just when it seems that Downton is about to get hit by a torrential downpour of change and death and ramifications that will forever alter the landscape...they find a shockingly simple, anti-climactic resolution and continue on.  It's becoming the  Entourage  of

While Kevin James' big screen career has focused on the fantastic yet impractical   subjects 1  of mall copping, zookeeping and boom coming, his television credits contain some true insight into modern middle class struggles.  A 2002 episode of The King of Queens offered an accurate, microcosmic and Nostradamic look at America's current debt ceiling/fiscal cliff/sequestration/Bill Maher fingerpointapalooza crisis. In said episode ( S'Poor House from season five), Doug and Carrie learn that their basement is riddled with mold.  It will cost $12,000 to replace the dry rot; a sum that the cash-strapped, lower middle class Heffernans (Doug works as a driver for the privatized and profitable IPS delivery service while Carrie is a secretary) can't possibly afford 2 . At Carrie's insistance, Doug swallows his pride and petitions his father for a loan.  Mr. Heffernan, financially sound in his old age, agrees, but on the one condition that Doug finally balance his budge