Upstairs, Downstairs

The performances are precise and beautifully detailed, as are the characterizations in Thomas' script. Fans of the original series will see certain echoes in some of the characters in the sequel, but the echoes are faint enough to allow us our memories of, among so many others, Rachel Gurney and David Langton as the Bellamys, Angela Baddeley as the cook and Gordon Jackson as Hudson, who was so much more than just the butler.

No sooner has Upstairs veered toward farce than it redeems itself, again and again.

Upstairs Downstairs sticks to the rules established by the original and defies the odds by being as good, and in some ways, even better.

With only three hours to develop character and story, it can't help but suffer by comparison to the Emmy-winning '70s series that helped put Masterpiece Theater on the map, as well as to the recent Masterpiece triumph of the similarly themed Downton Abbey. But there are considerable pleasures.

At times, the show careens from black humor to near tragedy and then back again.

This is a family that could use some ruffling, with precious little chemistry between the series leads.

We're ostensibly supposed to see Eaton Place as a warm haven holding out against the cold wind of history, but a show built around the humanity of strangers would be more convincing if the characters displayed more humanness.