Downton Abbey's fourth season finale,TAR:All Stars have a couple of early departures and my two cents on Penny Dreadful

Well,Downton Abbey is over and done with for now,as the season finale went over well and was certainly more lighthearted than the last one. While the hijinks regarding the Prince of Wales' missing love letter was amusing enough, the one serious note to the whole affair was Edith's situation.

She and Aunt Rosemund returned from Switzerland,having her baby and then giving custody over to a local family,which was very hard for Edith to endure. I can't help but feel for poor Edith and frankly, sick to death of Mary's endless romances(not to mention my getting annoyed at her for even considering turning Mr. Bates in for murdering that manservant who attacked our dear Anna-she certainly took her sweet time about that!).

 While it was the norm back then for women in her social class to do just that,you knew that such a juicy plot point would hardly be tucked away so neatly there. So, I won't be surprised at some part of next season involving Edith's lovechild daughter(who is now being moved back into England to be raised by a grateful village farmer and his family) being discovered. Good on Edith for not giving into pressure from her aunt(who means well,in her own way) and staying connected with her child:

The Amazing Race All Stars edition got off to a sad start,as the team of Mark and Bopper wound up being separated. It seems that Bopper wasn't able to pass the medical requirements(due to an inflamed pancreas) necessary for approval and so, he is out of the game before it even began.

However,his good buddy Mark was still given a chance to compete by being teamed up with another former TAR contender Mallory(who ran the race with her dad previously). While I am glad to see Mark at least get another shot at this,I just hope that Mallory doesn't drive him completely crazy. The girl's a tad wacky there and the last thing he needs is for her to be another challenge to endure:

On the bright side,the ever annoying "Twinnies" Natalie and Nadiya were the first to be eliminated from the end of the first leg. Also glad that Jet and Cord were the first to arrive and won the two Express Passes because they will definitely play fair with those.

Back to the twin terrors;those two were truly double trouble during their original run on TAR(particularly when they helped to swipe another team's money) and their argumentative nature did them no favor here.

If they had spent less time fighting and more time concentrating on the tasks at hand, we would be stuck with them for awhile longer but the reality show gods were merciful to the viewers for once:

One of the upcoming highlights of the spring season is Showtime's Penny Dreadful, a horror series that dredges up some of the literary terrors of the Victorian era.

The cast includes Eva Green as a lady of mystery and Josh Harnett as a young dabbler in the dark side of the street. Not much has given away in terms of plot but characters such as Frankenstein's monster and Dorian Gray are said to be included into the mix.

It would be fun to have a truly Gothic show on the air and pay cable does provide a unfettered forum for a well done fear fest. However, while the early trailers look tantalizing enough, I am keeping my fingers here, hoping that there is some steak along with the scary sizzle and not just an attempt to cash in on the current steampunk sensation-we shall see by May,so let us linger in suspense for now:

RANDOM NOTES:

HEROES REBORN: Fans of the much debated superhero saga are rejoicing at the news of a 13 episode run set for 2015 of a revived version of the show. No word on casting just yet(although in my opinion, you can't do this properly without Sylar!) but here's to getting a second chance at doing it right: