While the majority of the Crawley family is off to the south of France to visit a villa that Violet (Maggie Smith) has surprisingly inherited, Mary (Michelle Dockery) stays behind to supervise over a film crew who is using Downton as a location to shoot their film. The film has very few stakes for anyone involved, but it is a fine continuation of the Downton saga that is simply easy to just settle in to its coziness.. My only complaint is with so many new characters in two separate locations, some of the original core characters get short shrift in the story telling but it’s a minor complaint especially if the story continues on.

Two American detectives, Don Knotts and Tim Conway, who work for Scotland Yard are called to an expansive manor house to investigate the murders of its owners. It’s essentially an extended episode of Scooby-Doo where Scooby and Shaggy are replaced by these two comic greats. The story’s pretty predictable and it doesn’t feature the bungling duo in their prime, but it’s still fun and appreciative for being the last lead role pairing of the two.   

When a pair of quarry workers discover a strange white substance bubbling up from the ground, the powers that be decide to sell the sweet, addictive Stuff as a food replacement. Discovering that the Stuff has unusual properties including turning his family into a type of zombie, young Scott Bloom teams up with industrial saboteur Michael Moriarty and advertising executive Andrea Marcovicci to put an end to all consumption of the product. An absurd premise is made even more ridiculous with strange story choices and awful editing. Regardless, it makes for a perfect 1980s blend of 1950s SciFi horror mixed with Reagan era consumerism that somehow managed to bring in the talents of Paul Sorvino, Garrett Morris, and Danny Aiello to tell its strange tale.   

Mirroring the rise of fascism in the Muggle world at the time, Gellert Grindelwald, portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen in this installment, is acquitted of all charges against him and for some reason, allowed to rise to the candidacy of Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, a move that is fought to extremes by Jude Law’s Dumbledore and his compatriots. While I generally find the extension of the Harry Potter universe beyond the original books to be worthy of much eye rolling, I still find the world building enthralling despite the many flaws of its creator. It’s a bit strange to me that the love affair between Dumbledore and Grindelwald has taken prominence in this series with many of the characters from the original film falling to minor supporting characters, but I’ll probably continue watching these as long as they keep making them.