Downton Abbey

[nokidsmom]

Oooh I think that could happen- but I think they will just replay the Matthew and Mary vibe a bit- a beligerent sexual tension sort of thing http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/M ... ualTension

I do think they need to get a bit more imaginative for the next series.

I have wondered if they will turn Lady Edith into a '20's flapper in the next season. Now that would ruffle Lady Violet's feathers but Martha would no doubt approve.

[Seven Severn]

I haven't read a single post in this thread because we've only seen two episodes in the U.S. so sorry that I'm no doubt repeating things, but OMG poor Lady Edith!! And Sir Anthony running off like he did...grrrr...

What I want to happen is that Isobel convinces Edith to join her in her work with fallen women, Edith will find her calling in social work, she'll meet a nice doctor-type and there you go.

Had to get that out as I have no one to discuss the show with. You may now return to your regularly scheduled thread.

[cindyluvs24]

This may be a problem because The Walking Dead resumes on Feb. 10 opposite DA.

[nokidsmom]

I haven't read a single post in this thread because we've only seen two episodes in the U.S. so sorry that I'm no doubt repeating things, but OMG poor Lady Edith!! And Sir Anthony running off like he did...grrrr...

What I want to happen is that Isobel convinces Edith to join her in her work with fallen women, Edith will find her calling in social work, she'll meet a nice doctor-type and there you go.

Had to get that out as I have no one to discuss the show with. You may now return to your regularly scheduled thread.

I think it's OK to talk about what we have seen so far in the US so here goes.....

My jaw just dropped at the wedding scene! I think I must have looked just as much in shock as the onlookers at the wedding (did you see the look on Lord Gratham's face as this was going down? Whoa). Like a lot of DH watchers, I started out not liking Edith very much in the first season but over time have come to like her more and I was really rooting for her this time.

A friend of mine at work is just certain that she and Sir Anthony will get back together at some point. In fact, that is what she really, really wants to happen. Me, I am not so sure. I mean, jilting someone at the altar ranks as the worse kind of rejection. Seriously, who gets over that? Add to the fact that it's just so public, in front of family, in front of everyone. After this the "jilter's" (is there such a word??) name is going to be worse than well, you know. To me it's not realistic and in aristocratic circles, it would be less so, IMHO.

[Bethella]

For those of you in the UK (or elsewhere) who have already seen the entire season: So does Martha Levinson come back again? Or was she only in the one episode? I want more snarking between Martha and the Dowager.

[ADoyle90815]

This may be a problem because The Walking Dead resumes on Feb. 10 opposite DA.

Not for me, since they repeat The Walking Dead, and my local PBS station shows the previous week's episode of DA before showing the new episode. Either way, I can remain caught up on both shows.

[Guest Anonymous]

Note to the US viewers: there is a separate thread on Downton where US posters specifically asked for no spoilers from the UK/pay tv members who would be watching. This thread was started for those of us who wanted to talk about the programme as it was broadcast on ITV1 over here. So feel free to ressurrect that thread if you'd rather we didn't spoil what you have yet to see! :D

Disclaimer out of the way:

For those of you in the UK (or elsewhere) who have already seen the entire season: So does Martha Levinson come back again? Or was she only in the one episode? I want more snarking between Martha and the Dowager.

Nope, after the episode where she says it is time to go home, she is done. I adored her though and would love her to come back in a future series. :)

[wildflower]

I think it's OK to talk about what we have seen so far in the US so here goes.....

My jaw just dropped at the wedding scene! I think I must have looked just as much in shock as the onlookers at the wedding (did you see the look on Lord Gratham's face as this was going down? Whoa). Like a lot of DH watchers, I started out not liking Edith very much in the first season but over time have come to like her more and I was really rooting for her this time.

A friend of mine at work is just certain that she and Sir Anthony will get back together at some point. In fact, that is what she really, really wants to happen. Me, I am not so sure. I mean, jilting someone at the altar ranks as the worse kind of rejection. Seriously, who gets over that? Add to the fact that it's just so public, in front of family, in front of everyone. After this the "jilter's" (is there such a word??) name is going to be worse than well, you know. To me it's not realistic and in aristocratic circles, it would be less so, IMHO.

I agree. Having seen this weekend's episode, I'm excited for Edith and I hope that if/when she does find someone, she does it for the right reason, not just to be married.

[PennySycamore]

My daughter and I used to watch Eastenders on Sunday nights when North Carolina Public TV shows two episodes from11 to midnight. I don't know why she started watching it, but I watched it every Sunday with her. I stopped, though, when she went back to school and when she came back next summer we were so lost.

NC Public TV used to air Doctor Who on Saturday afternoons back in the Patrick Troughton/Jon Pertwee/Tom Baker era. My girls grew up hearing Daleks saying "Exterminate".

[FrancineFishpaw]

Is it me or does Lady Mary seem cold to Matthew now that they're married? I know she was upset when he wouldn't share Swire's money. But she got her way on that and just seems like a cold fish now. Like she's fullfilling her duty by marrying the heir and that's all. And Branson! He's really trying to keep Sybil in a submissive state! She can't say anything against him and that line a couple of episodes back, "Don't disappoint me Sybil" just went all over me.

[MamaJunebug]

Glad someone else sees evil in Tom, I sure do. Manipulative-cum-threatening attitude, that actor is nailing it. I wanted to leap into the scene and cuff him!

Wow, really tragic storyline with Ethel ... ah, the good old days of patriarchal systems. B.S.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Guest Anonymous]

I agree. Having seen this weekend's episode, I'm excited for Edith and I hope that if/when she does find someone, she does it for the right reason, not just to be married.

I'm hoping that something will spark her to go and visit her editor/lover's wife in the asylum next series and find out for herself what went wrong for him to consider his marriage to be effectively over. I'd like to see how Julian Fellowes would portray mental health issues, and I like to think that Edith will become more questioning over time, rather than simply falling head over heels with a series of unsuitable men.

[Soldier of the One]

The Edith and Editor with Crazy Wife story sounds a little too 'Jane Eyre' for my taste :)

[nokidsmom]

In addition to the Lady Edith story, it's also interesting to see how the story with Tom is developing. We are seeing his growing ambivalence especially after he winessed the fire and is not so 100% keen on his cause. But he still not getting it when it comes to his wife and unborn child. The "don't disappoint me" line was pretty jerky and showed how he tries to get Sybil to back down and let him do what he wants.

But what really got me in episode 3 was how he still wanted to have the baby born in Ireland when Sybil tells him she wants the baby born at Downton where they are safe. Um, dude, you just had to hightail it out of Ireland due to your political association and activities, leaving your pregnant wife to fend for herself, then your aristocrat father-in-law works out a deal to prevent you from being arrested on the condition you don't return to Ireland and yet you still want to go back to have the baby, thereby putting all of you at risk again? Seriously? Wish Sybil could have told Tom off but Lord Grantham was clearly unhappy and gave him the deserved verbal smackdown over his actions.

[Soldier of the One]

Yeah, as much as I tend to side with the revolutionaries and the underdog, Tom's a bit of an ass.

[Guest Anonymous]

Note to the US viewers: there is a separate thread on Downton where US posters specifically asked for no spoilers from the UK/pay tv members who would be watching. This thread was started for those of us who wanted to talk about the programme as it was broadcast on ITV1 over here. So feel free to ressurrect that thread if you'd rather we didn't spoil what you have yet to see! :D

Disclaimer out of the way:

Nope, after the episode where she says it is time to go home, she is done. I adored her though and would love her to come back in a future series. :)

I was just reading some other tv gossip and this interview with Julian Fellowes caught my eye:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s183/dow ... rders.html

It looks like Shirley MacLaine could indeed be returning for Series 4. :D

[Anne Tudor]

I thought Shirley McLaine was very under utilized in her scenes so far. She did the best she could, but her character was written very one dimensionally and she functioned just to get the plot moving along. She seemed very much like a soap opera character, which is a shame, because I think we've seen such good writing on this show, particularly Season 1. All that to say, I'd love it if she came back for Series 4 because, really, she could do much more, as an actress, and as a character. I've always been so curious about Cora and her background, and it was just very superficially handled.

I have a similar complaint about Sybil and Tom, it was just handled very...soap opera-ish...it was so clunky but obviously if they were going to be continuing characters in the show, they had to come back to Downton.

I am swooning over the clothes this season, though.

[Guest Anonymous]

I thought Shirley McLaine was very under utilized in her scenes so far. She did the best she could, but her character was written very one dimensionally and she functioned just to get the plot moving along. She seemed very much like a soap opera character, which is a shame, because I think we've seen such good writing on this show, particularly Season 1. All that to say, I'd love it if she came back for Series 4 because, really, she could do much more, as an actress, and as a character. I've always been so curious about Cora and her background, and it was just very superficially handled.

I have a similar complaint about Sybil and Tom, it was just handled very...soap opera-ish...it was so clunky but obviously if they were going to be continuing characters in the show, they had to come back to Downton.

I am swooning over the clothes this season, though.

The show is written for the 9pm Sunday evening prime time terrestrial commercial tv slot in the UK - it was never going to amount to a great deal more than 'guilty pleasure' viewing, for people who have slung their kids into bed and want to switch off for an hour before heading off upstairs themselves. I think it was always intended to be soap opera on a grand scale, without the grim realities of Eastenders and Corrie, in order to give viewers a break at the end of the weekend. :)

[Guest Anonymous]

The Edith and Editor with Crazy Wife story sounds a little too 'Jane Eyre' for my taste :)

I know, but since they have been so 21st century about other issues (eg "blame is not a useful concept" in relation to infertility; ) I would love them to follow suit and have Edith write an expose of the 'lunatic' asylum as an article for a rival of her editor lover's newspaper. :mrgreen:

[Anne Tudor]

It's the most beautiful soap opera I've ever seen :D

I wonder if I just had higher hopes because in the US it was on PBS? And all the actors are so wonderful? And I loved Gosford Park?

That's interesting, I remember having a conversation with Mr. Tudor about it and he seemed upset I called it a soap opera.

I've got nothing against soap operas, either. That's just not what I thought I was watching Season One. Hmm....

[cindyluvs24]

Back in the late 70's-early 80's, Eastenders was on a small public TV station in NY (it was WNYC, channel 31. I had to use the VHF dial on my TV set) This was before cable and I used to watch it religiously every sunday evening. At times I needed subtitles.

[Guest Anonymous]

Back in the late 70's-early 80's, Eastenders was on a small public TV station in NY (it was WNYC, channel 31. I had to use the VHF dial on my TV set) This was before cable and I used to watch it religiously every sunday evening. At times I needed subtitles.

The first episode aired in 1985. I was a teenager and remember it being quite exciting to have a soap opera that wasn't about Northerners and farmers. :)

[PennySycamore]

Episode 4 of season 4 aired here in the States last evening. So heartbreaking to see Lady Sybil's death, seeing the family so helpless knowing that her death was imminent and knowing (and Cora knowing!) that it might have been prevented, Cora later sitting at her bedside saying goodbye to one of her children. I wonder how long Lord Grantham will be sleeping in the dressing room.

[nokidsmom]

Episode 4 of season 4 aired here in the States last evening. So heartbreaking to see Lady Sybil's death, seeing the family so helpless knowing that her death was imminent and knowing (and Cora knowing!) that it might have been prevented, Cora later sitting at her bedside saying goodbye to one of her children. I wonder how long Lord Grantham will be sleeping in the dressing room.

Watching Lady Sybil's death was a bit of shocker but I got a really bad feeling over the doctors fighthing what to do and Dr. Clarkson getting shouted down. At that point I had the feeling that it was not going to end well even as Sybil delivered the baby sucessfully.

Lord Gratham seems to be striking out on every decision he makes.

[RachelB]

Watching Lady Sybil's death was a bit of shocker but I got a really bad feeling over the doctors fighthing what to do and Dr. Clarkson getting shouted down. At that point I had the feeling that it was not going to end well even as Sybil delivered the baby sucessfully.

Lord Gratham seems to be striking out on every decision he makes.

Yup. He could have listened to the one person who'd been pregnant before and offered her assessment that this was not right or normal. Grah.