I suggest that this thread remain spoiler-free, with discussion limited to the episode(s) which, at the time of your posting, have already been broadcast in the U.S. - then discuss all you want. The first episode will premiere on Jan. 6 here.
This is my wife’s background noise show… so it’s MY background noise show. I am curious if the time jumps are going to continue or if it will settle in to a more traditional time progression.
It was just a straight romantic appeal, with no mention of the inheritance. Kind of agree-to-disagree, and we love each other so we should get married.
Which can only help. Too much time went by in the first two seasons yet none of the characters seem to have aged 8 years physically or in their relationships. Plus, assuming the Crawley girls ranged from late teens to early 20s in 1912, the older two would be getting into spinster territory by 1920.
Sounds like it… though then again, Mary gave the mother of all drama-queen performances.
I will say, I absolutely loved Shirley McClain as Cora’s mother and how she looked down on all the English traditions giving the dowager Countess plenty to cluck about ;). I know she said she’d be leaving, but you think she’ll be staying a while longer as Edith looks to be getting married in a short period?
So, episode 1 of season 3. Things I liked:
-Just about everything involving Branson and Sybil
-Shirley MacLaine as Cora’s mother
-Maggie Smith, as always
Things I didn’t like:
-Lord Grantham just suddenly losing all his money with no warning. Obviously people who invest money lose money, but it seems to me it requires either carelessness or stupidity (neither characteristics that Lord Grantham has shown) or nearly criminal negligence on someone else’s part (which we haven’t been shown) to lose all of your money with no warning. I think it would have been better for there to have been some proto-Bernie-Madhoff situation where the seemingly respectable investment firm turned out to be a fraud or something, rather than Grantham having (a) invested his entire fortune in one stock, and (b) that stock’s value went so quickly to zero that they didn’t have a chance to at worst case sell at a loss
-Thomas still being a malicious jerk, and somehow still for the most part getting away with it. This definitely just feels like “he’s a character in the show, so they need to keep him around”.
Lots of the other plot lines seem somewhat recycled, but I’m happy to wait and see where they’re going.
I hated that sweet dead Lavinia’s father was discovered to be- surprise!- a multimillionaire and - surprise again!- left his fortune to his daughter’s husband. Well, as second runner up, which makes no sense because they said his original choice died in the same epidemic that Lavinia died in which makes you wonder how the old man missed that one.
Not a spoiler because I’m guessing: I hope they don’t have an arc where Matthew inherits but then heir number 2 shows up from India. They’ve already done that with the Crawley cousin.
Didn’t get that one either. Why would the new footman take the fall when he could say, honestly and with witnesses, that he followed Thomas’s instructions? Everybody knows Thomas is a prick by now.
My favorite character from last night was the woman playing Shirley MacClaine’s maid. The contrast between her and the character MacClaine played was amusing. Mrs. Levenson managed to embody all the stereotypes the English must have held about rich Americans back then. She’s crude, loud and uncouth. Her maid gave us the impression it was all an act and Levenson is just having fun with the Crawleys.
I loved the episode but I kept thinking the friggin house can be let go. Let the Crawleys get jobs like everyone else. They’re not very special. Let them go join the hardworking Daisys of the world and earn their damned keep. Or at the very least the middle class Matthews and get a profession so they can contribute something to the world besides dinner parties.
Did anyone else watch the special on Highclere where the show is set before it began? I had the same damned feeling watching it. What a waste! The Van Dyke painting should be in a museum somewhere and the house made of real use instead of being set aside as the personal fifedom of a handful of spoiled brats.