I’m sure I’ll get hate for this, but I did NOT like Shirley MacClaine’s bit, and I hope she doesn’t return. The troweled on makeup was ghastly, and she was doing her usual chewing of scenery. She toned it down a bit near the end, and it was bearable, but the director must have been rolling his eyes during edit.
Maggie Smith had the best lines, as usual. The plot to get her money to pay for Downton was just silliness, and Lady Mary’s response to not getting the money was annoying. I guess they did a good job of showing the superficiality British nobility, or it wouldn’t have annoyed me so much. The interaction of the household staff is far more interesting, IMO.
I was a huge fan of the Mr Bates and Anna romance. But when she said something to the effect of “We’ll track down every little detail, and that won’t work. so we’ll think up another little detail, and track that down, and that won’t work, so we’ll track down another. . .” All I could think was, “Oh God, we will, won’t we?”
The only way that turns out to be interesting is if she finds out that Bates is a serial killer.
Everybody downstairs knows, but upstairs, they’re in the dark about him. Was it Lord G who said to Thomas, “You’re not popular downstairs?”
Upstairs are in the dark about most everything downstairs. The servants know a lot more about the masters than the masters know about the servants. And the servants don’t tell tales upstairs.
Bates kept quiet about all the crap O’Brien and Thomas pulled on him. Remember when Thomas knocked Bates’ leg out from under him? Bates almost lost his job over that. Actually, he did lose his job, and then Lord G saw Bates quite capably getting into a carriage to leave and gave him another chance.
If upstairs know about the messes downstairs, they won’t acknowledge it. It conflicts with the image of a well-run happy household.
As for Bates murdering his wife, poison isn’t his style. If Bates kills someone, it’ll be face to face and you’ll know he’s murdering you. Maybe Mrs. Bartlett – Vera’s friend – poisoned Vera. Didn’t Vera have money when she died? From Bates? She would have bragged to her friends about it.
If the family sold Downton, they would just move into smaller mansions. With fewer servants. None of them would have to do anything as dreadful as actually “work”–outside the house or in…
Anyway, wasn’t there a situation at some point when Grantham was made aware of some malfeasance by Thomas and he considered whether to sack him until Thomas decided to volunteer for the medical corps?
I would look it up in Wikipedia, but the wise editors there have decided it’s okay to put spoilers everywhere, including in the cast listings, so I am staying away.
So, did anyone else think it was super awkward when Matthew told Robert that after his and Mary’s honeymoon, his “eyes have been opened,” and he and Robert had a good chuckle about it? Robert seemed thrilled that Matthew had finally gotten the chance to bang his daughter.
It may have been O’Brien. And yeah, I think Grantham found out that Thomas was pilfering bottles of wine. I don’t remember how he found out, whether it was Bates or Carson who told him. If so, why is Thomas still there? His medical duties/military service are over.
She’s afraid Edith will end up spending her days as a nurse because of his war wound. Which is silly since the only apparent physical limitations he as are that he can no longer drive (or shoot) and probally needs a bit more help dressing from his valet than usual. He’s a wealthy aristorcat; nobody cared about his age before when he was courting Mary (whom Cora & Violet knew was “damaged goods”) or Edith. Unless he has a war injury which cannot be discussed in mixed company he’s still a perfectly conventional match for Edith.
Robert really want’s a grandson(/3rd cousin twice removed:confused:). And yes that was a bit creepy.
Lord Grantham had been anti-Thomas since before Thomas’ tenure as household liaison for the Army, when they were using Downton Abbey as a R&R facility for wounded officers. It was only when he saw Thomas out looking for Isis (the dog that Thomas hid in the woods then lost), he decided maybe Thomas wasn’t so bad after all. He mentioned to Mr. Carson that if Bates was found guilty, maybe Thomas could fill the valet position. Carson said in a shocked tone, “Thomas??”, and Lord G. said, “yes, but maybe we’ve underestimated him. He may be better than we thought”.
I wasn’t fond of Shirley MacLaine, but then, I never am. I liked seeing the tougher side of Bates. He’d told Anna he wasn’t a good man before he stopped drinking. I liked how the investment councilor reminded Lord G. that it was his decision to put all his eggs in one basket, and they’d try to stop him. It would be too easy, I think, to try to blame on the dead investment guy. Lord G. was looking for a lifetime income for the estate. But as he said, the land must support the house. They still have tenant farmers and rental incomes.
I wish they’d open the London house and show the family and staff in London for a bit. That would be interesting. You know that in a family like that, they’d spend most of their time in the City, probably, using the country house for weekends and shooting parties and that sort of thing.
But the people who own Highclere Castle are friends of Lord Kitchener-Fellowes; they get money from the production company & even more from folks wanting to rent part of the pile for private events.
Using a “London” location or building more sets might not pay off the right people. We need to be happy with the non-adventures of a country boobie squire…
Here’s what Wiki says about Thomas’ malfeasance: “When Molesley finds Thomas trying to steal from Carson’s wallet, the Earl tells Carson to wait until after the upcoming charity garden party to act on it.”
Even if Thomas is getting credit for finding the “lost” dog, isn’t it unlikely they’d let a thief back in the house?
All I have to say is that I watched the first two hours last night (end of season two I believe) then the second two hours (beginning of season three) and I’ve never watched it before. I’m now hooked. Sigh.
Same.
Losing all of your money in one swoop happens (the lawyer/accountant did say they’d warned Lord Grantham), especially in the teens and twenties. But the surprise millionaire was annoying. It would be far more interesting to me to watch them try to decide what they were going to do with no money rather than watching them dither over whether or not they should use the millions that fell into their laps. One’s a real conflict, one’s a manufactured one.
I also didn’t like Mary’s wedding dress. It seemed very in fashion and very blah.
True. But Mary was acting like she’d have to change places with Daisy if they did. It was ridiculously over the top.
I only saw the first season in reruns. Then got hooked really badly. The show is very addictive. Even if it’s silly at times I think the acting and setting draw you in.
It was also completly in keeping with her character. And her mother did bring her back down to reality. Remember Mary has spent most of her life as a pawn in the family’s schemes to keep Downton.
True. I wouldn’t blame her for being so attached to Downton considering that a lot of her adult life was spent worrying about how she could marry Matthew to keep the family in Downton back before she realized she loved him (and then after she did and Matthew was taken, to try to convince him that everyone should be able to live there anyways).
