DOWNTON ABBEY Season 3 Discussion Thread - SPOILERS WITHIN- Page 15

[PalJoey]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 11:03pm

Exclamation point!

[~tiny~]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 11:10pm

I kinda like the new characters - Rose, Shrimpy and that fabulous, bitchy, annoying mother Sue (?). Also that new bitch that hates O'Brien. What's up with that? The whole hairstyling thing was so inane! Interesting potential. And, of course, hot Jimmy.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 11:10pm

Mr. Stevens is right to leave. Playing the upstairs characters is never any fun. Sure you get to wear beautiful costumes and sit on fancy furniture, but the plots are so dull. The real fun is with the downstairs characters.

Signed
Lady Marjorie Bellamy
Miss Elizabeth Bellamy
Hazel Bellamy

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 11:38pm

I actually thought maybe that would be O'Brien's exit, she seemed more interested than the rival ladies' maid at going to India or wherever Rose's family was going. But then I suppose she's needed at Downton for her machinations (and mark my words, they are SO going to reveal the reason she's so obsessed with her nephew is that he's actually her illegitimate son... Although I thought that was going to be what Thomas would use to blackmail her to lay off him, forgetting al about season one's famous soap incident).

Re Dan Stevens, I admit before Downton I knew him best from Andrew Davies' surprisingly good BBC miniseries adaptation of one of my fave novels, Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty. I suppose it's not a vastly different role--in that he played a poorer class character who becomes taken in and sorta adopted by an upper class British family--except that it's the 1980s, he has a lot of gay sex, and a thing for cocaine. But things, in a very different way do end nearly as tragically for his character there as they do in Downton.

(I would like to see him in The Heiress on stage--there don't seem to be even any performance clips).

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/18/13 at 11:43pm

I wish Julian Fellowes would work harder at writing the storylines.

The Mrs. Pattmore suitor storyline was about 10 seconds long. He could have lengthened that story a bit. All that fuss Mrs. Pattmore made and then in the end just laugh it off. It would have been more effective if Fellowes stretched it out a bit and had her catch her suitor and have her heart broken.

I don't think we needed the parlor maid who was making a play for Branson storyline. Every season they have a parlor maid come and go. There was the girl who wanted to be a secretary (was she the one that Lord Grantham took a liking to or was that another one?), then there was Ethel, now this one.

I think it would be interesting if they introduced a character that took a fancy to Carson. Maybe a companion to the Dowager who plays on Carson's pompous airs.

And he should write more material for Samantha Bond's character.

[ArtMan]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 6:32am

Gwen was the maid who wanted to be a secretary. Jane was the maid and war widow who fell in love with Lord Grantham. Eric, tell us more about this series with Dan and the hot gay sex scenes. I'm not asking for myself, but I'm sure others would want to know!

Updated On: 2/20/13 at 06:32 AM

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 1:20pm

I'm not sure if it's aired in the US except on Logo (where I heard it was censored... Not that it's THAT explicit). It's an adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize winning The Line of Beauty (some upset, when the book won the Booker wrote headlines like "Gay sex wins Booker"), that the BBC aired in three parts about 6 years ago. I thought the book would b impossible to adapt, and while you lose a lot, on its own terms the miniseries is very good and faithful (there was also some criticism because apparently Andrew Davies--famous for so many of his lit adaptations like Pride and Prejudice--said something about needing help with the gay sex scenes because he didn't know much about them...)

It looks like it may all be on Youtube, but there is a US DVD (from BBC USA) and it's probably high profile enough for Netflix, etc. Anyway it's where I first really knew Stevens and got, at least, a crush on him (and unfortunately it didn't lead to adaptations of Hollinghurst's even more explicit books like Swimming Pool Library). Here's the opening http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWeWwJt2bms

[Jane2]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 1:52pm

I laughed out loud when that guy drank the laced punch, got drunk and danced around like a maniac!

[OperaBwayLover]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 2:41pm

The interactions between O'Brien and the new maid were hilarious. When she pulled the punch trick, I said, "Not going to work- you can't out-O'Brien O'Brien." :-p

[Scripps2]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 3:54pm

Regarding Dan Stevens and his career, I've seen him on stage twice. The second time was in a major West End production of The Vortex about three years ago, in which he was good - but he certainly didn't get the sort of reviews that Rupert Everett got in the same role twenty years earlier.

The first time I saw him on stage was in The Romans in Britain about six years ago (before he was famous) and although I have very clear memories of the production, Dan doesn't feature in any of them.

So, whilst he's good, I wouldn't put him in the exceptional category.

[Scripps2]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 4:00pm

Regarding The Line of Beauty, it's a shame the scene where he boogies with Mrs Thatcher isn't on YouTube, then there'd be something for Goth to enjoy as well.

Updated On: 2/19/13 at 04:00 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 5:35pm

"then there'd be something for Goth to enjoy as well."

Scripps, you better lay off those horse-tainted burgers.

[supportivemom]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 11:50pm

http://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/2013/02/19/does-downtons-lady-mary-already-have-a-new-love-interest/

Yum!

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/19/13 at 11:54pm

I loved Elizabeth Bellamy. I was so heartbroken when I realized she was never coming back.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 7:53am

Elizabeth quit the show over the film version of Upstairs Downstairs that was to happen (but never did) after the first season aired. Her character had been written out of the movie, so she threw a fit and quit the show.

Lady Marjorie asked to be written off because she was bored playing an upstairs character. She didn't think it was very interesting. She almost immediately regretted the decision, but it was too late. They had killed her off on the Titanic.

Hazel was written out of the show because they thought the character had run its course. "Middle class lady tries to make it upstairs in the upper class." They thought they had done everything they could with her, so they killed her off. She didn't want to go, but agreed it was time.

As for Dan Stevens, he has a film lined up with Liam Neeson. I think he's going to have a tough time of it, though. He should have gone one more season to come into his own as the character. I thought he was fine, awkward, transitional, but never quite found his voice in the role. I enjoyed him quite a bit, though.

Jessica Brown Findlay, on the other hand, has several big film projects lined up. It was probably the right time for her to move on from Lady Sybil, although her death really made the last few episodes so sad.

Matthew Crawley's death seemed to be too fabricated and wasn't executed all that well (no pun intended).

EDIT: Everything was set up for him to "go." Too neat and tidy. Unfinished business would have been much more interesting and dramatic. The scene with him and Mary actually saying, "Well, we've done our duty now and produced an heir." Then they told each other how much they love each other and making sure they each knew it. Then the shot of him driving "freely," so happy, then the oncoming vehicle. Then we see that his eyes are open, staring into the camera, so we know he's dead, with the blood trickling down. It felt too staged as a "cliffhanger." It would have been better if there were something left undone. A message not delivered, a task incomplete. Hell, even the running of Downton seems to be cued for Lord Grantham to continue with Matthew's wishes of how it should be run now.

As for the show overall, I'm hooked and I love it. It's so great to find a series with characters who are both good and bad, not clearly one or the other, where I find myself caring for all of them and what happens to them. And I get lost in those locations and all the terrific details of the sets and costumes ... and the music.

One hell of a good show.

Updated On: 2/20/13 at 07:53 AM

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 8:32am

The stag hunting scenes in the Scottish Highlands reaffirmed for me why I have always found Scotland to be the most beautiful of countries.

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 8:49am

Angry Deer would beg to differ.

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 8:59am

The locations were stunningly beautiful, but I'm one tiny step away from becoming a vegetarian (chicken and fish are the only thing left).

Every time I see scenes like that, I want to quit watching.

I root for Angry Deer.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 9:52am

I watched the season 3 finale last night and I found the episode quite disjointed because of the amount of new characters that were introduced. It was like watching a brand new show. I thought the scene between Mrs. Hughes and Sybil's husband(can't remember his name) was quite touching.

I'm none too happy with Julian Fellows right now in how Dan Stevens' exit was handled.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 2:12pm

I'm so glad he died AFTER producing an heir, saving us from a retread of season 1.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 3:09pm

Dottie, you mean Branson (who, in a rarity for the show, got to show us his nice chest). How was it disjointed? I suppose Rose's parents were new characters--and the lady's maid, but that was it, really.

Curious, how would youhave handled Matthew's exit?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 3:10pm

"https://xfinity.comcast.net/blogs/tv/2013/02/19/does-downtons-lady-mary-already-have-a-new-love-interest/

Yum!"

Tom Ellis is one of my current top TV crushes, but this makes me sad for poor Miranda--just when he had proposed to her too

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 4:10pm

I want Mary to have an affair with Branson. I just want more Branson.

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 4:13pm

If we're just wishing for stuff, how about Barrow, Branson, and Jimmy?

[SonofRobbieJ]

Posted: 2/20/13 at 4:44pm

Wait...has anyone even brought up Shirtless Branson yet??? Cause (and I am NOT one to do this) I rewound that like 4 times. Because omigod I can't.