Dishing on Downton, Final Week.

Spoiler alert. Don't read on if you haven't watched the final episode yet.

For those of you who have--what a roller coaster, wasn't it? So much covered in one episode. And all the time waiting for doom to strike. Since I had read that the actor who plays Matthew was leaving the show I knew that something bad was about to happen to him. So when he went out with a gun, got on a train I was sitting on the edge of my seat. And then when he and Mary and the baby were so happy together I knew he'd never make it home alive.

Now I wonder how successful a new season can be. Wasn't the whole glue that kept us watching the love story between Mary and Matthew? The family is going to get naughty Rose, but she won't make up for the ones we have lost.

I liked the storyline with the servants this week, didn't you? And I like the way they have become people we know and care about. Mrs. Patmore and her suitor, Mrs. Hughes showing such a caring nature, and Thomas and Jimmy sorting things out. All good. And Daisy now seems to be friends with the new kitchen maid.

But sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Bates--too syrupy for words. I want them to be happy... but...enough already.

I wonder if anything will become of Isobel and the doctor? That was a nice little cameo too, wasn't it?

And one thing I loved personally was the whole Scottish environment. The castle, the piper, the stalking and the clouds over the green Scottish hills are exactly like Lady Georgie's home at Castle Rannoch in my Royal Spyness books. And the great hall with all the weapons and stag's heads. And the piper waking them each morning. All so familiar. It was almost as if my books had come to life.

So what did you think? Satisfactory or not? Did you know that Matthew was going to leave and thus had to be written out? Was this season a let-down? Do you think it can still go on successfully?Will you still watch next year? I expect I will.

Dishing on Downton, Week 5

Warning, as usual, if you haven't seen this week's episode, don't read on.
I had to see the first half of this episode this morning on DVD as the superbowl was still on when Downton started last night and it was too exciting to leave. (sorry the Niners just lost).

I thought this was a very real episode, when all that veneer of stiff upper lips crumbles all around. Robert desperately trying to hold on to his position of undisputed head of household, Cora hurting so much that she just wants to punish, even the dowager showing some cracks in her composure and Mary finally being so nice and kind all around. Nice scene with Matthew and Mary.

And have we finally got the Bates drama sewn up? I'd like to know how a prison warder and a convict could influence a woman far away in London. If Bates could threaten the other con and make him do what he wants, why did he not do it sooner??

Finally the thing that bugs me most. It takes two to tango. Ethel is the fallen woman who had no choice but to resort to prostitution to feed her child and yet nobody mentions that it was a young upper class officer, a man who should know better, according to their rules, who got her pregnant in the first place. Nobody blames him or seems to think that he did anything wrong.

This is particularly interesting to me as it's the theme of my new Molly Murphy book that comes out in four weeks from today. It's called The Family Way and it examines the moral issues and treatment of women who find themselves pregnant.

So what do you reckon? Branson will take over one of the farms and live nearby with the baby at Downton?  Matthew and Mary can't have children and adopt baby Sibyl? And when will O'Brien and Thomas stop being so naively trusting of each other. They both know the other is a bad lot and yet they go on believing each other!  Only two episodes to go, aren't there? How will we survive?

Dishing on Downton,Week 2

Sorry I've been silent during the week. We were moving back from California to Arizona after the Christmas break and we'll be here for three months, meaning a lot of organization required, then two days of driving, sore back muscles afterward etc.

However great weekend--49rs won, we celebrated Three Kings a week late with our Arizona family and we watched Downton, episode 2 together.

Please do not read on if you didn't watch last night's episode and plan to.

Things I liked about it: new clues on Mrs. Bates being poisoned. We now know two things, I believe--that she planned to poison Bates when he came to tea that night. The mystery writer in me has figured it out. She put arsenic in a pie, AND she had already been poisoned herself. The neighbor talks of seeing an aura around her, glowing in the drizzle--classic symptom of arsenic poisoning! So this is what I suspect--she planned to poison Bates by putting arsenic in a pie. She planned to make herself immune to poisoning by gradually building up her tolerance to arsenic by having a little at a time. (This has been done many times). She took too much. Finally killed her.

We'll see if I'm right. And will Bates be released before he does something bad to his cell mate or the cell mate does something bad to him?  What else did I like? Great lines from Maggie Smith, as usual. Mr. Carson's revealing how much he cares about Mrs. Hughes. That whole storyline handled nicely. I like the way Daisy is developing into a more confident young woman and the hint of future romance with Alfred.
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Several things I didn't like: Sir Anthony walking out at the wedding. He struck me as an honorable man. He'd have come to see Edith before to tell her he couldn't go through with it, not left her like that.
The letter from Lavinia giving her blessing to the money so that Downton can be saved. A little too pat, don't you think?
Ethel having turned into something out of Les Miserables. I'm sure she could have found some honest laundry, ironing, mending work.
Thomas becoming too outrageously evil.

So what did you think? As good as previous seasons or not?

Waiting for Downton

I am looking to the new year with great anticipation, not because I am planning great resolutions but because the new season of DOWNTON ABBEY begins in one week! I can hardly wait, can you?
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I had hoped to take a sneak peek before everyone else. I am already subcriber to my local PBS station but they offered DVDs of Season 3 as an incentive so I coughed up more money. Then they sent out a memo saying that the DVDs wouldn't be shipped before January 17th. That's no use, people. The series will be half over by then and I'm certainly not going to cheat and watch the last episode.

Of course I realize I could have seen the whole thing if I'd lived in Britain. I could have asked friends to tell me what happened. But I didn't. The anticipation is all the sweeter. And in one more week.....

So what do you think will happen? Will Mary and Matthew marry? Will Mr. Bates be proved innocent? Will they discover who killed Mrs. Bates? Who do you think did it? My guess is that Sir Richard had it done. I never liked him.

And will poor old Edith finally find herself a good bloke? We know that American granny arrives and sparks fly between her and the dowager countess. So that should be fun. But when is Thomas ever going to get what he deserves, or have something happen to him to turn him into a better person?

If you've already seen it in UK, please don't tell us anything.
 But next Monday morning, January 7th, let's get together and dish on Downton again. Okay?

Dishing on Downton Abbey again

Are you as hooked as I am on Downton Abbey. I'm not sure how good it is or whether I really like it, but I can't stop watching. There is something wonderfully intimate about following the life of one family. I used to love Upstairs Downstairs and this has the same feel--except that Upstairs Downstairs felt absolutely real to me. The characters were rounded and we cared about them. In Downton we have moved from a kinder, gentler era to one in which sensationalism is king. And it shows in the story lines for season two.

It's very close to soap opera in period costume. Mr. Matthew losing his manhood. Lady Mary will obviously stick by him, no matter what, and what is the betting he miraculously learns to walk again... maybe not until season three.

The evil characters are really evil. Someone should have bumped off Mrs. Bates years ago. If Bates had strangled her everyone would have cheered. And O'Brien the evil maid. How awful is she? Remember she caused Lady Grantham's miscarriage in the first season. The writer Julian Fellowes is an upper crust chap himself and frankly I think he's not quite as good at writing 'them below stairs.'

The characters that ring completely true to me are Lady Mary and her grandmother--the glorious Maggie Smith. What wouldn't I give to play a part like that? I'll just have to create one in one of my books some day, then I can walk around adopting that attitude all day.

World War One is of course a story of grand drama however the characters are involved in it. I remember vividly the WWI scenes from Upstairs Downstairs. Remember when Georgina nurses James in the field hospital in France and his wife Hazel goes to bring him home and the two women fight over him (in a most genteel way of course). That was heartbreaking drama. This series intrigues me but doesn't touch my heart in the same way. Maybe because it is played for sensationalism rather than reality.

So what do you think about it and about what will happen next?
Oh, and I had the perfect solution to the family's problem of inheritance. Matthew inherits the property and the money, but being a nice chap he says "I don't need all this. Why don't I give you most of your money back and you can live in the house for as long as you want. It does have 100 bedrooms, after all. No need for series three!