Downton Abbey - Season 3 Begins Tonight 1-6-13 | Page 2 | Golden Skate

Downton Abbey - Season 3 Begins Tonight 1-6-13

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I enjoyed last night's episode because Grantham is finally becoming a bit more likeable. I was especially pleased that Tom was part of that turnaround.

Can't believe next week is the season finale.
 

meem

On the Ice
Joined
Nov 24, 2006
What I don't understand is how Carson could agree to letting Thomas return to employment as the under-butler (thus becoming Bates boss). Season 3, though, has turned out so much better than last year.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I think they had to pump us up and make us feel good to take the cliff hanger next week! Who shot JR will be nothing compared to this....I dont think we have heard the last about Lady G's "unfortunate" spill in the bathtub.....!
(I bet somebody's gonna get preggerssssssss.....and I don't mean Mary.....)
 

ManyCairns

Medalist
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Country
United-States
This week's 2 hours were the best of the season, I felt. Felt more like Season 1, or at least Season 2. Sigh. Not looking forward to the ending of the next episode AT ALL. When I think what might have been ...

Is anyone unspoiled as to the end of the season? If you are DO NOT READ on!





I so, so wish Fellowes won't just immediately throw love interests at Mary. If Matthew couldn't live to bring Downton into a new age, I'd rather see Mary become a woman of means and substance rather than jumping into another relationship. But I don't think Fellowes knows what to do with characters, esp women, other than have them involved in romances or would-be romances.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Personally, I think the writers made a big mistake....Downton Abby was the story of Mattew and Mary. People dont love Jane Austen movies cause all the charactors die off in the end....Removing the rock of the series has taken the need to watch it any further from me. What's next? Killing Carston off? I though the season finale was wonderful till the last five minutes....they could have left things happy and left us all wanting more for season 4. Every one ups their pledges to PBS. Now, its just another Les Mis....Life's a ***** and then you die. No thank you, Downton. If I dont want happy endings, I will watch the evening news....bah humbug. If the actor didnt want to play Mathew anymore,then there are better ways around that....but I suspect that was not the case. If he is holding out for more money, I suppose they could make this last bit a dream sequence at the start of season 4, but I won't be watching.
 

merrywidow

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
It's become very soap operaish, which I've never cared for. I'd like to see Anna & Bates become parents & hope that Edith & her editor create a scandal.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Personally, I think the writers made a big mistake....Downton Abby was the story of Mattew and Mary. People dont love Jane Austen movies cause all the charactors die off in the end....Removing the rock of the series has taken the need to watch it any further from me. What's next? Killing Carston off? I though the season finale was wonderful till the last five minutes....they could have left things happy and left us all wanting more for season 4. Every one ups their pledges to PBS. Now, its just another Les Mis....Life's a ***** and then you die. No thank you, Downton. If I dont want happy endings, I will watch the evening news....bah humbug. If the actor didnt want to play Mathew anymore,then there are better ways around that....but I suspect that was not the case. If he is holding out for more money, I suppose they could make this last bit a dream sequence at the start of season 4, but I won't be watching.

Dan Stevens didn't want to continue in the role. As per an interview with exec producer, they couldn't figure out a way for Matthew to disappear that would make sense. He wouldn't leave Mary and baby and she probably would've followed him anywhere. That would be 'disrespecting' their love story too - for him to just disappear and/or go away for an extended period of time. Also, as the heir to Downton, it wouldn't have made sense for him to leave the estate for an extended period of time, especially since he didn't have other properties to manage. If they had been at WWII stage, then perhaps they could've had him captured by the Germans and recast him when he was released at the end of the war.

By writing him off, this leaves more story open for Lady Mary as the mother of the heir, widow, etc. If Matthew had lived and been off screen, there wouldn't be as much for Mary to do.

If there's one thing that's common amongst soaps, it's:
If you are ecstatically happy, something bad is about to happen.
If you don't have a love interest, you're pretty much a supporting character that just listens to the other characters.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/02/17/downton-abbey-matthew-death/

Mini-spoiler: season 4 starts 6 months after the finale.

I read somewhere that the 3 seasons of DA have encompassed 10 years already? I know the finale jumped to 1 year after the prior episode. Then there were 4 years between season 1 and season 2.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
I am sad but absolutely support Dan Steven's decision. He has one movie in the can, one in produciton, and another in pre-production. As a handsome romantic male actor, he is in his prime and has to make his name NOW if he can, not in two or three years.
Remember, shooting a season of DA is probably like shooting three plus movies plus, and while I dont know what they offered him dollar wise, that also may have been a factor. Good luck to him and all they have to do is replace him with Brad Pitt and no one will care...oh, wait a minute, I think Brad might be too expensive....LOL...
Dan Stevens didn't want to continue in the role. As per an interview with exec producer, they couldn't figure out a way for Matthew to disappear that would make sense. He wouldn't leave Mary and baby and she probably would've followed him anywhere. That would be 'disrespecting' their love story too - for him to just disappear and/or go away for an extended period of time. Also, as the heir to Downton, it wouldn't have made sense for him to leave the estate for an extended period of time, especially since he didn't have other properties to manage. If they had been at WWII stage, then perhaps they could've had him captured by the Germans and recast him when he was released at the end of the war.

By writing him off, this leaves more story open for Lady Mary as the mother of the heir, widow, etc. If Matthew had lived and been off screen, there wouldn't be as much for Mary to do.

If there's one thing that's common amongst soaps, it's:
If you are ecstatically happy, something bad is about to happen.
If you don't have a love interest, you're pretty much a supporting character that just listens to the other characters.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/02/17/downton-abbey-matthew-death/

Mini-spoiler: season 4 starts 6 months after the finale.

I read somewhere that the 3 seasons of DA have encompassed 10 years already? I know the finale jumped to 1 year after the prior episode. Then there were 4 years between season 1 and season 2.
 

louisa05

Final Flight
Joined
Dec 3, 2011
I think the fact that the show has spanned somewhere around ten years ( it began in 1912) makes it all more plausible. We have seen all this death and heartache in three seasons and it seems like too much. But in a ten year span, in an era with less advanced medicine, shorter life expectancies, and a world war in the mix, it is not so strange.

I also read that Julian Fellowes (writer and creator) felt like he was in a corner with Matthew. He couldn't write him out by having him leave and keep it plausible at all without writing Mary out. He said he would rather lose a "downstairs" actor than one playing a family member as servants can move on in one way or another but the family would not just disappear. And both Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil) chose to leave the show.
 

CoyoteChris

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
“If he [Stevens] had been prepared to come back for maybe two or three episodes in a series, that would be different. Then we could have had a foreign posting or invented a career that would have made it possible for him to be away.

“Otherwise we would have had to make this tremendously successful love affair between Mary and Matthew unhappy, which I didn’t feel would be believable.

“For them to then separate and Matthew never set eyes on his son again would not be believable either.

“So we didn’t really have any option. By him dying, their love can remain in tact.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...s-Matthew.html
If the series were going to run on an on, I would have prefered that they replace Matthew, but I suspect others are right that it will only go through 4 or maybe 5.....but you never know....How many James Bonds were there? Phantoms?
I think the fact that the show has spanned somewhere around ten years ( it began in 1912) makes it all more plausible. We have seen all this death and heartache in three seasons and it seems like too much. But in a ten year span, in an era with less advanced medicine, shorter life expectancies, and a world war in the mix, it is not so strange.

I also read that Julian Fellowes (writer and creator) felt like he was in a corner with Matthew. He couldn't write him out by having him leave and keep it plausible at all without writing Mary out. He said he would rather lose a "downstairs" actor than one playing a family member as servants can move on in one way or another but the family would not just disappear. And both Dan Stevens and Jessica Brown Findlay (Sybil) chose to leave the show.
 
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