Anyone else out there discovering and becoming addicted to "Downton Abbey"?

I think Shrimpy said he was moving to India to manage his estate there, and then dropping off his slutty Lindsay Lohan-esque teenage daughter on the way. I have no doubt there'll be some scandal and drama with her next season.

 

Update: read this hilarious review of Downton Abbey's season 3 from noted Hollywood writer Ken Levine!

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2013/03/downton-abbey-season-3-review.html

Be warned there are many spoilers. But a lot of his comments are spot-on.

 

Enjoyed that. And this quote " SPOILER ALERT and WATCH THE DAMN THING ALREADY"

 

dan c

 

Shrimpy's losing the estate and accepting a post in India, remember?

 

You're both correct. I had forgotten about that plot point. Perhaps she could still accompany Shrimpy and his wife to India? She did say she wanted to travel, after all...

 

The characters dealing with the historical consequences of the First World War made this show compelling. Now that thy are into the late 20s and early 30s all that is left is the characters and their day to day lives. So it has evolved into a soap opera. This series isn't going to survive while waiting for the Battle of London.

 

Thanks for posting! That was a fun read. Now that we've all had a couple of weeks to digest the finale, it was great to read someone who could so succinctly summarize everything that went wrong in season 3.

My wife is still angry about the ending and swears that she's done with Downton Abbey. I, on the other hand, am willing to see what transpires, but I still think that season 3 might have been the shark jumper.

 

They could always skip a few years as they did in Season 1 or 2

 

Awesome! Thanks for that!

 

They're not into the late 20s. The season three finale took place in 1921, so unless they leap forward many years, they'll still be in the early-to-mid 20s. I think they already released a promo shot of Mary holding her baby, and the child didn't look more than six months old, so I'd say season four will probably start no later than 1922.

 

Everything I've heard indicates that season 4 will pick up approximately 6 months after season 3 ended.

 

Any time I see TV trailers for period English costume drama....I take a note to avoid before the manadatory inventory is rolled out.
Vintage cars...check!
Grand home...check!
People 'in service'...check!
Best bone china tea services....check!
Characters with titled names ...check!
Characters with names like Cynthia, Charles, Clarissa....check!

 

So what are the chances that they air season four simultaneously (or no more than seven days later maybe) in the UK and US? I realize that it takes some editing, since ITV airs the show with commercials in the UK and that PBS airs it without commercials in the US, but it couldn't be that hard to edit both versions at the same time, right?

Take Doctor Who for example: airs in the UK on the BBC with no commercials and then airs the next day in the US on BBC America with commercials. They seem to be able to pull it off, so why not the same for Downton?

 

Shouldn't be a problem, other shows like AI air less than 24hrs later in the UK. Now that the interest for the show has critical mass, that's really the way to go.

 

You've only scratched the surface - My wife and I re-watched the two seasons of the Upstairs Downstairs revival series and then went straight into re-watching the whole of Downton Abbey, and I found myself confusing people and situations between the two and expecting UD characters to show up in DA. I enjoy these types of programs very much but the similarity is often unintentionally hilarious.

 

Again, my point is that when these characters had to deal with the impending WW, as well as the immediate aftermath, the show was more interesting. If this is really the early 20s, then we are strictly a show about characters. Even the best writing may not save it.

 

Me too, I'd heard the story line will go six mo later here and there in the 4th season actually.... any idea of how many episodes the season will have yet?

 

I would assume 8 episodes or so.

 

Agreed. Unfortunately there really isn't anything terribly interesting about life in England in the 1920s or 30s. They've already saved Downton financially, coped with the liberalization of social attitudes, and most of the conflicted characters have been killed off.

There just isn't much left to do...and WWII is too far away.

 

We watched the episode where Sybil died last night, I have to say it was one of the saddest shows of any TV series I've watched.

 

and so...................Some pictures were posted online in the Huffington Post the other day from the upcoming season 4 --
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/28/downton-abbey-pictures-season-4_n_3666607.html

 

Hey guys and gals, I'm trying to watch a couple episodes to see if I can get into it and when I go to Project Free TV to check it out, there is a special episode listed ... at first I thought it might be the pilot, however when I went to play it, it starts out saying "1 year later" with a man walking down a corridor in what seems to be a school or something. I am thinking it was a Christmas special or something to that effect, but I was just wondering if anybody knows where this episode falls into the mix of things?

p.s. If anybody goes to Project Free TV, please be careful and have your anti-virus software up to date. I've haven't had any recent problems, but there are a lot of pop ups telling you that your Flash Player is out of date, etc. and it will always ask you to install software or updates, etc. before you can click the start button to begin watching. BUT nothing is needed in order to watch the episodes so DON'T install anything from that site and just close any pop ups that occur.

OK that's the disclaimer ... BUT on the other hand ... this is a cool site where you can watch just about any TV show you can think of and the latest episodes are posted to watch the day they are aired on TV/Cable. You don't even need an account so you can be anonymous and as the name implies it's totally free to watch.

 

The show producer/creator has said that they won't be doing any episodes dealing with WWII, because that's been done too often already, and the era of the great houses essentially ended there. And Maggie Smith has said that if they reached 1940, her character would be 100+ years old, and she's not ready for that.

 

And just as an update: here's the Season 5 trailer. Show starts 9/21/2014 in England... we gots to wait 3-1/2 months to see it in America! Bastids...