While I’m currently obsessed with The Gilded Age’s Season 3 – the writing is SO good this season – I will still make time for the proto-Gilded Age, Downton Abbey. Between the actual television series and the neverending parade of post-show movies, I am not surprised that people have actually lost the plot of the Crawleys’ lives. The only one I really care about is Tom Branson (Allen Leech), the Irishman who marries the only cool Crawley daughter, Lady Sybil, then decides to raise their daughter at Downton after Sybil’s death. Tom talks sense into princesses and romances socialists, suffragettes and a lady’s maid (who turned out to be an actual lady). He eventually remarried and seems quite happy.
I bring up Tom because, at some point in the Downton world, he goes into business with Lady Mary’s second husband Henry Talbot and they basically own a car dealership, and Henry also races cars, a convenient excuse for why Matthew Goode never seems to find time in his schedule to show up for the movies. Well, now they’ve got a scandalous new reason for Henry’s absence: Lady Mary and Henry have gotten a DIVORCE! In England in the 1930s. This is the big scandal at the heart of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale:
As you can see, they also bring back Paul Giamatti, who must be doing this for sh-ts and giggles at this point, because I can’t imagine the money is that good. He returns as Cora’s brother Harold Levinson. This would be… Great Depression-era, correct? The tagline is that it’s set as the family “enters the 1930s,” and the stock market crashed in 1929. So yeah, lines up. I guess they’re going to have to sell Downton, and that’s the “grand finale.” They can’t kill off any more people and get surprise windfall inheritances. I also have to say – they made Lady Mary into a black widow, so I’m shocked that her second husband got out of the marriage alive. Hm. And Alessandro Nivola is her love interest in this?? I’ve never understood why men go gaga for Mary, honestly – she’s so haughty and priggish. Anyway, I’ll be watching… whenever it comes out on streaming/rental.
Screengrabs courtesy of the trailer.
I’ve watched it all and I will be there for the ending. It was such a great watch for me and my husband!! Can’t wait to see how it all ends.
I really hope they come up with a way for them to keep the house — it would be a sad, defeatist ending. And I hope Carson has a bigger role than the preview and his poster placement suggest.
I predict that Coras brother buys Downton with a promise to restore it then double crosses them and tears it down to build town homes.
Wasn’t Cora married to Lord Grantham because she was an American heiress that could fund the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed? I guess brother dear lost all her money in the stock market crash? The red dress is great. I guess the red dress is the star of the show?
Lady Edith was born to wear 20-30s era clothing.
Yes, and I think that’s a clever tie-in to the Gilded Age. Consuelo Vanderbilt was probably the epitome of the dollar princesses so I think it kind of brings it full circle. Except Lady grantham’s life seemed a lot happier and less scandalous than Consuelo’s or someone like Jennie Jerome.
That said, i’ve never been able to finish Downton Abbey. i’ve started in like 3 times and each time I get an episode or two farther in it, then I lose interest and stop watching. I’ think I’ve gotten halfway through the second season, maybe the third season at this point. I just find it so boring.
It starts to get downhill fast when Dan Stevens is no longer on the show. They are just spinning wheels and we’re even doing that the last few seasons.
They have been milking its original popularity way past the due date. The milk is curdled by now.
Yes, Cora came with a giant pile of money which saved Downton the first time, only to have her dear husband fritter it away on some foolish investment scheme in one of the early seasons. Some rather unbelievably convenient circumstances have kept it going since then.
I don’t believe they lose the house entirely. It feels like Lord and Lady Grantham exit stage left into their well earned retirement and Mary (hopefully with Tom’s help) steward it going forward.
I am excited for this final chapter. I saw the first 2 in the theater & it hits differently on the big screen. So I’ll be there with my popcorn for an opening weekend matinee like the DA stan that I am.
I never warmed to the Henry Talbott character at all so I’m not surprised they finally wrote him out with a divorce. Mary should’ve chosen Charles Blake, he would’ve challenged her and kept her on her toes. And he could’ve sang to her with that incredible voice of his. If you haven’t heard him sing, watch his performances on You Tube, what a voice! There is just something about Julian Ovenden…
But it won’t be the same without the Dowager Countess to be honest. Viva Dame Maggie Smith!
They could bring Downton into the Mod Swingin’ Sixties, with Mary evolving into the Dowager Countess. I can see her snapping out sharp comments like her grandmama.
Who is behind Cora, just to the left in the poster?
That’s Guy Dexter (Dominic West) the actor from the movie they shot at Downton Abbey in DA: A New Era. The man that swept Barrow off his feet.
I think that’s Dominic West but he’s been VERY photoshopped.
I pretty much feel the exact same way about Downton. The show lost the plot around S4 but just keeps chugging along. Sybil was the only cool Crawley daughter (I like Edith but she’s not exactly cool). Tom is a good guy and I’m glad he finally started working with cars again instead of for the dopey patriarch, Earl Grantham. Mary’s appeal is lost on me. She’s amusingly cutting but for the most part just mean and snooty.
I also love Matthew Goode so it’s sort of satisfying to me that he has stayed away from the movies. And now a divorce. Well, it’s timely. I think they became more common among the Toffs by the late 1920s-30s so it fits historically. It would also make sense for them to finally unload the country pile that has been the gravitational force of their lives for so long. I guess Countess Cora’s money (which her father actually worked hard to earn) was wasted.
I quit watching after the first season, which I enjoyed, because I found Mary’s character just too irritating. I did watch the last season to see how it was wrapped up. I watched the first movie and was quite impressed how they managed to include every member of the cast in the plot. It was a fun watch for that reason.
I had no idea it was still going! I watched S1 and S2 and do have S3 on DVD in the cupboard but never got round to watching it. Maybe I need to try again.
I couldn’t watch after a year or two because of Mary. She is a sociopath narcissist (watch how the other family members try to placate her or avoid “triggering” her). I was greatly surprised that the creator based the character on his wife — that must be some major passive-aggressive resentment right there.
Anyway, I thought Downton Abbey would be like the brilliant Gosford Park, but it turned out to be a ridiculous parody of it.
I unapologetically love Downton Abbey, all of it (even when parts of it bugged the heck out of me). I’ve watched it several times. It’s like comfort food – especially in these dark times.
I am really sorry to see it end and will miss them like I’d miss old friends, however dysfunctional they are. lol
When my boys were young, I’d put on Downton because it was a nice calm show and they wanted to ‘wait up’ for my husband to come home from work when he worked the late shift. (they fell asleep within about 15 min of me putting it on)
But, in a plot twist they landed up loving the show and minus a few scenes/episodes (darn streaming wouldn’t play those eps for some reason) have seen the whole series. We’ve just marked the calendar to watch for it streaming this fall when we can sit and watch together.
I’m here for the dog sitting next to Mrs. Crawley and her hubs. I want his/her backstory.